West End Barley Wine

[Back Yard Brewer]

My dearly departed mother was a collector of mine bottles and until recently we the family have been sorting through the collection. I stumbled upon a Barley Wine made by "The South Australian Brewing Co Ltd" Adelaide, South Australia. It is a 185ml bottle. One side of the label has the caption "For the Spirit Drinker who likes the taste of a good strong ale" No reference to alcohol content is given. I am guessing it is at least 30yrs old. Any info would be interesting. BTW it is still full.

BYB

 

[clean brewer]

Any info would be interesting.

The only info I can give is to drink it, its old enough.... :unsure:

CB

 

[NeilArge]

Dear BYB

First, commiserations on the passing of your mum.

Second, that is utterly amazing! I lived in South Oz until the late 1990s and never heard of WE producing anything after 'metricisation' as interesting as a barley wine (West End Export was supposed to be a revelation!! ). The key question is: are you game to crack it??!! What's it worth on eBay? :lol:

Cheers

ToG

 

[Back Yard Brewer]

Dear BYB

First, commiserations on the passing of your mum.

Second, that is utterly amazing! I lived in South Oz until the late 1990s and never heard of WE producing anything after 'metricisation' as interesting as a barley wine (West End Export was supposed to be a revelation!! ). The key question is: are you game to crack it??!! What's it worth on eBay? :lol:

Cheers

ToG

Not to sure what to think of my find. The next line of attack will be to contact someone from S.A Brewing who has been around long enough to have some idea on it.

BYB

 

[Back Yard Brewer]

Just thought I would "bump" this Still don't know much about it


BYB

 

[Feldon]

Just thought I would "bump" this Still don't know much about it


BYB

There is a yarn on the Zythophile site about barley wine, mostly the UK stuff.

http://zythophile.wordpress.com/2010/09/14/so-what-is-the-difference-between-barley-wine-and-old-ale/

At the bottom of the story are comments posted by readers.

A poster named Mark Ruben on 25 Sept 2012 said this:


I used to drink West End barley wine made in Adelaide, South Australia in the 70′s.
I asked the brewery about it and this is the reply:

“Hi Martin
Thank you for your question regarding West End Barley Wine. I have done
a search through our archives and found the following information.
West End Barley Wine was produced in 1971 at the West End Brewery with
the first and only brew on 20/10/71. The last sales of the 185ml bottle
were in 1973.”
(I still have one bottle)
Only one brewing! Think I drank most of it!!!

 

[Back Yard Brewer]

There is a yarn on the Zythophile site about barley wine, mostly the UK stuff.

http://zythophile.wordpress.com/2010/09/14/so-what-is-the-difference-between-barley-wine-and-old-ale/

At the bottom of the story are comments posted by readers.

A poster named Mark Ruben on 25 Sept 2012 said this:


I used to drink West End barley wine made in Adelaide, South Australia in the 70′s.
I asked the brewery about it and this is the reply:

“Hi Martin
Thank you for your question regarding West End Barley Wine. I have done
a search through our archives and found the following information.
West End Barley Wine was produced in 1971 at the West End Brewery with
the first and only brew on 20/10/71. The last sales of the 185ml bottle
were in 1973.”
(I still have one bottle)
Only one brewing! Think I drank most of it!!!

Interesting reading. It must have been released after 73 as the label is in metric. 185ml

BYB

 

[Nicole73]

My dearly departed mother was a collector of mine bottles and until recently we the family have been sorting through the collection. I stumbled upon a Barley Wine made by "The South Australian Brewing Co Ltd" Adelaide, South Australia. It is a 185ml bottle. One side of the label has the caption "For the Spirit Drinker who likes the taste of a good strong ale" No reference to alcohol content is given. I am guessing it is at least 30yrs old. Any info would be interesting. BTW it is still full.

BYB

View attachment 32208

View attachment 32209

It was last manufactured 19th October 1972. Last known sold was 1973

 

[MHB]

Nicole73, Thats what Feldon said, just be interested in knowing where you got the information you posted, are you a collector,into beer history?

Getting on toward 50 years in the bottle, I wouldnt be opening it, the odds of it being in good nick are pretty low. Have heard of people finding some bottles over 100 years old in a bricked up cellar at a brewery in the UK, they said some were drinkable, (corked not crown seal) but they opened a few mostly to run it through the lab.
As mentioned above the alcohol content wasnt on the lables but a good lab could learn a lot more than that, residual sugars, Ca content and other trace minerals, perhaps even some yeast can all tell you a lot about how a beer was made, which is interesting to beer history geeks.
Mark

 

[duncbrewer]

Well my Grandfather, Dad and 2 brothers used to brew a winter ale from Ken Shales Home Brew book every October for the following year ( bottled of course) . Grandfather used to brew with him before home brew legalised in UK ( 1963).
Eventually Grandfather died ( 1975 13th October just before the next brew ) and the boys divided the hoard from the previous year between them. They all have a couple of bottles left. I last tried a bottle in 1978 and it was clear, still fizzy, a bit lacking in body and a short lived head although reading the recipe I'm not surprised!
They opened one bottle in the year 2000 and it was about the same.

I brewed 20 litres of it when my son was born ( 1995) and we had the first few bottles at 16 years and the next at 21 years old.

So it might be okay, or not. Think that we might have had cooler conditions for keeping the bottles.

The recipe really shows how homebrewing has changed!