Porter in 18th-century Scotland

I'm currently delving into murkier depths of the newspaper archive, back in the 18th century. A time when the distinction between the letters f and s wasn't great.

Below is a letter complaining about the lack of patriotism that saw Scottish-brewed Porter eschewed. People will always find something to moan about. But that's not why I've reproduced it. The reason is what it tells us about Porter in 1770's Edinburgh.

"To the Printer of the Caledonian Mercury.
Edinburgh, January 9.
SIR,
IT is with the greatest pleasure we perceive, that his Grace the Duke of Argyle, my Lord Gardenston, and many other worthy gentlemen in Scotland are now patronizing its staple, the Woollen Manufacture. I have of late been in several houses where these manufactures are carried on ; and could observe, that, with proper encouragement, great things might be done. I could wish to see our nobility and gentry pay the same attention to the article of porter, on which I have already said a good deal. I can, with the greatest truth, affirm, that it is brewed, by all the gentlemen I formerly mentioned, to a degree of perfection, much superior to the common run of that sold by many in Edinburgh as London porter. It is a great misfortune to the people in this country, that they give countenance to those articles with which we can so well supply ourselves: We even encourage publicans who are strangers, though they have the insolence to refuse selling porter; because it is Scots. Think, for a moment, countrymen, and feel for that country which gave you existence: Let us go hand in hand with our sister country, in doing every thing to promote the good of both; but let us observe the old proverb, Charity begins at home —  I have lately heard, that a porter-house returned a few dozens of porter, because it was Scots. A certain set of merchants, if they maybe so called, (being rather porter-bottlers) have the great hand in carrying on this pernicious trade. Nor must I pass over those worthies, the tax-gatherers for the impost, who, in order to rob the country of 10s. each hogshead, become importers forsooth, and what not.

I am surprised to observe, that Mr A. B. from Dumfries, should complain, that no notice has been as yet taken of Agricola's Letters: I can inform him, that they were very early taken notice of by me in. my Letters, and by every body with whom I had the pleasure of being in company, who had the welfare of their country at heart: And I have often asked him, and still wish, that Agricola, for his own honour and that of his country, would put his real name to his excellent letters.
D. LOCH."
Caledonian Mercury - Monday 09 January 1775, page 3.

That confusion between f's and s's. For a moment I thought it said "fister country". I suppose some would argue England shafted Scotland, but fisting is going a bit far.

The letter tells us that in the 1870's Porter was already being brewed in Scotland. But also that, for reasons unconnected with quality, London Porter was preferred by pub landlords. I wonder why they are called "strangers"? Does it mean foreigners? In which case, what flavour of foreigner? It could just be the English.

And that Porter was being imported from London and bottled in Edinburgh. I'd have been very surprised to come across that practice in England, but I know that bottled beer was common at a very early date in Scotland.

Maybe the reluctance of Scots to buy home-produced Porter is why the style never really took off amongst Scottish brewers. And was dropped relatively early. The last sighting I have of William Younger's Porter is 1869, a time when the style was still slap bang in the mainstream in London. Confusingly, Younger called the beer both P and BS in the brewhouse. Sometimes on the same brewing record.

Next time we'll be looking at William Younger's 19th-century Porter.

A New Pub

"They've opened a new pub next to Dirk's." Dolores told me a day or two ago. A new pub. You can never have too many pubs.

"Where?"

"Right next to the Dirk's. Where they dug out all the stinky earth. They were open at 9:30 in the morning."

"Sounds like my type of pub."

I was still none the wiser. Only one option: take Andrew there at the nearest opportunity.

Saturday afternoon was that opportunity. It is indeed, right next door to Dirk's. In what used to be a workshop or something. The former industrial use is pretty obvious. Especially as they've performed minimal redecoration.

"It's got that rustic Belgian look, Dad."

Andrew's right. The walls are decorated with Belgian stuff. Old beer sign, posters. Makes the place quite atmospheric. There's an especially attractive Aigle Pils sign over the bar. The sort of thing I'd have in my living room, if I didn't have a wife.

"Look at all the families in here, Dad."

Andrew's right again. "I hate people who take their kids to the pub, son." I blame all the space. Plenty of room for those three-wheel yuppie pushchairs.  I'm reminded of the "Yuppies raus" graffiti that recently appeared on another gentrified pub in the nighbourhood.

We sit at the bar. A pleasant, copper-topped affair, but not quite flat. My beer leans alarmingly until I move it to a flatter spot. Next to my Filliers 8.

