Harvey's Elizabethan Ale vintages?

Question about Harvey's Elizabethan Ale (http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/164/2416/)

BA states is was brewed once, but I came across some others who said there were multiple vintages. And if there are indeed multiple vintages, how can one tell on an unmarked bottle? (please include a source if possible)

I did some searching on google, BA, and the other site and didn't find anything that helped. I now call upon the wizened BA collective conscience for assistance.

Thanks!

 

Yep already saw those.

I have bottles that had labels of years on them from the store from which I purchased them (mostly in the 1994-1998 timeframe) but more recently they do not have labels and the people at the store have no idea what vintage they are. They appear the same as the ones I have, sans label.

I opened a 1996 vintage a couple of years ago and it tasted very nice.

Beer could be retired but old stock could still be sold. Hard to say without a bottling date or anything to go by...

 

Yeah I got mildly frustrated after paging through every website on the first 6 pages of google. No problem, thanks for your input.

I'm actually emailing them right now to see if they can offer any insight. I'll report back if/when I get a reply.

 

Ok, so I found some stuff here.

http://www.royalbeers.co.uk/Harveys
http://the-quaffer.blogspot.com/2013/11/royal-mash-at-harveys.html
http://beerblog.genx40.com/archive/2004/december/christmasales
http://www2.beerguild.co.uk/?p=1870

From these, I gather that there are different vintages of Harvey's Elizabethan Ale. The abv and the label varied from time to time though. The Queen apparently recently initiated a batch of the ale at the brewery itself. The blog showed a pic of a bottle with its vintage label on the neck (1998 for this particular bottle).

So first, it looks like this beer was NOT brewed only once (as incorrectly noted on BA). Second, it seems like this ale is still being produced (at least recently). Third, there are variations of the label and bottle cap as well. The purple diamond label is one that was brewed recently for the Queen's Jubilee and is 5.0% abv.

Here's an interesting short video on youtube that explains a bit of the history:

 

That is a really cool blog!

 

So I'm back with an update from the brewery. This is what they sent me:

Dear Daren,

Thank you for your email. It never fails to amaze me how far our beer
travels!

Our bottles are marked with a best before date on the cap. We usually sell
our beer with over a year shelf life, this should give you a guide to the
year it was bottled.

Please view this video for a brief history behind the brew:


We revived the beer for the Queen's Golden Jubilee in 2002, her Diamond
Jubilee in 2012, and then again in October last year for her visit to the
brewery.

The Jubilee specials will have the year incorporated into the label.

I hope this helps!

Kind regards,

Marie Welsh
Digital Media Manager
Harveys Brewery
01273 840502 | 07876 897464 |The Bridge Wharf Brewery, 4-6 Cliffe High
Street, Lewes, BN72AH|www.harveys.org.uk