Wednesday 23 November 2011

Aitchison beers 1925 - 1959

Aitchison. It's my new best mate. Remember I said That I felt a table coming on? It's come. The table, I mean. Today.

I'm quite lucky, having most of the 20th century covered. Pretty much right up until they closed in 1961.


As you can see, the majority are Pale Ales of various strengths. Mostly the two classic variations from between the wars: 60/- at around 1039º and 70/- at 1045. Roughly the equivalent to modern 70/- and 80/-. One of the things I like about the Thomas Usher Gravity Book are the descriptions of flavour. The ones for Aitchison's Pale Ales aren't particularly flattering : "thin sweetish flavour". I wonder if this is when sweet Pale Ales came into fashion in Scotland?

Note the watery Pale Ale sold as 90/-. The practice of calling Strong Ales 90/- in Scotland is very recent. I suspect it goes back at the very most to the 1970's. I can't remember seeing a 90/- in the 19th century. They tended to go for multiples of 20: 60/-. 80/-, 100/-, 120/-., 140/- and 160/-. 90 bob seems to have first appeared after WW I and referred to a weak, bottled Pale Ale or IPA. Why they're called 90/- when they're weaker than 60/- Pale Ales is a mystery to me. If you have any ideas, let me know.

Brown Ale, as in England, had a burst of popularity in Scotland in the 1920's and 1930's. The two pre-war samples here are right on the border between a standard and a Double Brown in terms of gravity. The post-war one, at just over 1040º, is a around 10º stronger than a typical 1950's Brown Ale. With a colour of 50 EBC, it's only slightly darker than Newcastle Brown.

The beers sold as Strong Ale and Scotch Ale are probably the same beer. 1070º to 1080º is decent gravity for the 1950's and is around what most domestic Scotch Ales were in the 1930's. You'll not that both are a fairly dark brown. Those two-number colours are about 90 - 100 EBC.

I was surprised to see there's only one Stout. And that isn't even an Aitchison's beer. It's a brand from brand from McLennan & Urquhart, whose Dalkeith brewery Aitchison bought in 1955 and closed in 1958. It looks a typical low-alcohol, Scottish sweet Stout. It's a shame there aren't some other Aitchison Stouts to compare it with.

That's it for now. Unless I can find any more Aitchison-related material.


Aitchison beers 1925 - 1959
Year Beer Style Price size package Acidity FG OG colour ABV App. Atten-uation Flavour
1925 ?? Pale Ale pint bottled 1009 1059.5 25 6.61 84.87%
1927 Pale Ale Pale Ale pint bottled 1006.3 1035.3 3.77 82.27%
1927 Pale Ale Pale Ale pint bottled 1006 1035 3.77 82.86%
1927 Pale Ale Pale Ale 6d half pint bottled 1009 1038 30 3.76 76.32%
1927 Pale Ale Pale Ale 7d half pint bottled 1011 1045 25 4.42 75.56%
1928 60/- Pale Ale Pale Ale pint bottled 1007 1039.5 4.23 82.28%
1929 60/- Beer Pale Ale pint bottled 1009.8 1038.8 3.76 74.84%
1929 60/- Beer Pale Ale pint bottled 1009.8 1040.3 Pale no. 1 - 2 glass paler than standard 3.96 75.78% thin sweetish flavour with after bitter. Possibly indicates addition of priming.
1929 70/- Beer Pale Ale pint bottled 1008 1045 Pale no. 2 half glass paler than our Newcastle 70/- 4.82 82.22% Does not drink its gravity.
1929 60/- (pale) Pale Ale pint bottled 1008 1045.5 Between 1 - 2. Same as our standard 4.89 82.42% Thin sweetish flavour, but after bitter not so prounced as sample from ???
1931 Pale Ale Pale Ale 7d pint bottled 0.05 1008.8 1039.3 3.96 77.61%
1931 Brown Ale Brown Ale 8d pint bottled 0.06 1015.9 1047.9 4.14 66.81%
1931 XXXX Ale Strong Ale 8d pint bottled 0.05 1009.9 1046.6 4.77 78.76%
1933 Brown Ale Brown Ale pint bottled 1015.5 1045.5 3.88 65.93%
1934 Pale Ale Pale Ale pint draught 1007.3 1039.3 4.16 81.53%
1937 60/- Pale Ale Pale Ale pint bottled 1007 1040 9 – 10 4.29 82.50%
1939 60/- Ale Pale Ale pint bottled 1007 1039 12 4.16 82.05%
1940 Pale Ale Pale Ale pint bottled 1008 1038 3.90 78.95%
1947 105/- Ale Pale Ale pint bottled 1008 1036 3.64 77.78%
1947 80/- Ale Pale Ale 16d pint bottled 1008 1042 4.42 80.95%
1949 "Best Cellar" Pale Ale pint bottled 1010.5 1042 4.09 75.00%
1949 PA 90/- Pale Ale pint bottled 1007 1029 2.85 75.86%
1950 Scotch Ale Scotch Ale half pint bottled 0.13 1020.8 1080 4 + 40 7.73 74.00%
1950 Best Cellar Ale Ale 1/1d half pint bottled 0.06 1011.3 1046.8 21 B 4.61 75.85%
1953 Strong Ale Strong Ale 1/3d nip bottled 0.07 1021.5 1072.6 9 + 40 6.64 70.39%
1956 Aitchie Blue Seal Pale Ale Pale Ale 1/4d half pint bottled 0.05 1010.2 1030 26 2.56 66.00%
1956 Gold Seal Brown Ale Brown Ale 10.5d half pint bottled 0.04 1013.9 1041.6 50 3.58 66.59%
1959 Dalkeith Sweet Stout Stout 15d halfpint bottled 1021.3 1037.3 600 2.05 42.90%
Sources:
Thomas Usher Gravity Book document TU/6/11 held at the Scottish Brewing Archive
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002
Younger, Wm. & Co Gravity Book document WY/6/1/1/19 held at the Scottish Brewing Archive

3 comments:

dyranian said...

Don't know about Scotland but Aitchison's was sold alongside Barclay's stout in Belgium, perhaps they did the same at home

theologia naturalis said...

I would love to get my hands on any recipes from the Aitchison brewery. As a brewer and an Aitchison from the same blood line I want to brew my ancestral beer. Any idea how one might find that info?

Ron Pattinson said...

theologia naturalis, I think you're going to be unlucky. Though there are documents from Aitchison in the Scottish Brewing Archive, there don't appear to be any brewing records amongst them.