"The food looks nice, Dad."

"All the sustenance I need is in the two glasses in front of me."

"It's only 2.25 for a Pils." 

That's important to Andrew, as a Pils drinker. I'm more worried about the price of stuff I drink. €4.50 for a Tripel Karmeliet isn't too extortionate. Not for Amsterdam nowadays. And €3.80 for a Gouden Carolus Classic I can live with, too.

Somewhere new locally for me to go. Brilliant.




Van Mechelen
Sloterkade 96-H,
1058HK Amsterdam.
Tel: +31 20 221 2348  
email: info@stadscafevanmechelen.nl
http://www.stadscafevanmechelen.nl/
Opening times: Sun - Mon 09:00 - 01:00;
Fri - Sat 09:00 - 02:00.

Water Splash Tragedy

No, not the tragedy of water splashing into your beer. A real tragedy, one invloving two deaths.

People come up with all sorts of excuses to get off a drunk driving charge. This one is particularly weird.

"WATER SPLASH TRAGEDY
MEN POISONED IN MOTOR CAR.
DRUNKENNESS CHARGE AGAINST DRIVER DISMISSED.

The recent water splash motor tragedy near Shenley, Hertfordshire, where two men were found dead in a motor car, had sequel at Barnet Police Court to-day, when the driver the car, Victor Alphonso Mercihant, a general dealer, of Barnet, appeared on remand charged with being drunk charge of the car.

A verdict of "Death from misadventure" was returned at the inquest last week on the two men — George Smith and William Soul — after Dr. G. B. Egerton had attributed death to heart failure following exposure accentuated by alcohol.

Lord Strafford was tho presiding magistrate to-day, and the Bench included two women. Merchant pleaded not guilty.


LESSON TO MOTOR DRIVERS.
Mr. Levy, prosecuting for the police, said that the culminating tragedy of this motoring and drinking expedition, ending as it did in the death of two men, should be a lesson to all drivers to abstain from alcohol. On November 16th, 2.45 p.m., Mr. J. Stirling, garage proprietor, was at the water splash on the Shenley and Arkley roads, and saw a car coming towards him. He put his hand up to stop it, but no notice was taken. The driver, after various manoeuvres, went into the water splash, and it seemed to nose dive into it. The men were all laughing and joking. When a police officer arrived later he shouted to those the car, but as there was no reply he waded into water. The men all appeared to be in a drunken state, were snoring loudly, and were fast asleep.

When Merchant awoke he said to the officer: "We can pull in here for sleep, can't we?" He got out of the car, tried to run away and fell. When taken to Shenley police-station the divisional surgeon certified that Merchant was recovering from the effects of drink.

He understood defence that would be put forward would be that these men died from carbon monoxide poisoning, and that Merchant was suffering from carbon monoxide. He was drank at 3 o'clock, and recovering from the effects of too much alcohol 6.20 p.m. In a statement he made at the police station Merchant said that he and his brother intended going on a fishing expedition, but it was pouring with rain, they remained the Arkley Hotel, where two old friends — the dead men — joined them. He had two bitters there. Then they went to the Lord Nelson, where they had some more drink.

"I paid for four pints of mild ale," the statement continued, "and another man paid for four more pints of beer. After a time we all commenced to play darts, and I had no further drinks, but I think my brother and the two other men had some more. At 2.30 p.m., all left the public-house together, and to my knowledge my mates were all quite sensible and sober.


"SEEN THEM DRINK GALLONS."
"At the water splash I saw a big car stuck in the water, and tried to pass it on the left. I left the road, and got up on the grass, which was all under water. My brother started the car several times, but the back wheels skidded. While I was endeavouring to drive the car out I collapsed over the wheel, and the next thing I remember was being pulled out of the car by a constable, who said, 'I have been trying to wake you up an hour ago.' So far as I can recollect both side windows in front of the car were open. In my opinion, my friends were not drunk when we left the Lord Nelson. As a matter fact. I have never seen them drunk, and have seen them drink gallons."

When the plans of the scene of tho accident were produced, Mr. Vyvyan Wells, for the defence, challenged their accuracy.

Mr. Weymann, the landlord of the Lord Nelson, said the men were all jolly and lively when they left his house. "They were quite sober, he added.

Mr. Levy's application to treat Weymann as a hostile witness was refused.

