Bottling at Eldridge Pope in 1934

You can thank Peter Symons for sending me a pdf of a booklet issued by Eldridge Pope in 1934. It tells everything about their bottling plant. A perfect match for my current obsession.

Here's the introduction, which discusses the different methods of producing bottled beer"

"To enable the non-technical reader to follow more exactly the ensuing extract from the "Bottling" Sipplement, it may be well to give a brief description of how modern non-deposit beer is produced.

In the old days when beer was "naturally matured" in bottle the process consisyed simply of filling bottles with draught beer, sealing them, and then storing them in a moderate to warm temperature for some days or weeks. Under these conditions fermentation took places within the bottle, and the resulting gas, being unable to excape, was absorbed in the beer, to be released when the cork was removed. The objection to this method was that there was always a sedimentary residue left by the fermentation in the bottom of the bottle, which was prone to stir up and cloud the beer on decanting. This type of bottled beer also inclined to cloudiness in cold frosty weather.

The first efforts to surmount these objections consisted of filtering draught beer, to remove all traces of yeast, and then forcing CO2 gas into it, as is done in the case of mineral water. This method was unsatisfactory for many reasons, the most obvious being that if beer is treated like mineral water it tastes like it.

The modern method referred to in the article in "Bottling" consistes of the linking of these two methods. Firstly, the beer for bottling is transferred into the hermetically sealed glass-lined maturing tanks, where it matures just as if it were in a bottle. It forms its own gas by fermentation, making artificial gas unnecessary, and of course it "throws" a heavy sediment.

The next stage consists of chilling the matured beer and storing it in the cold room at 32º F. The object of this process is threefold. In the first place, it removes the possibility of the beer going cloudy if it gets cold again; in the second it ensures the "fixing" of the gas in the beer so that it does not burst out as soon as the bottle is opened; and, finally, it renders it "quiet" enough to bottle, for obviously it is a serious problem to fill bottles with highly conditioned frothing beer.

Actually the filling process is carried out under pressure in the counter-pressure filling machines; but before this the beer has all been filtered through sterilised cotton pulp to render it star-brilliant, and afterwards, if the beeer is of the dark variety, it is pasteurised to render it fit for long storage. Bitter beers, however, are not usually subjected to this process, as it is apt to damage their more delicate flavour.
"A Modern West Country Brewery" by H.C. Vickery, 1934, pages 1 - 2

That must be chill haze that he refers to in naturally-conditioned bottled beer. Not a problem I ever have myself as I keep all my bottles in the living room. They never get cold.

I'm not so sure about the filtered beer tasting like mineral water. Sounds a bit far-fetched to me. Though letting the beer mature in tanks before filtering definitely sounds like it would improve the beer. A bit like secondary conditioning in a cask, which was the old method. In this description, they make it sound as if with the naturally-conditioning method the beer was racked straight into bottles. In reality it was matured in the casks for a period of weeks or months.

Chilling before bottling was the classic way of avoiding chill haze. After this treatment you could be sure that it was safe to chill the beer down to that temperature - in this case just below freezing - without risk of a haze.

Interesting about not pasteurising Bitter. What dark beers could they be talking of? Presumably Brown Ale and Stout.

Bottled beers in the 1880's

Quite predictable, isn't it, my stepping through the decades? Maybe a should throw you off by suddenly jumping to the 1930's. Or something. Just to be different. No-one likes being predictable.

The 1880's were a decade of great change - and prosperity - for the brewing industry. First there was the 1880 Free Mash Tun Act that removed the restrictions on the ingredients used in brewing and moved taxation from malt to beer. More importantly, the tax was calculated on the gravity of wort before fermentation. One effect of this was to encourage the production of lower gravity beers. Particularly the low-gravity Pale Ales known as Light Dinner Ale, Family Ale, Luncheon and a host of similar names. Eventually their names would be shortened to simply Light Ale.

This set has just two Mild Ales and no Porters whatsoever. Though, as I mentioned before, what was called Copper was likely really bottled Porter. At the price it was sold for, I'm sure that's the case. The same applies to the beers sold as Family Stout or Luncheon Stout. This is the start of Stout's slip from a strong to a weak beer.

At the top end of the market, there was clearly still a good demand for the IPA's of BAss and Allsopp. But this is getting close to the end of the good times for Burton brewers. They were particularly hard hit by the changes to the licensing rules in the 1890's, which saw local authorities actively trying to close pubs. The result was a scramble for tied houses. Burton brewers like Bass and Allsopp, who had previously had no trouble finding outlets for their beer began to be squeezed out as breweries insisted on their pubs only selling their products. Allsopps paniced in the 1890's and, using the cash raised when the company was floated, made a series of rash pub purchases. By the early 20th century the compant ws limping towards insolvency.

