Sunday, 7 September 2025

Glasgow

I made a flying visit to Glasgow this week. Obviously, to drop by the Scottish Brewing Archive. But also for frequent flyer reasons. As it looked like I was going to end 12 months just short of retaining my gold status with KLM. To make sure of qualifying, I've arranged a couple of trips to the UK to visit archives.

I'd already photographed a lot of the brewing records. But there was still plenty to keep me occupied for a day. Some of it was just filling in some gaps in William Younger and Thomas Usher records. There was some totally new stuff, though. Like Meiklejohn, Belhaven and Binnie. And sort of Lorimer & Clark. Because I'd never looked at their records in the archive before. But had photographed one of their books in the Caledonian brewery a few years back. Just as well I did, because they couldn't find it in the archive.

I was particularly interested in looking at the records of Belhaven. As there are some brewing books from the late 19th century. The topic of the book I'm currently working on. Unfortunately, the relevant book is in poor condition. Too poor for me to look at it.

However, there was a folder of loose sheets. Which seem to be a transcript of at least part of that book. But which had been weirdly miscatalogued. The dates as in the format dd.mm.yy. And they's assumed that the years were 1971 and 1983. While it's actually 1871 and 1883.

The transcripts are dead handy. Containing most of the information I need. There are a couple of things missing. I can live with that.

Here's an example:

A sheet of printed details of Belhaven beers from October 1871. 60/-, II, 50/-, 100/-, 3 and 140/-.


 

 

6 comments:

Tritun Books said...

So they were using litres/deg kg in the 19th century?

Ron Pattinson said...

I don't think so. Whoever transcribed the records has converted some things to metric.

Anonymous said...

I'd be interested in any other details on the Glasgow trip if you happened to take photos.

Bribie G said...

Growing up in Newcastle upon Tyne, our equivalent of Southern Mild, "Scotch" was basically McEwan's Scotch north of the Tyne in the "blue star" pubs and Lorimer's Scotch south of the Tyne in the Vaux pubs. With Fed Ordinary in the clubs.

I've often wondered whether the Lorimer's Scotch was all trucked down from Edinburgh or whether it was also brewed in Sunderland, and if so did the recipes differ? If you come across anything in the Lorimers records that would be very interesting.

I really liked the Lorimers, it was a little sweeter and more "mellow" than the McEwans to my taste and I'd often walk over the High Level Bridge to drink in Gateshead. .

Anonymous said...

Makes sense as time goes on fewer and fewer people will be able to understand non-metric measures.
Oscar

Anonymous said...

Aren’t there some ales branded as 60 shilling ales that are effectively mild ales?
Oscar