Inside Aitken (part two)

That letter from Alex Young about his days working at the Aitken brewery in Falkirk was so much fun, we'll be taking a look at a second letter.

Here's something about bottling:

"I know very little about the take over of the breweries apart from working with the stock of boxes and bottles that came from them. At one time I was bottling for four breweries Patersons Murrays Fowlers and G, Youngers of Alloa- their Bottling Hall was burnt down

It was all Aitkens beer and stout with their labels on Aitkens wee heavies was brewed at 100 gravity was nearer 90 by the time it was bottled. Fowlers on the other hand was very sweet, but the gravity was brought up by added priming (sugar) They took out a bottling Unit and replaced it with a Kegging unit with the result that Heriot Brewery had to help with the Bottling, The Piper Export sales fell to zero, it finished up with having to send Falkirk Water in tankers through to Edinburgh"

It sounds like this is talking about the early 1960's.  All these breweries (and others) had been merged into Eddie Taylor's Northern Breweries in 1960. Sticking different company's labels on Aitkens beer was the first step in the process of rationalisation that eventually saw every brewery in the group close, with the exception of Tennent's.



This is the first time I've seen the term "Wee Heavy" used by someone within the brewing industry. I'm not sure exactly what is meant by what follows. by "100 gravity" I assume he means an OG of 1100º. But what does he mean by it being closer to 90 when bottled? Does he mean that it had attenuated 90 points?

Fowler's Wee Heavy was sweeter, apparently though the use of primings. It seems Mr. Young wasn't the only one to find Fowler's Strong Ale, real name 12 Guinea Ale, rather sweet:

Year	Brewer	Beer	Style	FG	OG	colour	ABV	App. Atten-uation	Flavour
1929	Fowler	Twelve Guinea Ale	Strong Ale	1030	1114	No. 15 Same as our OSA.	11.06	73.68%	Objectionably sweet & syrupy.
1929	Fowler	Twelve Guinea Ale	Strong Ale	1030	1115	No. 15	11.19	73.91%	Very sweet - no bitterness.
Source:
Thomas Usher Gravity Book document TU/6/11

The part about shipping Falkirk water to Edinburgh I don't understand at all. Though shipping water by road is a recurring theme at Aitken.

The concentration of Scottish brewing (part two)

Eddie Taylor had a massive impact on British brewing in the late fifties and early sixties. He was the catalyst for a huge round of consolidation and concentration. One that ultimately gave rise to the Big Six with their stranglehold on the vast majority of pubs.

Here's how he grouped together a big chunk of Scotland's brewing industry:

"Taylor's intervention was by no means premature. In April 1960 Scottish Brewers had merged with the Newcastle Breweries Ltd. of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and this powerful group continued to strengthen its trading position in cast and central Scotland through further acquisitions. In the west of Scotland, J. & R. Tennent Ltd., a small but progressive company which brewed and sold Scotland's leading brand of lager, simultaneously acquired McLachlans Ltd. of Edinburgh, a profitable company with over 100 managed houses in Glasgow and Lanarkshire. It was clear, therefore, that a trend towards concentration was gathering speed. Taylor already had a foothold in Scotland through the inclusion of Jeffreys in Northern Breweries and in May 1960 a series of meetings was held in Edinburgh involving Taylor, P. L. Bradfer-Lawrence, D, J. Palmar, representing Northern Breweries' merchant bankers (Philip Hill, Higginson,  Erlangers Ltd.) and the directors of several Scottish breweries. Within the space of three days terms had been agreed which brought three firms (George Younger & Sons Ltd. of Alloa; John Fowler & Co. Ltd. of Prestonpans, and William Murray & Co. Ltd. of Edinburgh) into Northern Breweries. This was in itself a remarkable achievement. In the words of P. L. Bradfer-Lawrence: 'They had been talking to each other for years but Eddie's effect as a catalyst was quite astonishing.' His efforts were also assisted by the growing momentum of the merger movement in Scotland. As one brewery director put it: 'There was a growing feeling that if you didn't go in with somebody you would be left out as a very small operation.'

