Q&A: Narragansett Beer President Mark Hellendrung on H.P. Lovecraft, JAWS

Narragansett Beer has raised a glass to a great horror writer with their H.P. Lovecraft-inspired beers. In our exclusive Q&A, Narragansett Beer President Mark Hellendrung talks paying tribute to a local legend and his brewery's onscreen connection to Jaws.

When did your love for Lovecraft begin? Have you always enjoyed his work and the horror genre in general?

Mark Hellendrung: I guess my relationship with the genre started at the age of 7, when my parents took me to see Jaws at the Dalton Theater in Pawtucket. As a father of 4, I’m not sure I’d repeat that mistake. Growing up in RI, I knew of H.P. and his work, but it wasn’t until last summer, when we started contemplating this project, that I really started reading and enjoying his writing.

This year marks the 125th birthdays of Rhode Island natives Narragansett Beer and H.P. Lovecraft. How special has it been to celebrate the anniversary of your storied brewing house along with a legendary local scribe?

Mark Hellendrung: As a brewery, we’re always looking to bring Narragansett to people through a historical lens and through local authenticity, so to share a birth place and time is a great starting point. But what’s really special is that we have somewhat of a shared existence. What I’ve come to find is that people have either never heard of H.P. Lovecraft or they are passionate fans. Similarly, I’m constantly amazed at how many people have never tried or heard of Narragansett Beer, but when they do, they’re usually pretty excited about what we’re brewing.

When did you first come up with the idea for the Lovecraft beers and how long did it to take to bring the first one to fruition?

Mark Hellendrung: Jim Crooks, our VP of marketing, originally had the idea 4-5 years ago and then one of our ’Gansett Girls who is a librarian in Providence also brought the idea of a Lovecraft beer to us last summer. Knowing that H.P. Lovecraft and Narragansett were approaching their 125th birthdays, we thought it would be a great way to pay tribute to the Providence legend while giving our brewmaster Sean Larkin a platform to experiment with some different craft beer styles. After spending a lot of time immersing ourselves in the world of H.P. Lovecraft and exploring a number of beer styles, we released Lovecraft Honey Ale as the first beer in the Lovecraft Series on January 19th, which intentionally coincided with the birthday of Edgar Allan Poe, one of Lovecraft’s biggest inspirations.

Lovecraft Honey Ale and Innsmouth Olde Ale, the first and second beers in your H.P. Lovecraft line, were inspired by the stories “The Festival” and The Shadow Over Innsmouth, respectively. Can you give us a tease of the flavors, influences, and release dates of your upcoming two Lovecraft brews?

Mark Hellendrung: The next one will be based on "Herbert West—Reanimator", one of the first Lovecraft stories I read; the beer will likely be a reanimation of one of our retired beers. The story also serves as a metaphor for our company and rebirth after bringing the brand back in 2005—just a little more twisted than the original.

How do you approach building a recipe based on one of Lovecraft’s works? Do you read the story again and build the recipe based on the characters and atmosphere?

Mark Hellendrung: Creating the Lovecraft beers is a combination of all of these things. Once we identify which H.P. Lovecraft work we want to base the beer on, we’ll come up with a few ideas for beers that may fit based on story characters, atmosphere and plotlines. It’s at this point that we let Sean Larkin’s creativity flow as he explores different recipes and beer styles.

Narragansett Beer was Captain Quint’s drink of choice in Steven Spielberg’s Jaws. How did that screen time for your beer come about and has Narragansett’s appearance in the iconic thriller inspired your company to stay involved in the horror genre?

Mark Hellendrung: Narragansett’s cameo in Jaws was completely organic and authentic. Narragansett was the #1 beer in New England during the time that the movie was filmed, so it was very likely that Captain Quint would have been drinking Narragansett on Martha’s Vineyard (Amity) that summer. For the past few summers we’ve actually released our lager in the 1975 throwback can seen in the movie. The release of the retro can, popularity of Shark Week and iconic nature of that scene with Captain Quint has taken on a life of its own with ’Gansett and horror fans reenacting the scene.

Lovecraft unfortunately never received his much-deserved accolades until after he died. Do you hope that Narragansett Beer’s Lovecraft brews can continue to introduce his work and history to new readers (and drinkers)?

Mark Hellendrung: Absolutely! People are so interested in learning about new products, and in just a few months we’ve heard from many fans of ’Gansett who hadn’t heard of H.P. previously, but were motivated to read his work because of the beer and now really enjoy his writings.

These Lovecraft beers are labeled as “limited edition.” Approximately how many of each flavor are you producing, and is there ever a possibility of bringing them back or putting them on tap in the future?

Mark Hellendrung: We produced 5,000 cases plus draft kegs of the Honey Ale and 8,000 cases plus draft kegs of the Innsmouth Olde Ale. At this point they are all one-time offerings, although once we get our brewery up and running I can envision bringing them back periodically.

Where can beer lovers and horror hounds get their hands on your Lovecraft brews?

Mark Hellendrung: The Lovecraft Series beers are distributed throughout Rhode Island and all of New England, New York, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., North Carolina, and Portland, Oregon.

Do you plan on tipping your cap and raising a glass to other notable figures within the horror genre in the future?

Mark Hellendrung: We’re focused on celebrating Rhode Island’s history and heritage, so any future collaborations will have to make sense from that perspective and remain true to our roots. For example, if we found a writer who wanted to do a short story told on the back of the can in the spirit of H.P. Lovecraft, or an illustrator from the horror genre who wanted to create a can design based on one of H.P.’s stories, we’d absolutely explore that opportunity.

Where can our readers find you on social media?

Mark Hellendrung: Daily Dead readers can keep up with our antics on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

https://www.facebook.com/narragansettbeer
https://twitter.com/Gansettbeer
https://instagram.com/gansettbeer/
https://www.youtube.com/user/NarragansettBeer