Professor J. S. Haldane, whose evidence for the defence was interposed, said that after reading the report of the inquest he communicated with the defence, and agreed to give evidence. He had read a statement concerning a test made by Dr. Walters, of Middlesex Hospital. "It absolutely conclusive," he said, "that these men died of carbon monoxide poisoning. There is not the smallest shadow of doubt on the subject."

Questioned on tho comparative effects of alcohol and carbon monoxide poisoning, he said: "I don't think havo ever been drunk, but I have been under the influence of carbon monoxide." (Laughter.)

Professor Leonard Hill, whose voluntary evidence was also interposed, agreed entirely with Professor Haldane.

The charge was dismissed.

Mr. Wells applied for costs, but these were not allowed."
Nottingham Evening Post - Wednesday 27 November 1929, page 9.

I'm not sure what to make of that. Did the men really die of carbon monoxide poisoning?  It seems unlikely, given that the car windows were open and the engine wasn't running. Sounds like a pretty pathetic excuse to me.

Even based on what he admitted to drinking, the driver would have been over the limit today. Two pints and Bitter and two of Mild is a fair bit, especially when you consider beer was a bit stronger then. The Bitters were probably at least 4.5% ABV and the Milds 3.6% ABV.

The Lord Nelson and Arkley Arms both seem to still exist. Here's the Lord Nelson:

Do you see what's above the first floor windows? Two cannons. Isn't that interesting. I wonder if it was a Taylor Walker pub? Because I have details of their beers for 1929.

It was Cannon Brewery not Taylor Walker. You can find a corrected post here.

Want to take a look? Sure you do.

Taylor Walker beers in 1929
Beer	Style	Price	size	package	Acidity	FG	OG	ABV	App. Atten-uation
Brown Ale	Brown Ale	8d	pint	bottled			1043.30
X	Mild	6d	pint	draught	0.07	1013.8	1043.8	3.88	68.49%
KK	Strong Ale	8d	pint	draught	0.07	1014.9	1051.2	4.71	70.90%
X	Mild	6d	pint	draught	0.05	1014.7	1044	3.79	66.59%
X	Mild	6d	pint	draught	0.06	1013.6	1042.6	3.75	68.08%
X	Mild	6d	pint	draught	0.06	1013.8	1043	3.78	67.91%
KK	Strong Ale	8d	pint	draught	0.08	1016	1055	5.06	70.91%
Pale Ale	Pale Ale	7d	pint	draught	0.05	1010.4	1044	4.36	76.36%
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001
Truman Gravity Book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/C/252

The Pale Ale at the end would be their Bitter. So my guess of  4.5% ABV wasn't far out.

London Porter in Leeds in the 1770's

Yes, it's another spotting of London Porter out in the provinces in the 18th century. This time the other side of the Pennines, in Leeds.

"LONDON PORTER.
Gentlemen and innkeepers may supplied with the best LONDON PORTER, from the noted House of FELIX, CALVERT, and Co. at £1. 18s. per Barrel, containing 36 Gallons, 19s. 6d. per Kilderkin, containing 18 Gallons. By JOHN PROCKTER, At the Top the Swan Yard, near the Cross, LEEDS.

He also begs Leave to acquaint his Friends and the Public, That he has begun sell RUM, BRANDY, GENEVA, &c. by Retail as well as Wholesale, on the very lowest Terms.
Leeds Intelligencer - Tuesday 10 June 1777, page 2.

How had the Porter got to Leeds, which is well inland? Probably by water. In the early 18th century a canal - the Aire and Calder Navigation - linked Leeds to the sea at Goole. My guess would be that the Porter came along that route. First by sea from London to Goole and from there to Leeds by river and canal.

Felix Calvert was, at the time, one of the largest London Porter breweries, hence one of the largest breweries in the world. As you can see in this table, they were in third place, behind only John Calvert and Whitbread:

Largest London Porter brewers in 1777
Brewer	output (barrels)
Thrale	85,300
Whitbread	110,100
Truman	80,900
Felix Calvert	87,000
John Calvert	106,400
Meux, Reid	27,500
Gyfford	81,100
Source:
“The Brewing Industry in England 1700-1830”, Peter Mathias, 1959, p 551-552

Why did they bother mentioning that a barrel was 36 gallons and a kilderkin 18 gallons? Because this is from a time when Ale and Beer barrels were different sizes. An Ale barrel held just 32 gallons and an Ale Kilderkin 16 gallons.