Somehow Guinness managed to avoid the fate of Bass and Allsopp. They, too, owned no pubs but weer increasingly making the bottled Stout market in the pub trade their own. Still not quite sure how they pulled that one off.

Bottled beers in the 1880's
Brewery	Place	year	beer	style	price per dozen	size	source
Barrett	??	1880	Ale	Ale	2s 3d	pint	The British Library
John Bird	Westerfield, Suff.	1883	Bottled Ale	Ale	2s 3d	pint
Bass	Burton	1883	Ale	Ale	3s 9d	pint	The British Library
Wright Brothers	Shoreditch	1888	Amber Ale	Amber Ale	2s 6d	pint	Shoreditch Observer 10th March 1888
Wright Brothers	Shoreditch	1888	Amber Ale	Amber Ale	1s 6d	half pint	Shoreditch Observer 10th March 1888
Anglo-Bavarian	Shepton Mallet	1889	Amber Ale	Amber Ale	3s	Imperial pint	The British Library
Simonds	Reading	1882	Reading Cooper	Cooper	3s	imperial pint	Hastings and St Leonards Observer - Saturday 25 November 1882, page 1
Whitbread & Co.	London	1883	Cooper	Cooper	2s 6d	Imperial pint	The British Library
Whitbread & Co.	London	1883	Cooper	Cooper	2s 4d	pint	The British Library
Whitbread & Co.	London	1888	London Cooper	Cooper	2s 6d	Imperial pint	The British Library
A. Gordon & Co.	Islington	1889	Cooper	Cooper	2s 9d	pint
Simonds	Reading	1882	SB Fine Sparkling Dinner Ale	Dinner Ale	3s	imperial pint	Hastings and St Leonards Observer - Saturday 25 November 1882, page 1
Simonds	Reading	1882	SB Fine Sparkling Dinner Ale	Dinner Ale	2s 6d	half bottle	Hastings and St Leonards Observer - Saturday 25 November 1882, page 1
Allsopp	Burton	1883	Dinner Ale	Dinner Ale	3s	Imperial pint	The British Library
Allsopp	Burton	1883	Light Dinner Ale	Dinner Ale	2s 6d	Imperial pint	The British Library
Whitbread & Co.	London	1888	Family Ale	Dinner Ale	2s 6d	Imperial pint	The British Library
Foster	London	1889	Light Dinner Ale	Dinner Ale	2s	Imperial pint	The British Library
Foster	London	1889	Family Ale	Dinner Ale	2s 6d	Imperial pint	The British Library
W & S Lucas	Hitchin, Herts	1882	India Pale Ale	IPA	3s	pint	Kelly's Directory of Essex, 1882
Simonds	Reading	1882	India Pale Ale	IPA	5s	bottle	Hastings and St Leonards Observer - Saturday 25 November 1882, page 1
Simonds	Reading	1882	India Pale Ale	IPA	4s	imperial pint	Hastings and St Leonards Observer - Saturday 25 November 1882, page 1
Simonds	Reading	1882	India Pale Ale	IPA	3s	half bottle	Hastings and St Leonards Observer - Saturday 25 November 1882, page 1
Bass	Burton	1882	Bass's Pale Ale	IPA	6s	imperial pint	Hastings and St Leonards Observer - Saturday 25 November 1882, page 1
Bass	Burton	1882	Bass's Pale Ale	IPA	4s 6d	half bottle	Hastings and St Leonards Observer - Saturday 25 November 1882, page 1
Bass	Burton	1882	Bass's Pale Ale	IPA	3s 6d	imperial pint	Hastings and St Leonards Observer - Saturday 25 November 1882, page 1
Allsopp	Burton	1883	India Pale Ale	IPA	3s 6d	Imperial pint	The British Library
Bass	Burton	1883	Pale Ale	IPA	4s	Imperial pint	The British Library
Bass	Burton	1888	India Pale Ale	IPA	4s 6d	imperial pint	Yorkshire Gazette - Saturday 30 June 1888, page 3
Bass	Burton	1888	India Pale Ale	IPA	2s 6d	half pint	Yorkshire Gazette - Saturday 30 June 1888, page 3
A. Gordon & Co.	Islington	1889	India Pale Ale	IPA	3s 9d	pint
Bass	Burton	1889	India Pale Ale	IPA	3s 6d	Imperial pint	The British Library
Foster	London	1889	India Pale Ale	IPA	3s	Imperial pint	The British Library
Allsopp	Burton	1883	English Lager	Lager	2s 10d	Imperial pint	The British Library
Austro-Bavarian Lager Beer Brewery	London	1884	Tottenham Lager	Lager	3s 6d	Imperial pint	The British Library
Austro-Bavarian Lager Beer Brewery	London	1884	Tottenham Munich	Lager	3s 6d	Imperial pint	The British Library
Austro-Bavarian Lager Beer Brewery	London	1884	Tottenham Bock	Lager	3s 6d	Imperial pint	The British Library
Austro-Bavarian Lager Beer Brewery	London	1884	Tottenham Pilsen	Lager	3s 6d	Imperial pint	The British Library
Austro-Bavarian Lager Beer Brewery	London	1884	Tottenham Lager	Lager	3s	reputed pint	The British Library
Austro-Bavarian Lager Beer Brewery	London	1884	Tottenham Munich	Lager	3s	reputed pint	The British Library
Austro-Bavarian Lager Beer Brewery	London	1884	Tottenham Bock	Lager	3s	reputed pint	The British Library
Austro-Bavarian Lager Beer Brewery	London	1884	Tottenham Pilsen	Lager	3s	reputed pint	The British Library
