Hancocks Beer Dray (1 Viewer)

[johnnybach]

Excellent job on an excellent set, I really like the accessories and additions. Really neat little vignette and very interesting that it includes "family"! Nice job!
Tom

Yo! Tom - Glad you like it - and yes - there really is quite a bit of my Family history in there too. That's why I wanted one - but was always getting out-bid on any e-bay Trophy versions I've seen - (that were affordable). I DID ask the current owner of the moulds to make me one - but he declined to.

So.............eventually.............I made one of my own!

My Grandfather (Arthur) was in the driving seat for Hancocks - who once had a brewery in Cardiff just before WW1. Grandad was called up very early in the war though - and due to his experience of driving horses - rapidly found himself as lead driver of a team in The Royal Horse Artillery. I wish there was a happy ending - but unfortunately, he was seriously wounded in the head ( just BEFORE steel helmets came around 1916). He did survive though - with a metal plate in his head - and returned to work for Hancocks again - but died early on - in his fifties - from a head trauma, on his way to work one morning.

Fortunately (for me) he had another son ( my dad) between being invalided out of the Army - and passing away - or I wouldn't be here to write this now - or have made the model.

My Great Grandfather - the Blacksmith - was named Sydney - and had his premises very close to both Cardiff City Centre - and the Hancocks Brewery - though can't say for sure if he ever did service the Hancocks string of delivery horses. Hancocks changed hands a few times - before being bought up by their great local rival - the Brains family - and Brains now occupy the old hancocks brewery site - which is just to the rear of Cardiff Central Railway Station - on the banks of the River Taff - which flows through the centre of Cardiff.

I never met either of my predecessors - but one of my daughters dug into the Family history - and that's how I know these few facts.

Cheers Tom - jb:salute::

 

[theBaron]

Yeah, sorry, I didn't mean to sound harsh. I've followed the story about the spread of lager beers in the UK, as well as to have followed the efforts of CAMRA.

Yes, Bud Light is crap. I'm reminded of the Australian comment, "It's like making love in a canoe...."

We have benefited here in the US from a renewed interest in home-brewing, back in the early and middle Eighties, which triggered the craft beer/brewpub movement. People discovered, or sometimes, rediscovered, styles of beer that were brewed here before Prohibition and then the brewer buy-outs and consolidations reduced the number of small, local and regional breweries and made "American lager" the only style of beer you could find. Think Coors Banquet Beer, or Busch lager (not bad beers, in their own right). Here in PA, our own local favorite, Yuengling, managed to make it through the years from the Twenties to the Eighties, supported by loyal Pennsylvania beer drinkers, and Yuengling experienced a renaissance as people began looking for small, local breweries. Yuengling also adjusted to the change in tastes. My dad remembers it as a cheap, bland brew, and he was right, until around 1998 or so, when they changed their recipe, adding carmelized malt, to make the beer more of an amber lager. Yuengling also brews a porter, and sells a black-and-tan mix of the lager and porter. In the last couple of years, they've also started experimenting with some styles they never made, like an Oktoberfest beer. Yuengling isn't bad, and I'll drink it, when offered. But there is one drawback--they brew with corn malt as an adjunct to the barley malt. And I swear I'm not allergic to anything, but when I have Yuengling, I'll get a headache after just one or two. And I can put away two liters of Salvator in an evening and not feel any ill effects. I think it's the corn malt. It also imparts a taste that just isn't the same as that of a beer brewed according to the Purity Law, in my opinion. I can taste it.

My favorites are Bavarian-style, Munich-style lagers, which are a little sweeter and maltier than their neighboring styles in Bohemia, and also, good Bavarian Hefeweizen. Sweet, malty, full of vitamins. I keep a case of Franziskaner on hand, most of the time, and any of the Munich lagers I can get at any time, usually Spaten or Paulaner, both of whom have done a very diligent job of marketing their beers here in the States.

You can see, I take this seriously...

Prost!
Brad

 

[nmrocks]

Wow! you guys are serious about your beers! down here in Austin seems every restaurant and tavern brews there own 1/2 dozen brews. Way too much for me, I generally drink a couple and the conversation devoles into "check out the one who just walked in"
Ray

 

[johnnybach]

Wow! you guys are serious about your beers! down here in Austin seems every restaurant and tavern brews there own 1/2 dozen brews. Way too much for me, I generally drink a couple and the conversation devoles into "check out the one who just walked in"
Ray

Hic!

 

[theBaron]

Life's too short, to drink bad beer.

In fact, generally, if I can't get a beer I like, I'll just drink water.

Prost!
Brad

 

[johnnybach]

Life's too short, to drink bad beer.

In fact, generally, if I can't get a beer I like, I'll just drink water.

Prost!
Brad

I was just about to give you a TICK - and then I spotted the end of the sentence. Substitute a glass of red - and I'll go with that!:salute:: jb

 

[jazzeum]

Life's too short, to drink bad beer.