Price stability. Something that's hard to imagine nowadays. In 1914, a barrel of Porter cost 36 shillings. Scarcely any more Less than the 38 shillings being charged in 1777. The extra two bob could well have been for the trouble of lugging it all the way to Leeds.

Plantation News

"PLANTATION NEWS.
Extract of a letter from one of the Workmen under the Governor of Nova Scotia, to hit Mother, dated August 21, 1749 at Halifax.

Dear Mother,

These few Lines are to acquaint you of our safe Arrival at our new Settlement at Halifax, in Nova Stcnia. We had a most delightful Passage, not having so much at one Person die on board us ; and as to this Place, there is not its Fellow in the World, for a Man may catch as much Fish in two Hours as will serve six or seven People a whole Week, such as Cod, Hallebut, Turbut, Salmon, Skait, Haddock and Lobsters, and they lie as thick as the Stones in Cheapside, so that Billingsgate is but a Fish-stall in Comparison to it: And as to Fruit, we have Plenty of Limes, Peaches, Apricots, Rasberries, Strawberries, all wild. We have got good Rum at 3s. a Gallon, and Red and White Port a Shilling a Bottle; but there is one Thing wanting, which is, a Pot of good London Porter and Purl."
Newcastle Courant - Saturday 21 October 1749, page 1.

A passage so good not even one person died.

Potato Beer

Obscure central European beer styles. They used to be a bit of a speciality of mine. Until Scotland appeared and, like a hyperactive toddler, dragged away all my attention.

Dolores found me a very handy electronic book over the weekend. It's "Der Bier-Brauer" by A.F. Zimmermann, published in 1842. Part of the subtitle - "Erfindung der Kartoffel-Bier Brauerei (the Invention of the Potato-Beer Brewery) - tells you it wasn't published in Bavaria. Right down my street, it is. Because there are big sections of Berliner Weisse and one of my favourite lost styles, Broyhan.

Though the author had his own particular way of brewing Broyhan. He's dismissive of the need for wheat malt in the grist and suggests using potato starch or potato syrup instead. Don't ask me what potato syrup is. It seems to be a kind of sugar syrup made from potatoes. Very weird.

There's a pretty complete recipe for Potato Broyhan. Two recipes, in fact. One using potato syrup and one actual potatoes. Fascinating stuff, with full mashing details and everything. I'm considering translating and posting them. It will be a fair bit of work, what with reading the horrible Gothic script and translating the clunky 19th-century German. So much work, that I'd rather not bother with it unless I'm sure that someone wants to read it.

Here's the question: who's interested in a Potato Broyhan recipe (or two)?

Tetley Milds in 1878

I've been putting this off for ages, going through Tetley's Milds. They just brewed so damn many of the things. At least four. Possibly five. I'm not totally sure whether XX was a Strong Mild Ale of a Strong Ale. Six of one, roundabouts of another, I guess.

In my customary contextualisation effort, I'll be comparing the Milds of Tetley to those of London. Always a good laugh, that one. Doubtless you'll be chortling into your cornflakes as you read it. Much as I would be myself. If I chortled. And if I ate cornflakes.

Tetley's Milds covered a fair range of gravities, from 1044º to 1078º. Which just shows what a flexible concept Mild Ale was. How many current styles span 30-odd gravity points? None, clearly, because the pointy heads writing style guidelines wouldn't allow that. They like their styles caged like battery hens, unable to turn around or even stand up. Even that range was a trimming down of the situation in the first half of the nineteenth century when the upper end was 1100º plus.

But I've started to drive on the verge again. Back to the topic in hand. First let's take a look at the general characteristics of these Milds. There's one obvious difference between Tetley's Milds and the London ones: there was no equivalent in the capital of the two weakest varieties, X and X1. It's scary how the remaining three map virtually exactly to London beers.

A little background. In the first half of the 19th century London Milds went from X up to XXXX. The stronger Milds were mostly dropped and, as you can see in the table, by the 1870's XXX and XXXX had disappeared. And only Barclay Perkins of the three brewers were looking at even brewed an XX. Whitbread's XL and Truman's 40/- Ale are really X and a half. You can see that their gravities are a good bit lower than Barclay Perkins XX - about 10 gravity points.

The level of attenuation at Tetley varied quite a lot between individual batches, but was mostly in the range 68-78%. Fairly similar to in London.

