Narragansett Brewing Company has a new Lovecraft beer available this summer, complete with an excellently creepy and fantasy-rich marketing campaign.  The latest in Narragansett’s series of Lovecraft offerings features a tale of a classic copper-helmeted deep-sea diver, and the presentation is the kind of design that beer can collectors will want to get their hands on.  Born in 1890, the same year that Narragansett Beer was founded, H.P. Lovecraft spent the majority of his life in Providence, Rhode Island, as a struggling author, only achieving literary fame posthumously.  Commonly referred to as the “Father of Modern Horror,” he influenced authors and artists from Stephen King to Metallica to Ridley Scott.  H.P. Lovecraft is probably best known for creating Cthulhu, a fictional deity described as being part man, part dragon and part octopus.  It is this creature that inspired the Cthulhu Mythos, a cultural lore and shared fictional universe of Lovecraft successors.

Past Lovecraft beers in the series have featured homages to Lovecraft’s The Shadow Over Innsmouth, Herbert West–Reanimator, and The White Ship.  Now ushering in the Halloween season, inspired by Lovecraft’s incredible short story The Temple, Narragansett’s latest includes a great video to accompany the release (check it out below, and you can read Lovecraft’s original stories online at the links in the above titles).

Now that autumn has arrived it’s also time for Oktoberfests, and Renaissance Faire season is in full swing.  Narragansett has that covered as well, with a richly drawn medieval theme in its new Fest Marzen Lager.  Featuring an image of the mythical King Gambrinus based on an 1898 illustration, the orange can echoes the coming falling leaves and contains the company’s Bavarian style beer offered in the 1960s and 1970s.  The Fest product was the most requested beer by fans of the company in a recent poll, and this is the first time the company is releasing it to market in three years.  To celebrate the “Return of the King,” ‘Gansett is launching release parties and even a half marathon with pumpkin pie at the finish line.

Check out the Narragansett website here for more information on its scheduled Fest events and here to investigate ‘Gansett’s exploration of Lovecraft.  And take a look at this introduction to The Temple:

Narragansett is the beer Theodor Geisel aka Dr. Seuss created ads for–before he was Dr. Seuss he was son and grandson of brewers who had been closed down during prohibition.  Geisel had been kicked off of a Dartmouth humor magazine for attending a drinking party, but continued to secretly submit contributions under the name “Seuss”–the first known instance of him using the name he’d become famous with.   He’d go on to create promotional material for companies including Narragansett, like these:

  

Unlike Morley cigarettes (which we discussed back in 2011 at borg.com here), Hank Hill’s Alamo Beer, Thomas Magnum’s Old Dusseldorf longnecks, Al Bundy’s Girlie Girl Beer, Homer Simpson’s Duff Beer, Laverne & Shirley’s Shotz Beer, or Drew Carey’s Buzz Beer, Quint from Jaws was downing and crushing a can of real Narragansett.   The company offers many great fan products, so make sure you check out its website store.

Check your retailer for local availability for ‘Gansett’s Lovecraft and Fest, and when you’re in the region, make sure you bring back extra for your friends.  And please drink responsibly.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com