??	??	1889	Pilsener Lager Beer (imported)	Lager	4s 9d	Imperial pint	The British Library
A. Gordon & Co.	Islington	1889	Rich Mild Ale	Mild	2s 9d	pint
A. Gordon & Co.	Islington	1889	Strong Mild Ale	Mild	4s 6d	pint
Ind Coope	Romford	1882	Romford Ale	Pale Ale	2s 6d	Imperial pint	The British Library
Ind Coope	Romford	1883	Romford Ale	Pale Ale	2s 6d	Imperial pint	The British Library
Globe	??	1883	Bitter Ale	Pale Ale	3s	Imperial pint	The British Library
Allsopp	Burton	1883	Ale	Pale Ale	2s 9d	pint	The British Library
Ind Coope	Romford	1883	Ale	Pale Ale	2s 3d	pint	The British Library
Allsopp	Burton	1883	Light Bitter	Pale Ale	2s 10d	Imperial pint	The British Library
Ind Coope	Romford	1883	Pale Romford Ale	Pale Ale	2s 3d	Imperial pint	The British Library
Wright Brothers	Shoreditch	1888	Mild Bitter Ale	Pale Ale	2s	pint	Shoreditch Observer 10th March 1888
Wright Brothers	Shoreditch	1888	Mild Bitter Ale	Pale Ale	1s 3d	half pint	Shoreditch Observer 10th March 1888
Whitbread & Co.	London	1888	Pale Ale	Pale Ale	3s	Imperial pint	The British Library
A. Gordon & Co.	Islington	1889	Fine Tonic Ale, Bitter	Pale Ale	2s 9d	pint
A. Gordon & Co.	Islington	1889	Pale Ale, Bitter	Pale Ale	3s 3d	pint
Anglo-Bavarian	Shepton Mallet	1889	Light Bitter	Pale Ale	3s	Imperial pint	The British Library
Henry Lovibond, Cannon Brewery	Fulham	1889	VPA	Pale Ale	2s 6d	Imperial pint
Henry Lovibond, Cannon Brewery	Fulham	1889	XVPA	Pale Ale	3s	Imperial pint
Henry Lovibond, Cannon Brewery	Fulham	1889	XXB	Pale Ale	4s	Imperial pint
Barrett	??	1880	Stout	Stout	2s 4d	pint	The British Library
Mann & Crossmann	London	1880	Stout	Stout	2s 4d	pint	The British Library
Raggett	London	1880	Nourishing Stout	Stout	3s 6d	pint	Hampshire Telegraph - Saturday 18 December 1880, page 7
Raggett	London	1880	Nourishing Stout	Stout	4s 6d	pint	Hampshire Telegraph - Saturday 18 December 1880, page 7
W & S Lucas	Hitchin, Herts	1882	Double Stout	Stout	3s	pint	Kelly's Directory of Essex, 1882
Simonds	Reading	1882	Reading Double Stout	Stout	5s	bottle	Hastings and St Leonards Observer - Saturday 25 November 1882, page 1
Simonds	Reading	1882	Reading Double Stout	Stout	4s	imperial pint	Hastings and St Leonards Observer - Saturday 25 November 1882, page 1
Simonds	Reading	1882	Reading Double Stout	Stout	3s	half bottle	Hastings and St Leonards Observer - Saturday 25 November 1882, page 1
John Bird	Westerfield, Suff.	1883	Bottled Stout	Stout	3s 9d	pint
Combe	London	1883	London Stout	Stout	3s	Imperial pint	The British Library
Guinness	Dublin	1883	Extra Stout	Stout	4s	Imperial pint	The British Library
Guinness	Dublin	1883	Extra Stout	Stout	3s 6d	pint	The British Library
Guinness	Dublin	1883	Dublin Extra Stout	Stout	3s 3d	Imperial pint	The British Library
South London Brewery	Southwark	1886	Generous Stout	Stout	3s	pint
Wright Brothers	Shoreditch	1888	London Stout	Stout	3s	pint	Shoreditch Observer 10th March 1888
Wright Brothers	Shoreditch	1888	London Stout	Stout	1s 8d	half pint	Shoreditch Observer 10th March 1888
Whitbread & Co.	London	1888	London Stout	Stout	3s	Imperial pint	The British Library
Whitbread & Co.	London	1888	Extra Stout	Stout	3s 6d	Imperial pint	The British Library
Watney	London	1888	London Stout	Stout	4s 6d	imperial pint	Yorkshire Gazette - Saturday 30 June 1888, page 3
Watney	London	1888	London Stout	Stout	2s 6d	half pint	Yorkshire Gazette - Saturday 30 June 1888, page 3
A. Gordon & Co.	Islington	1889	Stout	Stout	3s 3d	pint
A. Gordon & Co.	Islington	1889	Double Stout	Stout	3s 9d	pint
A. Gordon & Co.	Islington	1889	Imperial Stout	Stout	4s 6d	pint
Allsopp	Burton	1889	Luncheon Stout	Stout	2s 6d	Imperial pint	The British Library
Bass	Burton	1889	Special Bottling Stout	Stout	3s 3d	Imperial pint	The British Library
Foster	London	1889	Family Stout	Stout	2s	Imperial pint	The British Library
Foster	London	1889	Luncheon Stout	Stout	2s 6d	Imperial pint	The British Library
Foster	London	1889	Nourishing Stout	Stout	3s	Imperial pint	The British Library
Henry Lovibond, Cannon Brewery	Fulham	1889	Stout	Stout	3s	Imperial pint
W & S Lucas	Hitchin, Herts	1882	Strong Ale	Strong Ale	3s	pint	Kelly's Directory of Essex, 1882
Bass	Burton	1889	Light Table Ale	Table Ale	2s 6d	Imperial pint	The British Library

