Many Potters Bar readers won't believe this, but bottled beers are not just for drinking. For many people they're also for collecting. In fact, since 1869, when the first known occasion was celebrated, there have been over 4,000 different commemorative bottled beers produced.
One recent event which had more than its share of special bottled beers was the Millennium. At the last count well over 50 bottled beers have been done, with still more produced in draught form. The better supermarkets have been stocking a small range, while more specialist off licences, such as the Beer Shop in London, or Tucker's Maltings in Newton Abbot, Devon, have offered a wider choice.
The range is in fact bewildering, and for the collector a huge task has presented itself in amassing the full range. Not since the Royal Wedding of Lady Diana and Prince Charles has such a large number of special bottled beers been issued for one occasion.
It was mainly micro and regional breweries which produced a Millennium bottled been The large breweries were conspicuous by their absence.
Perhaps the most attractive, well packaged item was that produced by Mansfield Brewery. Packaged in a fin, and issued in a limited edition, each bottle was numbered. The beer was, and on my last visit still is, available at Tesco's in Hanley and Meir at £3.95, a very reasonable price.
Tesco's in Hanley is also selling Millennium Celebration Ale from Christopher Columbus Ltd. Packaged in a wooden box, and priced at £7.95 (reduced from £9.95). This beer was brewed by King and Barnes, a very competent brewer in Horsham in Sussex. Sadly the bottle was issued without a label, a sad omission as far as collectors are concerned.
Many micro breweries produced millennium
bottles, Our own Burslem Brewery, Titanic, produced one for Central
Television. It is a very attractive bottle with a label printed
on transparent self-adhesive plastic, creating the effect of a
fired-on label. This rates as one of the more unusual Millennium
bottles, but is now very difficult to get hold of.Among the many other unusual items was one from Princetown Brewery in Devon. They did one for Chagford Church, Chagford being a small Devonshire village on the edge of DartmoorThis was sold in off licences in the area, and was available from Thcker's Maltings, a mail order supplier in the area.
Among what is to my mind one of the best brews to be produced for the Millennium is a stout from
Wadworth's
of Devizes, Wiltshire. This was called Wadworth's Strongest Ale
(although the term 'ale' is not quite correct in this case). It
is a stout in the style of Russian Imperial Stout as once brewed
by Barclay's, and in later years Courage. (The final brew was
produced in 1993). Weighing in at a respectable 11% ABV; the beer
has been matured for two years in the brewery in Devizes before
being distributed mail order It should mature for another 25 years,
although mine will surely be drunk before then. The stout was
produced in a limited edition, each bottle being boxed and numbered.So if you have the collecting bug, you could certainly do a lot worse than collect bottled beers. They are not expensive, they look attractive on the mantelpiece, and they will remind you of an unforgettable time, when the whole world went Millennium crazy.
The Association of Bottled Beer Collectors looks after the interests of the hobby. Membership is £7.00 a year, for which you get 6 issues of What's Bottling, the Newsletter, as well as the opportunity to attend meetings all over the country, and the chance to meet other collectors.
The Association can be contacted on 01782821459.
