Wednesday 17 December 2014

How old are Christmas beers?

I've been prompted by Boak and Bailey's post about Christmas beers. Not being all that old.

You know me by now. I've ridiculous piles of information. If you'd been around mine you'd realise just how literal the piles are. I was sure I had older examples of beers specifically labelled "Christmas".

Being labels, it makes more sense to do this visually:








My guess is that they are all from the 1950's.

These I have from the Whitbread Gravity Book:

1956 Well's & Winch Christmas Ale 4.97%
1950 Younger, Geo. Gordon Xmas Ale (bottled in Antwerp) 7.58%



These from brewing records:

1902 Fuller, Smith & Turner XK for Xmas 5.83%

This is a Lovibond record from 1864:


The beer, coincidentally, will feature in our special Christmas Eve Let's Brew.




2 comments:

Rod said...

Ron - the Lovibonds XXXX is the beer I brewed about two years ago at The Old Brewery, isn't it?

I still have one corked bottle left for the next time you're in London!

Craig said...

I was looking into the age of Christmas ale, too. I came across a single entry newspaper advertising Christmas Ale from Thomas' Brewery in Brooklyn, back in '65...1865, that is.