Nathan Vadeboncoeur Nathan Vadeboncoeur

1896 Danish Export Lager

Golden, bitter, strong, and brilliantly clear, export lager was built for the age of steamships.

By the late 19th century, breweries in northern Europe were shipping beer across oceans and rail networks to distant markets around the world. But long journeys demanded a different kind of lager. Export beers were brewed stronger, hoppier, and fuller-bodied than ordinary domestic lagers so they could survive travel while retaining flavour and stability. They were robust enough for commerce, but still designed to remain crisp and highly drinkable.

Our 1896 Danish Export Lager is brewed in tribute to this world…

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1896 Pattersbier
Nathan Vadeboncoeur Nathan Vadeboncoeur

1896 Pattersbier

Long before Belgian abbey breweries became internationally famous for strong ales, the monks themselves usually drank something much smaller.

Inside the monasteries of Belgium, beer existed in layers. The strongest and most expensive beers were often reserved for guests, wealthy patrons, special feast days, or commercial sale. But daily monastic life demanded something different: a modest, nourishing, highly drinkable table beer consumed alongside work, prayer, and communal meals.

This was pattersbier…

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1817 Patent Porter
Nathan Vadeboncoeur Nathan Vadeboncoeur

1817 Patent Porter

By the early 19th century, London porter faced a crisis. Not of flavour, but of arithmetic. Daniel Wheeler solved it in 1817…

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Les Ouvrières - Grisette
Nathan Vadeboncoeur Nathan Vadeboncoeur

Les Ouvrières - Grisette

Grisette: The Women Behind the Name

A new class of woman emerged among the soot and noise of the Industrial Revolution. These were the grisettes.

The term grisette, a French diminutive meaning “the grey one,” came from their simple grey dresses. Grisettes left the countryside to find work and start a new life during the great urban migration of the 1700s and 1800s. They were among the first women to seek work outside the home and found it in the rough mining towns of Hainaut, southern Belgium.

These women worked hard as seamstresses, shop assistants, labourers, and servers in the working-class pubs frequented by coal miners. As the first women to work outside the home, and even to live independently from their families, they were controversial figures. Our Grisette, called Les Ouvrières (The Workers), is named after them.

From Working Class Woman to Bohemian Ideal

By the mid-to-late 1800s, the meaning of grisette began to shift…

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1870 Historic Burton IPA
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1870 Historic Burton IPA

This is a replica of a Burton IPA during the height of it’s popularity. It’s a version that was made for domestic UK consumption. It was the most popular beer of the Victorian period and closely associated with British pride.

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