tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5445569787371915337.post1733080207447545644..comments2024-03-28T03:54:26.782-07:00Comments on Shut up about Barclay Perkins: Smith Garrett aka Hodgson's of BowRon Pattinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03095189986589865751noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5445569787371915337.post-76118999525959068512010-03-04T09:32:06.547-08:002010-03-04T09:32:06.547-08:00Ron, this account from 1880 explains why the expor...Ron, this account from 1880 explains why the export pale ale trade fell off:<br /><br />http://books.google.ca/books?id=nGEOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA12&dq=India+%2B+Hill+breweries&lr=&as_drrb_is=b&as_minm_is=1&as_miny_is=1800&as_maxm_is=1&as_maxy_is=1900&as_brr=0&cd=3#v=onepage&q=India%20%2B%20Hill%20breweries&f=false<br /><br />What is noteworthy is the rather dour look at the quality issue. Even writing in 1880, the writer considered that beer shipped to the stations from the ports was "more or less sour". Makes one wonder if the keynote flavour of Hodgson and the other pale beers in India was a lightly acid taste, which may have been appreciated in a very hot country. In certain farm areas including in (much less warm) England, workers drank fruit vinegar to refresh - lambic may offer an analogy here.<br /><br />Anyway, the fame of Hodgson's and the other pale beers tailed off pretty fast by the last quarter of the 1800's. More than just Colonial decline and/or Indian self-assertion was involved, IMO. At bottom, I believe the pale ale of the Raj just wasn't that good. The moment fresh local beer became available, and later lager from whatever source, the old London innovation disappeared without a trace. <br /><br />At a nice Indian restaurant recently I asked the owners, Indian-Canadians, why the otherwise interesting beer list (E.g., it featured fruited and other craft beers, Pilsner Urquel, some good German beers) had no India Pale Ale on it. We have local types and some good imports (e.g., Greene King's IPA at an export strength of 5%) that would go champion with the fine food there. The staff were kind to invite suggestions but seemed not to know that India Pale Ale once had writ in the Sub-Continent. You couldn't blame them. Even in 1880 the beer of which the expeditionary regiments dreamed and would-be scribblers wrote countless doggerel was almost no more.<br /><br />GaryGary Gillmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5445569787371915337.post-89793675307174052912010-03-04T06:02:59.639-08:002010-03-04T06:02:59.639-08:00That bottle label is a short chapter on brewery hi...That bottle label is a short chapter on brewery history in its own right: the Cannon name and trademark from the brewery in St John Street, Clerkenwell taken over by Taylor Walker, in turn taken over by Ind Coope.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com