Thursday 20 January 2011

Allsopp, Bass and other English beers

This is a question I asked my son Andrew: what's significant about the naming of beers in this advert?

Take a while to think about it.




Dagblad van Zuidholland en 's Gravenhage, 6th March 1857

Did you spot it? The brewery is only named for the Pale Ales. The Porter, Stout, Burton Ale and Scotch Ale are anonymous. I wonder why that was?

There's plenty more to glean from the ad. Like the two types of Allsopp's: Pale Ale and East India Pale Ale. What was the difference between the tow? 70 cents a dozen. And Bass being called Pale Bitter Ale. The Victorians were particularly imprecise and inconsistent when it came to naming Pale Bitter Beer. Amongst other things.

Then there's the premium being paid for the Pale Ales. The same price as Imperial Brown Stout and Extra Strong Scotch Ale. They were most likely 1090 - 1100º. I doubt any of the Pale Ales was above 1065º.

2 comments:

The Beer Nut said...

Is it that the big Burton brewers just had more brand recognition outside their own areas? We know how fastidious Bass were in protecting their trademark, and there's the supposedly unique Burton terroir. Were any of the London porter breweries, for instance, as internationally famous as Bass and Allsopp?

Ron Pattinson said...

Beer Nut, I've seen Barclay Perkins mentioned by name in foreign adverts.

Just wait until I start my series of Indian newspaper beer adverts.