The Broadway Blend

Home-blending beer is an opportunity to develop further tastes from existing supplies. The results are sometimes preferable to the constituents, and a good way to use bottle- or can-ends.

Blending is age-old in commercial brewing, and characterized early and later London porter-brewing. The pubs did it too.

The “half and half” has long figured in British and American tavern-ways, with innumerable variations, sometimes taking in spirits or other beverages. The Germans mix Coca-Cola and beer. The French like beer and tequila, or rum, and on it goes.

In the literature of mixing we should include a variation that combined Bass pale ale, Guinness stout, and a “thimbleful of brandy”. It is memorialised in a confiding, chatty piece in the New York Evening Telegram of January 20, 1894.

It seems the article was conjured simply to record a dozen mixed drinks then in vogue in Manhattan. The daisy, hot scotch, claret punch, and martini figured among much else.

As conceit to channel this report (I apprehend), the reporter wrote that he interviewed a Mr. McGuire who had set up a bar in Central America. McGuire called the bar Hoffman House after the famed Manhattan hotel and bar of that name.

On a trip to New York, McGuire, so the story unfolded, hired a reputed Broadway bartender to train a newly-hired employee on making the latest in-demand drinks. The new hire would become an instant drinks maestro for McGuire’s new bar down Honduras (maybe) way.

The teacher’s portfolio included a spiked half and half. It is given the name Lobengula, who was a contemporary African king, but I’ll call it the Broadway Blend.

The “half and half” by the 1890s was a stock item in American bartending. It was sometimes casually termed “arf ‘n arf”, a comical reference to its English origins. Adding brandy was a snazzy riff on an old idea.

In New York at the time a Newark, New Jersey beer bottler, William Wirtz, marketed his own version of half and half, as seen in this striking label:

 

 

(Source: U.S. Library of Congress Archives).

According to this document, from 1891, the label was a trade mark of the Wirtz’ firm. Whether Wirtz had permissions from Guinness and Bass breweries I cannot say, perhaps not.

Wirtz by my research dealt in beers between 1884 and 1907 at least.

An 1898 catalogue of New York liquor dealer A.W. Balch mentions him for numerous lagers, ales, and stout. His “half and half” is listed. For all these beers their origins are not disclosed, except the city, e.g. Philadelphia Ale, Detroit Lager.

Wirtz also bottled a “Budweiser”, meant to suggest only a beer of the Czech Budweis style – not uncommon then before Anheuser-Busch’s increasing vigilance stopped such practices. Wirtz probably gave up marketing a Budweiser by 1907, as suggested by legal arguments in the trade mark case Anheuser-Busch vs. DuBois (1947).

A ready mix of Bass and Guinness would form a good base for a fillip of brandy, but probably the brandified half and half was usually made from scratch. Lots of Bass and Guinness, bottled and draft, was available in America by then.

Guinness is, today, more available than ever, Bass ale not so much, but you can use any good pale ale to make the Broadway blend. And any good stout.

The bibulous reader (are there any others?) might give it a try. But mind, just one.*

Note re image: source of image above is identified and linked in the text. All intellectual property therein belongs solely to the authorized owner(s), as applicable. Used for educational and research purposes. All feedback welcomed.

*Post expanded and edited on March 18, 2024.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2 thoughts on “The Broadway Blend”

  1. You probably already know that Yuengling has sold for quite a while bottled and canned “Black and Tan” mix of their Porter and Premium beers. No brandy, though. The name gets a bit of flack now and then due to sharing the name of British paramilitary forces.

    Reply
    • True for Yuengling there yes. Newcastle Brown Ale, the English or European-brewed one, has also been said to be a blend of two beers, an Amber, which has sometimes been sold on its own, and stronger ale.

      I’m sure there are numerous other examples, and now for craft too. Guinness Foreign Export Stout famously too for a long time but not sure about the current status.

      Reply

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