#34 BLUE HEN BLACK & TAN - BLUE HEN BEER CO.

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I grafted the following information about the brewery from beercollections.com:

The Blue Hen Brewing Co. was founded in 1987 by Jeff Johnson with the mission to develop and introduce craft brewed beers into the Delaware Valley. The Blue Hen flagship product, Blue Hen Beer, a Munich Helles lager, was introduced in May of 1990.

The Blue Hen name comes from local folk lore recorded by Delaware historians which relates to a certain leisurely activity known to have occurred by one of the state’s Revolutionary War regiments. It’s told that during the early days of the war, the men of Captian Jonathan Caldwell’s company took with them gamecocks noted for their fighting ability. These particular fowl were of a brood possessing blue features. The regiment fought at Long Island, White Plains, Trenton, and Princeton and when not engaged with the enemy, amused themselves by fighting the Blue Hens. The fame of the fights spread throughout the army and soon the bravery in battle displayed by the regiment coupled with the colorful gamecocks they carried with them earned the militia the name, "The Fighting Blue Hens".

The rights to the Blue Hen brands were pruchased by Philadelphia's Independence Brewing in 1998. Some of the award winning beers purchased include the Blue Hen Lager, the Blue Hen Chocolate Porter and Blue Hen Black & Tan. The Independance Brewing Company says that this purchase was to expand its line of beers and help out sales in the Delaware location.



BREWERY STATUS: DEFUNCT
BEER STATUS: DEFUNCT

BREWERIES STILL ACTIVE: 19 of 30
BEERS STILL ACTIVE: 19 of 34

Please note that all information on the graphic is from the book MICROBREWS: A GUIDE TO AMERICA'S BEST NEW BEERS AND BREWERIES published in 1996 and may or may not be outdated. All use is for educational purposes only.