Who remembers EKU 28 and Thomas Hardy Ale?

There's currently a 50th Anniversary Golden Edition of Thomas Hardy available. Meantime resurrected the brand in 2017, and they also released a few barrel-aged versions as well.

I haven't had the barrel aged versions, but did have a few of the 'straight' 2017 bottlings. It's really top notch, but also comes across as having sugar added (a leaner body, that 'rummy' taste on the finish), so I don't see how you could do a direct comparison with the legendary Eldridge and Pope stuff.

I've also got a bottle of the 50th in the house, but haven't gotten to it yet.

 

Both are fondly remembered. I last had EKU 28 back in 2010 or so. Drank my last bottle of Thomas Hardy's in the early 2000's. I managed to snag an Anniversary Edition boxed six-pack of different vintages and held on to them as long as I could.

 

I remember learning that it is unwise to drink a sixer of the EKU28 by myself

 

Loved these beers back in the day, they truly blew my mind as a youngster just learning about what beer could be (samichlaus is definitely in that mix too)! I have bought a number of the new Thomas Hardy’s and really enjoyed them, will definitely keep coming back. As mentioned above I couldn’t keep the old ones very long and same is true of the new editions.

A store by me has Eku 28, will have to pick that up for old times’ sake sometime soon.

 

I have a bottle of Thomas Hardy's Ale Vintage 1988 in my beer fridge. I doubt it has held up, but at this point it's more memorabilia than beer to me anyway.

I remember finding EKU 28 surprisingly drinkable after being warned (by beer geeks) that it was disgusting, but I certainly wouldn't call it particularly good.

Import selections have gotten worse at most bottle shops in the last decade or so. That's especially remarkable given how much better American craft beer selections had been getting until recently (when the doltish sugarbeers brewed for the simple-palated newer and younger drinkers [mostly NEIPAs and beers using flavoring adjuncts] started crowding the good stuff off the shelves).

 

Good christ are you a broken record.

Imports are doing fine in these parts. Sorry it sucks where you live.

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you for reminding me of EKU:
I did not realize it was a throwback/nostalgia product. The beer bar where I truly learned about good beer in Western Massachusetts had it in bottle... even after experiencing all the amazing offerings this oasis had on tap, the EKU stuck with me. So many good times involved this "malt bomb" making it into the rounds at some point. Use with caution.

Cheers!

 

Be interesting to hear your thoughts if you do decide to open that ‘88. Friend held one for 20-22 years and thought it had both stood up and had changed for the better.

 

The "28" in EKU 28 referred to the original gravity of 28° Plato, although M. Jackson noted [in Beer Companion, 2nd ed. (1997)] that it was "...now boosted to 30 Plato or around 1120." Adding that "The "28" usually has an alcohol content of...11.5-12 by volume but I have seen analyses as high as ... 13.7 by volume."

 

I picked up a bottle of EKU 28 at Maisel and Friends in Bayreuth in June, 2017. I'd had it earlier in my beer quest and was less then overwhelmed yet again.

 

Import selection doing well? Not where I live. Islay beating a dead horse? Definitely.

 

Might not be dead, just "local" specific. In this general area I can find plenty of imports (but then I have effectively got SEPA, some of NJ and some of DE to draw upon). Saison Dupont is not in my immediate neighborhood shop I most rely on but with about a 15 min. drive I can find it fresh.

Edit: IIRC from a quick look a while back there is an overall decline in "craft" imports but that could be regional again as folks have more options and decide to pay less in the new growth areas. (I doubt Saison Dupont ever sold well in rural Alabama.) Dupont is a treat for me at it's price since there are at least two US produced Saisons I enjoy quite a bit as well.

 

I have the same issue where I live, Belgian and German imports are becoming harder to come by.

 

You are lucky. The ‘freshest’ Saison Dupont I can find is about two years old!

 

I feel for you since it is one of the my "special occasion" beers.

Philly is still a quite strong area for Belgian and Belgian style beers. One local beer writer has claimed that in the general Philly area we consume more Belgian beers than they do in Brussels. So our stong local competition in the market hasn't pushed them out (but then that strong local competition is mostly not the stuff @islay doesn't want to see in the marketplace).

 

Remember? I have a few bottles of each beer in my storage unit for "just such an occasion."

The Hardy's was supposed to be my "mortgage bottle," but it took so long to sell the damned condo that the beer got pushed to the back of the unit.

I remember finding EKU-28 back in the early '80s. Guy at the liquor store told us we were supposed to "cut" the EKU with a lighter beer to make it more drinkable. Not sure where he got that info, but my friend and I tried it once (with BRAND beer from Holland -- another past blast) and decided to dive right into the EKU. Yeah, bit of a thick head the next day.

