Your Beer Time Machine

I would go 75 years into the FUTURE. I want to see what the BA members then are complaining about. Perhaps how their beloved milkshake slushy fruity sugary "beers" are being displaced from shelves by these weird, thin, hop-laden bitter IPAs.

 

When I was serving in the US Army in the early 1990s, I had the opportunity to travel to Great Britain and Europe. At the time I was just beginning to discover craft beer but really had limited knowledge. I recall having some "strangely warm" ales in London and what I considered excellent lagers and those "cloudy" wheat beers in Germany. While I enjoyed all the beers, I didn't appreciate them as I would today. Plus, I would be back in my early to mid-20s in age again.

 

So, in between do we re-run the gammut of good brown ales, ESBs and more Porters?

I could live in that old world before IPAs take over. Again.

 

Would travel back to late January 1983 to tell the much younger and better looking ery naive version of myself, newly arrived in Philadelphia from 8+ years of real ale drinking in England, to keep an eye out for the early craft brewers in the US, avoid the macros, and watch out for something called BeerAdvocate. Knowledge is power.

 

have you or @RaulMondesi been to Mcilhenney brewing?

 

Yeah buddy

 

no time machine needed. While, the OG alpine had really good food, and did distro some bottles Mcilhenney brewery’s beers area OG good.

 

I’d go back to 2009 where I could buy Sam Adams black lager in a distro again.

 

It's a toss up between going back to around 2015, join BA and review all those IPAs I drank...I might have reached Poo-Bah status by now.
The other would be.....being the first customer at Weihenstephaner. Prost.

 

Does a '74 AMC Matador Count?

 

Yes!

That rod looks sweet plus what a cool name: Matador!

 

You are a WEALTH of
historical knowledge. I read your post to my wie as an example of why I spend so much time on BA.

 

Man, just stopped in to a local pub to finish some paperwork on my way home and it'd reminding me how unnecessary a time machine is.

On tap currently;
Pilsner
Kolsch
Vienna Lager
Marzen
ESB
Duesseldorf Alt
Dry Irish Stout (Nitro too)
English Porter
Imperial Golden Ale (Nitro too)
A number of pale ale/Ipa options
A blend of barrel aged quad, barleywine, and stout
And 4 barrel aged fruited sours.

Everything brewed toward style, all of it acceptable (their Pilsner and the ba sours don't wow me but they aren't poorly made) or better (their Vienna and alt, which I went with tonight, have really been ringing my bell lately and their hoppy offerings are always solid to wonderful).

I don't know if that kind of taplist exists anytime before 1990?

 

I specifically referenced bitter IPAs because when you think about it, in the absence of any experience or prior knowledge about them, it is kind of weird to think that bitterness becomes a desirable trait in something we voluntarily drink. I can easily imagine the dismay among future drinkers who have been conditioned to drink fruity, sweet stuff, when they are faced with some unexpected trend toward bitter flavor profiles.

 

So, similar to back when the unexpected trend toward bitter flavor profiles started to scare all the thin, flavorless beer drinkers?

Funny thing is, I can still find bitter profile beers on shelves -- alongside the fruity, murky stuff. I just can't find the well-balanced, traditional maltier beers that used to always stand proud alongside PAs & IPAs on shelves.

The last, locally-brewed Brown Ale I had tasted like an IPA. If poured in an opaque cup you'd think it was the latest West Coaster.

So yeah, take me back to the days when there was *real* choice of a myriad of styles on shelves, not a choice between hops and flavor additives.

 

I hope that she received the message well.

Cheers!

 

time machine: early 1900s bamberg when, within the city walls of this small town, there were 110 or so breweries in operation. then id ride my bicycle out into the countryside to explore the 1000 or so more places

 

And backing up @steveh 's post, Stanley Baron (in his Brewed in America, 1962) went on to write, after he quoting that line of Bradford's journal:

 

"Hastened."

He jokes from the safe comfort of centuries on.

 

@cavedave -- without a deep dig into my memory bank, approximately 1994-96, although I *was* receiving a lot of SNPA clones in a beer-of-the-month club around then that prompted me to cancel.

 

Well the place I was at does not distribute. They have their main location and a satellite taproom the next town up. I certainly recognize that they aren't necessarily the norm for a small town brewery. And I don't know of many (any?) breweries whose distribution line up looks like that tap list

 

Bradford had a number of observations about the immediate needs of the Settlers for food and shelter with beer being considered a daily foodstuff like bread. The Pilgirms experimented with locally sourced fermentables trying to make beer finding success with Indian Corn (maize) or pumpkins.

