AK 1877 - 1913

Ten of fifteen years ago - not sure exactly when, but it was ages ago - I did a massive trawl of the internet looking for old brewery price lists. As well as going through all my brewery history books. It took weeks. But well worth it.

I transcribed them all into a spreadsheet. One with over 5,000 entries. That work compiling it was one of the reasons it took so long. Dead handy to have it now. As it enables me to quickly find dozens of examples of AK. 46, to be precise.

They come from a broad swathe of England. From Exeter in the Southwest across the South coast to Maidstone in Kent. Also the rest of London and the South, East Anglia, the Midlands and Yorkshire. Pretty much the whole of England except for the Northeast and the Northwest. (Including my hometown of Newark, obviously.) None come from either Wales or Scotland.

What did Victorians think AK was.? Going by the descriptions that accompany AK in price lists, most thought it was a Bitter. More than half the descriptions (25)  include that word. Light crops almost as many times (21 plus one Crystal). Often in conjunction with Bitter (18). Looks like back in the day drinkers, in general, thought AK was a Light Bitter.

Multiple occurrences of Family and Dinner (there's also one Luncheon) clearly illustrate that AK was considered a beer to be drunk at home with meals.

Put that all together and you have a beer that's light in three senses - colour, body and alcoholic strength - that will slip down nicely with food.

AK descriptions
descriptions	no. examples
Bitter	25
Light	21
Family	8
Pale Ale	5
Dinner	5
Mild	2
AK Bitter Ale	8
AK Light Bitter	3
AK Light Bitter Ale	10

Mild turns up just twice, once in a phrase which sounds an oxymoron to moderns ears: Mild Bitter. Mild here is clearly being used in the sens unaged, rather than to Mild Ale.

The relatively low alcoholic strength of AK is easily demonstrated by its price. One of the wonderful things about studying the period 1880 to 1914 is that beer prices were totally stable. A beer that was 36 shillings a barrel in 1880 was still 36 bob in 1914. So you can directly compare, as I do in my next table, a beer from 1877 and another from 1913.

To put prices into context, here's a full set for one brewery, coincidentally, from Newark.

Brewery	Place	year	beer	price per barrel
Goodwin Bros.	Newark	1885	Light Mild Ale	36
Goodwin Bros.	Newark	1885	X Mild Ale	36
Goodwin Bros.	Newark	1885	XX Mild Ale	42
Goodwin Bros.	Newark	1885	XXX Mild Ale	48
Goodwin Bros.	Newark	1885	XXXX Strong Ale	54
Goodwin Bros.	Newark	1885	XXXXX Strong Ale	60
Goodwin Bros.	Newark	1885	Extra Strong	72
Goodwin Bros.	Newark	1885	AK Bitter Ale	36
Goodwin Bros.	Newark	1885	PA Bitter Ale	42
Goodwin Bros.	Newark	1885	IPA Bitter Ale	54
Goodwin Bros.	Newark	1885	Double Stout	48
Goodwin Bros.	Newark	1885	Extra Stout	54

Not a bad range of beers. 

36 shillings a barrel was the cheapest beer at most breweries.You can see that they go up in increments of six shillings, which is 2d per gallon, or a farthing (a quarter of a penny) per pint. AA farthing being the smallest coin. Most didn't go as high as a 72 shilling beer. A beer that expensive would have been well North of 1100º.

Despite costing the same, AK and X Mild Ale most likely weren't the same strength. Pale Ales sold at a premium compared to Mild Ale or Porter. Usually around 2d per pint, though that was eroded over time. As I showed in an earlier post, AK had a gravity in the range 1045º-1050º. X Mild Ale was more likely 1050º-1055º.

Two-thirds  of the AKs I'm rummaging around in cost 36 shillings a barrel, 31 out of 46 examples. Eight were cheaper and seven more expensive. Six were in one price class up - 42 shillings - which implies to me a slightly stronger beer, 1050º-1055º. While the five that were one class weaker, at 30 shillings a barrel, were likely just 1040-1045º. Though there were always regional variations in the relation between gravity and price.

Here's yet another table:

Price of AK
Price	no. examples	%
30	5	11%
32	2	4%
34	1	2%
36	31	67%
38	1	2%
42	6	13%
total	46

And to end, the full table.