Bottling in 1914 - stoppers

I never realised just how fascinating a topic bottling was. What did I use to write about?

It's hard to remember, in a world dominated by crown corks, how just 100 years ago there were competing methods, and conflicting opinions, about the best way to seal bottles. The victory of the crown cork wasn't imagined back then.

Here's what Hadley said later in the article about stoppers:

"The screw stopper is still in general use in this country, and much as we may object to it on hygienic grounds I must say I think it will never be superseded for flagons, it is so readily replaced and the beer kept in condition for further use. I have been trying for some time to obtain a stopper which has all the advantages of the existing stopper while removing its defects; the samples I have to show you are the best efforts I have been able to produce up to the present—being solid rubber it is unbreakable, there is no joint to conceal micro-organisms, and it makes a good joint. The one great drawback at present is the cost.

The crown cork seems to be gaining ground for half pints, but having had no personal experience with it I am not prepared to say whether it is a success or not. With me the principal demand, after stoppers, is for corked half-pints, and take it all round there is nothing to beat a corked bottle beer — provided the cork is steamed and washed in a revolving wire drum to remove all dust and to soften and sterilise it. A certain corky flavour is very rarely imparted to beer by cork which is diseased by mould, but this too may be removed by well steaming."
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 20, Issue 6, November-December 1914, page 516.

By screw stopper, he means bottles with an internal screw thread in the neck of the bottle into which the stopper screwed. This type of stopper did cling on a remarkably long time. I can remember the off-licence opposite where I lived in Leeds in the late 1970's having Whitbread beer in quart bottles of this type.

It's odd for us to read of the author's enthusiasm for real corks over crown corks. I doubt you could find a brewer today that preferred unreliable, porous, expensive corks. My experience of corked bottles of Harvey's Imperial Stout tells me that a crown cork is a far more reliable stopper, especially for long-term storage.

