Bottled beers in the 1890's

There's a wonderful air of inevitability about this little series of posts. One small consistency in an uncertain world. It's certainly giving me something to hang onto. What will I do once I've run out of decades?

I've done a little analysis of the number of examples of each style to try to highlight the trends in bottled products. This is what I came up with:

style	number of examples	% of total
Stout	21	34.43%
Porter	1	1.64%
Pale Ale	11	18.03%
IPA	10	16.39%
Dinner Ale	3	4.92%
all Pale Ales	24	39.34%
Strong Ale	4	6.56%
Lager	2	3.28%
Cooper	3	4.92%
Ale	5	8.20%
alcohol free	1	1.64%
total	61

More than 70% of the beers are either some sort of Pale Ale or Stout. I think that's pretty conclusive. There was just a single Porter, though that could probably be combined with the three Coopers. While there was no beer called Mild Ale, it's possible some of those I've classified as just Ale were in reality Mild. It's just not possible to tell.

Notice how Lager is starting to pop up regularly as we reach the end of the 19th century. At this point it was one of the few styles that was mostly sold in bottled form. On the other hand, there are surprisingly few Strong Ales, just four.

After WW II, the range of beers probably wouldn't look much different, save for the addition of Brown Ale, a style that shot to popularity in the inter-war period.

Before we get to the main table, I'm happy to report that I've brewing records to match some of the beers, namely those from Fullers. Here's the advert from which their beers in the table were taken:

And here's a table of their beers:

Fuller's beers in 1897-1898
Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
A	Mild	1044.3	1007.8	4.84	82.50%	6.13	1.14
AK	Pale Ale	1049.9	1014.4	4.69	71.11%	9.43	2.03
AKK	Pale Ale	1050.4	1012.5	5.02	75.27%	13.43	2.80
BS	Stout	1074.8	1026.0	6.45	65.19%	6.31	2.23
IPA	IPA	1057.6	1016.1	5.50	72.12%	12.43	3.07
IPA Stock	IPA	1057.9	1017.7	5.31	69.38%	13.39	3.48
KA	Pale Ale	1044.0	1009.7	4.54	77.99%	6.65	1.30
Porter	Porter	1057.1	1018.6	5.09	67.48%	6.10	1.68
X	Mild	1055.4	1015.0	5.35	73.00%	7.06	1.72
XK	Pale Ale	1055.4	1013.9	5.50	75.00%	13.43	3.07
XXK	Strong Ale	1076.5	1020.2	7.44	73.55%	12.33	4.33
XXK for vatting	Strong Ale	1082.0	1023.8	7.70	70.95%	12.33	4.59
Source:
Fuller's brewing records held at the brewery.

The two Stouts shown in both draught and bottled form are a bit of a mystery. Why? Because Fullers only brewed one Stout, BS. My guess is that the Single Stout was a blend of Porter and BS, giving it a gravity of around 1065º. Based on the price (assuming bottled Pale Ale is XK), the bottled Stout looks like it's really their Porter.

Here's the full table of beers:

