Time travel and beer.

Assuming the time travel works both ways, I'd travel back to an off-license in the early 1980s and clear their shelves of Eldridge-Pope's (RIP) "Hardy Country" bottled beer. It might take several trips to stock up on sufficient of this now lost nectar. But the upside is that it would only cost about 60p per bottle at 1980s prices, IIRC. I would, of course, stop off at the now-closed pub just outside Chideock in Dorset where they had Hardy Country on tap, along with other Eldridge-Pope's beers.

 

As an afterthought, it would only need a short time-hop to those halcyon pre-Brexit days of quality barley and no Asahi ownership, to stock up on Fuller's "1845" and Shepherd-Neame's "1698".
I seriously fear for the future of traditional British beers in the face of citrussy hop-and-caramel-water, (with any trace of barley malt supplanted by wheat) becoming the norm in pub taps.

 

I read somewhere that Weihenstephan experimented with an adjuncted rice lager in the mid 1800s - I'd love to try that.

 

Or alternatively you could travel to St. Louis in 1876 and drink the first Budweiser:


"The Anheuser-Busch brewery in the 1800’s produced a number of beer brands but the beer that made them famous was Budweiser. Budweiser was first brewed in 1876. The brewery’s business name then was E. Anheuser Company's Brewing Association. Not too many people know this but the original Budweiser was a contract brewed beer; Adolphus Busch brewed this beer for his friend Carl Conrad."

https://www.morebeer.com/articles/Brewing_Original_Michelob_Recipe

Cheers!

 

Pretty much anything prior to the invention of pasteurization so I could try beers that had unintentional Brett and Lacto

 

I would travel to Ireland in the 19th century to taste Guiness stout which was a sour beer in those days. Completely forgotten.

 

It might have had a little acidity, but it wasn't a "sour beer". The analyses I have from 1861 to 1888 for Guinness Stout are between 3.73 pH and 3.52 pH, with the latter being a real outlier. The second highest value 3.6 pH.

 

We share fears! I’ve never made it to the UK, but I have this terrible thought that by the time I do make it, every tap will be an Americanized citrus / grapefruit IPA or bourbon barrel aged stout with coffee, chocolate, and vanilla and all of the traditional beers will be gone.

 

I'd go back to the 1990's with a selection of craft to get myself at least aware of it. By then I was mostly over drinking macro, had moved on to mixed drinks, and I vaguely knew I liked 'some dark beers', like Dixie Blackened Voodoo (no longer like it). I can't even imagine what I would have thought of BCBS, though when I had my first BBA Stout in 2015, I swore I'd never have another. Now that's my go-to style. Earlier exposure to it would have been good though.

 

To hell with time travel paradoxes. My late father liked beer, but even though he could afford to buy anything he wanted, he stuck with Coors Light for his daily beer.

SO -

I'd take a case or three of the best beers from the Pacific Northwest back to Kansas City in 1995. I would go to my dad's home and drink some REAL beer with him and his buddies. (And take along a superb French white blend for my mom.)

 

I’d travel back to Galilee ca. 30 A.D. Jesus was at a wedding where he (allegedly) turned six stone jars into wine. I’d bring some samples of some of today’s best beers along and preemptively convince him to turn the water into beer instead. Wine has always had a special significance in Western culture and I think the “water into wine” story, at least as much as any other single factor, has contributed to its prominence. So, with one single act, I’d help set the stage for 2,000+ years of beer rather than wine being the culturally significant beverage of choice.

And while I was at it, I’d have Jesus turn the five loaves of bread into New York-style pizza and turn the two fishes into all-you-can-eat fresh nigiri-style sushi.

 

I would get a fresh case of Zombie Dust in 12-ounce bottles and take it back to Hagen's Ale & Tee in Columbus' Brewery District, where I would share it with the guys in my barbershop chorus after our Tuesday night rehearsal. (I drank a lot of Molson Ice back then. I should have listened to the guy who always drank Samuel Smith Nut Brown Ale.)

 

I'd go back just a few years and buy all the bottles of Ha

Now that is time travel worthy...says the Zombie Dust fanatic

 

I'd go back to 1960s on the east coast. I'd look for draft Ballantine Ale and go to McSorleys and have the ale when brewed by Rheingold and the dark by Stegmaier. I know they tasted good, and I could compare to my current beers. Then I'd look for the NJ bar around Christmas time that my work colleague talked about. As a child he went with his father to a bar where they had a keg of ale on the bar, gravity fed.

 

I would travel back to 2001 when there were only a handful of craft Choices at my disposal. All I knew before then was AAL’s and when I would buy my token 6 pack for my weekend it brought me great joy. I drink better beers now, but I would love go back and rediscover all the beers I perceive as mundane now.

 

I would go back to the late 1930's in Newark NJ. Ballantine IPA and Brown Stout, Feigenspan IPA, stout and amber, Kreuger Kent IPA, Surrey Porter and Ambassador lager, Breidt from Elizabeth, Peter Doelger from Harrison. This doesn't even consider the beers from Brooklyn (Liebmann, Piels, Trommer, Schaefer) and Manhattan (Ruppert)

 

Didn't we all?