Canadian Ale in 1909

Numbers – I can never get enough of them. If only I had more time to harvest them. But for some reason a day only has 24 hours rather than the 60 I’d need to get through everything.

This particular set come from a handy little pamphlet published by the Canadian Department of Inland Revenue’s Laboratory. Who says the taxman is no use for anything?

I‘ve billed this as Canadian Ales, but there are a couple of exceptions. Namely the Pilsener that for some inexplicable reason is included with the Ales. And McEwan and Bass, which are British imports. It’s handy having the latter two, as it gives some sort of context for the Canadian beers.

You’ll note that the Canadian examples are generally weaker than the British ones. Though the imports were both top-class beers. Overall, the average of 1050º for Canadian Pale Ales looks low compared to British beers of the period, which you would expect to be around 1055º.

What does surprise me is the high degree of attenuation amongst the Canadian samples. Though this could be because these are finished, bottled beers. Whereas I usually taken the FG of British beers form brewing records, which gives the racking gravity rather than the true final gravity. As many British Pale Ales were still genuine Stock Ales with a long secondary fermentation, the final gravity would have been a good few points lower.

I was also interested to see just how alcoholic the Ginger Beer and Root Beer is. As strong as a lot of 1920’s British Mild Ale.

No long dissertation this time. I’ll just leave you with the table.

Canadian Ale in 1909
Brewer	Town	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation
Dolan Bros.	St. Johns, NB	Stone Ginger Beer	Ginger Beer		1028.7	1.34
S.H. McKee & Sons	St. Johns, NB	Stone Ginger Beer	Ginger Beer		1010.7	2.93
Simeon Jones	St. Johns, NB	Red Ball India Pale Ale	IPA	1050.6	1007	6.02	86.17%
McEwan	Edinburgh	India Pale Ale	IPA	1060.1	1004.7	7.61	92.18%
Bass	Burton	Pale Ale	IPA	1065.7	1008.7	7.74	86.76%
average IPA				1058.8	1006.8	7.12	88.37%
T.B. Renaud & Co.	Quebec	Ale	Pale Ale	1010.6	1000.3	1.65	97.17%
John Labatt	London, Ont.	Ale	Pale Ale	1037	1014.1	3.42	61.89%
G.E. Amiot	Quebec	Ale	Pale Ale	1047.1	1009.4	5.24	80.04%
G.E. Amiot	Quebec	Ale	Pale Ale	1047.3	1009.8	5.24	79.28%
John Labatt	London, Ont.	Ale	Pale Ale	1049.4	1010.3	5.31	79.15%
Protean & Carignan	Quebec	Ale	Pale Ale	1050.3	1012.2	5.32	75.75%
Boswell	Quebec	Ale	Pale Ale	1052.2	1004.8	6.48	90.80%
Oland & Son	Halifax, NS	Pale Ale	Pale Ale	1053.4	1008.8	6.24	83.52%
Keith	Halifax, NS	Pale Ale	Pale Ale	1055.5	1006.5	6.71	88.29%
James Ready	St. Johns, NB	Ready's Pale Ale	Pale Ale	1059.8	1005.1	7.40	91.47%
James Ready	Fairville, NS	Ale	Pale Ale	1061.5	1007.1	7.48	88.46%
Halifax Breweries	Halifax, NS	Howard's Ale	Pale Ale	1061.7	1006.7	7.57	89.14%
Halifax Brewing Co.	Halifax, NS	Ale	Pale Ale	1065.6	1014.1	7.01	78.51%
average Pale Ale				1050.1	1008.4	5.77	83.34%
Crystal Spring Mineral Waters Co.	Halifax, NS	Ramey's Pilsener Beer	Pilsner	1024.9	1001.4	3.48	94.38%
W.B. Daley	St. Johns, NB	Root Beer	Root Beer		997.7	2.72
Source:
"Ale and lager beer" by McGill, A. (Anthony), 1910, pages 4 - 19.