In fact, generally, if I can't get a beer I like, I'll just drink water.

Prost!
Brad

Unless it's been a bad day in the salt mines and you need the buzz ^&grin

 

[theBaron]

I was just about to give you a TICK - and then I spotted the end of the sentence. Substitute a glass of red - and I'll go with that!:salute:: jb

I do enjoy some wines, too, though I think my tastes are similar to my tastes in beer. I like strong or robust flavors, and a bit of herbiness, earthiness or oakiness. The Australians produce some excellent Shirazes that I enjoy. To me, that's the stout or porter of wines. But I'd much rather have a beer.

Prost!
Brad

 

[johnnybach]

I do enjoy some wines, too, though I think my tastes are similar to my tastes in beer. I like strong or robust flavors, and a bit of herbiness, earthiness or oakiness. The Australians produce some excellent Shirazes that I enjoy. To me, that's the stout or porter of wines. But I'd much rather have a beer.

Prost!
Brad

I think that you and I would get on Brad - When I used to live in France, I was partial to a drop of Syrah - which uses the same grape variety as the Shiraz grown down under. That lovely earthy robust flavour is very nice indeed - and right up my street. BUT - when I'm back in GB - I too like to sample some of the excellent ales and beers that we produce too.

Well, what do you expect - I'm the Grandson of a Drayman!

 

[theBaron]

I think that you and I would get on Brad - When I used to live in France, I was partial to a drop of Syrah - which uses the same grape variety as the Shiraz grown down under. That lovely earthy robust flavour is very nice indeed - and right up my street. BUT - when I'm back in GB - I too like to sample some of the excellent ales and beers that we produce too.

Well, what do you expect - I'm the Grandson of a Drayman!

And my great-grandfather and one of my uncles both ran taverns My grandmother worked at my uncle's place, cooking and waiting tables. When she used to watch me as a toddler, she would take me along. Today, people would be scandalized, but it was a little corner bar, a neighborhood place, where everyone knew everyone else, and I was "adopted" by the regulars.

If you ever make it over here, John, there's a beer waiting for you. Well, it'll be a fresh one, not like there's one sitting out now

Prost!
Brad

 

[jazzeum]

I'm partial to the German beers and particularly like Spaten; just bought some the other day.

However, more often than not I will drink wine and have begun to enjoy the Chiantis and Montepulcianos, the Montepulciano d'Abruzzo being among my favorites. Lately I've tried Palazzo del Torre and it's among my favorites.

 

[johnnybach]

And my great-grandfather and one of my uncles both ran taverns My grandmother worked at my uncle's place, cooking and waiting tables. When she used to watch me as a toddler, she would take me along. Today, people would be scandalized, but it was a little corner bar, a neighborhood place, where everyone knew everyone else, and I was "adopted" by the regulars.

If you ever make it over here, John, there's a beer waiting for you. Well, it'll be a fresh one, not like there's one sitting out now

Prost!
Brad

Thank you kindly sir - however I've only ever been to the USA once - and that was last year - when I paused briefly in San-Francisco en-route to NZ. Loved SF - and stopped over for three days - before continuing on to NZ.

I now have yet more in common with you Brad - as we now stay in Bethlehem, when in NZ - which is on the North Island's Bay of Plenty. If you ever make it there when we're in residence - I'll introduce you to some NZ beers - some of which - are very nice indeed too! Monteith's Brewery is my current favourite - and they make a nice selection of well crafted beers, pilsner and stout - their "Doppel Bock" is superb!!

Prost/Cheers jb

 

[johnnybach]

I'm partial to the German beers and particularly like Spaten; just bought some the other day.

However, more often than not I will drink wine and have begun to enjoy the Chiantis and Montepulcianos, the Montepulciano d'Abruzzo being among my favorites. Lately I've tried Palazzo del Torre and it's among my favorites.

I lived part-time in France for 26 years Brad - so am less familiar with the Italian reds - than French, but am sure that some are very nice indeed. I note that with our milder winters, over the last few years, wine making and production in some parts of the South East of England is on the up - with some spectacular results being produced by some wineries in that part of the World.

All taken in moderation, of course, but I feel that a glass taken with a meal - enhances it. jb

 

[theBaron]

I was fascinated to learn about German red wines, when I visited Stuttgart and the surrounding counties. And it was even more interesting to learn that the Germans consume nearly all of that wine themselves, exporting primarily the whites. I had never heard of the Trollinger grape at that time, which local folks referred to as the "Urrebe", the Ur-grape, pre-dating even the Roman occupation and their introduction of their own wine culture. I have never found it sold here. Much was sold as Tafelwein or even Landwein, suggesting an ordinary, run-of-the-mill wine, but it was pretty good.

Prost!
Brad