Brewing in Scotland in the 1840's

Just a short quote today. It's taken from a book published in the 1840's. One of those things called a dictionary but which are really more like an encyclopedia.

The Ale and Beer entry has some nice statistics which sucked me in. The mention of Scottish beer came as a bonus:

"The brewing of ale has long constituted a principal, or rather, perhaps, we might say the principal, manufacturing employment carried on in Edinburgh, The best Edinburgh ale is of a pale colour, mild, glutinous, and adhesive. It is much stronger and more intoxicating than porter, from 4 to 5 bushels of malt being generally used in brewing a barrel of ale, with about 1 lb. of hops to a bushel of malt. At present (1843) the produce of the ale breweries of Edinburgh may be estimated at about 195,000 barrels a year. Very good ale is also made at Preston Pans, Alloa, and other Scotch towns. Considerable quantities of Edinburgh ale are sent to London; though this trade has latterly been decreasing. Very good ale may be produced by brewers on a small scale, but it is doubtful whether this be the case with porter; at all events the best porter is all produced in very large establishments.

Formerly it was not supposed that really good porter could be made any where except in London. Of late years, however, Dublin porter has attained to high and hot unmerited reputation; though we certainly are not of the number of those who ronsider it equal to the best London porter.

Large quantities of a light, pale, and highly-hopped variety of ale have been for some considerable time past exported to the East Indies, where it is in high estimation; and is now, also, rather extensively used in summer in this country."
"A Dictionary, Practical, Theoretical, and Historical, of Commerce and Commercial Navigation" by John Ramsay McCulloch, 1844, page 9.

I'm particularly pleased to see a har figure put on the output of Edinburgh breweries. 195,000 barrels isn't a great deal, really. Not considering the fame of Edinburgh beer. Though it is a considerable percentage of the beer brewed in Scotland, which was around 500,000 barrrels a year in the 1840's.

Small beer indeed, compared to the big boys in London. The two largest each produced about the same as the whole of Scotland. Brewing was still on a relatively modest scale in Scotland in the first half of the 19th century. It was only in the latter decades that the big Edinburgh and Alloa brewers were able to rival the large London producers.

Here are the alrgest London brewers of the same period:

Barrels of beer brewed used by the largest London brewers
Brewer	1831	1838	1839	1840	1841	1842	1851
Barclay & Co.	388,792	429,820	449,104	462,244	425,380	456,360	462,168
Truman & Co.	202,896	360,560	364,276	392,840	352,528	369,876	420,088
Whitbread & Co.	198,852	181,840	207,916	214,488	207,368	208,392	207,200
Reid & Co.	173,520	179,712	176,040	192,520	191,920	200,480	226,560
Combe & Co.	138,736	173,776	162,848	153,472	145,840	185,936	173,128
Calvert & Co.	122,100	126,116	124,112	123,488	122,460	122,640	114,552
Meux & Co.	97,356	140,260	153,860	163,148	158,332	161,360	238,468
Hoare & Co.	96,408	125,112	124,032	121,240	117,800	118,428	140,000
Elliott & Co.	77,776	88,000	91,960	101,020	101,100	108,200	118,232
Taylor & Co.	87,380	109,280	103,820	109,200	149,200	78,120	63,480
Goding & Co.	65,228				58,524		52,256
Charrington & Co.	42,120	81,160	74,752	73,312	73,312	81,692	84,064
Courage & Co.	32,464	42,892	41,824	46,128	46,128	52,064	57,876
Thorne & Co.	5,780				83,384		88,088
Mann & Co.	5,208				46,616		96,120
Total	1,734,616	2,038,528	2,074,544	2,153,100	2,279,892	2,143,548	2,542,280
Sources:
1831, 1841 and 1851:The food of London by George Dodd, 1856, page 463.
1838, 1839, 1840 and 1842: "A Dictionary, Practical, Theoretical, and Historical, of Commerce and Commercial Navigation" by John Ramsay McCulloch, 1844, page 12.
Note:
Noumber of barrels brewed estimated from malt usage - I've assumed 4 barrels from a quarter of malt.

The description of Edinburgh Ale isn't bad: "pale colour, mild, glutinous, and adhesive." Pretty gloopy stuff then. Not surprising when you see the final gravity of these beers.

Prestonpans is another of those obscure brewing towns. Its fame seems to have relies pretty much on a single brewer: Fowler. In a way, the memory of Prestonpans does remain. Fowler was, of course, the brewer of as certain beer called "Fowler's Wee Heavy". The beer that gave us that rather irritating beer style. Prestonpans beer, from the analyses I've seen, was even more syrupy than Edinburgh Ale.

I though I may as well continue the quote past the Scottish stuff because of the bit about IPA. And how it was drunk in Britian during the summer. Not particularly surprising, but I've not seen it mentioned before.