Amber Ales, like Brown Ales, disappeared just after 1800. The names popped up again later (Amber beating Brown by a couple of decades) with totally different meanings.I'll be honest here: I've no idea what an Amber Ale was. The name is used fairly erratically, usually referring to bottled beer. I've also no idea what the colour was. I could guess. But we all know how dangerous that is.
What's meant by amber as a colour? I'd describe Bitter as amber in colour. And one Amber Ale I did see, Newcastle Amber, was paler than most Bitter.
What I do know, is that Barclay Perkins had different coloured Milds in the 1920's and 1930's. Sometimes they were sold "as brewed" others darkened with caramel. Before colouring they were about 40 EBC, after 90. Their Pale Ales of the period were 21 to 26.
I've seen odd examples of amber malt used in Milds 1890 - 1910. And in Stock Ales. Because, of course, they went dark too. What you see in the logs are the use of fairly small amounts of amber and brown in the beginning. And some dark sugars. The amounts increase until, by around WW I, most Stock and Mild Ales are pretty dark.
In the breweries I've looked at, almost all the colour comes from sugar. About the only time they used much dark malt was during the wars, when they couldn't get the sugar.Before the late 1800's, getting any colour other than black consistently would have been just about impossible. In Britain, at least. When caramel was allowed, colour adjustment became practical.
Even in the 1930's, Barclay Perkins struggled to hit their target colours. They had to adjust the colour of just about everything. OK, you'd obviously aim low in the brewing because you know you can only adjust up. But I've seen plenty of logs with "too dark" scribbled on them as well.
The why is an even tricker question than the when. This is my crazy guess which has only minor basis in documented fact.
1890-ish is when, according to one source, pubs in London were going from serving in opaque tankards to glass. So drinkers could notice more subtle differences in colour. The way beers were brewed at the time, from 100% pale malt, would have made the stronger beers a bit darker. Punters associated darker with stronger, so brewers made their beers artificially darker so they looked more attractive. Continue this process for 30 years and you've gone from pale to dark.
Just a total guess. Don't quote me.
Beer colour is a fascinating subject, but frustratingly difficult to research. Without a time machine, I fear much will never be certain.
Ron, all this makes good sense to me, although I was reminded of the following statement in Beers of Britain by Warren Knock and Conal Gregory (1975):
ReplyDelete"Bitter is generally a draught beer, yellow-golden in colour with a pronounced hop taste".
Their book was the result of a tour throughout Britain in which they visited hundreds of pubs and tasted as many beers.
Funny the things you find when you look for things, when looking for this book, I found it resting in a pile of similarly small, paper-bound booklets. I found there Generations The Who Magazine, Issue 11, a fanzine from the early 90's. (If any one is interested in The Who's Charlton 1974 concert, which was broadcast on tv, it is partially revisited in this excellent magazine. Now, if I can only find my copy of Generations which analysed the Who's famous gig at Leeds University February 14, 1970!).
Then too, beer and rock and roll are not unrelated... :)
Gary
Gary
Is it too simplistic to assume that pale ale was made from pale malt, amber ale from amber malt and brown ale from brown malt?
ReplyDeleteBarm, that's how it was in the 18th century. Later, it's much more complicated.
ReplyDeleteOne problem is that "amber" is not actually that useful or discriminating a colour descriptor, as that G&W label you reproduce for "dark amber" suggests. Amber can be a variety of colours from pale browney-orange to as dark as what I would call "cornelian",(real amber can even be pale yellow, of course), so someone calling a beer "amber" could cover any one of a number of different colour values.
ReplyDelete