from the distant past

"The man who corked this probably died years ago and it has been untouched ever since...."

In Pool-in-Wharfedale's Half Moon pub a handful of friends gathered to toast the 21st century with a bottle of beer from the 19th.

For decades, the famous North East brewing family Youngers marked the birth of a child in the family by the father brewing a special beer to be opened by the new arrival on its 21st birthday.

Around forty years ago, Pool's Dr Jeff Ellison, above left, was chief brewing chemist for Youngers, and, while clearing up the labs, discovered a few bottles of one Majority Ale (so called as they were drunk by the children when they reached the age of majority), which was brewed in 1897.

Told he could keep a bottle, Dr Ellison resolved to save it for a special occasion, and as he said on millennium night, with a twinkle in his eye, "nothing special has happened to me since."

With great care, pub manager Steve Morris, above right, cut off the bottle's wax seal and uncorked the bottle. The beer flowed a deep amber colour with no cloudiness at all, only the last few drops producing any sediment.

As was only right, Dr Ellison took the first sip.

"It certainly tastes different," he declared, "it doesn't taste like a beer at all, more like a strong madeira wine. There may be a deposit left at the bottom of the bottle but the contents have not gone off, they have just matured. You can particularly taste the honey which they used in the brewing process back then. We are not going to drop dead from drinking it, not this much anyway...."

It may be called a majority ale, but, after all these years, the taste would certainly appeal to a minority of drinkers.

But then again, as Steve Morris said, a beer bottled now-a-days will be completely ruined in ten years. Such is progress.

(52-07E)

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.