Thursday 8 April 2021

AK 1877 - 1913

Ten of fifteen years ago - not sure exactly when, but it was ages ago - I did a massive trawl of the internet looking for old brewery price lists. As well as going through all my brewery history books. It took weeks. But well worth it.

I transcribed them all into a spreadsheet. One with over 5,000 entries. That work compiling it was one of the reasons it took so long. Dead handy to have it now. As it enables me to quickly find dozens of examples of AK. 46, to be precise.

They come from a broad swathe of England. From Exeter in the Southwest across the South coast to Maidstone in Kent. Also the rest of London and the South, East Anglia, the Midlands and Yorkshire. Pretty much the whole of England except for the Northeast and the Northwest. (Including my hometown of Newark, obviously.) None come from either Wales or Scotland.

What did Victorians think AK was.? Going by the descriptions that accompany AK in price lists, most thought it was a Bitter. More than half the descriptions (25)  include that word. Light crops almost as many times (21 plus one Crystal). Often in conjunction with Bitter (18). Looks like back in the day drinkers, in general, thought AK was a Light Bitter.

Multiple occurrences of Family and Dinner (there's also one Luncheon) clearly illustrate that AK was considered a beer to be drunk at home with meals.

Put that all together and you have a beer that's light in three senses - colour, body and alcoholic strength - that will slip down nicely with food.

AK descriptions
descriptions no. examples
Bitter 25
Light 21
Family 8
Pale Ale 5
Dinner 5
Mild 2
AK Bitter Ale 8
AK Light Bitter  3
AK Light Bitter Ale 10

Mild turns up just twice, once in a phrase which sounds an oxymoron to moderns ears: Mild Bitter. Mild here is clearly being used in the sens unaged, rather than to Mild Ale.

The relatively low alcoholic strength of AK is easily demonstrated by its price. One of the wonderful things about studying the period 1880 to 1914 is that beer prices were totally stable. A beer that was 36 shillings a barrel in 1880 was still 36 bob in 1914. So you can directly compare, as I do in my next table, a beer from 1877 and another from 1913.

To put prices into context, here's a full set for one brewery, coincidentally, from Newark.

Brewery Place year beer price per barrel
Goodwin Bros. Newark 1885 Light Mild Ale 36
Goodwin Bros. Newark 1885 X Mild Ale 36
Goodwin Bros. Newark 1885 XX Mild Ale 42
Goodwin Bros. Newark 1885 XXX Mild Ale 48
Goodwin Bros. Newark 1885 XXXX Strong Ale 54
Goodwin Bros. Newark 1885 XXXXX Strong Ale 60
Goodwin Bros. Newark 1885 Extra Strong 72
Goodwin Bros. Newark 1885 AK Bitter Ale 36
Goodwin Bros. Newark 1885 PA Bitter Ale 42
Goodwin Bros. Newark 1885 IPA Bitter Ale 54
Goodwin Bros. Newark 1885 Double Stout 48
Goodwin Bros. Newark 1885 Extra Stout 54

Not a bad range of beers. 

36 shillings a barrel was the cheapest beer at most breweries.You can see that they go up in increments of six shillings, which is 2d per gallon, or a farthing (a quarter of a penny) per pint. AA farthing being the smallest coin. Most didn't go as high as a 72 shilling beer. A beer that expensive would have been well North of 1100º.

Despite costing the same, AK and X Mild Ale most likely weren't the same strength. Pale Ales sold at a premium compared to Mild Ale or Porter. Usually around 2d per pint, though that was eroded over time. As I showed in an earlier post, AK had a gravity in the range 1045º-1050º. X Mild Ale was more likely 1050º-1055º.

Two-thirds  of the AKs I'm rummaging around in cost 36 shillings a barrel, 31 out of 46 examples. Eight were cheaper and seven more expensive. Six were in one price class up - 42 shillings - which implies to me a slightly stronger beer, 1050º-1055º. While the five that were one class weaker, at 30 shillings a barrel, were likely just 1040-1045º. Though there were always regional variations in the relation between gravity and price.

Here's yet another table:

Price of AK
Price no. examples %
30 5 11%
32 2 4%
34 1 2%
36 31 67%
38 1 2%
42 6 13%
total 46  

And to end, the full table.