Yes, Pumpkin Beer is a New England tradition that goes back 400 years.

 

More of a personal history than beer history answer here but I’d go back to 2010/2011 around when I first became interested in good beer. Everything was new and interesting to me back then and every time I stepped into a liquor store I was like a kid in a candy shop. Finding new beers from new breweries was a real source of joy for me back then. Funny enough, I don’t think I was aware or cared about bottling dates back then and probably regularly drank old stuff but still enjoyed the hell out of almost everything. While I’m still enjoying beer, I wish I can rediscover that level of enthusiasm I once had for it when it was new to me.

 

I only had a chance to drink one or two of Grant's brews. Grant's Scottish Ale sticks in my memory. May have been contract brewed by Portland Ale brewery?

 

I’m going to hop on the sudsy time machine and go back to September 1961. I might have a beer or two—while watching the Beatles perform in Hamburg.

Maybe I’d take it to May 1977 and follow the Dead. It’s not necessarily my favorite era, but so many folks are waking around town claiming to have seen the Cornell show and I’ll love to see what they saw.

Thanks for the time machine, @cavedave !!

 

I would bring beer with me in the time machine, and go back and see what really happened in ancient history. Check out all the militaries and tactics of the day. Too big an opportunity to waste by traveling back in time to 2018 and stock up on Yuengling IPL's

 

An alehouse in England circa 1600 sounds like fun.

 

For my palate: I'd go back to 2011 when I tasted Zombie Dust for the first time to see if it really was as delicious as I remember it being

For curiosity: Any time prior to pasteurization to see what beers tasted like with maybe or maybe not a little wild character to them

If I only have one choice: 1040 when Weihenstephaner first became licensed. They can apparently trace their roots to 768 which makes it even better since I bet they had that shit dialed in by 1040

 

Good question! Without a doubt I fell in love with beer in about 1981-82 (16-17 yrs old) and when I was in college I really thought I knew what I liked. THEN micro brews began to appear. I got a job at Martignetti's (Soldier's Field Rd on the Charles River in Brighton, MA...the old store) and got Vol 1 of Michael Jackson's Pocket Guide to Beer. I worked in the wine cellar but actively pursued beer. I recall when Sam Adams had ONE beer for sale and Sierra Nevada had pale ale, porter and stout. Euro swing top bottles had a ceramic stopper (a choice doob holder), not plastic. I began traveling internationally shortly after college graduation (it was cheap and safe, the opposite of now time). So, I'd fire up my time machine and bake right back to the mid 1980s and hit New England, NYC, Chicago, Cali, Oregon and Washington State. I thought it was exciting! Cheers!

 

Definitely back to 2004 or so when my interest in craft really started to ramp up after it's late 90s beginning. Back then I was trying everything to get exposure to different styles. Without a doubt I missed out on a few currently out of production beers that had some good buzz back then. I'd also have some old favorites like the original Stone Pale Ale (and Levitation). I'd enjoy going to the bottle shop and not have to worry about muddling through the endless haze and smoothie beers.

 

I'd go back to Munich (and Bavaria) during the 1880's for a month leading up to Easter. This is the traditional Salvatorfest time, with all of the historical doppelbocks in the area. I'd just wander around and luxuriate in all of the local Salvator clones. If the weather breaks nice, a few biergartens would also be in order.

 

Dave, I wonder if you can obtain a Three-Threads beer in 1814 (or was it obsolete by then?)?

https://beerandbrewing.com/dictionary/TOR8CFljCG/

Please report back.

Cheers!

 

I just posted my fourth trip back in time in an other thread:

"Hopefully Mr. Peabody will let me use his Wayback machine one more time so I can travel to Ireland in the 1950's to experience a "complicated" cask pour of Guinness Stout."

Cheers!

 

Well, if you don't find any Three-Threads during your 1814 visit you can always afterwards continue your backwards journey to circa 1718.

If Doc Brown can do it, why not you!?!



Cheers!

 

I find it interesting how many posters want to go back to relive meaningful eras of their own history with beer. We're a more sentimental lot than I expected.

 

The 13th century, any Belgian monastery would be just great for me.