[hardy-l] Thomas Hardy's Ale

[Will Stevens]

I have some bottles of the 1975 brew, which I bought and then forgot
about until we moved house. The one bottle we tasted was not drinkable
- 30 years plus is too old for any beer - but, drinkable or not, it
does seem to be a collector's item, since bottles are offered on eBay
from time to time at what seem to me to be silly prices.

The younger samples of Hardy's Ale which I have tasted were pretty
good. As I recall, it's a very strong, sweetish, 'barley wine' style
of beer - OK if you like that kind of thing, but it's not to
everybody's taste. In any  case, I doubt whether the taste bears much
relation to the Casterbridge beer which Hardy describes so eloquently
in 'The Trumpet Major'.

Will Stevens