These early acquisitions were small, local breweries whose trade, in general, was either static or declining. George Younger of Alloa, although a public company, was still controlled by two branches of the Younger family, represented by Captain J. P. Younger (later Sir James Younger) and Viscount Younger of Leckie respectively. Much of the company's trade was concentrated in the central lowlands, where they owned 40 houses, although it also spread into the far north west. They brewed the full range of beers except lager, which they bought from J. & R. Tennent. In September 1959 they had acquired Blair & Co. of Alloa, a small local brewery with a few managed houses. William Murray & Co. owned more outlets than Youngers (although still less than 100) and had a sizeable free trade around Glasgow. Fowlers was a small private company, owning some 40 managed houses and brewing a famous strong ale called Wee Heavy. The group was strengthened by the acquisition in August, 1960, of James Aitken & Co. Ltd. of Falkirk, a company which had extensive free trade interests in the west of Scotland, together with about 50 licensed houses. Finally, in October 1960, James Calder & Co. Ltd. of Alloa were brought into the group. Calder's equity had been the subject of speculative buying in 1959 which had pushed the price up from 1s. 10d. to 8s. in the course of the year. The shares remained at this inflated level, which the directors considered 'unrealistic in the light of any reasonable estimate of the company's maintainable earnings'. Northern Breweries offered 4s. 3d, in cash for every Calder ordinary share which the directors, who in any case held over 50 per cent of the equity, readily accepted.

By the end of 1960, therefore, Taylor had formed a group of Scottish breweries which together accounted for over 20 per cent of the total beer output north of the border. The group's activities were co-ordinated by a regional management company, United Caledonian Breweries Ltd., but at this stage each constituent brewery retained its own brands and, within the board framework of the regional organization, a very large degree of operational autonomy."
"A History of Bass Charrington" by K.H. Hawkins, 1978, pages 140 - 142.

The story is a similar one that's been repeated in several countries. Once one large group forms, everyone else panics and worries about being left out. And faced with the prospect of competing with far larger rivals.

But there's a significant difference in the motivation behind buying breweries in England and in Scotland. Often English breweries were bought purely for their tied houses. In Scotland, where brewers owned few pubs, this wasn't  a prime motive. The number of pubs listed above is tiny compared to those involved in English mergers. Each of the breweries in Newark, neither particularly huge, owned around 200 pubs. About the same as mentioned above in a deal that involved 20% of Scottish brewing capacity.

I'd never realised, naive that I am, that people might have been speculatively buying brewery shares in the hope of an eventual takeover. I suppose that's how capitalism works. With the atmosphere of the day, I'm sure it was a bright move.

Of course, the group of Scottish breweries that Taylor had nailed together didn't keep its lose structure long. Or many of the breweries open, for that matter.

Scottish beer in Australia

People are always sending me stuff. Often quite useful stuff. Like what I'm about to share with you. It's from the Australian Brewers' Journal of 21st february 1910 and shows the prices of various imported beers in Sydney.

Let's take a look, shall we?

First it's Ales. Take a close look and you may find something odd about certain Ales:

10 of the 13 draught Ales are Scottish. At least that I can recognise. I'm not sure where Palace and Guild & Co. are from. Just checked. Looks like they're both Scottish, too. Let's get this right: every draught beer except Bass No. 4 is Scottish.

Talking of which, what an odd beer to have exported. Not all the Bass beer I would have guessed. That's a Burton Mild Ale which, in 1870 had an OG of 1070. It probably hadn't changed much by 1910.

It's a shame that it's not more specific as to what type of beer most of them were. I could guess. But as there are no clues, there's not much point.

In the bottled beers, only four English brewers are represented. Two pretty obvious ones, Bass and Allsopp. Plus two less obvious ones, Combe of London and Tennant of Sheffield. Hang on. That can't really be from Combe. Their brewery closed in 1899, when they joined Watney, Combe, Reid. It must really be a Watney's beer.

Spot the funny Ales? Bit obvious, all those German Lagers. Amusing that they lumped the Lagers with Ales but listed Stouts separately. They couldn't have been paying attention in BJCP class. Note the the two Scottish Lagers, from Tennent and Jeffrey.


Now the Stouts:

I can only spot two Scottish breweries: Jeffrey and Tennent. That's hardly surprising. Stout wasn't such a big thing in Scotland. The best-known Stout brewers were in London and Ireland. Which is reflected in the list. Glad to see Barclay Perkins putting in a cameo. They certainl;y picked some odd brands to sell beer: Beaver, Fish, Pelican, Dog's Head, Dagger (my favourite) and Pig. Lots of different flavours of Guinness, though I'm sure the beer inside the bottles was the same.

Scotland is ridiculously over-represented, especially in the draught Ales. The percentage of beer exported must have been much higher in Scotland than in England.