Bottled beers in the 1890's
Brewery	Place	year	beer	style	price per dozen	size	source
Rogers' Ales	Bristol	1896	Non-intoxicating Hop Ale	alcohol free		Bottled
Albion Brewery (Heppenstalls)	Newark	1892	Ale	Ale	1s 4d	half pint
Albion Brewery (Heppenstalls)	Newark	1892	Ale	Ale	1s 6d	half pint
Rogers' Ales	Bristol	1896	Monarch Ale	Ale		Bottled
Ash & Co	London	1897	"Canterbury" Ale	Ale	2s 6d	pint
Ash & Co	London	1897	"Gold Medal" Ale	Ale	3s	pint
Breeds & Co, the Hastings Brewery	Hastings	1891	Cooper	Cooper	2s 6d		Kelly's Directory of Kent, Surrey & Sussex, 1891
Ind Coope & Co	Romford	1893	Cooper Special	Cooper	2s 6d	pint
Breeds & Co, the Hastings Brewery	Hastings	1899	Cooper	Cooper	2s 6d		Kelly's Directory of Sussex, 1899
Eldridge Pope	Dorchester	1891	Crystal Light Dinner Ale	Dinner Ale	2s 6d	Imperial pint	Taunton Courier, and Western Advertiser - Wednesday 04 February 1891, page 4.
E & H Kelsey, Culverden Brewery	Tunbridge Wells	1896	No. 2 Family Ale	Dinner Ale	3s		Pelton's illustrated guide to Tunbridge Wells, 1896
Ash & Co	London	1897	Light Tonic Dinner Ale	Dinner Ale	2s 3d	pint
Breeds & Co, the Hastings Brewery	Hastings	1891	India Pale Ale	IPA	3s		Kelly's Directory of Kent, Surrey & Sussex, 1891
Fuller, Smith & Turner	Chiswick	1893	India Pale Ale	IPA	3s 6d		Kelly's Directory for Ealing, Acton, 1893-94
W & S Lucas	Hitchin, Herts	1894	India Pale Ale	IPA	3s 6d		Kelly's Directory of Essex, Herts & Middx, 1894
C. Hammerton & Co.	London S.W.	1895	India Pale Ale	IPA
Bass	Burton	1895	Pale Ale	IPA	2s	small	Lincolnshire Chronicle - Friday 05 July 1895, page 4.
Bass	Burton	1895	Pale Ale	IPA	3s 10d	large	Lincolnshire Chronicle - Friday 05 July 1895, page 4.
Rogers' Ales	Bristol	1896	East India Pale Ale	IPA
E & H Kelsey, Culverden Brewery	Tunbridge Wells	1896	No. 3 East India Pale Ale	IPA	3s 6d		Pelton's illustrated guide to Tunbridge Wells, 1896
Ash & Co	London	1897	India Pale Ale	IPA	3s 6d	pint
Breeds & Co, the Hastings Brewery	Hastings	1899	India Pale Ale	IPA	3s		Kelly's Directory of Sussex, 1899
St. Anne's Well Brewery	Exeter	1891	ST. ANNE'S LAGER BEER	Lager	3s 6d	screw Imperial pint	Exeter Flying Post - Saturday 26 December 1891, page 8.
Wrexham Lager Beer Co.	Wrexham	1893	Lager Beer	Lager	3s	Imperial pint	Burnley Express - Saturday 19 August 1893, page 3.
Breeds & Co, the Hastings Brewery	Hastings	1891	Bitter Beer	Pale Ale	2s 3d		Kelly's Directory of Kent, Surrey & Sussex, 1891
Breeds & Co, the Hastings Brewery	Hastings	1891	Pale Ale	Pale Ale	2s 6d		Kelly's Directory of Kent, Surrey & Sussex, 1891
St. Anne's Well Brewery	Exeter	1891	ST. ANNE'S PALE ALE	Pale Ale	3s	Imperial pint	Exeter Flying Post - Saturday 26 December 1891, page 8.
Eldridge Pope	Dorchester	1891	KK Light Pale Ale	Pale Ale	3s	Imperial pint	Taunton Courier, and Western Advertiser - Wednesday 04 February 1891, page 4.
Fuller, Smith & Turner	Chiswick	1893	Pale Ale	Pale Ale	2s 6d		Kelly's Directory for Ealing, Acton, 1893-94
C. Hammerton & Co.	London S.W.	1895	Pale Ale	Pale Ale
