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28-10-2015, 09:41
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In 1968, the*Observer‘s wine critic Cyril Ray (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyril_Ray) wrote about an exciting new limited edition beer, Eldridge Pope’s Thomas Hardy Ale.The headline was A POUND A PINT, with an exclamation mark implied:
[Its] high strength caused loss from excessive frothing during fermentation, and this, together with the extra duty and long maturing in oak, is why it costs £1 a pint. I have bought some myself to put away — it will pay for keeping — and there may still be some left, in pints, half-pints or nips, at pubs and off-licences in the Hardy country…. Supplies, though, are limited, and I do not suppose that this remarkable beer will be brewed again — not yet awhile, anyway.
Along with the Coronation beers we wrote about here (http://boakandbailey.com/2013/02/limited-edition-beers-of-1953/), this has to be one of the earliest examples of this phenomenon, and that’s certainly one of the earliest instances we’ve come across of a wince-inducingly high price (about £16 in today’s money) being justified by reference to the costs of manufacturing, the difficulties of a limited run, and so on.
It would be interesting to know whether the board at Eldridge Pope ever considered absorbing the costs and selling at a more reasonable price given that this was essentially a one-off marketing exercise.
In the same article, Mr Ray also made a recommendation for ‘amateurs of strong beer’ with less cash to splash: Tennant’s Gold Label, which he says is ‘lighter in colour and crisper in style’ but
one must not be deceived: the under-taste is rich and full, and the six-ounce nip packs the punch of two and a half whiskies.
The article appeared in the 14 July edition of the*Observer if you want to read the whole thing, though it is only short.
Main image adapted from ‘Thomas Hardy’s Ale’ by Bernt Rostad from Flickr under Creative Commons (https://flic.kr/p/6tWujW).
Limited Edition Beer Madness, 1968 (http://boakandbailey.com/2015/10/limited-edition-beer-madness-1968/) from Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog - Over-thinking beer, pubs and the meaning of craft since 2007 (http://boakandbailey.com)


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