Shut up about Barclay Perkins - Drogheda Ale again
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Just a few other scraps about Drogheda Ale I've scavenged from the floor.
"Battersby's Registry for the whole world", 1851, pagepage 566.
Funny how the two beers mentioned - Drogheda Ale and Guinness XX Porter are the very beers analysed by the Royal Dublin Society. It's a measure of the stature of Drogheda Ale in the middle of the 19th century.
This short text gives some idea of the fame of Drogheda and Castlebellingham Ale,
"Our hour wore on rapidly, and it was with regret I left the manufactory, and once again sauntered down the avenue. Shall I confess it, the next five minutes saw us ensconced in a shady arbour of a village auberge, idly drinking the white "Bière de Strasbourg" — the name of which had attracted our attention, and whose merits we were now discussing with surprising zest and eagerness. Burton, Bass, Drogheda, Castlebellingham, and a dozen other ales and beers were debated with all the warmth of Irishmen; and now, quietly remembering the pretty arbour, with its clustering green loaves, the odd hostess, and her high cap, and the animated group, I am tempted to laugh at the recollection, of how strenuously we abused the production of Strasbourg, and yet ended by finishing all the bottles placed before us."
"The Northern magazine, March 1852 - February 1853", 1853,page 41.
But what the hell was white Bière de Strasbourg? Some sort of Witbier?
William Makepeace Thackeray seemed quite impressed with Drogheda Ale, too:
"Of one part of its manufactures every traveller must speak with gratitude—of the ale namely, which is as good as the best brewed in the sister kingdom. Drogheda ale is to be drunk all over Ireland in the bottled state: candour calls for the acknowledgment that it is equally praiseworthy in draught. And while satisfying himself of this fact, the philosophic observer cannot but ask why ale should not be as good elsewhere as at Drogheda: is the water of the Boyne the only water in Ireland whereof ale can be made?"
"The works of William Makepeace Thackeray, Volume 14" by William Makepeace Thackeray, 1869 , pages 263 - 264.
More about Drogheda Ale to follow, I hope.https://blogger.googleusercontent.co...s.blogspot.com
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