Fowler's Twelve Guinea Ale

Wee Heavy. I've always been troubled by this supposed style. Partly because it seems to be based on a single commercial beer: Fowler's Wee Heavy. Or to give it it's proper name, Fowler's Twelve Guinea Ale.

The name "Wee Heavy", though poetic, is pretty rubbish. Wee = small, heavy = strong. "Small Strong" doesn't sound quite so cool, does it? The more I look into Scottish brewing, the more obvious it is how broadly the word "Heavy" was used. There's Heavy Export Ale, Heavy Stout and, of course, Wee Heavy.

Let's use the real name for Fowler's Wee Heavy: Twelve Guinea Ale. What does that mean? Nothing more than that a hogshead of the beer sold for 12 guineas (£12 12/-, £12.60 in new money). It's like the shilling system, just posher. Guineas weren't used for any old sums. No, they were reserved for the price of racehourses and that sort of thing. And for the very top-end Scottish beers.

Just a few days ago we heard that ten and twelve guinea ales were "rarely brewed". William Younger didn't make one. They didn't go higher than 160/- (£8). There was one brewer who did regulalry brew a Twelve Guinea Ale. You guessed it, Fowler of Prestonpans. It must have been quite famous, given the number of analyses of it that I've found.

In the 19th century, Twelve Guinea Ale had a ludicrous OG: 1159º. I think that's the highest I've seen. It's so high that even though the FG is 1068º, it's still 12% ABV. You can see that between the wars, it was still a real beast, with a gravity of over 1100º. The second war put an end to that and, by the time we reach 1955, the OG is the same as the FG had been a century earlier. Sort of sums up the decline in British beer strengths.

The colour, well that's brown A darkish brown. I wish I knew the colour of the 1862 sample. I suspect it would have been very different. Basically much paler. That's what happened to Edinburgh Ales like William Younger's No. 1 Ale. That mysteriously darkened - like many Stock and Strong Ales - sometime around 1900.

Here's a table with all the facts (at least the ones I know):

Fowler's Twelve Guinea Ale 1862 - 1955
Year	Beer	Style	Price	size	package	Acidity	FG	OG	colour	ABV	App. Attenuation
1862	Twelve-Guinea Ale	Strong Ale					1068	1159		11.99	57.23%
1921	Prestonpans Ale	Strong Ale			bottled		1042	1118		9.92	64.41%
1925	Twelve-Guinea Ale	Strong Ale			bottled		1038	1117.7	100	10.44	67.71%
1926	Strong Ale	Strong Ale			bottled		1031	1117	140	11.33	73.50%
1926	Twelve Guinea Beer	Strong Ale			bottled		1040	1115		9.79	65.22%
1928	Strong Ale	Strong Ale			bottled		1043	1114	130	9.24	62.28%
1929	Twelve Guinea Ale (carbonated)	Strong Ale			bottled		1030	1114	No. 15	11.06	73.68%
1929	Twelve Guinea Ale (carbonated)	Strong Ale			bottled		1030	1115	No. 15	11.19	73.91%
1931	Strong Ale	Strong Ale			bottled		1024	1098		9.71	75.51%
1933	Strong Ale	Strong Ale			bottled		1034	1108		9.68	68.52%
1940	Twelve Guinea Cream Ale	Strong Ale	7d	nip	bottled	0.06	1028	1094.3	14 + 40	8.66	70.31%
1940	Twelve Guinea Cream Ale	Strong Ale	7d	nip	bottled	0.07	1028.2	1095.3	14 + 40	8.76	70.41%
1947	Heavy Ale	Strong Ale			bottled		1025.5	1081.4		7.27	68.67%
1948	Strong Ale	Strong Ale			bottled		1019.5	1079.5		7.84	75.47%
1948	Prestonpans Twelve Guinea Ale	Strong Ale			bottled		1021.5	1080		7.63	73.13%
1949	Prestonpans Twelve Guinea Ale	Strong Ale	1/3d	nip	bottled	0.06	1030.3	1077.7	15 + 40	6.13	61.00%
1955	Twelve Guinea Ale	Strong Ale	1/3d	nip	bottled	0.04	1016.9	1068.1	120	6.67	75.18%
Sources:
"The lancet 1853, Volume 2", 1853, page 631.
Thomas Usher Gravity Book document TU/6/11 held at the Scottish Brewing Archive
Younger, Wm. & Co Gravity Book document WY/6/1/1/19 held at the Scottish Brewing Archive
Whitbread Gravity Book document LMA/4453/D/02/002 held at the London Metropolitan Archives