It’s been nearly three months since the last installment of Collaborating for a Cause. This newest collaboration with Narragansett Brewing and their Life barleywine is the perfect place to pick the series back up, highlighting a very special beer that had two iterations bottled exclusively for PorchDrinking.

The Narragansett Cause

This Rhode Island staple is no stranger to beer. In fact, the clocks need to be turned all the way back to 1890 in order to reach the year of this historic brewery’s founding. Gansett survived the Depression and flourished after World War II, launching an extensive advertising campaign which featured the now legendary “Hi Neighbor. Have a Gansett” line, as well as beginning a long partnership with the MLB. The last three decades of the 1900s were dark times for the brewery, however, highlighted by years of neglect and restructuring. 1983 saw the last batches of beer brewed at the original location before it was almost entirely demolished later that year. The trolley barn – which was the last remaining memory of the original Narragansett brewery – was destroyed in a fire in 2005.

The rebirth of this iconic brewery began later that same year, when lifelong Rhode Islander Mark Hellendrung, along with a group of New England investors, purchased the rights to Narragansett Beer from Falstaff Brewery. While the path to rebuilding the new brewery was not easy, the 19 years that have passed since Narragansett’s hand-off has seen the famous name re-grow from virtual non-existence to being New England’s 5th largest and the country’s 23rd largest craft brewery (as of 2023).

What’s the point with all this history? It’s meant to highlight the fact that Narragansett is no stranger to fighting for their life. And in the wake of Alex Kidd’s cancer diagnosis, they teamed up with Tom M of It’s Always Stout Season in June of last year to brew something special for DDB to help raise money for him and his family as he now fights for his life.

Life

Like with the Wren House Brewing iteration we covered earlier this year, Gansett’s release in honor of Alex Kidd was also called Life. According to Narragansett Brewmaster Lee Lord, the details of that fateful brew day in June are lost to history, but the draft-exclusive beer released on Friday, December 22nd, 2023. Two iterations were offered: the “natural state” stainless version, as well as a thread aged in port wine barrels, both finishing at 11.8% ABV. Gansett pledged a portion of proceeds for all sales of Life to go toward the Alex Kidd Cancer Fund, contributing to the $404,888 raised for DDB and his family via GoFundMe.

The Reviews

In an incredible showing of generosity, Lee Lord tracked down a counter-pressure filler and hand-bottled and capped one of each iteration of Life and sent them to us for review as part of this ongoing series. We cannot thank her enough for taking the time to do this, and for allowing us to be the recipients for the only instance of this beer being reviewed outside of the Providence taproom.

Life – Stainless

On the pour is a great mahogany coloration. The pour agitates some off-white head, but it quickly settles flat into the glass. Very high level of translucency for the style.

The nose is abundant with caramel malt and bread crust. If blind, it veers more toward the brown ale spectrum in terms of what the aromatics bring to the table. As it warms, it comes into its own a bit more with an underlying richness that creeps into the foreground. Notes of toffee pudding and apricot raisin jam bring an underlying complexity to the experience.

The palate is able to do a great job of bringing characteristics of the style that the nose perhaps couldn’t. There’s some pleasant esters, and a surge of hops that increase the bitterness appropriate to the American-style approach to barleywine. Muted notes of caramel raisin bread pudding layer the experience, but the finish lacks the length needed to catch up with the trailing warmth.

The body is fairly thin for the style, but appropriately mirrors the profile. The carbonation is good; not overpowering. As mentioned, Narragansett bottled just these two for review using a counter-pressure bottle filler, so the carbonation retention is actually impressive.

Life – Port Barrel-Aged

While the pour here has almost identical coloration to the stainless version, there is a slightly deeper tonality here. That is to say, not nearly as bright and translucent as the non-BA. We also noticed slightly more carbonation buildup here as well. The ivory head was slower to settle back into the body of the beer.

We’re not sure how long this thread of Life rested in Port barrels, but it did wonders to the nose. No longer do the notes of caramel malt aggressively barrel to the forefront. Instead, the spiced plum, dark chocolate, and red berries emphatically bring the underlying notes of raisin jam to the foreground.

The port elevates the palate as well. There’s a distinctly dry, oaky presence immediately. Following closely are notes of burnt caramel, toasty malt, and a hint of earthiness on the back end. The esters found on the stainless version are also still present. Together there’s a great layering to the experience, almost completely different from it’s non-BA counterpart.

The weight is the same between both barleywines. That said, this one retained higher carbonation levels that added a pleasant, seltzery texture that didn’t overpower. As mentioned, the Port barrels also made this version much drier, and this quality worked perfectly with the subtle esters brought out by the base beer. Comparable warmth on the finish, with better length and a touch of residual bitterness.

Supporting the Kidd Family

It’s now been over a year since Alex Kidd announced that he had been diagnosed with Stage IV cancer. Since his diagnosis, many of the updates that he has publicly announced have been positive. Recently, however, Alex shared some news that will unfortunately mean he has to go back on chemotherapy for at least the rest of the summer.

CT scans from July showed that everything looked good in Alex’s abdomen, and his liver had completely grown back. However, the cancer in his lungs was not showing remission. In fact, there has been a 15-20% growth in each of the six tumors in that area. While his cancer marker has actually gone down, whatever is happening in his lungs is an obvious setback and has changed a lot of things with his timeline. Instead of no maintenance chemo and no surgery – and a previously very positive schedule for the near future – the stance has aggressively shifted in order to attempt to get back ahead of this re-growth in Alex’s lung masses.

We will continue to provide updates as we learn more. For the moment, Alex is back heavily on the defensive and continuing to fight to beat this thing. Support for the Kidd family is as strong as ever, and highlights from the Community will be continuing. We’re looking ahead to installment features from the likes of Odd Breed Wild Ales, Jukes Ale Works, and Jailbreak Brewing. Stay Strong Alex!

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