I had a few of them, purchased at the brewery at the time. Don't know or recall anything about them other than what's on the label. Unlike the bottled Manhattan Gold mentioned in the above article which was originally contract-brewed at The Lion, these were apparently hand-bottled at the brewery. I imagine they were quite pricey at the time, between the hand-bottling and the custom embossed triangular bottle - but I can't imagine what it was. (Maybe something like $2-2.50 - craft beer bottle prices tended to be a buck a piece at the time.) The clear bottle always annoyed me, but I figured it was somewhat "inspired" by Samuel Smith's (right down to the foil covered crown) - the best known "craftish" UK beer in the US at the time and where brewer Witty once brewed. I suppose they might have claimed it was cellarable at the time (why else would I have saved a couple?- not a particular common thing at the time, but not unknown). I opened one 10-15 years ago and time was not kind to it - kept the final one as "breweriana" rather than a cellared beer. Not sure if Garrrett Oliver would know more - pretty sure it pre-dated his time at Manhattan but I'd guess he'd heard stories about it, the recipe, the bottle, etc.
