Last call at Narragansett

Modern Brewery Age, March 13, 1995 by Gary Gosselin

A pub brewer pays a farewell visit to a fallen brewing giant

The end came quickly for the Narragansett Brewery and its employees. Thirteen years later, full bottles are still found on the production line, half-written checks are strewn on the accountant's desk and personal belongings wait for their owners to return.

The workers went home one day, expecting to return for their next shift, which sadly never came. For over a decade, the buildings of the Narragansett Brewery have sat, virtually untouched, a physical reminder of a once-proud brewing tradition.

The closing of the Narragansett Brewery devastated not only the Rhode Island economy but a part of the New England brewing tradition. In an era when breweries typically produced light lagers, Narragansett brewed eight different ales. The company was beloved in Rhode Island for its dedication to the community and respected in the brewing industry for the quality of its products.

The 12-building Narragansett complex is now being dismantled, and a part of brewing history is lost with each brick that is taken. The Union Station Brewery, Rhode Island's first brewpub is doing its part to preserve the Narragansett tradition by using original Narragansett equipment and recipes. Even a preserved yeast strain has been incorporated in the creation of Union Station ales.

Recently, the head brewer of Union Station, Gary "Goose" Gosselin, toured the old Narragansett for one last look.

Every so often servers will bring me out to the restaurant to meet former employees of Rhode Island's legendary Narragansett Brewery. It is always great talking to people who played a part in building the brewing giant from the smallest state. In one such conversation, Bob Kinkle, the former Narragansett Quality Control chief, convinced me to tour the abandoned facility. Presently the unofficial caretaker of the grand old brewery, he said this would be my last chance to relive the legend first hand. After standing virtually intact for over a decade, the Narragansett complex will soon be dismantled and lost forever.

Before Union Station Brewery opened in 1993, Rhode Island. a state with a proud brewing tradition, had been without a working brewery since Narragansett closed 13 years before. The Narragansett Brewery was obviously an inspiration for our brewery, and it is easy to spot memorabilia donated or purchased for the pub. The old Narragansett signs a furniture decorate the restaurant and give it a sense of tradition. Even the desks in our office were once used by Narragansett employees. Yet I never fully realized what an industry, even just one company, could mean to a community. Until, that is, I toured the old brewing giant's facilities.

I was amazed at the sheer size of this brewery, twelve buildings in all. My first steps inside the brewery were equally overwhelming. I marveled at the massive open wood and glass-lined lagering tanks. The open Redwood fermenting tanks were lined up as far as the eye could see. The area taken up by Narragansett's yeast propagating tanks is equal in size to Union Station's entire brewery.

From the day it first opened in 1851, the Narragansett Brewery grew to produce 1,000,000 barrels a year during its peak in the 1950s. Just before it closed in 1981, Narragansett Brewery still produced far more beer that a typical regional brewery of today: as much as 800,000 barrels a year. Compared to Union Station's capacity of 1,200 barrels a year, it's easy to see why I was so impressed. Although beer consumption is far greater today, even the strongest regional brewers of the 1990s do not come close to equalling the output of Narragansett. I can hardly imagine the Narragansett operating at full capacity. It must have been amazing.

Also inspiring was the fact that Narragansett continued to produce ales when other breweries of their day were content brewing lagers. Narragansett produced up to eight different styles each year right up to the bitter end; an innovative production schedule in an era in which a producer commonly marketed one or maybe two styles. Perhaps this is one of the masons that the Narragansett products, such as Ballantine Ale, were not only loved locally, but respected as quality ales across the country.

The Narragansett Brewery had great character. Like any starry-eyed tourist, I started looking for souvenirs from my visit. I would have settled for the bottle of porter I found banging around in the dark, but I hit a jackpot!

I found over 100 Hoff-Stevens kegs that had been sitting for 13 years neatly stacked in a huge cleaning room just waiting for a new life with the Union Station Brewery. We thought that delivering Union Station Ales in the old Narragansett kegs would be a symbolic link with a proud brewing tradition, so we purchased them from the site.

After we put the kegs through a quick caustic soak, one challenge remained before another piece of the Narragansett tradition was reborn at Union Station.

The old Hoff-Stevens kegs were corked on the side, making inspection of the inside difficult. After a little poking around, we found out that the Narragansett brewers had invented and produced a unique keg probe light right in their machine shop. This invention enabled them to easily inspect the kegs for content and cleanliness and is a testament to the ingenuity of Narragansett's brewers. Although the probe light we found had lain idle for a decade, we found that it still works perfectly. We use it at Union Station to inspect the old Narragansett kegs, an otherwise impossible task.