 

handle/matches content

There have been grumblings about new Hardy, but I have a bottle shop near me who would certainly have it the minute it hits VA - he's got an entire section of JW Lee's and old Fullers VA. Nothing, so far.

 

Definitely. My local pub has old vintages of both stashed away for special events.
Those old Hardy bottles are still magical. EKU is a little more "one note" for my tastes. It's a little like old Samichlaus, but with less depth...at least in my opinion.

 

The rise of American craft beer aimed at connoisseurs at the expense of flavorful imports aimed at connoisseurs, and the subsequent rise of infantile parodies of American craft beer aimed at scenesters at the expense of that aimed at connoisseurs, is the overarching story of craft beer of the 21st century so far, especially in bottle shops, and it's a story that is too infrequently told around here. In many markets, unlike five years ago, most of the stouts now are flavored, the sours now fruited, and the IPAs now "juicy." The lactose-intolerant are left gobbling down their Lactaid and the diabetics fumbling for their insulin syringes. Shelf space, though it has grown, is far from unlimited. As some of us celebrate the influx of a new class of beers, there's nothing wrong with lamenting the decline of an old class, especially when we consider the old class markedly superior. Relatedly, I'm not buying @meefmoff's claim that "Imports are doing fine in these parts," even as I know distribution varies markedly across regions; the more credible sources I've encountered dispute that characterization.

 

Agreed.

 

I like this guy!

As to keeping it on topic - I very rarely got to have Eku 28 (maybe once or twice at a tasting), but remember the Thomas Hardy Vintage ales fondly. Had a friend in SoCal that would pop one out ramdomly to taste. I have no idea how much or how he had, or how far back his vintages stretched, but I know we tasted some going back to 1985, I think? Great stuff.

 

To be clear, the horse concerns blaming everything on new drinkers with "unrefined palates".

Agreed that imports probably vary lot. I can't speak so much to the variety available since for a long time I sort of ignored them due to age/condition concerns (and getting burned too often back in the 90s). But I have 3 stores within 15 minutes of my house that have a decent selection and keep on top of age and condition to the extent it's probably feasible. Britain is definitely under represented, but Germany and Belgiam do okay.

 

I had an EKU 28 a couple weeks ago. Really impressed me, I could've easily mistaken it for another generic euro lager by looks alone. Was only available in singles, sure wish I could find a six pack.

 

Are you telling us it's no longer a dark brownish color?

 

Should've specified, the bottle didn't look like anything special. The beer itself looked exactly like that.

 

There’s usually a thread in the aging forum where you can describe your sensory impressions of the beer I f you decide to open one of those.

 

I recently had a bottle of the '88 and would agree....It held up remarkably well, and tasted tasted exquisite.
I also have multiple bottles of the '85, "86, "87, '89, '90, and '91 stored at cellar temperature (68°F) since purchase . I've sampled all of them over the last couple of years and all of them have definitely improved with age.
Thomas Hardy's was a gem of a beer.

I haven't yet had the new iteration by Meantime (I haven't seen it anywhere), but would love to try it.

 

Here's thing. While I have no dobut that imports of flavorful beer from Europe have been sliding downward, that is based pretty much on national level stats. It is quite possible that that slide is region or area specific while they continue at a reasonably high are in others.

Now you claim to have credible sources that dispute that characterization you've not provided any of the rest of us with links to or ways we might assess that it is across the board down through the entire US and not just certain areas. (Contrary to what may folks from Europe don't realize there is a fair amount of regionalization of food and drink in the US, it's just that you may have to travel 500 miles rather than 50 miles to find it.)

While I do consider you a fairly reasonable source your waving round of "credible sources" to support your argument reminds me of nothing so much as some of the documentary films showing Senator Joe McCarthy and the Communist scare of the 50s. (E.g.," I have in my hand documents that show there are X practicing communists in Y"). Problem was his statistics were not checkable (plus to make matters worse they not even consistent from one time to another).

Having been to Brussels fairly recently on business my free time and beer buying while there was devoted to searching out Belgian beers to try that I was not able to find within 25-50 miles of where I sit at home. Biggest problem I found while there was finding one I hadn't tried. I succeeded with some that were simply not being shipped to the US but have since seen a few of those showing up on shelves here. (I also had the side benefits of being given a guided beer tour for lunch etc. by a friend and colleage who knew a good bit about what was where in the region around Brussels.)

So my bottom line that your claim regionalization doesn't have any effect and that it is across the board simply doesn't hold water when I have the personal evidence of what I see on this site and what I see on the shelves withing my search radius.

So lets see some links if you have them, please.

 

Speak of the devil - the Bull & Bush has bottles of 2004 Thomas Hardy's Ale on sale for $9 today: https://twitter.com/BandBManBeer

 

I'd buy that, but for cryin' out loud: "This is a great opportunity to try a 2004 Vintage of the original!" (bold emphasis mine)