"It was chiefly celebrated for ale - Wm. Younger & Co.'s Edinburgh Ale - a potent fluid which almost glued the lips of the drinker together, and of which few therefore could dispatch more than a bottle. John, the proprietor, was a sleek quiet looking man, who always brought in the ale himself, drank a glass to the healths of his company, and then retired. He was most careful in the management of the bottle, and held the opinion of William Coke, who rebuked an inexperienced waiter with the remark 'Sirrah, you ought to handle a bottle of ale as you would do a new born babe!'
When the reckoning came John's duty consisted simply in counting the empty bottles, which he had placed on the shelf above the heads of his customers, and multiplying by three pence, the price of the liquor. John did such a flourishing business, chiefly in Wm. Younger & Co.'s Ale, that he eventually retired with a fortune, said to have amounted to six thousand pounds, a large sum in those days. Messrs. Wm. Younger & Co. still brew the celebrated Edinburgh ale, of a less potent quality, but their principal manufacture, India Pale Ale, is well known and appreciated in all parts of Great Britain as well as in foreign countries."
"Noted Breweries of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol II" by Alfred Barnard, 1889, pages 7-8.
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1 comment:
Interesting about a gravity drop in Scotch Ale - various accounts I've read in the 1800's (mid-1800's or later) usually state it around 8% abv. It still is that today. Maybe it was closer to 10% around 1800, say. One thing that seems little affected until later in the 1900's is its sweetness which e.g., George Saintsbury (writing in 1920) found excessive. Today though the beer is not that sweet, I would call it medium-sweet.
I did taste it recently against some Amontillado sherry and also some brown Madeira wine. It did not resemble the latter that much and this is due I think to lack of bottle maturation: the current McEwan Scotch is surely pasteurized and in general it had a clean, mild (unaged) palate. However I've had some well-matured Belgian beers that were somewhat like those wines. Chimay Rouge would taste something like them I think at 2 years old. I recall an Achel too, one of its Trappist range, which had a raisiny depth. Oxidation in bottle-conditioned beers is a neceesary part of their character I think but I don't like when the taste is too pronounced. Whereas in sherry, port and Mareira, the taste seems to suit those drinks more, I am not sure why.
Gary
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