The Bar Towel

Found this interesting beer related article in the Saturday Star....

this is awesome!

Great article

Wow, that was completely not what I expected from that article. Very good read.

I thought the part about the Greeks labelling wine as hot and dry, traits considered to be manly, while beer was considered cold and wet, traits considered effeminate, was particularly interesting. Completely opposite today's standards, where beer is marketing as cold and refreshing (wet) by macrobrewers in an attempt to make it appear more manly.

That was indeed an excellent article.

One of the pioneers in the research and recreation of historic beers is the English Durden Park Beer Circle. This group focuses on the period from early 1800's until just before WW 1.

Michael Jackson wrote an appreciative article in 1992 which is at www.beerhunter.com. (search Durden Park on the site and it comes right up).

The group was founded by a materials chemist, Dr. John Harrison, whom I believe is still active in the group.

It has a website which describes well its activities, see www.durdenparkbeer.org.uk

A number of recipes used by the Circle are reproduced on the site, e.g., an 1850 Porter, an 1880 bitter beer, and so forth. In some cases taste notes are given.

One point I found interesting is the stress laid on the need to mature these beers, often from 1-3 months or more, to show at their best. It is said many of the historical breweries probably sold the beers too young but experience has shown the best beers would have been well-matured. Of course, they are talking about cask- or bottle-conditioned beers.

It is a real pleasure to see such devotion to a period of British brewing history whose greatness can hardly be exaggerated.

I love the story in Jackson's article that Dr. Harrison offered in 1976 an 1850-recipe Porter to an 86 year old woman, describing it as "like Guinness". After tasting, she responded, "This isn't Guinness, this is London Porter, I used to drink this when I was in service".

Can there be better evidence of the accuracy of the Durden Park Beer Circle's work...?

Gary

Very interesting piece. Slightly OT, but it reminded me that, based on somone's recommendation here, I got "Man Walks Into A Pub" for Christmas and read it over the holidays. It's a first class read that goes through some of this history (at least as it applies to Great Britain) and is just a thoroughly enjoyable historical survey of brewing and drinking beer in Britain generally. I recommend it to anyone who doesn't know it already.

a really interesting article...too bad the guy's book is so expensive -
max nelson - the barbarian's beverage
$120 via amazon if you're really interested

midlife crisis wrote:Very interesting piece. Slightly OT, but it reminded me that, based on somone's recommendation here, I got "Man Walks Into A Pub" for Christmas and read it over the holidays.

Just finished that myself, can't recommend it enough. Heavy on the history but an easy read given the weight of it.