E & H Kelsey, Culverden Brewery	Tunbridge Wells	1896	No. 1 Light Bitter Ale	Pale Ale	2s 6d		Pelton's illustrated guide to Tunbridge Wells, 1896
Ind Coope	Romford	1897	AKK Ale	Pale Ale	2s 6d	imperial pint	Reading Mercury - Saturday 27 March 1897, page 1.
Waltham Bros.	London	1898	The Half Guinea Ale	Pale Ale	2s 6d	pint
Morgans Brewery	Norwich	1898	Light Bitter Ale	Pale Ale	2s 6d	Imperial pint	Norfolk Chronicle - Saturday 11 June 1898, page 1.
Breeds & Co, the Hastings Brewery	Hastings	1899	Pale Ale	Pale Ale	2s 6d		Kelly's Directory of Sussex, 1899
E & H Kelsey, Culverden Brewery	Tunbridge Wells	1896	No. 5 Porter	Porter	2s 6d		Pelton's illustrated guide to Tunbridge Wells, 1896
Breeds & Co, the Hastings Brewery	Hastings	1891	Single Stout	Stout	2s 6d		Kelly's Directory of Kent, Surrey & Sussex, 1891
Breeds & Co, the Hastings Brewery	Hastings	1891	Double Stout	Stout	3s		Kelly's Directory of Kent, Surrey & Sussex, 1891
St. Anne's Well Brewery	Exeter	1891	ST. ANNE'S STOUT	Stout	3s	Imperial pint	Exeter Flying Post - Saturday 26 December 1891, page 8.
Albion Brewery (Heppenstalls)	Newark	1892	Stout	Stout	1s 6d	half pint
Fuller, Smith & Turner	Chiswick	1893	Stout	Stout	2s 6d		Kelly's Directory for Ealing, Acton, 1893-94
Fuller, Smith & Turner	Chiswick	1893	Extra Stout	Stout	3s 6d		Kelly's Directory for Ealing, Acton, 1893-94
W & S Lucas	Hitchin, Herts	1894	Double Stout	Stout	3s		Kelly's Directory of Essex, Herts & Middx, 1894
C. Hammerton & Co.	London S.W.	1895	Stout	Stout
C. Hammerton & Co.	London S.W.	1895	Double Stout	Stout
C. Hammerton & Co.	London S.W.	1895	Brown Stout	Stout
Guinness	Dublin	1895	Dublin Stout	Stout	1s 9d	small	Lincolnshire Chronicle - Friday 05 July 1895, page 4.
Guinness	Dublin	1895	Dublin Stout	Stout	3s 4d	large	Lincolnshire Chronicle - Friday 05 July 1895, page 4.
Rogers' Ales	Bristol	1896	Monarch Stout	Stout
E & H Kelsey, Culverden Brewery	Tunbridge Wells	1896	No. 6 Stout	Stout	3s 6d		Pelton's illustrated guide to Tunbridge Wells, 1896
Ash & Co	London	1897	Luncheon Stout	Stout	2s 6d	pint
Ash & Co	London	1897	Nourishing Stout for Invalids	Stout	3s	pint
Waltham Bros.	London	1898	SN Stout	Stout	3s	pint
Waltham Bros.	London	1898	London Brown Stout	Stout	2s 6d	pint
Morgans Brewery	Norwich	1898	Stout	Stout	2s 6d	Imperial pint	Norfolk Chronicle - Saturday 11 June 1898, page 1.
Breeds & Co, the Hastings Brewery	Hastings	1899	Single Stout	Stout	2s 6d		Kelly's Directory of Sussex, 1899
Breeds & Co, the Hastings Brewery	Hastings	1899	Double Stout	Stout	3s		Kelly's Directory of Sussex, 1899
St. Anne's Well Brewery	Exeter	1891	ST. ANNE'S DINNER ALE	Strong Ale	2s 6d	Imperial pint	Exeter Flying Post - Saturday 26 December 1891, page 8.
W & S Lucas	Hitchin, Herts	1894	Strong Ale	Strong Ale	3s		Kelly's Directory of Essex, Herts & Middx, 1894
Rogers' Ales	Bristol	1896	XXXXX Strong Ale	Strong Ale
E & H Kelsey, Culverden Brewery	Tunbridge Wells	1896	No. 4 Strong Ale	Strong Ale	4s 6d		Pelton's illustrated guide to Tunbridge Wells, 1896