Aitchison beers 1843 - 1859

Advertisements can tell you a lot. That's why I actively search them out. Not with too much success when it comes to Scottish breweries. Except in the case of Aitchison, where I found a nice set of ads from the middle of the 19th century.

Irritatingly, many of the adverts don't specify the bottle size. That's why I've put "quart?" in the table. My guess would be that they are reputed quarts. A reputed quart is two thirds of an Imperial quart, or 757.7 ml. The ones marked "pint" and "quart" look like Imperial measures. At least when I compare the price of the same beer on draught.

So they're a bit easier to see at a glance, I've put them into a table. There are five main types of beer on offer: Table Ale, Edinburgh Ale, Strong Ale, Draught Ale and Mild Ale. But on closer observation it becomes clear that the same beers are being described by different names.

Let's start with everyone's favourite nowadays, India Pale Ale. Though it isn't always called that in the adverts. It also appears as India Ale, Pale India Beer, Pale Export India Beer and Pale India Ale. Couldn't they make their mind up what to call it? It's a great demonstration of just how inconsistent British breweries were in their naming conventions.

Interesting that Aitchison were already brewing IPA in 1840. That's pretty early. But we've already learned that Scottish brewers were quick to jump on the Pale Ale train. Though Aitchison's prices were lower than those of Allsopp. In 1845 a dozen quarts of Allsopp's IPA cost 4s 6d. I guess the big Burton brewers could get away with charging more.

Handy that the 1840 advert has a description of Aitchison's IPA: "Highly hopped and attenuated India Ale." Just for the last few brainwashed style nazis out there who still believe that Scottish beer only ever had a few hops waved at it. The description pretty much sums up the characteristics of early IPA: heavily hopped and highly attenuated.

Next we come to Table Ale. Slightly odd choice of name there. Usually it was called Table Beer, especially if it was heavily hopped, as was often the case. Being low gravity it often needed a good dose of hops to stop it spoiling too quickly. We know this one was heavily hopped because the advert says so "highly Hopped, an excellent Stomachic". The price is surprisingly high: the same as the India Ale.

The Scots seem to have had a name for Table Beer. It's not a type of beer that you would normally expect to get shipped very far. Yet Scottish breweries were selling it as far away as London.

Now Edinburgh Ale. Or perhaps I should just say Ale, because the names Edinburgh, Scotch and Mild Ale seem to be used interchangeably. With some additionally being called Strong Ale. Then there's Pale Edinburgh Ale as well. My guess is that these would have been Shilling Ales within the brewery. Or Guinea Ales. You can see that in 1845 advert that guinea designations are used for what were described as Mild Ales.

Scottish Ales, even the very strong ones, were usually sold young. Which made them technically Mild Ales. Though as you can see, often the terms Edinburgh Ale or Scotch Ale were preferred. Confusing, isn't it? It's taken me years to get my head around it.

Now I just happen to have details of William Younger's beers from 1847. Assuming that Aitchison's would have been roughly similar, we can get some idea of their strength. Five guineas is 105/-, seven guineas 147/-. Younger's 100/- had an OG of 1090º and their 140/- an OG of 1112º. So pretty damn strong.

I assume Draught Ale is another beer of this type. But it's impossible to be sure. The naming is just too vague.

So we can see the main products of Aitchison: IPA and strong Mild Ales. Very typically Scottish.

