Cairnes beers in 1898

Now here's a treat for you: the beers of a regional Irish brewery. Cairnes being based in Drogheda, a town about 40 km north of Dublin.

Their set of beers is an intriguing one: a Table Beer, a Mild Ale, a Pale Ale, and IPA and two Stouts. Though the latter aren't quite what they appear.

Single Stout (SS) looks like it's really a Porter to me. It's about the same strength as contemporary London Porters. The terms Single Stout and Porter seem to have been used fairly interchangeably in Ireland.  Guinness Porter was a little stronger at about 1060º.

Double Stout (DS) is a little bit weaker than the Guinness of the day, Which was around 1075º. I assume Guinness Extra Stout was the beer it was supposed to compete with.

It's intriguing that Cairnes IPA wasn't all that much stronger - just 0.75% ABV - than the Table Beer. By the 1890s Table Beer had pretty much disappeared in England. With the dramatic fall in strength the conflict entailed, I don't expect that it survived WW I.

I assume that the beer simply called Ale was a type of Mild Ale. Though it is quite strong for a base-level Mild. Oddly, it's their second-strongest beer, after Double Stout.

The IPA is pretty close to the classic 1065º gravity. Though a poor degree of attenuation leaves it just under 5.5% ABV. It's not clear is this was a Stock Ale. If it were, then the real FG would have been considerably lower.

Cairnes beers in 1898
Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	Pitch temp
TB	Table Beer	1045	1009	4.76	80.00%	7.35	1.40	60º F
Ale	Mild	1067	1017	6.61	74.63%	9.99	3.01	60º F
E.I. Ale	Pale Ale	1055	1012	5.69	78.18%	9.76	2.23	60º F
IP Ale	IPA	1064	1023	5.42	64.06%	10.91	3.01	60º F
SS	Stout	1055	1012	5.69	78.18%	7.32	1.79	60º F
DS	Stout	1071	1016	7.28	77.46%	8.68	2.99	60º F
Source:
Cairnes brewing record held at the Guinness archives.