Scottish Pale Ale/IPA in the middle of the 19th century

Scotland, more specifically Edinburgh, was one of the first places outside Burton to take up brewing the trendy new IPA style. As early as the 1840’s, Edinburgh brewers were producing IPA for both the home and the Indian markets.

Trying to split apart Pale Ale and IPA in this early period is pointless. Brewers were highly inconsistent in their use of the two terms. In general, IPA was used to describe all early Pale Ales, regardless of their characteristics. Later in the 19th century Scottish brewers generally adopted the term Pale Ale instead, though IPA was sometimes used to denote one particular beer in a range of Pale Ales. Confused? You should be. I’ve been trying to get my head around this for a decade and still struggle.

Here’s confirmation that that early date Scotland was both exporting, and drinking, IPA:

"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.

Despite what you may have been told to the contrary, early IPAs were not particularly strong beers, at least by the standard of the day. They were, however, extremely heavily hopped. AT levels that just look plain crazy today. Heavy hopping was very necessary for export versions, if the beer were to arrive in India in good shape.

WH Roberts provides some intriguing analyses of Scottish-brewed IPAs in the 1840’s. Some are surprisingly weak, even ones genuinely exported to India:

Early 19th century IPA
Year	Brewer	Beer	Price	size	package	FG	OG	ABV	App. Atten-uation
1844	Unknown	90/- IPA Export, India	20.00d	gallon	bottled	1007.75	1067.6	7.60	88.54%
1844	Unknown	84/- IPA Export	18.67d	gallon	draught	1005.25	1060.4	7	91.30%
1844	Unknown	95/- IPA Export	21.11d	gallon	draught	1008	1069.4	7.8	88.48%
1844	Unknown	90/- IPA Export, India	20.00d	gallon	draught	1008	1066.3	7.4	87.93%
1844	Unknown	84/- IPA Export, India	18.67d	gallon	draught	1010	1062	6.6	83.86%
1844	Unknown	81/- IPA Home	18.00d	gallon	draught	1012	1059.3	6	79.75%
1844	Unknown	60/- IPA Export, India	13.33d	gallon	bottled	1006.5	1053.8	6	87.91%
1844	Unknown	60/- IPA Export, India	13.33d	gallon	bottled	1005	1053.8	6.2	90.71%
1844	Unknown	60/- IPA Export, India	13.33d	gallon	bottled	1013	1054.2	5.23	76.00%
1844	Unknown	90/- IPA Export, India	20.00d	gallon	bottled	1012	1065.6	6.8	81.69%
1844	Unknown	95/- IPA Export, India	21.11d	gallon	bottled	1007.25	1067.1	7.6	89.20%
1844	Unknown	90/- IPA Export	20.00d	gallon	bottled	1007.5	1068.9	7.8	89.12%
1844	Unknown	60/- IPA Home	13.33d	gallon	bottled	1005	1044.7	5.04	88.81%
1844	Unknown	60/- IPA Home	13.33d	gallon	bottled	1004.25	1049.9	5.8	91.49%
1844	Unknown	60/- IPA Home	13.33d	gallon	bottled	1006	1047.2	5.23	87.28%
1844	Unknown	81/- IPA Export	18.00d	gallon	bottled	1003	1061.3	7.4	95.10%
1844	Unknown	81/- IPA Export	18.00d	gallon	bottled	1003.25	1058.4	7	94.43%
1844	Unknown	66/- IPA Export	14.67d	gallon	bottled	1004	1054.4	6.4	92.65%
1844	Unknown	90/- IPA Export, India	20.00d	gallon	bottled	1010.25	1070.1	7.6	85.38%
1844	Unknown	90/- IPA Export	20.00d	gallon	bottled	1009	1067.3	7.4	86.62%
1845	Unknown	81/- IPA Home	18.00d	gallon	draught	1006.5	1053.8	6	87.91%
1845	Unknown	81/- IPA Home	18.00d	gallon	bottled	1006	1054.8	6.2	89.06%
1845	Unknown	81/- IPA Home	18.00d	gallon	bottled	1005	1058.6	6.8	91.46%
1845	Unknown	81/- IPA Home	18.00d	gallon	bottled	1005	1060.1	7	91.68%
1845	Unknown	81/- IPA Home	18.00d	gallon	bottled	1005.25	1058.8	6.8	91.07%
1845	Unknown	90/- IPA Export	20.00d	gallon	draught	1012.25	1062.7	6.4	80.45%
1845	Unknown	90/- IPA Export	20.00d	gallon	draught	1012.25	1064.2	6.6	80.93%
1845	Unknown	90/- IPA Export	20.00d	gallon	draught	1012	1062.4	6.4	80.77%
1845	Unknown	90/- IPA Export, India	20.00d	gallon	bottled	1010.5	1068.5	7.4	84.68%
1845	Unknown	60/- IPA Export	13.33d	gallon	bottled	1004.25	1048.4	5.6	91.21%
1845	Unknown	60/- IPA Export	13.33d	gallon	draught	1004.25	1048.4	5.6	91.21%
1845	Unknown	63/- IPA Export	14.00d	gallon	draught	1005.5	1049.6	5.6	88.91%
1845	Unknown	81/- IPA Export	18.00d	gallon	bottled	1003.75	1058.9	7	93.63%
1845	Unknown	63/- IPA Export	14.00d	gallon	bottled	1003.25	1055.2	6.6	94.11%
1845	Unknown	90/- IPA Export	20.00d	gallon	draught	1007.5	1068.9	7.8	89.12%
1845	Unknown	90/- IPA Export	20.00d	gallon	draught	1007.75	1069.2	7.8	88.80%
1846	Unknown	90/- IPA Export	20.00d	gallon	draught	1006	1054.8	6.2	89.06%
1846	Unknown	90/- IPA Home	20.00d	gallon	draught	1006.5	1055.3	6.2	88.25%
1846	Unknown	90/- IPA Export	20.00d	gallon	bottled	1005	1052.3	6	90.43%
1846	Unknown	65/- IPA Export	14.44d	gallon	bottled	1005.25	1062	7.2	91.53%
Source:
“Scottish Ale Brewer”, by W.H. Roberts, Edinburgh, 1847,  pages 171 and 173

The weakest IPA exported to India was just over 5% ABV. That’s not even a strong beer by modern standards. It’s interesting that they go all the way from 60/- to 90/-. The latter is very rare as a beer designation. Though weirdly it popped up again in the 1920’s to describe a low-gravity (low 1030º’s) bottled Pale Ale. More recently it’s been used for Strong/Scotch Ales.

The IPAs William Younger was brewing a few years later look remarkably similar to those analysed by Roberts.

William Younger Pale Ales 1851 - 1853
Year	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
1851	XP	1060	1018	5.56	70.00%	20	5.15
1851	XXP	1072	1018	7.14	75.00%	24	8.18
1852	XP	1056	1018	5.03	67.86%	20	4.66
1852	XXP	1067	1017	6.61	74.63%	24	8.20
1853	XP	1056	1015	5.42	73.21%	20	5.14
Source:
William Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/2/5.

The text above is another excerpt from my tone-setting tome on the history of Scottish beer. Way better than any other book on the subject.

http://www.lulu.com/shop/ronald-pattinson/scotland-vol-2/paperback/product-23090497.html