Go Gansett

You can't beat a dead horse, or a dead horse racetrack, but apparently you can beat a dead beer back to life. The Narragansett Brewing Company won the Bronze Medal at the 2008 World Beer Cup. It's the latest coup in a series of honors for Gansett, which was originally established in Rhode Island around 1890 and eventually became New England's largest brewery, earning a 65 percent market share in the six-state region during the 1960s. The beer's fame grew with its "Hi Neighbor, have a Gansett" advertising campaign and three-decade sponsorship of the Boston Red Sox. But ultimately it couldn't compete with the national lagers, especially when Budweiser muscled in, building a plant in New Hampshire. The Narragansett Brewery in Cranston closed in 1981. Production was moved to Fort Wayne, Ind., but the water there was no match for the Scituate Reservoir. A few old-time Rhode Islanders still swore by their cans of "Nasty Gansett," but the beer was dropped from the taps and considered by many to be undrinkable. Enter Mark Hellendrung, previously the head "Juice Guy" at Nantucket Nectars, who rounded up a group of local investors and revived the brand three years ago, re-launching it with its heritage recipe and new packaging. According to Beer Advocate, Narragansett is now the highest-rated premium domestic lager in the country.

Personal note: While researching through Life magazines from the 1960s, I was struck by how prominent the Narragansett beer ads were, appearing on pages with JFK, Apollo astronauts and Frank Sinatra. The revived lager is a huge improvement over the Indiana-watered-down beer, but it doesn't quite match the original. Marketing surveys influenced the revivalists to make the beer slightly less bitter to satisfy the masses (but not confirmed hopheads like me). So here's a thought: Narragansett Classic.