Hopping. I always like looking at hopping levels. Easy bit first, the XX's. Both in terms of pounds of hops per quarter (around 14) and per barrel (around 5) they're pretty similar. The next to strongest Tetley Mild, X3, is significantly more heavily hopped than either Whitbread XL or Truman 40/-, the London beers with similar gravities. On the other hand, X2 had about 50% fewer hops than London X Ales of Whitbread and Barclay Perkins. And about the ssmae as Truman X Ale. Not much of an overall pattern there.

As for boiling, the London brewers boiled a tad longer, but not by a huge amount.

London brewers pitched 6 or 7 degrees cooler, at around 60º F, but let the temperature rise more during fermentation, 11-14º F. At Tetley the temperature never rose more than 4º F, never exceeding 70º F. Which probably explains why the fermentation period was a day or two less in London, at six or seven days.

That's it for the general specs. We'll be looking at the ingredients next time.

Tetley Milds in 1878
Date	Year	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	boil time (hours)	Pitch temp	max. fermen-tation temp	length of fermen-tation (days)
7th Oct	1878	X	1044.3	1012.7	4.18	71.25%	5.31	0.83	2	69º	69.5º	8
4th Oct	1878	X1	1048.5	1011.1	4.95	77.14%	6.23	1.16	2	68º	69.75º	7
7th Oct	1878	X1	1048.5	1011.6	4.87	76.00%	6.27	1.23	2	69º	69.75º	9
13th Dec	1878	X1	1048.5	1019.4	3.85	60.00%	5.24	0.99	2	67º	67.75º	6
13th Dec	1878	X1	1051.2	1021.1	3.99	58.92%	5.24	1.05	2	67º	67.5º	7
7th Oct	1878	X1	1052.1	1011.1	5.42	78.72%	6.27	1.32	2	68º	69.5º	8
4th Oct	1878	X1	1052.6	1011.1	5.50	78.95%	6.23	1.26	2	69º	69.75º	8
10th Dec	1878	X2	1056.8	1018.8	5.02	66.83%	8.32	1.79	2	65º	68.5º	9
9th Jan	1878	X2	1060.4	1015.5	5.94	74.31%	6.24	1.47	2	68º	69º	8
10th Dec	1878	X2	1060.9	1018.8	5.57	69.09%	8.32	1.92	2	65º	68.5º	9
9th Oct	1878	X3	1069.3	1016.6	6.96	76.00%	11.60	3.43	2	63º	67º	10
7th Oct	1878	XX	1073.1	1023.3	6.60	68.18%	14.00	4.53	2	66.75º	69.5º	10
3rd Oct	1878	XX	1077.6	1017.7	7.92	77.14%	14.00	5.89	2	68º	69.5º	10
Source:
Tetley brewing record held at the West Yorkshire Archive Service document number WYL756/25/ACC1903

London Milds 1875 - 1880
Date	Year	Brewer	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)	Pitch temp	max. fermen-tation temp	length of fermen-tation (days)
16th Jul	1878	Whitbread	X	1060.7	1015.8	5.94	73.97%	8.53	2.29	2.5	2		61º	º	7
16th Jul	1878	Whitbread	XL	1069.3	1018.3	6.74	73.60%	8.53	2.62	2.5	2		61º	º	7
17th Jan	1876	Truman	X Ale	1062.0	1013.9	6.38	77.68%	5.9	1.69				62º	73º
31st Mar	1875	Truman	40/- Ale	1068.1	1012.5	7.37	81.71%	7.5	2.42				60º	72º
31st Aug	1880	Barclay Perkins	X	1060.7	1013.6	6.23	77.63%	10.29	2.69	1.5	2	2	60º	74º	3 + 4
14th Feb	1880	Barclay Perkins	XX	1079.5	1024.1	7.33	69.69%	13.38	4.98	2	3		59º	73º	3 + 3
Sources:
Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives document number LMA/4453/D/01/044
Truman brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives document number B/THB/C/156
Barclay Perkins brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives document number ACC/2305/1/579

Home Brewed again

Ferreting around in the newspaper archive in search of Home Brewed, I came across some striking advertisements from the Nottingham Brewery.

