Monday, October 8, 2007

A really old beer

Today I stumbled across something very interesting while wasting time I should have been using to clean kegs. On trademe, NZ’s version of eBay I found some very interesting beers for sale. Towards the end of last year a cache of vintage beers were found in the cellars below what was the Bass Brewery, now Coors, how wrong does that sound? ‘Coors of Burton Upon Trent’. The oldest was the Ratcliff Ale brewed in 1869 to celebrate the birth of Harry Ratcliff. The Ratcliff family were one of the owning interests in the Bass Empire. That’s when Charles Dickens was still knocking about, the Cutty Sark was launched and the Duke of Edinburgh made the first Royal visit to New Zealand, he visited a farm at what is now a long established urban suburb of Wellington, Newtown.

Many other interesting beers were found including Jubilee Strong Ale from1977, Princess Ale from 1978, Kings Ale from 1902, and the Princes Ale 1929. Well now these beers in addition to a bunch of Bass Brewery Museum signs and mirrors are up for auction on Trademe. It looks to me like someone has emigrated and is looking for some extra cash to set themselves up. If only I didn’t have a mortgage, I’d be bidding like the hedonist I am!


Update 11/10/07

Trademe has removed all the items listed by the user who was trying to sell these old beers. Stolen property? or a hoax ? ...

4 comments:

Greig McGill said...

Kieran, you fool! Now the secret is out, and my chance of snagging it with a last minute bid is dashed like the dreams of a five year old who has just seen daddy putting on the red suit and beard! I was going to share it with you too! ;)

Kieran Haslett-Moore said...

Now now , your financial officer vetoed the beer engine purchase , I hardly think she would ok whats likly to be hundreds of $ for a bottle of beer.

Greig McGill said...

I dunno, she got quite excited when I showed it to her... oh, she liked the beer too.

Stonch said...

I've got one of those beer academy glasses.