When the Levee Breaks...

Almost seems like a job for the Doctor

Here’s a bit of fun beer history trivia for your mid-October Saturday afternoon needs: Yesterday was the 200th anniversary of the London Beer Flood. It’s exactly what it sounds like – over one million liters (264,172 gallons) of delicious porter erupted from a broken vat at the Horse Shoe Brewery  in London on 17 October 1814, creating a tidal wave over 15 feet high that killed eight people and demolished two nearby homes. Between 8 and 9,000 barrels of beer were lost in the accident.

After the initial tidal wave, the beer inundated the nearby slum area of St. Giles Rookery, flooding basements where whole families lived. Local Londoners responded to the disaster to aide with search and rescue, and according to some reports, didn't steal a drop of the brew that was all over the streets. Other accounts, which appear to be unfounded, spoke of drunken riots as people drank the lost beer.

According to inspectors’ notes, there had been an indication that the vat was unstable earlier in the afternoon the day of the accident. Apparently, a metal hoop had snapped, however the brewery was cleared of any wrong doing and received a refund for the excise duty they paid prior to making the beer. Horse Shoe Brewery went back to work producing beer shortly thereafter, but they closed their doors for good in 1921.

From the newsies of London Town

This of course makes me wonder how it would've gone down in 21st Century America.

First of all, we need to suspend reality for a moment, because obviously, our completely unoppressive laws don’t allow for production breweries to exist in commercial, retail or residential areas. In fact, our government has a tough time differentiating between production and nano/peco “neighborhood” breweries, which are also difficult to place in a retail space, at least for now.

But if we pretend that a production brewery could exist juxtaposed to a residential neighborhood area, and that facility did have an accident similar to the London Beer Flood of 1814, I have a sneaking suspicion that your average American would in fact help themselves to free beer from the street. There is obviously a health concern involved, but I still think people would find a way to get over it and take advantage of the lost brew.

Save the beer!

I do not perceive that it would be quite the emergency that the London flood was, and therefore the urge to play the hero wouldn't be present. There would be nothing stopping people from dropping what they were doing for a good old fashion drinking party.

Not to mention that the cleanup involved would shut down traffic for a month (here in the DC metro area anyways) and the subsequent inability to move would only lend to the lack of motivation among the general populace, and therefore push them towards getting drunk on free beer.

In other words, while the stories of drunk Londoners might be unfounded, I think Americans in 2014 would absolutely take the opportunity for a party. In fact, it seems highly unlikely that the Londoners didn't get plastered during their flood too, but if the storytellers say so… so be it.

Anyways, there’s some interesting history for you.

Here’s to craft-brewed happiness… Cheers!