They're odd in many ways - lots of white space, text in the form of a poem - but the language and tone are surprisingly modern in some respects. And mirror the kind of marketing used by some of the more cynical hip new breweries:

"MALTANOP—-up-to-date

THE ALE:
We never cease trying make this Ale more perfect
The rich, nut-brown Home Brewed
The briiliant, sparkling Bitter
Familiar to you as MALTANOP
Has about reached the limit of perfection
The very best Materials —The greatest care-yield
MALTANOP The last word in brewing skill.
Times out of number we have been asked to bottle
MALTANOP Home Brewed in Pints -
They are easier to handle than Quarts.
We have now done it.
They are ready to-day
MALTANOP H.B. in Pints 2/9 per dozen
Sold everywhere
Delivered immediately direct from here —Telephone 3324

THE LABEL:
We are discarding the old label
It was cumbersome —we have no use for the obsolete
We even improve our label
The old label bore witness that MALTANOP
remained bright and sparkling to the last drop
and could be drawn on from time to time
without becoming flat
Everybody knows that
We discard verbiage, we rely on your experience
The new label is exceedingly neat
It will please you
A label — not a narrative
MALTANOP Home Brewed is Red
MALTANOP Bitter is Green
No longer square, but oval
The change is in the label—NOT the ale
Our MALTANOP is better than ever

The Nottingham Brewery Ltd
Mansfield Road
Nottingham. 'Phone 3324"
Nottingham Evening Post - Saturday 21 March 1914, page 4.

This phrase "we have no use for the obsolete" sounds much like the line peddled by some of today's keg fans.

2s 9d for a dozen pints equates to 2.75d per bottle. On the eve of WW I, standard Mild cost 2d a pint, which means this Home Brewed was probably a similar strength, given the premium charged for bottled beer. Around 1050º or 5% ABV.

From the stuff about it being clear to the last drop it's obvious that these were artificially carbonated beers. The run up to WW I is when this type of beer was becoming popular and brewers were moving away from bottle conditioning for many styles of beer.

Here's a rather less wordy effort, though still giving Home Brewed a mention:

"MALTANOP

SOME ALE.

TRY IT
You will praise it -
not injudiciously
MALTANOP Rich Home Brewed.
Crisp Sparkling Bitter
Perfect for the table.
At the shops, or direct from us
Fresh and Brilliant
Usual prices

The Nottingham Brewery, Ltd
MANSFIELD ROAD,
NOTTINGHAM.
'Phone 3324."
Nottingham Evening Post - Monday 25 May 1914, page 4.

The Nottingham Brewery weren't the only ones to use the corny Maltanop name, as you can see from the label at the top of the page, which comes from a brewery in Grimsby. I've not been able to find a label for the Nottingham Brewery's version, unfortunately.

Home brewed beer and wine

We're back with old home-brewing recipes. Actually, one that looks very similar to the 1940's recipe I recently published.

So whay Am I repeating myself? For the introduction really. People will tell you that home brewing was legalised in Britain in 1963. That's not exactly true. Homebrewing was legal before that, but you needed to buy a licence. The rules (as they were in the 1930's) are explained below:

"HOME BREWED BEER AND WINE
If you consider following the recipe for home brewed beer, remember that beer is excisable if it contains alcohol, or the alcohol equivalent, of two per cent, proof spirit. Anyone who brews beer at home without complying with the Customs regulations is liable to prosecution. The only people entitled to a free licence are those who occupy houses of an annual rental of £8 or less, and they are allowed to brew not more than four bushels a year for their personal use. Where the rental is over £8 and up to £10, a licence costs 25s. a year; to a £15 rental, £2 10s. 0d.

A licence it not very expensive and it is better to pay small duty than to risk the anxiety and cost of possible summons, if beer is brewed at home.

On no account must anyone sell beer without a special licence for the purpose. I mention this because there are people who, having paid duty which enables them to make the beverage at home, think they can sell their product to compensate them for the cost of the licence.

Here is excellent recipe for home brewed beer:—

Hop Ale.
4oz. of dried hops, 2oz. of dandelion root and, if obtainable, 2oz. of gentian root. Boil in six gallons of water for 2.5 hours. When the liquid almost cold, strain it, and add 3 lb. of dark brown sugar and three tablespoonfuls of brewer's yeast. Stir well and cover. Next day, again strain the liquid or pour it off to leave the sediment behind. Put it into cask, fit the bung tightly and leave for a few days, after which will be fit to drink.

Carrot Wine.
Boil the carrots until they are tender, allowing life, to gallon of water. Strain tho liquor carefully through a jelly bag. Add 3 lb. or 4 lb. of preserving sugar to every gallon of liquid. and boil again for about three-quarters of hour. When the liquor has cooled down to 75 deg., add little yeast, and leave for a week in a warm place Stir thoroughly every day. Pour the liquor into a cask, and bum down when fermentation ceases The wine will be ready for use in about six months, when it may be bottled.

