I found this bottle lurking in the back of the overflow Beer Cupboard (formerly known as the Wine Cupboard and still housing the Single Malt Annexe) when I had a clear out a few weeks back.

I picked this up back in 1998 at the first of the British Fantasy Society's annual Fantasycon events that Jo and I had both gone along to. One of the Fantasycon traditions is to hold a banquet (or, as it's come to be known by attendees in recent years, the "rip-off chicken dinner") before the announcing of the British Fantasy Awards.

The banquet that year was sponsored by Millennium Books (who are no longer around as they later merged with Gollancz). Millennium had just published the first book in Stan Nicholls' Orcs series - a fantasy saga about a squad of Orc warriors - so everything at the table was Orc-themed. Instead of going for the more obvious "elf-blood wine" they put complimentary bottles of "Orcs Black Ale" out on the tables and, being a compulsive souvenir-collector, I grabbed one to take home with me. I stuck it away at the back of the drinks cabinet (at the time all we had was a much smaller, much less beer-oriented storage compartment) and it's been there ever since.

I think it's pretty obvious from the bottle-neck which factory-produced, widely exported Irish "black ale" they re-labelled for the occasion. That, plus the lack of best-by date means that there's a racing certainty that this one will remain unopened and unsampled for a great many years to come...

Related posts:

1. From the Back of the Beer Cupboard #2 – CAMRA 25th Anniversary Ale
2. The beer cupboard runneth o’er…
3. You Show Me Yours… (or: The Beer Cupboard, redux)
4. Despatches from the Beer Cupboard: Seasonal Cheer!
5. Stocking up the beer cupboard