Aitchison beers 1843 - 1859
year	beer	price per barrel (shillings)	price per gallon (pence)	price per doz bottles	size	source
1840	Edinburgh Table Ale, highly Hopped, an excellent Stomachic			3s	quart?	Newcastle Courant - Friday 17 April 1840. page 1.
1840	Edinburgh Ale, strongest and best made			8s	quart?	Newcastle Courant - Friday 17 April 1840. page 1.
1840	Draught Ale,	72	24			Newcastle Courant - Friday 17 April 1840. page 1.
1840	Strong Edinburgh Ale			6s	quart?	Northern Liberator - Saturday 12 December 1840, page 8.
1840	Superior Ale			4s 6d	quart?	Northern Liberator - Saturday 12 December 1840, page 8.
1840	High hopped Table Ale			3s	quart?	Northern Liberator - Saturday 12 December 1840, page 8.
1840	Highly hopped and attenuated India Ale			3s	quart?	Northern Liberator - Saturday 12 December 1840, page 8.
1840	Best Draught Ale	72	24			Northern Liberator - Saturday 12 December 1840, page 8.
1840	Best Draught Porter	48	16			Northern Liberator - Saturday 12 December 1840, page 8.
1842	Edinburgh Ale			4s	quart	Morning Post (London) - Monday 04 April 1842, page 1.
1842	Edinburgh Ale			6s	quart	Morning Post (London) - Monday 04 April 1842, page 1.
1842	Edinburgh Ale			8s	quart	Morning Post (London) - Monday 04 April 1842, page 1.
1842	Pale India Beer			4s	quart	Morning Post (London) - Monday 04 April 1842, page 1.
1842	draught Pale India Beer	48	16			Morning Post (London) - Monday 04 April 1842, page 1.
1843	Splendid Edinburgh Ale, Strongest			6s	quart?	Newcastle Journal - Saturday 06 May 1843, page 2.
1843	Fine Pale Edinburgh Ale			4s 6d	quart?	Newcastle Journal - Saturday 06 May 1843, page 2.
1843	India Pale Ale, much esteemed			3s	quart?	Newcastle Journal - Saturday 06 May 1843, page 2.
1843	Superior India Pale Ale			3s	quart?	Newcastle Journal - Saturday 05 August 1843, page 1.
1843	Splendid Ale			4s 6d	quart?	Newcastle Journal - Saturday 05 August 1843, page 1.
1843	Strongest Ale			6s	quart?	Newcastle Journal - Saturday 05 August 1843, page 1.
1843	Prime Strong Ale (Old Bottle 1)			6s	quart?	Newcastle Courant - Friday 22 December 1843, page 1.
1843	Prime Strong Ale (Old Bottle 1)			4s 6d	quart?	Newcastle Courant - Friday 22 December 1843, page 1.
1843	Pale India Ale			3s	quart?	Newcastle Courant - Friday 22 December 1843, page 1.
1843	Prime Draught Ale	72	24			Newcastle Courant - Friday 22 December 1843, page 1.
1844	Edinburgh Ale			3s	quart?	Newcastle Courant - Friday 10 May 1844, page 1.
1844	Edinburgh Ale			4s 6d	quart?	Newcastle Courant - Friday 10 May 1844, page 1.
1844	Edinburgh Ale			6s	quart?	Newcastle Courant - Friday 10 May 1844, page 1.
1845	Pale Export India Beer			3s	quart	Newcastle Courant - Friday 09 May 1845, page 1.
1845	Mild Ale (5 guineas a hogshead)			4s 6d	quart	Newcastle Courant - Friday 09 May 1845, page 1.
1845	Mild Ale (7 guineas a hogshead)			6s	quart	Newcastle Courant - Friday 09 May 1845, page 1.
1845	Mild Ale (5 guineas a hogshead)	70	23.33			Newcastle Courant - Friday 09 May 1845, page 1.
1845	Mild Ale (7 guineas a hogshead)	98	32.67			Newcastle Courant - Friday 09 May 1845, page 1.
1845	Draught Ale	72	24			Newcastle Courant - Friday 09 May 1845, page 1.
1846	Pale Export India Beer			3s	quart?	Newcastle Courant - Friday 19 June 1846, page 1.
1846	Rich Flavoured Edinburgh Ale			4s 6d	quart?	Newcastle Courant - Friday 19 June 1846, page 1.
1846	Strongest and Best Edinburgh Ale			6s	quart?	Newcastle Courant - Friday 19 June 1846, page 1.
1846	Draught Ale	72	24			Newcastle Courant - Friday 19 June 1846, page 1.
1848	Edinburgh Ale			3s 6d	pint	Hampshire Advertiser - Saturday 25 November 1848, page 1.
1848	Edinburgh Ale			6s	quart	Hampshire Advertiser - Saturday 25 November 1848, page 1.
1848	Pale India Ale			3s 6d	pint	Hampshire Advertiser - Saturday 25 November 1848, page 1.
1848	Pale India Ale			6s	quart	Hampshire Advertiser - Saturday 25 November 1848, page 1.
1859	Pale Ale	54	18			Newcastle Courant - Friday 29 July 1859, page 1.
1859	Six Guinea Ale	84	28			Newcastle Courant - Friday 29 July 1859, page 1.
1859	Draught Scotch Ale	56	18.67			Newcastle Courant - Friday 29 July 1859, page 1.