Narraganset Brewing Co. was started back in 1890 in Cranston Rhode Island by six business men with a $150,000 loan. Production began that same year, soon it would be New England's largest brewery. It built the first modern bottling plant in 1914 and did quite well until the dark Volstead Act days (better known as Prohibition). It managed to survive by getting the brewery a license from the IRS to make beer for medical purposes, but just barely. In 1931 Rudolf Haffenreffer Jr (who ran the Boston Brewing Company with his brother Theodore) took over the marketing department (Later the company as a whole) and with some real advertising know how lead to the brewery's brightest decades. Not only did he secure a partnership with the Boston Red Sox, from which the brewery's slogan "Hi Neighbor! Have a 'Ganset!" came. He also hired Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss) to create the brewery's mascot "Cheif Ganset". After his death in 1954, Narraganset became the best selling beer in New England and in 1957 brewed it's millionth barrel of beer. Some years later in 1965 Narraganset would absorb the Haffenreffer brands after that brewery's closing, that same year Falstaff brewing Co. purchased Narraganset for $17million cash and $2million in Falstaff stock, the purchase would not be completed until 1974 due to an antitrust suit being brought against the acquisition. This would prove to be a disaster for both companies. Due to money being poured into the ant-trust lawsuit and not into modernizing the breweries along with poor management decisions and increased competition, the Narraganset brewery closed in 1981 and production moved to Fort Wayne Indiana. This proved to be another disastrous move (due to Fort Wayne's inferior water) and the brand was officially dead in 1983. The original 1890's brewery complex was torn down in 1998 after over a decade of neglect and it's trolley barn across the road burned down in 2005. Falstaff suffered similar misfortunes and mismanagement, closing in 1990. Falstaff and Narraganset were both owned by former subsidiary Pabst until Narraganset was purchased by Mark Hellendrung and his associates in 2005. Since then the new Narraganset has become New England's 5th largest brewery and the United State's 37th largest craft brewer. They completed their new Rhode Island brewing facility in 2017, bringing the brand back home for the first time in 34 years.
I purchased this beer in a tall 16 oz pop tab can.The white can states "Made on Honor, Sold on Merit" "The famous Narraganset Lager""since 1890" and on the side it has the classic tagline "Hi-Neighbor! Have a 'Ganset!". According to the website, it's made with six row malt, Pacific Northwest hops, and Iowa corn. 5% ABV, I'll be having this in the super traditional Orion mug, can't wait to see the head.
Listening to the music of my father's youth, as this beer is a throwback to it. I am, again, trying to get back on the horse with the beer reviews. I've been hit with a combination of ill health, family situations, and finishing other projects. One of these new projects is the computer I'm writing this blog on. The laptop was insufficient, so I gave it to my sister Mary and built this crypto mining monstrosity. I would have to say it' probably 7-8 times as powerful as my old laptop, it's just incredible. In two days I mined more Monero than I did in two weeks with the laptop, and I don't know how much more Ethereum. And you should see it render graphics, holy crap! In other news, I have to save up to buy a new drive shaft for my 180sx. I decided to just bite the bullet and get a single piece performance shaft for about $400. It's allot, but it keeps with my concept of maintaining the stock look of the vehicle while upgrading the performance. In march there is an event in Georgia for imports, I'm going to try to make it. I'm trying to wrap up allot of projects, and that car is #1. Some of these things could wait for decades, but that car needs to get moving or it's not going to be the nice vintage performance car I bought in Japan. In other news, so this gun control deba... I'm just kidding, this is an apolitical blog.
Final thoughts. Good solid beer. It goes down easy but doesn't get in the way, so I could see drinking several of these. I can see why it was so popular in it's day, way more tasty than most beers of that period. I give this beer my blurry seal of approval.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narragansett_Brewing_Company
http://www.narragansettbeer.com/our-story
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