Ale moves into pages of history
BY GEOFF GRIGGS
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I'm devastated. I've just heard that production of one of my all-time favourite beers, Thomas Hardy's Ale, has ceased.
A world classic vintage ale that requires several years to evolve in the bottle and can be cellared for at least 25, it's one of the very few beers I bring out on landmark birthdays and other notable occasions.
Named after the famous British author of Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Far from the Madding crowd, Thomas Hardy's Ale was first brewed by the Eldridge Pope brewery in the Dorset town of Dorchester on Tuesday, November 21, 1967. After eight months of secondary fermentation and maturation the first batch was bottled in July 1968. The beer was launched later that year at a literary festival to mark the 40th anniversary of Hardy's death.
Eldridge Pope brewed the beer for the last time in 1999 the brewery was sold and closed shortly afterwards and many beer aficionados thought they had seen the last of this classic ale. However, with continuing strong demand in the United States, American importer George Saxon purchased the rights to the beer and then licensed another British brewery, O'Hanlon's, to recreate it. The Devon brewery has produced the beer annually since 2003.
O'Hanlon's sales manager Liz O'Hanlon claims the decision to stop producing the beer was a painful one, but became necessary because of the time and cost of brewing it.
"Our regular beers take about two weeks to brew. With the Thomas Hardy, we'd start brewing in January and it was September before we could start bottling it," she said.
With an alcohol percentage that sometimes topped 12 per cent, more raw materials were also needed than for any other O'Hanlon's beer. Even the packaging wasn't easy. Each bottle has a gold foil top and is individually numbered; there's also a gold medallion hung from each bottle.
"We had to hang those medallions by hand," O'Hanlon added.
With sales of its other brands growing quickly, O'Hanlon said the brewery needed more production capacity; the quickest, cheapest way to get it was by pulling the plug on Thomas Hardy.
I first came across this classic beer in the early 80s in a Bristol pub. Having spotted the distinctive, numbered, nip bottles behind the bar, I eagerly secured three bottles which was then all I could afford.
I was delighted to discover they were from the 1978 vintage. I shared the last of those three bottles with close friends in England in early 1994, a few weeks before I migrated to New Zealand. By that time the beer was 16 years old. Sipped reverently from small wine glasses it was an amazing experience.
At over 11 per cent, Thomas Hardy's Ale bears more than a close resemblance to a beer described by the author in his book The Trumpet Major. Hardy wrote, "It was of the most beautiful colour that the eye of an artist in beer could desire; full in body, yet brisk as a volcano; piquant, yet without a twang; luminous as an autumn sunset; free from streakiness of taste; but, finally rather heady."
Although I have since tasted several vintages, at various ages, my experience defers to the late Michael Jackson who, over the years, enjoyed many vertical samplings of the beer. The famous British beer writer wrote: "When released, it is decidedly thick and yeasty, almost meaty and Marmite-like; after about five years, it tastes like sherry-dunked fruitcake."
In 1986, 18 years after its release, he sampled the inaugural brew at the brewery and wrote: "I found it extremely complex, with a faintly smoky aroma, reminiscent of a fire made from logs of fruit wood. The palate was extremely fruity, soft and powerful."
Although Saxon is currently trying to find another British brewery to take on the beer, things don't look promising.
Fuller's, the large London brewer, has already indicated it would only be interested in brewing the beer if it took ownership of the brand and Marston's, another sizeable regional brewer, has suggested it would need to brew a million litres a year to make the beer viable.
That's 40 times what O'Hanlon's was producing!
So where does that leave us here in New Zealand? I know that the beer's Kiwi importer currently holds limited stocks of several recent vintages, but when these are gone, who knows?
My advice? Stock up now you may never get another chance.
Cheers!
- The Marlborough Express