The topic of stoppers came up in the discussion after the paper had been presented. Mr. W. R. Wilson reckoned:

"The trade of his (the speaker's) firm was very largely in half-pints. The author seemed rather to lean to the cork for half-pints. Personally he much preferred the crown corks. With corks there was always a difficulty in regard to stout in the summer. If the weather got very hot they wanted a larger cork, and then, as soon as that was provided, the weather turned cool, and they found that the cork had become a little too tight. Again, the customers complained that the corks were difficult to draw. In the Midlands, at all events, the crown cork appeared to be making great headway, and he could not help thinking that, as far as the half-pints were concerned, it would not be very long before the crown cork would supersede both the ordinary cork and the screw stopper."
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 20, Issue 6, November-December 1914, page 526.

Now isn't that stuff about different-sized corks in summer interesting? A real cork seems a very expensive way of sealing half pint bottles - no wonder crown corks were gaining ground.

Mr. Robert D. Clarke agreed that crown corks were the way forward:

"He believed that the crown cork would prove to be the cork of the future. It imparted no taste, and being soaked in paraffin it was absolutely clean and satisfactory. He had practically scrapped the whole of his ordinary cork bottles, and was using nothing but crowns and porcelain stoppers."
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 20, Issue 6, November-December 1914, pages 526 - 527.

Mr. F. M. Maynard was a fan of the Grolsch-style porcelain stoppers:

"Personally, he strongly objected to the screw stopper on hygienic grounds; and although crown corks might be satisfactory in the public-house, where they were accustomed to drawing them, they were not so suitable for private trade. The stopper he favoured, and which he found other brewers were also adopting, was the Continental porcelain spring stopper. It was absolutely clean, it was washed with the bottle, and did not get lost, being attached to the bottle. He considered it the most successful stopper he had ever used, especially for the private trade, since the same stopper was also largely employed for sterilised milk bottles."
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 20, Issue 6, November-December 1914, page 529.

Is he saying there that people couldn't work out how to open a bottle sealed with a crown cork? Surely that's much simpler than drawing a cork? I can open a crown-corked bottle without a bottle opener, but I doubt very much that I could remove a cork without a corkscrew.

Customers in the author's region, the West Country, still wanted corks:

"If the Midland brewers had only half-pints to deal with, they were very fortunate indeed, because the half-pint was really the most profitable size. The flagons were run at a very fine margin indeed. With regard to the question of corks, they were demanded in the West of England by the public, who would, in fact, have nothing else. They might find the crown cork in a few of the free houses ; but 90 per cent, of the half-pint trade was served in corked bottles."
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 20, Issue 6, November-December 1914, page 530.

The author also had a big objection to Grolsch-type stoppers - they got caught in the bottle washing machines:

"As to the spring stopper, he could not see where the advantage of that came in, because it had an ordinary india-rubber ring. He had tried them and given them up, the reason being that they seized on the brush-heads and the operators were continually cutting their thumbs."
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 20, Issue 6, November-December 1914, page 533.

I wonder how they get around this problem? They must do, as you wouldn't find a mass-produced beer like Grolsch using porcelain stoppers.

Next time it's the turn of the bottling process itself. Sound like fun? No? You miserable bastard.

Stopper insufficient

I don't know what either I or the newspapers would do without courts. They provide so much material.

There were particularly odd rules regarding children buying alcohol. In the 1920's it was still common practice for parents to send their children to the pub to fetch beer. I know this through my Mum, who regularly fetched beer for her mother. It was fine for underage kids to fetch beer, as long as the container was sealed.

My Mum fetched a jug of beer, which doesn't sound very sealed. But it was, because the pub would fit a paper seal over the top so it could be seen if the child had taken anythiong from the jug. Amongst the teetotal nutcase brigade wther was a great deal of concern about "sipping" - kids having a try of their parents beer on the way home.

"BOTTLED BEER.
STOPPER INSUFFICIENT.
William Thomas Prior, the Grosvenor Hotel, Maldon Colchester, was summoned at the local Police Court Tuesday on two charges of supplying intoxicating liquor to two children under 14 years other than in a corked and sealed vessel. P.c. Clear said he stopped the children carrying unsealed bottles containing ale. He took them back to the premises, where defendant said, "I did not ask the children their ages. I thought the order was cancelled in September. The bottles had screw tops." — Defendant said he was under the impression that if a child was served with a closed vessel be was all right. He really thought the order had been scrapped. There had been a good deal of confusion resulting from D.O.R.A. —The Bench imposed fine of £1 in each case — £2 in all. "
Essex Newsman - Saturday 21 January 1922, page 1.

