Tuesday 16 November 2010

COMPETITION TIME! Win a Bottle of Greene King 1937 Coronation Ale

Earlier this year, I visited Greene King and wrote a couple of posts about it (here and here). In the second of those, I opened and tasted a bottle of Greene King Coronation ale, brewed in 1936 to celebrate the 1937 Coronation of Edward VIII, which of course never happened, as he decided he'd rather live in sin with Mrs Simpson than be monarch of these fair isles.

Greene King have very kindly given me another bottle of this beer, and in a flash of the sort of generosity and kindness for which I am known, I thought it might make an interesting competition prize.

To enter the competition, all you have to do is write something about beer and time, up to a maximum of 500 words. It can be about the oldest beer you've drunk, or the freshest. It can be a technical essay on the ravages of oxygen on cask beer, a treatise on the historical evolution of the term IPA, or it could be about a long-held yearning and search for a perticular beer. Anything, basically, as long as there is some relation to time in it. Although if you decide to write anything that uses the phrase "time at the bar, please" as the link to time, you won't win. Look, it's my competition, and those are my rules.

If you have a blog, put it on your blog and send me a link to it. If you don't have a blog, email me your entry and I'll put it on here. If you don't have email, post me a paper copy. If you can't write, then you can make a video or a recording of yourself and send it to me. Poetry and song are also worth a shot, but please note that interpretive dance will also stand a poor chance of winning.

The closing date for entries is Friday 26th November, so you've got a bit of time to think about it.

I'll package and post this bottle anywhere in the world, at my own cost. It will go surface mail, as I'm not sure what air mail will do to the very old cork. The bottle is the very one pictured at the top of the page, covered with a lovely patina of cellar dust. If you look at the second of my two Greene King posts, you'll see the racks of crates from which it was taken. It would make a lovely paperweight, and if you put a blob of wax over the cork, it would also last forever.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS: This bottle of beer is a historical curiosity and not a beverage. Neither I nor Greene King can be held liable for any consequences arising from the postal transit, possession or consumption of the beer. You must be of legal drinking age in your country to enter this competition. Entering this competition implies an acceptance of these terms.

17 comments:

  1. Stu - as long as it's not you dancing, that will be fine.

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  2. 500 words is proving a tricky maximum. you've got 400 in the few paragraphs above! Time for some further editing.

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  3. "This bottle of beer is a historical curiosity and not a beverage"

    Will it send you blind if you drink it? Is likely to be more neckable than potato moonshine or fermented yaks milk?

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  4. I want to see stu dancing!! Especially whilst poring a mountain of branston relish into a pint glass and eating it like whipping cream with large sticks of mature cheddar! :) spose you could fit time somewhere in there too.

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  5. This is extremely generous and a lovely opportunity for blog fodder, so I thank you twice. The winner will be celebrating an early yuletide delight.

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  6. Sam - it's a bit of a challenge, but hey, it IS a competition.

    Cookie - it's certainly past it's best, but an interesting experience. But I wouldn't recommend it as a course of action.

    Ghost - don't encourage him.

    Jeff - I hope to see your entry soon.

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  7. Are you willing to ship it overseas? <:-)

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  8. http://catinapintglass.blogspot.com/2010/11/time-for-another.html

    Of course Cookie will win if he writes something for this.

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  9. http://cookinglager.blogspot.com/2010/11/zak-averys-competition.html

    I doubt it; my entry is quite poor and the connection to beer tenuous at best

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  10. Here is mine, sir.

    http://flagonofale.blogspot.com/2010/11/on-time.html

    Thanks for hosting the contest. This is extremely generous, and at worst, a way to siphon traffic to my sad little corner of the internet.

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  11. Here's mine. Great idea for a competition Zak.

    http://chrisroutledge.co.uk/2010/11/20/beer-for-a-time/

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  12. Here is my entry! Thanks for your generosity and Cheers!

    Sean Inman

    http://www.beersearchparty.com/?p=5893

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  13. Zak, here's my entry all the way from the frozen north of Sweden:

    http://www.beersweden.se/archives/5493

    Cheers!
    Darren
    www.beersweden.se

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  14. Here's my entry:

    http://edsbeer.blogspot.com/2010/11/time-is-relative.html

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  15. Here's mine:

    http://ohgoodale.wordpress.com/2010/11/25/time-travel-in-four-easy-lessons/

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Sorry about the word verification - the blog was getting spammed to bits.