Egg Wine - A Splendid Tonic.
Take six eggs 0.5 lb. of castor sugar, three lemons, one gill of best rum, one pint of new milk. Put the whole eggs (with shells) into a bowl, squeeze the lemon juice over them, cover tightly and leave for 24 hours. Press all through a clean cloth (shells, too), then pour in the rum and add the sugar. Stir together until the sugar is dissolved. Add the milk, stir gently, and bottle. The lemon juice practically dissolves all the egg shells. Dose: One wineglassful twice day."
Nottingham Evening Post - Wednesday 16 December 1936.

Four bushels of malt is enough to brew about 72 gallons of 5% ABV beer.

The hop ale recipe is basically the same as the one from 1941, except for the addition of dandelion root and gentian root. I'm surpised dandelion root wasn't in the 1941 one. It would have been one of the few ingredients that were readily available.

I wonder what they mean by a dose of one wineglassful twice a day? Is that for some sort of medicinal purpose?

Home Brewed (part two)

Now it's time for a nice table of Home Brewed details. Not as many entries as I would have liked, but better than nothing. It gives us a chance to see in Andrew Campbell's description was correct.

There's one area where straight off I can see something that doesn't tally: not all of the examples were bottled beers. A couple were draught, at least before WW II.

I'm surprised to see the difference is strength between examples brewed at different breweries in Bristol. The Home Brewed from Georges and Rogers are pretty different. At 1036.7º, the one from Rogers is about the same strength as standard Mild of the day. Whereas Georges, at over 1050º, was closer in strength to a Burton. It's odd because beers with the same name brewed in the same town were usually generally similar.

You can see that WW II knocked down the strength, though Georges remained a respectable 1043º. The Starkey, Knight and Ford version is more like what I would expect a Brown Ale of the period to be, a little over 1030º.

There are only two entries with a colour given, unfortunately. Both are indeed brown, Starkey, Knight and Ford's somewhat darker than Georges. Nothing that contradicts Andrew Campbell's description is all I can really say.

Here's the table:

Home Brewed
Year	Brewer	Beer	Price	size	package	Acidity	FG	OG	colour	ABV	App. Atten-uation
1928	Devenish	Home Brewed	7d	pint	bottled		1002.7	1032.6		3.90	91.72%
1922	Georges	Home Brewed Ale		pint	draught		1011	1052.1		5.35	78.89%
1928	Georges	Home Brewed	8.5d	pint	bottled		1010.4	1055.3		5.86	81.19%
1930	Georges	Home Brewed	6d	half pint	bottled	0.06	1012	1056.6		5.81	78.80%
1936	Georges	Home Brewed	8.5d	pint	bottled	0.06	1016.2	1055.6		5.11	70.86%
1937	Georges	Home Brewed	8.5d	pint	bottled	0.07	1016.7	1053.2		4.73	68.61%
1952	Georges	Home Brew	11d	half pint	bottled	0.08	1009.9	1043.3	1.5 + 40	4.34	77.14%
1994	Home	Home Brewed		pint	bottled					3.60
1932	Hoskins	Home Brewed	8d	pint	bottled		1008.8	1043.7		4.54	79.86%
1922	Rogers	Home Brewed Ale		pint	draught		1008.4	1036.7		3.67	77.11%
1948	Starkey, Knight & Ford	Home Brewed	1/6d	pint	bottled	0.05	1008.3	1033.4	40 + 5.5	3.25	75.15%
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002
The Best of British Bottled Beer

Were Home Ales the last brewery to produce something called Home Brewed? I suspect they might have been.

Imperial Stout and Imperial Mild

There's so much to be learned from old newspapers. Even from small, seemingly dull articles. Like the one below.

"THE BEER TRADE.—The following- circular was sent round to the customers of the great London beer brewers on Monday:- "We beg to inform you, that from and after the 10th day of October, our prices will be as follows, viz.—Porter, 33s. per barrel; Stout 43s.; Double Stout, 53s.; Imperial Stout, 63s.; Ale, X, 48s.; Ditto, XX, 58s.; Ditto, XXX 68s.; Ditto, Imperial, 80s." This is a reduction of 12s. per barrel upon each beverage It is remarkable that the great beer brewers are now for the first time about to brew ale. "
Cambridge Chronicle and Journal - Friday 08 October 1830, page 4.

There's just so much juicy meat packed into that thin sandwich. Let's start chewing our way through it.