I can understand the landlords's confusion. There had been a host of wartime regulations, most of which were removed at the end of hostilities. But not all were. For example the hated afternoon closing period.

One thing confuses me. I thought screw-top bottles had a paper seal over the top, too. Ones like this:

Which makes me suspect that it wasn't bottled beer the kids had bought, but draught beer pulled into a bottles.

Bottling in 1914 - Chilled Bottled Beers

Relief is at hand for those disappointed by the final drawing to a close of my series on bottling in 1901. I've found another article in the Journal of the Institute of Brewing about bottling from a few years later, 1914. It was written by Arthur Hadley and entitled "Chilled Bottled Beers".

That tells you that it's about non-deposit, artificially-carbonated beers. The boom in bottled beers was mostly of this type, despite big names like Guinness and Bass sticking with bottle-conditioning for their flagship products. The public liked the new type of bottled beer because there was no waste, it was always clear and always fully carbonated. Brewers weren't so keen on the flavour of non-deposit beers, but could see their potential for their business.

"I THINK that all brewers will agree with me when I say that whilst chilled and filtered beers are in all ways (save brilliancy) inferior to draught and naturally conditioned beers, circumstances economic and otherwise have brought the former to the forefront, and there can be no doubt that they have come to stay. Those brewers only who have not been forced by competition still stand aloof, yet many of them, so fortunately situated, are contemplating commencing chilling and filtering in a tentative sort of manner. To this latter class my advice is not to commence in too small a way, since many have found to their cost that beers which are "drunk with the eye" are the beers which sell, and, having discovered this, have been compelled to double and redouble the plant at great expense, and this expense might have been saved to a great extent had they commenced with less doubts or profited by the experience of others.

Twenty years ago a very small percentage of brewers bottled their own beers, to-day the great majority have their own bottling stores, more or less adequately fitted. To those who still contemplate the adoption of chilled beer bottling, a safe way is, I think, to estimate the probable output and put down a plant in a sufficiently large store capable of an output double their most sanguine estimate."
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 20, Issue 6, November-December 1914, page 504.

Not exactly a ringing endorsement of chilled bottled beers. Apart from being clearer, they were inferior in every way to the older forms of bottle beer and draught beer. It's all sounding very CAMRA-like, 60 years before their arrival. It's a fact many have forgotten or never known, but much of the terminology used by CAMRA - naturally-conditioned, cask-conditioned, bottle-conditioned - originated within the industry. Many brewers privately shared CAMRA's belief in the superior flavour of naturally-conditioned beers.

The article was written at a very precarious time for the brewing industry. WW I, which would bring with it unprecedented challenges for British brewing, had just started. The decade running up to the war had filled with difficulty and attacks from the government and temperance groups. An industry which had boomed in the 1880's and 1890's was facing stagnation and decline. The threat of further reductions in pub numbers and opening times hung over brewers. That's the context of the next parragraph:

"Whatever legislation may have in store for us, be it a Licensing Bill, Sunday closing, or what not, it is very evident that the beer drinking of the future will go more and more in the direction of bottled beers, and unfortunately the flagon appears to be the size most favoured. Flagon beers are cheap; they are always in condition, and being screw-stoppered a flagon, if not entirely consumed, may be re-stoppered and so retain its brilliancy to the last drop."
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 20, Issue 6, November-December 1914, pages 504 - 505.

It's also worth pointing out that in these early days of mass bottling there was little standardisation in terms of bottle sizes and shapes and even in the method of sealing them. The author is arguing that, with pubs likely to be shut when drinkers wanted beer, flagons - quart bottles - were the simplest way of supplying a relatively large quantity of cheap beer. This didn't turn out to be true in the long term, with first pints and then half pints becoming the most common package size.

Hadley explains the two methods of producing non-deposit bottled beers:

"To deal with the process itself. There are two accepted methods of chilling (with variations with which I shall deal later), Cold Storage and Quick Chilling. Both achieve the same result, and all things taken into consideration the resulting beers differ but slightly. At one time it was thought that slow chilling produced a beer which stood longer in bottle without sediment, but brewers who have tested both processes side by side now admit that the quick chilling process, which can be carried out at considerably lessened cost (provided always that the beer be properly conditioned), gives a result quite equal to the slow chilling process.

