Once Upon A Time.. a drank a beer. Or two. Or more.. Oh wait.. that's tonight, like most nights. Oops.
Pretty Things - Once Upon A Time X Ales - November 22nd, 1838 (English Mild)
a 7.4% ABV English Mild Ale.
Crazy cool story behind these beers. Pretty Things works with a beer historian from time to time to recreate recipes brewed years and years ago.. some time between the early 1800's and mid 1900's. This beer is an English Mild, a moniker that used to represent 'young' and 'fresher' beers as opposed to aged. This is the "same" beer as the other one that is in this post, just brewed 104 years and 3 months apart, showing how the recipe changes with different periods in history and different economic and cultural pressures (WWII in regards to the later) AKA a really fuckin cool concept! On to the beer..
A sunshine-y hazy yellow pour.. Nice grain/wheat nose with some citrus/lemon fruit, hints of peaches and nectarines and some honey and toffee sweetness (as would be expected from an English beer) Mainly malty, smooth, and sweet nose. The taste is creamier than I would expect, and far more flavorful, especially for such an 'old' beer. There's doughy malts that mix with sweeter caramel and light toffee..candied sugar.. but softer citrus, lemon peel and some faint, pleasant piney hops come through as the beer sits on your tongue. There's some spice as if from rye or pepper as well. It's very smooth and leaves a sweet drying crisp finish. Very cool to drink a re-creation of an old beer and you can see where the influence for many currently styles comes from!
- - 7 Hops!
Pretty Things - Once Upon A Time X Ales - February 22nd, 1945 (English Mild)
a 2.8% ABV English Mild Ale.
Same beer, almost 107 years later. Different brewing methods, different ingredients available.. oh and there was a fucking world war going on! That would sorta affect how things are done.. ya know? Less grain available because of the war effort means lower ABV.. and that's a difficult trend to reverse once life returns to normal.. yeah beer is a huge part of society and culture, definitely so in Britain, but there's other things to focus on... with that, I present to you a beer that was a forefather of British-style beers for years to come.
Copper/brown pour and minimal head...light malt and grain nose with some honey and faint caramel. Touches of nuttiness and some wood/oak notes as well. This is certainly light.. but a surprising amount of flavor is packed in here as well. Very, very faint hops are present that mainly play second fiddle to the malts (to the extent that a 2.8% ABV beer has malts). Honey biscuits/toast and incredibly light, watered-down caramel with some vanilla and roasty nutty tones. It's incredibly drinkable, but a bit surprising if you didn't exactly know what you were drinking. There's a dry, sweet finish to this with some subtle grassy flavors and yeasty esters. You can definitely see the influence on British beers that this style had (or represented), but this can still pack great flavors
- - 7 Hops!
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