Commemorative Beers and Naming Rites
Thursday, September 23rd, 2010
In 1968, the Eldridge Pope
Brewery in Dorchester, Dorset,
England, brewed a beer to
commemorate the 40th anniversary
of the death of local novelist and
poet Thomas Hardy. In his book
“The Trumpet Major”, Hardy had
mentioned an ale tasted at a local
inn, and Pope tailored their
celebratory ale to match that
description:
“It was of the most beautiful colour
that the eye of an artist in beer
could desire; full of 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.”
Thomas Hardy’s Ale was supposed
to be a one-off, brewed only for the
literary festival in Hardy’s honor, but it proved so popular that they began brewing it annually. It
was vintage-dated, bottled in three or four different sized and styled bottles, with the
recommendation on the label to put it away for a few years. This may have been a factor in its
eventual demise, as beer drinkers wanted something more immediately drinkable. Pope ceased
brewing it in 1999, having decided to get out of brewing altogether (they are in the hotel and pub
supply and management business now). From 2003 to 2009, O’Hanlon’s Brewery of Exeter,
Devonshire, brewed a revived Thomas Hardy’s Ale, but they also have ceased production. Often
called “Britain’s Rarest Beer”, it was also for a time the strongest beer brewed in the UK.
This brew is also commemorative for me personally. 15 years ago this week I brewed my first
all-grain beer, after several years using extracts and partial mash recipes. My first foray into allgrain? Dave Line’s clone recipe of Thomas Hardy’s Ale. I brewed a 2-gallon batch, a bit
intimidated and not wanting to waste too much money and time on a brew that might not work. I
bottled it mostly in small (8 oz.) bottles, thinking it would be too strong for a whole 12 or 16 oz.
bottle at a time… Naturally, when it ran out in about a month, I wished I had brewed a full batch.
As if this were not already an interesting enough beer, another circumstance led to the naming of
the brew. As I went about my Brew Day Eve preparations (milling the grains, feeding the yeast
slurry, setting up the kettles and mash tun, etc.) I found a dead mouse in the sparge tun. He
hadn’t been dead long, based on his condition, but somehow he had made quite a mess in the
bottom of the cooler. I tossed him in the woods and, B-Brite, Iodophor and chlorine bleach
treatments later, the vessel was as good as new. There will be no Mousaroma in this beer, but I
did want to honor the memory of this valiant little warrior (who must have thought there was
beer in the bucket). There had to be a prominent mention of a mouse somewhere in the works of
Thomas Hardy. It was my friend Rick who found and sent me a link to the Hardy poem,
“Channel Firing”, and thus was born Parson Thirdly’s Altar Crumb Ale.
Parson Thirdly’s Altar Crumb Ale
(clone of Eldridge Pope’s Thomas Hardy Ale)
4 gallons, all-grain
Ingredients:
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12 lbs. Maris Otter pale malt
1 lb. toasted Maris Otter pale malt
1 lb. Cara-Belge malt
1 jar (11 oz.) Lyle’s Golden Syrup
2 oz. Fuggles hop pellets (@4% aa)
1 oz. Bramling Cross hop pellets (@5%
aa)
1/2 oz. Styrian Goldings hop pellets
(@4.2% aa)
White Labs Super High Gravity ale yeast
(WLP099)
1/2 cup corn sugar (for priming)
Procedure:
Crush grains. Heat 15 quarts water to 168°F. Mash in grains, hold at 158°F for 75 minutes. Heat
another 13 quarts water to 170°F, begin runoff and sparge. Collect 20 quarts sweet wort. Add
golden syrup, stir well. Bring to boil. Add Fuggles hops, boil 15 minutes. Add Bramling Cross
hops, boil another 40 minutes. Add Styrian Goldings, boil 5 more minutes (60 total), remove
from heat. Chill to 80°F, take a hydrometer reading. Pour into a sanitized fermenter, splashing
well to aerate. Pitch yeast, seal and ferment 10 14 days at 70°F. Rack to secondary, condition
warm (65 – 70°F) for three to four weeks. Prime, bottle and age at least two months.
OG: 1106 (a little weak!)
IBU’s: 54.5
Note on process: I chose to use a very thick mash (i.e. less water than standard) and a slightly
higher mash temperature than usual, in an attempt to get a more dextrinous wort. This should
lead to a sweeter, more full-bodied beer when finished. This size mash really pushes the limits of
my brewing set-up. This much grain nearly fills my mash tun, and with the mash being so thick,
runoff and sparge are very slow. In fact, the runoff was just about stopped at one point, stuck, so
I gently swirled the mash for a few seconds, hoping I could loosen it up a little. I had put the
kettle on the stove already to start the boil, and had a large measuring cup catching the last few
ounces (I thought) of the runoff. I walked out of the room for a few minutes and came back to a
small flood, about a quart of wort spreading golden across the floor…
Note on Golden Syrup: Many British brewers use some cane sugar in their brews, and it was
long an absolute staple of British homebrewers (it may still be!). Golden syrup is also known as
“light treacle”, and is made from evaporated cane sugar. Similar to invert sugar, the process
reduces the size of the sugar crystals, making them more readily dissolved and fermented. It has
a toasty caramel flavor, and a small amount in a brew like this will not produce any of the
dreaded cidery/hot flavors regular cane sugar often does.
Note on yeast: According to several sources, the White Labs Super High Gravity yeast is in fact
the Eldridge Pope strain used in the 70’s to brew Thomas Hardy’s Ale. In any event, it does have
a considerably higher alcohol tolerance, making it a good choice for this big beer.
Note on aging and storage: The original Thomas Hardy labels instructed consumers to put the
bottles away for a few years. I have participated on a couple occasions in “vertical flight
tastings”, comparing as many as 6 or 7 different vintages. This brew will age well, will evolve in
the bottle, but I wouldn’t keep it over five or six years. Try one after about three months, but be
sure and keep some for longer storage.
Thomas Hardy’s Ale
From Clone Brews
5 gallons
O.G. = 1.123 - 1.125
F.G. = 1.028 - 1.031
IBU = 70
SRM = 24
12% abv
All Grain
21.25 lbs Maris Otter 2 row
12 oz. Crystal 55°L
12 oz. Amber Malt
2 oz. Peat Smoked Malt
Extract
16.5 lbs Light LME
.33 lb Wheat DME
12 oz. Crystal 55°L
.5 lb Amber Malt
2 oz. Peat Smoked Malt
1 oz. Northern Brewer (60 min.)
3 oz. East Kent Goldings (60 min.)
1 oz. Fuggles (15 min.)
1 oz. East Kent Golding (2 min.)
.5 oz. Fuggles (Dry Hop)
.5 oz. East Kent Goldings (Dry Hop)
Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale
add 18 HBU less bittering hops than called for in the extract recipe above (25%)
Mash at 150° for 90 minutes.
I haven't brewed this recipe but I've been happy with the results of other clones that I've
brewed from this book.