I love Courage

When I go to the archives, I try to use my time well. I've a wodge of blank document request forms at home. Don't have to waste time filling them in at the archive. That would eat into my pub time.

Those bloody Scots. Trying to cram thirty beers onto on page. Whitbread with their faded, hand-written exercise books. In the 1860's - when they were in the top five breweries in the world - they were recording their brews in something that could have contained my Latin homework. Maybe that should be my next contest. Making sense of the mashing details. Remind me to post images.

Fuller's, theirs are pretty informative. Brewing records, in case you've forgotten the theme. Barclay Perkins aren't bad. On Saturday, I explained them a little to a bloke who had photos eerily similar to my own. Thinking about it later, I couldn't remember exactly how I'd worked out the various bits.

Truman. I hate their Burton records. The League of Illegible Brewers had their headquarters there. But I think I've cracked them. After months of trying to ignore them. Because they made no sense. Bloody Burton brewers and their numbers instead of names.

Courage. Good old Courage. Their Horsleydown brewery made nothing but dark beers. Even into the late 1930's. And when it came to recording their activities. Well, they were dead good. Their Porter. Now there's a story.

I got them sort of by chance. I'm usually over-optimistic about how many documents I can get through. Monday, I took 780 photos in about two and a half hours. I'm not always that quick. I had a pile of forms left over from previous visits. I couldn't remember exactly which documents they were for.

Turned out to be notebooks, partly. The notes of employees. Very personal. Gives me a weird feeling. Respecting their personal nature, I'll be posting them in full.

Lots. Stuff of. (I'm sure you can rearrange those words yourselves.) I'll post about it. All. Harp Lager. You must want to know about 1960's Harp Lager. Courage Light Ale. All the class stuff.