Sunday 1 March 2020

Egomaniac

A rare recent archive expedition let me indulge in a particular piece of narcissism. Collecting brewing records from my birthday.

It did come in dead handy when I decided to have a full mini festival of historic beers brewed on my birthday to celebrate my 60th. I thought it was a fun idea. Gambling on making it to 70, I made sure to collect some birthday logs on my first archive visit in way too long.

You may have noticed my bespoke birthday offer. (Look left) Give me a date, any date - 25th December, for example - and I'll compile a recipe for a beer brewed on ot.

I had a request for a recipe which included the year - 1958. I'd be in the archives in a week. So I asked - can you wait a bit? I'll get you some for the exact date. Yes, was the reply.

Whitbread was my plan. The London Metrpolitan Archives have their records for then. Both the Porter and Ale books. Which span multiple years. They're ridiculously big buggers. Much less handy than the earlier one which were for just a single year.

The Porter book I needed to photograph spanned my birth year. I now have another beer brewed on the very day I was born.

I might request this as my wake beer. Mackeson Milk Stout. Should accompany well The Damned's "I Just Can't be Happy Today" as my corpse slips beneath the waves.

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