Franconia Beer Message Board

Corona Bamberg brewpubs
Posted by Barry Taylor on 2020-03-21 07:31:27
I'm not sure that a new word is particularly needed: my two local micro's both have tried to develop a takeaway trade and I think with some success.  AFAIK, the Bay Hop calls its cardboardboard cartons 'growlers' but The Black Cloak is a bit more innovative and uses metal cans, which it fills and then seals: it calls these 'crowlers'!  I only know that becasue I looked on their website.  This is a bit signficant because, although I've quite often seen cartons or cans being filled at both pubs, I've never heard anyone say 'Fill me a growler (or crowler)!'.  It is more something like 'I'll take away 2 pints of xxx xxx'. 

A language changes because of popular usage and, as L'Academie Francais has found, you can't really legislate for new words coming into a language (l.e. le or la Sex and le or la weekend - I don't know the respective genders).  Someone coined the word 'television' (possibly in a patent application?) by combining the Greek word 'tele', meaning 'distance' and the Latin word 'vision' - the process of seeing.  But the 'folk' coined the word 'telly' and that is the word in common usage.

I don't know how 'growler' came to mean pork pie but I new it from my time in London, so I was interested in John's report (from Newcastle, John?).: Partridge gives several meanings (including one rather crude anatomical reference) and one that is interesting in this discussion: Growler: a four-wheeled cab; colloquial c.1865; hence 'work the growler', to go in a cab from pub to pub; low colloquial late C.19-20th.C.  As a corollary, he also has:'growlery': one's private sitting room; maybe from Dicken's Bleak House, 1852-3.    So, what do I know, maybe we should be welcoming the word back into British usage!

Regarding Jason's question about what used to be called 'off-sales' , yes, they were extremely common from pubs in the past.  'Jug and bottles' (that gives a pretty firm clue as to the containers used) were an integral feature of pubs up to around probably the 1970s (?) and there are one or two pubs still called that (including one in Heswall - I think this is close to where Beth comes from?).  The nearest pub to me when I was growing up was an estate pub in Wythenshawe called The Benchill Hotel (Threlfall's beers - I used to sell football papers outside it on a Saturday night when I was at school and 'hotel' was a very grandose term for what was a pretty rough pub!).  It opened in 1936 and had a separate area (hard to see in the photo's on http://pubs-of-manchester.blogspot.com/2012/11/benchill-hollyhedge-road.html) for off-sales, complete with mild and bitter handpumps (no pump clips in those days) and shelves of bottles.  I remember that people used to come with a range of containers but mainly jug-type things.

As an added facility for drinking at home, Davenport's Brewery from Birmingham used to delivery beer to the house and their delivery network network covered most of England, AFAIK - certainly it included Manchester.  They were taken over by the dastardly Greenall's but have now reappeared as a craft brewery - good!

Personally, I don't think that there's much wrong with takeaway cask ale, as long as it is drunk reasonably soon after purchase.  It should contain sufficient fermentable matter to give it life for even a day or two, provided it is stored at a reasonable temperature (around 8 - 10C?).  Contrary to popular belief, I have found that beer even keeps quite well in PET bottles, if stored in a cool, dark place.  I used to use for my homebrew and didn't find any significant deterioration even after some months; in fact, the taste often improved!  
 
Followups:
                       Corona Bamberg brewpubs by JohnRatcliffe on  2020-03-21 09:18:34
                       Corona Bamberg brewpubs by Jason on  2020-03-21 11:35:06
                         Corona Bamberg brewpubs by Barry Taylor on  2020-03-21 12:36:16
                       Corona Bamberg brewpubs by Uncle Jimbo on  2020-03-21 17:29:33
                           Corona Bamberg brewpubs by Jason on  2020-03-22 03:55:13
                         Corona Bamberg brewpubs by Barry Taylor on  2020-03-22 07:10:24
                             Corona Bamberg brewpubs by AndyH on  2020-03-23 04:57:09
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