The beer is run or pumped from the skimming vessels to glass-lined copper or wooden tanks to "condition." Here it is dry-hopped "if considered desirable" or necessary, primed if customary, and usually partially fined. By these means we obtain a conditioning which is quite impossible in casks, whilst there is far less waste and the beer is invariably cleaner and brighter after having settled a few days. This naturally reflects on the filters, which run far longer than happens when the beer is conditioned in cask, and also very materially affects the economy of production. In my own case I have found that the adoption of the tank system has raised the runnage from 22.6 dozen per barrel to 23.1 dozen per barrel, which on the year means some hundreds of barrels saved."
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 20, Issue 6, November-December 1914, pages 505 - 506.

The trend in bottled beer production was to reduce the time required. That was the financial incentive that prompted brewers to move away from natural-conditioning to chilling and filtereing. But that was just the first step. The next was to shorten the time for chilling.


It's unclear what the author means by "properly conditioned" - does it mean that the beer has been matured before chilling or just that it's carbonated?

You can see that brewers were moving away from the old system to racking beer after primary fermentation into casks for maturation. They'd started to use tanks instead and to only leave the beer a short time before bottling. It sounds like they were only leaving it to drop bright in the tank, soemthing that wouldn't take long if, as suggested, the beer had been fined. There was a good deal in the discussion after the paper had been presented about dry hopping. We'll be returning to that later.

22.6 dozen, assuming he means pints, comes to 33.9 gallons per barrels of 36 gallons. Or a loss of 5.83%. 23.1 dozen is 34.65 gallons, a loss of 3.75%. A saving of 0.75 gallons per barrel would certainly add up, if you were bottling hundreds of barrels a week.

Next time we'll be looking at the options for sealing bottles.

Bottled beers in the 1870's

As my series on bottled beers winds its way towards the sunset, here's a look at some random bottled beers of the 1870's.

It's quite a small set. Not sure why. Odd that I should have more examples from the 1860's. There's no logical reason, just an irrational result of my anarchic research. Anyway, let's try and make the best of what data we have, shall we?

The vast majority of the examples fall into one of three styles: IPA, Pale Ale and Stout. Though the line between Pale Ale and IPA could be quite arbitrary. Which Bass being described as both Pale Ale and East India Pale Ale amply demonstrates. There was really a stronger differentiation between Light Bitter and Pale Ale than IPA and Pale Ale. Assuming the latter two were both Stock beers.

What strikes me is how many of the bottled beers come from a few large, well-known breweries and are, in effect, brands which are promoted. Bass with its IPA, Guinness with Extra Stout, William Younger with IPA and Scotch Ale, Barclay Perkins with Stout and Carlsberg with Lager. With the exception of Barclay Perkins, all were still going strong a century later. This is really the beginnings of branded beer.

Not e that the two most popular styles - Porter and Mild Ale - are completely absent. Though there are two examples of Cooper, which was supposedly a mixture of Porter and Stout. I suspect it might have actually been bottled Porter, just sold under a more marketable name.

This is quite an early date for Lager in Britain, which only arrived, in the form of imports, in the late 1860's. Initially, the Vienna and Munich styles were dominant. Carlsberg clearly got their foot in the door early doors. I doubt the beer here was the Pilsner that Carlsberg is now famous for. More likely it was the Munich type, which I know was where they began, Lager-wise.

You'll be pleased to hear that I have details of some of the beers. The William Younger ones. I can match them 100%, but I know they're in there. The IPA and Stout aren't such a problem, as there is only really one candidate for each in the brewing records. The Strong Ale is trickier, as Younger brewed loads of them. I've included 100/- to 160/- in the table. It must have been one of those. Or No. 1, so I've put that in, too. Here they are, in all their glory:

William Younger beers
Date	Year	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
4th Sep	1868	XP	IPA	1052	1013	5.16	75.00%	10.00	2.60
3rd Dec	1869	DBS	Stout	1066	1019	6.22	71.21%	12.76	4.11
25th Nov	1868	No. 1	Strong Ale	1099	1041	7.67	58.59%	6.46	3.37
24th Aug	1868	100/-	Ale	1076	1034	5.56	55.26%	6.67	2.73
24th Aug	1868	120/-	Ale	1088	1037	6.75	57.95%	7.14	3.57
25th Aug	1868	140/-	Ale	1102	1043	7.81	57.84%	6.36	4.12
8th Sep	1868	160/-	Ale	1116	1053	8.33	54.31%	8.16	5.35
Source:
William Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive document number WY/6/1/2/21.