First, there's an early mention of Imperial Stout. And, as this was a letter sent to London publicans, it's clear that the Imperial Stout in question is not an export beer. No, it's clearly just the strongest Stout in the brewery's range.

What's slightly more surprising is to see the strongest Mild also called "Imperial". Especially I've been calling XXXX Ale "Imperial Mild" for a while now. I thought I was just making it up. Once again history has proved there's almost nothing that's genuinely new. I should have expected it, really.

The year is very important. 1830 was the year the Beer Act came into force. It effectively lowered the tax on beer, which is how come the breweries could knock 12 shillings off the price of a barrel.

Another measure in the Act was the introduction of a new class of pub called a beer house. These were directly licensed by the excise, not local magistrates and, as long as a few basic criteria were filled, the licenses were automatically issued. Unsurprisingly it led to huge wave of new pub openings.

These new pubs were the reason that the "beer brewers" - that is, Porter brewers - started brewing Ale. The new beer houses created a surge in demand for Ale. Up until this point Porter brewers had only tied their pubs for Porter and Stout, letting publicans buy their Ale from whomever they pleased. That all changed after the Beer Act.

The prices are worth closer inspection, too. Especially those of the Ales. The classic price for X Ale in the second half of the 19th century was 36 shillings a barrel. The same as Porter. Here it's almost 50% more expensive. Something which reflected the difference in strength between Porter and X Ale at the time.

You can probably guess what's coming next. Because obviously, it being London brewers and London beers under discussion, I've plenty of details of them. And not just from one of the large London Beer breweries, but from two. And from exactly the right period, the early 1830's.

Whitbread Ales
Date	Year	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	price per barrel	pence per gravity point
5th Dec	1836	X	Mild	1077.0	1029.4	6.30	61.87%	48	7.48
15th Mar	1837	XX	Mild	1091.4	1035.5	7.40	61.21%	58	7.61
11th Nov	1836	XXX	Mild	1102.8	1036.0	8.83	64.96%	68	7.94
23rd Dec	1836	XXXX	Mild	1114.7	1039.3	9.97	65.70%	80	8.37
Source:
Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/01/001

Whitbread Porter and Stout
Date	Year	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	price per barrel	pence per gravity point
21st May	1836	K	Porter	1060.7	1017.7	5.68	70.78%	33	6.53
3rd Aug	1836	P	Porter	1064.3	1017.7	6.16	72.41%	33	6.16
26th Aug	1836	S	Stout	1073.4	1024.4	6.49	66.79%	43	7.03
16th Aug	1836	DS	Stout	1082.5	1027.1	7.33	67.11%	53	7.70
Source:
Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/09/030

Truman Ales
Date	Year	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	price per barrel	pence per gravity point
3rd Dec	1831	X Ale	Mild	1072.3	1021.6	6.71	70.11%	48	7.97
18th Jul	1835	XX Ale	Mild	1092.5	1027.7	8.57	70.06%	58	7.52
25th Jul	1835	XXX Ale	Mild	1106.6	1034.9	9.49	67.27%	68	7.65
27th Feb	1832	XXXX Ale	Mild	1113.6				80	8.45
Sources:
Truman brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers B/THB/C/115 and B/THB/C/119

Truman Porter and Stout
Date	Year	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	price per barrel	pence per gravity point
12th Jul	1830	Runner	Porter	1060.0	1013.9	6.10	76.91%	33	6.60
17th Nov	1835	Keeping	Porter	1062.9	1016.1	6.19	74.45%	33	6.30
9th Feb	1831	Stout	Stout	1068.5	1017.2	6.79	74.92%	43	7.54
7th Apr	1831	Double Stout	Stout	1076.7	1019.4	7.59	74.73%	53	8.29
18th Nov	1835	Imperial Stout	Stout	1098.9	1021.6	10.22	78.15%	63	7.64
Sources:
Truman brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers B/THB/C/031 and B/THB/C/036

What you can see is that X Ale was indeed a good bit stronger than Porter. Not only that, it was also stronger than Single Stout. Now that is weird. Even the Double Stout was barely any stronger than the X Ale from the same brewery.

That would all change during the course of the century. By 1900 London Porter and X Ale were both about the same gravity, 1055º. Stouts, on the other hand stayed at around the same strength or even got slightly stronger.

What happened to Imperial Mild? XXXX Ale had disappeared, at least in London, by about 1850. But you still have a chance to try it. At least if you live in New England. Pretty Things have brewed their 1832 XXXX Mild again. Get it while you can.