AK 1877 - 1913
Brewery	Place	year	beer	price per barrel	Source
A. Stannard	Portsmouth	1880	AK Light Family Bitter	36	Hampshire Telegraph - Saturday 18 December 1880, page 7
A.E. Keyes (Isherwood, Foster & Stacey Ltd.)	Maidstone	1890	AK Family Tonic Ale	36	Maidenhead Advertiser - Wednesday 17 December 1890 page 3.
Adey and White	St. Albans	1884	AK Bitter Beer	36	Gibbs' illustrated handbook to St. Albans, 1884
Arnol, Perret & Co	Wickwar, Gloucs	1895	AK Bitter Ale	36
Aylesbury Brewery	Aylesbury	1900	AK	30	Bucks Herald - Saturday 03 November 1900, page 1.
Baddow Brewery	Great Baddow	1905	AK Light Dinner Ale	36	Essex Newsman - Saturday 19 August 1905, page 1.
Byles & Co	Henley	1876	AK Light Pale Ale	36	Harrod & Co.'s Directory of Beds, Bucks ..., 1876
C. & J. Attlee	Tooting	1885	AK Bitter Ale	32
Charrington Nicholl & Co	Colchester	1885	AK Bitter Ale	36
Crowley & Co.	Alton	1905	AK Family Ale	36	Hants and Berks Gazette and Middlesex and Surrey Journal - Saturday 09 December 1905, page 1.
Daniell & Son	Colchester	1894	AK Pale Ale	36	Kelly's Directory of Essex, Herts & Middx, 1894
Dunnell	Banbury	1890	AK Light Bitter	30	Banbury Guardian - Thursday 30 January 1890, page 1.
E. Greene & Son	Bury St Edmonds	1887	AK Light Bitter Ale
Eldridge Pope	Dorchester	1890	AK Bitter Ale	36	Hampshire Chronicle - Saturday 25 January 1890, page 2.
Epping Brewery	Epping	1898	AK Light Bitter	36
F.R. Sutton	Brigg	1894	AK Light Bitter Ale	42	Lincolnshire Chronicle - Friday 03 August 1894, page 4.
Flower & Sons	Stratford-on-Avon	1890	AK Family Ale	30
Frank Higgens	Buckingham	1890	AK Specially recommended	42	Buckingham Advertiser and Free Press - Saturday 04 January 1890, page 6.
Fullers	Chiswick	1893	AK Light Bitter Ale	36	Kelly's Directory for Ealing, Acton, 1893-94
Gardner	near Sandwich	1882	AK Mild Beer	30	Hastings and St Leonards Observer - Saturday 25 November 1882, page 1
Godsell & Sons	Stroud, Gloucs	1902	AK Light Dinner Ale	36	Kelly's Directory of Somerset, 1902
Goodwin Bros.	Newark	1885	AK Bitter Ale	36
Henry Lovibond	Fulham	1889	AK Mild Bitter	38
Hodges and Ritchie	Brighton	1884	AK Bitter Ale	42	Pike's Weald of Kent & Romney Marsh Directory, 1884-85
Holes	Newark	1901	AK Luncheon Ale	36	Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald - Saturday 11 May 1901
Humby & Baillie	Stafford	1896	AK Light Dinner Ale	36	Kelly's Directory of Warwickshire 1896
Ind Coope	Romford	1890	AK Light Bitter	42	Eyre's Post Office Plymouth & District Directory, 1890
Ind Coope	Romford	1890	AK Light Bitter Beer	36	East Anglian Daily Times - Monday 31 March 1890, page 4.
Kidd & Co.	Donnington (near Newbury, Berks)	1877	AK Light Bitter Ale	36	Newbury Weekly News and General Advertiser - Thursday 27 September 1877, page 7.
Kirkstall Brewery	Leeds	1888	AK Light Bitter Ale	36	Yorkshire Gazette - Saturday 30 June 1888, page 3
Leney	Wateringbury	1884	AK Pale Ale	42	Pike's Weald of Kent & Romney Marsh Directory, 1884-85
Major Lucas	Northampton	1893	AK Light Amber Ale	36	Northampton Directory, 1893-94
Northampton Brewery	Northampton	1880	AK Family Pale Ale, a sparkling and agreeable Tonic	36	Spencers' Illustrated Leicester Almanac, 1880
Reffell's Brewery	Bexley, Kent	1888	AK Light Bitter	36
Rigden	Faversham	1913	AK Light Bitter Ale	34	William Whiteley General Price List October, 1913, Volume 2, page 1197.
Roger's	Bristol	1889	AK Bitter Ale	36
Stansfeld & Co.	Fulham	1903	AK Crystal Ale	36	Sussex Agricultural Express - Saturday 24 January 1903, page 9.
Thomas Gundry	Redhill, Surrey	1878	AK Family Ale	42	Post Office Directory of Sussex, 1878
Tomson & Wotton	Ramsgate	1899	AK Light Bitter Ale	30	Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald - Saturday 07 October 1899, page 4
Tomson & Wotton	Ramsgate	1899	AK Light Bitter Ale	36	Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald - Saturday 07 October 1899, page 4
Vincent & Co.	Bracknell	1883	AK Family Pale Ale	36	Reading Mercury - Saturday 03 November 1883, page 7.
W.E. & J. Rigden	Faversham	1902	AK Light Bitter Ale	36	Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald - Saturday 06 December 1902, page 1
Walcot Brewery	Bath	1884	AK Bitter Ale	36	Post Office Bath Directory, 1884-85
Waltham Abbey Brewery	Waltham Abbey	1882	AK Stock Bitter Ale	36	Kelly's Directory of Essex, 1882
Waltham Bros.	London	1898	AK Light Biitter Ale	36
Watney, Combe, Reid	London	1913	AK Ale, Bitter Ale (Dinner Bitter)	36	William Whiteley General Price List October, 1913, Volume 2, page 1197.
Wimbeldon Brewery	Wimbledon	1889	AK Dinner Ale	32	advertisement in Surrey Independent