Did I just pop a bottle of Frank Jones Golden State Ale? No, I did not. I was reading about Smuttynose Brewing in New Hampshire, however, and their recent financial struggles. The brewery was recently sold to a group of investors led by former Boston Beer Company (think Samuel Adams) CFO Rich Lindsay. That got me thinking to Peter Egelston, the founder of Smuttynose, who bought the used brewing equipment of the defunct Frank Jones brewery (also of New Hampshire) and opened the company in 1994. I met Peter for a tour of Smuttynose in the 90s; he was a frequent contributor to our usenet beer message board at the time.

That led me down the Frank Jones path. The original Frank Jones brewery opened in New Hampshire in 1859 but did not survive prohibition. It was revived from 1937 until 1950 and then again in the 90s, first as a contract brew by Catamount using the same conical bottles that Vermont brewer used. Eventually Frank Jones opened again with its own Portsmouth facility, but only for a time.

Looping back to Usenet, I could only find one reference by me to Frank Jones beers, from 12/9/1999:

Mount Washington has some of the worst weather in the world. I've sipped a beer up there (a Frank Jones Granite Golden to be exact) in 60 MPH
winds and 40 degree temperature in the middle of August, when it was 80 some degrees at the base of the mountain. That's good weather up there, where until recently the highest wind speed in the world was recorded. You PNW guys can go for the soft and pretty stuff, we New Englanders like to test our limits.

Indeed we do, with a beer at about a mile above sea level. Will Frank Jones be back again? They’ve done it three times before, so why not again?



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