Topical Guide 25
Mark Dorset
Leroy Lager
“And on the back of each bottle was a poem, a poem that Black Jacques had commissioned especially for the entertainment, enlightenment, or puzzlement of Leroy Lager drinkers. He paid handsomely for those poems, and they raised the tone of taverns across the land. The period when Black Jacques produced that amber nectar has come to be known as the Golden Age of Brewing.”
Little Follies, “Do Clams Bite?” Chapter 2
It was also a question of taste that made me have Fat Hank sell Leroy Lager, although in fact the brewery is still the cornerstone of the tiny Leroy fortune. The stuff has simply become so anemic that it embarrasses me to admit that I’m connected with it.
Little Follies, “Do Clams Bite?” Preface
At the time when Peter wrote the preface, in 1982, his assessment of Leroy Lager as “anemic,” was accurate. In subsequent years, however, the growth of the craft-brewing movement led to welcome changes in the management at the company and in the beer itself. Leroy Lager returned to its roots, became once again “a sturdy and honest beer,” and in a handsome gesture of self-mockery declared itself “Not Like the Insipid Pisswater They Try to Pass Off on You Nowadays.” They even began re-running the poems that had elevated the tone of the Leroy Lager bottle in the Golden Age of Brewing.
These cufflinks were, I believe, distributed as a promotional item. I found them at a yard sale, tag sale, or garage sale somewhere. I wish I could say that they were made in Chacallit, New York (see Herb ’n’ Lorna), but I actually know nothing at all about their provenance.
[more to come on Wednesday, June 16, 2021]
Have you missed an episode or two or several? You can catch up by visiting the archive, or you can download a free ePub of the annotated version of “My Mother Takes a Tumble,” the first novella in Little Follies, including the full text and all of my annotations.