AK 1877 - 1913
Brewery Place year beer price per barrel Source
A. Stannard Portsmouth 1880 AK Light Family Bitter 36 Hampshire Telegraph - Saturday 18 December 1880, page 7
A.E. Keyes (Isherwood, Foster & Stacey Ltd.) Maidstone 1890 AK Family Tonic Ale 36 Maidenhead Advertiser - Wednesday 17 December 1890 page 3.
Adey and White St. Albans 1884 AK Bitter Beer 36 Gibbs' illustrated handbook to St. Albans, 1884
Arnol, Perret & Co Wickwar, Gloucs 1895 AK Bitter Ale 36  
Aylesbury Brewery Aylesbury 1900 AK 30 Bucks Herald - Saturday 03 November 1900, page 1.
Baddow Brewery Great Baddow 1905 AK Light Dinner Ale 36 Essex Newsman - Saturday 19 August 1905, page 1.
Byles & Co Henley 1876 AK Light Pale Ale 36 Harrod & Co.'s Directory of Beds, Bucks ..., 1876
C. & J. Attlee Tooting 1885 AK Bitter Ale 32  
Charrington Nicholl & Co Colchester 1885 AK Bitter Ale 36  
Crowley & Co. Alton 1905 AK Family Ale 36 Hants and Berks Gazette and Middlesex and Surrey Journal - Saturday 09 December 1905, page 1.
Daniell & Son Colchester 1894 AK Pale Ale 36 Kelly's Directory of Essex, Herts & Middx, 1894
Dunnell Banbury 1890 AK Light Bitter  30 Banbury Guardian - Thursday 30 January 1890, page 1.
E. Greene & Son Bury St Edmonds 1887 AK Light Bitter Ale    
Eldridge Pope Dorchester 1890 AK Bitter Ale 36 Hampshire Chronicle - Saturday 25 January 1890, page 2.
Epping Brewery Epping 1898 AK Light Bitter 36  
F.R. Sutton Brigg 1894 AK Light Bitter Ale 42 Lincolnshire Chronicle - Friday 03 August 1894, page 4.
Flower & Sons Stratford-on-Avon 1890 AK Family Ale 30  
Frank Higgens Buckingham 1890 AK Specially recommended 42 Buckingham Advertiser and Free Press - Saturday 04 January 1890, page 6.
Fullers Chiswick 1893 AK Light Bitter Ale 36 Kelly's Directory for Ealing, Acton, 1893-94
Gardner near Sandwich 1882 AK Mild Beer 30 Hastings and St Leonards Observer - Saturday 25 November 1882, page 1
Godsell & Sons Stroud, Gloucs 1902 AK Light Dinner Ale 36 Kelly's Directory of Somerset, 1902
Goodwin Bros. Newark 1885 AK Bitter Ale 36  
Henry Lovibond Fulham 1889 AK Mild Bitter 38  
Hodges and Ritchie Brighton 1884 AK Bitter Ale 42 Pike's Weald of Kent & Romney Marsh Directory, 1884-85
Holes Newark 1901 AK Luncheon Ale 36 Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald - Saturday 11 May 1901
Humby & Baillie Stafford 1896 AK Light Dinner Ale 36 Kelly's Directory of Warwickshire 1896
Ind Coope Romford 1890 AK Light Bitter 42 Eyre's Post Office Plymouth & District Directory, 1890
Ind Coope Romford 1890 AK Light Bitter Beer 36 East Anglian Daily Times - Monday 31 March 1890, page 4.
Kidd & Co. Donnington (near Newbury, Berks) 1877 AK Light Bitter Ale 36 Newbury Weekly News and General Advertiser - Thursday 27 September 1877, page 7.
Kirkstall Brewery Leeds 1888 AK Light Bitter Ale 36 Yorkshire Gazette - Saturday 30 June 1888, page 3
Leney Wateringbury 1884 AK Pale Ale 42 Pike's Weald of Kent & Romney Marsh Directory, 1884-85
Major Lucas Northampton 1893 AK Light Amber Ale 36 Northampton Directory, 1893-94
Northampton Brewery Northampton 1880 AK Family Pale Ale, a sparkling and agreeable Tonic 36 Spencers' Illustrated Leicester Almanac, 1880
Reffell's Brewery Bexley, Kent 1888 AK Light Bitter 36  
Rigden Faversham 1913 AK Light Bitter Ale 34 William Whiteley General Price List October, 1913, Volume 2, page 1197.
Roger's Bristol 1889 AK Bitter Ale 36  
Stansfeld & Co. Fulham 1903 AK Crystal Ale 36 Sussex Agricultural Express - Saturday 24 January 1903, page 9.
Thomas Gundry Redhill, Surrey 1878 AK Family Ale 42 Post Office Directory of Sussex, 1878
Tomson & Wotton Ramsgate 1899 AK Light Bitter Ale 30 Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald - Saturday 07 October 1899, page 4
Tomson & Wotton Ramsgate 1899 AK Light Bitter Ale 36 Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald - Saturday 07 October 1899, page 4
Vincent & Co. Bracknell 1883 AK Family Pale Ale 36 Reading Mercury - Saturday 03 November 1883, page 7.
W.E. & J. Rigden Faversham 1902 AK Light Bitter Ale 36 Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald - Saturday 06 December 1902, page 1
Walcot Brewery Bath 1884 AK Bitter Ale 36 Post Office Bath Directory, 1884-85
Waltham Abbey Brewery Waltham Abbey 1882 AK Stock Bitter Ale 36 Kelly's Directory of Essex, 1882
Waltham Bros. London 1898 AK Light Biitter Ale  36  
Watney, Combe, Reid London 1913 AK Ale, Bitter Ale (Dinner Bitter) 36 William Whiteley General Price List October, 1913, Volume 2, page 1197.
Wimbeldon Brewery Wimbledon 1889 AK Dinner Ale  32 advertisement in Surrey Independent

 

4 comments:

Chris Pickles said...

If families bought beer by the barrel for home consumption, they would have to knock it back at a terrific rate if it wasn't going to go off. Or did people accept sour beer in those days?

Ron Pattinson said...

Chris Pickles,

households were generally larger back then. Smaller families would have bought a pin or a firkin. Me, my brother and my two sons easily emptied a firkin in a weekend. In addition to going to the pub every day.

Chris Pickles said...

But you are a special case.... !

StuartP said...

I think AK would have been my go-to drink of that era. It is now, TBH. Pleased to see it was a reasonably-priced option!