That's me done. Just the main table and I'm gone.

Bottled beers in the 1870's
Brewery	Place	year	beer	style	price per dozen	size	source
Byles & Co	Henley	1876	Cooper	Cooper	2s 6d	pint	Harrod & Co.'s Directory of Beds, Bucks ..., 1876
Biden & Co.	Gosport, Hants	1876	Cooper	Cooper	2s 6d	Imperial pint
Wm. Younger	Edinburgh	1870	India Pale Ale	IPA	4s 6d	pint	"Street's Indian and Colonial Mercantile Directory for 1870", page xiv
Bass	Burton	1871	East India Pale Ale	IPA	4s 9d	Imperial pint	Edmund Oxborrow price list
Bass	Henley	1876	Pale Ale	IPA	4s 6d	pint	Harrod & Co.'s Directory of Beds, Bucks ..., 1876
Bass	Burton	1876	East India Pale Ale	IPA	6s	quart	Lincolnshire Chronicle - Friday 22 December 1876, page 1
Bass	Burton	1876	East India Pale Ale	IPA	4s 6d	Imperial pint	Lincolnshire Chronicle - Friday 22 December 1876, page 1
Bass	Burton	1876	East India Pale Ale	IPA	3s 6d	reputed pint	Lincolnshire Chronicle - Friday 22 December 1876, page 1
Bass	Burton	1876	East India Pale Ale	IPA	2s 3d	imperial half pint	Lincolnshire Chronicle - Friday 22 December 1876, page 1
Bass	Burton	1879	Pale Ale	IPA	4s 6d	Imperial pint	The British Library
Carlsberg	Copenhagen	1872	Danish Beer	Lager	2s 6d	pint	Aberdeen Journal - Wednesday 10 July 1872, page 4.
Carlsberg	Copenhagen	1872	Danish Beer	Lager	5s	quart	Aberdeen Journal - Wednesday 10 July 1872, page 4.
Ind Coope	Romford	1871	AK	Pale Ale	3s	Imperial pint	Edmund Oxborrow price list
Byles & Co	Henley	1876	Pale Ale	Pale Ale	3s	pint	Harrod & Co.'s Directory of Beds, Bucks ..., 1876
Byles & Co	Henley	1876	Old Strong Pale Ale	Pale Ale	5s 6d	pint	Harrod & Co.'s Directory of Beds, Bucks ..., 1876
Biden & Co.	Gosport, Hants	1876	Pale Ale	Pale Ale	4s	Imperial pint
Biden & Co.	Gosport, Hants	1876	Family Pale Ale	Pale Ale	3s	Imperial pint
Wm. Younger	Edinburgh	1871	Strong Scotch Ale	Scotch Ale	4s	pint	Edmund Oxborrow price list
Wm. Younger	Edinburgh	1870	Extra Stout	Stout	4s 4d	pint	"Street's Indian and Colonial Mercantile Directory for 1870", page xiv
Barclay Perkins	London	1871	Brown Stout	Stout	3s	Imperial pint	Edmund Oxborrow price list
Barclay Perkins	London	1871	Double Brown Stout	Stout	4s 9d	Imperial pint	Edmund Oxborrow price list
Guinness	Dublin	1871	Double Brown Stout	Stout	4s 9d	Imperial pint	Edmund Oxborrow price list
Byles & Co	Henley	1876	Stout	Stout	3s 6d	pint	Harrod & Co.'s Directory of Beds, Bucks ..., 1876
Biden & Co.	Gosport, Hants	1876	Extra Stout	Stout	4s	Imperial pint
Guinness	Dublin	1876	Dublin Stout	Stout	6s	quart	Lincolnshire Chronicle - Friday 22 December 1876, page 1
Guinness	Dublin	1876	Dublin Stout	Stout	4s	Imperial pint	Lincolnshire Chronicle - Friday 22 December 1876, page 1
Guinness	Dublin	1876	Dublin Stout	Stout	3s 6d	reputed pint	Lincolnshire Chronicle - Friday 22 December 1876, page 1
Guinness	Dublin	1879	Extra Stout	Stout	4s 6d	Imperial pint	The British Library
Wm. Younger	Edinburgh	1870	Double Strong	Strong Ale	5s	pint	"Street's Indian and Colonial Mercantile Directory for 1870", page xiv
Bass	Burton	1871	Very Strong Ale	Strong Ale	4s 9d	Imperial pint	Edmund Oxborrow price list