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03-12-2013, 07:22
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Remember me telling you about the adverts Holes placed in local newspapers. Here's an example:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hIoZuBxCwBw/UphkOV-Cf1I/AAAAAAAASd0/Y1T1UNYyMtw/s640/Holes_1892_1.jpg (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hIoZuBxCwBw/UphkOV-Cf1I/AAAAAAAASd0/Y1T1UNYyMtw/s1600/Holes_1892_1.jpg)
Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald - Saturday 05 March 1892, page 1.
Chesterfield is about 30 miles Northwest of Newark.
It's an interesting set of beers. As much as for what's missing as what'e there. What is the huge ommission? That's right: Porter. In the latter decades of the 19th century Porter slowly ebbed away from much of the country, though it remained strong in London until after WW I.
Here are the beers in table form:
Holes beers in 1892
Beer
price per barrel
price (per gallon)
OG (my guess)
AK Luncheon Ale
42
14
1050
X Light Mild Ale
36
12
1050
XX Mild Ale
42
14
1060
XXX Mild Ale
48
16
1070
XXXX Strong Ale
54
18
1080
BB Strong Ale
72
24
1100
India Pale Ale
54
18
1065
Double Stout
48
16
1070
Source:
Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald - Saturday 05 March 1892, page 1.
So what do we see Holes brewing? Let's go through them in order. First there's AK, the brewery's flagship brand right until its closure. It's a type of Light Bitter or Running Bitter that became very popular in the last half of the 19th century. The had a variety of names and descriptions, AK being quite a common one. Luncheon Ale and Dinner Ale were amongst the descriptions used. The original Pale Ales had been Stock Ales, stored for long periods before sale - sometimes more than 12 months. They were expensive to produce, which was refelcted in a price higher than than you would expect from their gravity, which was usually 1060-1065º. Running Bitters had a lower gravity - 1050-1055º - were sold at a price closer to that of X Ale and were ready for sale after a couple of weeks.
While I'm talking about Stock Pale Ale, that's probably what Holes IPA was, judging by the price.
Now the three Mild Ales. By thuis point the big London brewers were down to just a single Mild, X Ale. Oddly also their biggest seller. Holes we can see still brewed three. Four, probably, as the XXXX was most likely just a stronger version of the Milds. My guess would be that the four were parti-gyled in various combinations. What does "Light Mild Ale" really mean? Does the light refer to colour or strength? It's impossible to know because this is about when some Milds srtarted turning dark.
BB. Now there's a fascinating designation. It looks to me, from the price, like a really strong Burton Ale. I've never seen BB used for a Strong Ale by any other brewery. BB is normally used as shorthand for Bitter Beer. Obviously not the case here. Worthington used all sorts of weird letters for their beers, but their Strong Ales were B, F and G.
As we've already done IPA, there's just Double Stout left. Also significant that there's only one. Many breweries still produced a coiple of different ones. The rise of bottled beer helped brewers keep a larger range of Stouts as some, especially the stronger ones, probably didn't sell well on draught. And talking of bottles, it's significant that no bottled beers appear. While other Newark breweries had been advertising them since the 1880's.
Here, for comparison purposes, are Whitbread's beers from a price list of a few years earlier:
Whitbread price list of 1888
beer
price per barrel
price (per gallon)
price (per doz) pint
size
London Porter
38
12.67
London Stout
46
15.33
Family Ale
38
12.67
London Cooper
2s 6d
Imperial pint
Family Ale
2s 6d
Imperial pint
London Stout
3s
Imperial pint
Pale Ale
3s
Imperial pint
Extra Stout
3s 6d
Imperial pint
And here from the breing records of 1892:
Whitbread Ales and Porters in 1892
Date
Year
Beer
Style
OG
FG
ABV
App. Atten-uation
lbs hops/ qtr
hops lb/brl
15th Aug
1892
X
Mild
1060.9
1018.0
5.68
70.46%
8.04
2.11
9th Mar
1892
KK
Stock Ale
1076.5
1025.0
6.81
67.30%
14.32
5.10
25th Mar
1892
2KKK
Stock Ale
1079.8
1027.0
6.98
66.16%
13.74
5.05
2nd Nov
1892
KKK
Stock Ale
1088.6
1033.0
7.36
62.77%
14.00
6.00
29th Sep
1892
FA
Pale Ale
1051.0
1013.0
5.02
74.49%
10.89
2.53
29th Aug
1892
2PA
Pale Ale
1053.2
1016.0
4.92
69.92%
10.97
2.75
15th Aug
1892
PA
Pale Ale
1059.0
1018.0
5.42
69.49%
10.90
3.00
7th Apr
1892
P
Porter
1057.9
1015.0
5.67
74.09%
7.58
1.63
8th Mar
1892
C
Porter
1058.2
1014.0
5.84
75.93%
7.26
1.88
16th Mar
1892
SS
Stout
1084.5
1030.0
7.21
64.49%
10.62
4.91
16th Mar
1892
SSS
Stout
1093.3
1034.0
7.85
63.58%
10.62
5.42
Source:
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/057, LMA/4453/D/01/058 and LMA/4453/D/09/086.
FA - or Family Ale - was Whitbread's Light Bitter. Note that though porter cost the same, it had a significantly higher gravity.
cccc
More... (http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-beers-of-james-hole-in-1892.html)
Remember me telling you about the adverts Holes placed in local newspapers. Here's an example:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hIoZuBxCwBw/UphkOV-Cf1I/AAAAAAAASd0/Y1T1UNYyMtw/s640/Holes_1892_1.jpg (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hIoZuBxCwBw/UphkOV-Cf1I/AAAAAAAASd0/Y1T1UNYyMtw/s1600/Holes_1892_1.jpg)
Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald - Saturday 05 March 1892, page 1.
Chesterfield is about 30 miles Northwest of Newark.
It's an interesting set of beers. As much as for what's missing as what'e there. What is the huge ommission? That's right: Porter. In the latter decades of the 19th century Porter slowly ebbed away from much of the country, though it remained strong in London until after WW I.
Here are the beers in table form:
Holes beers in 1892
Beer
price per barrel
price (per gallon)
OG (my guess)
AK Luncheon Ale
42
14
1050
X Light Mild Ale
36
12
1050
XX Mild Ale
42
14
1060
XXX Mild Ale
48
16
1070
XXXX Strong Ale
54
18
1080
BB Strong Ale
72
24
1100
India Pale Ale
54
18
1065
Double Stout
48
16
1070
Source:
Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald - Saturday 05 March 1892, page 1.
So what do we see Holes brewing? Let's go through them in order. First there's AK, the brewery's flagship brand right until its closure. It's a type of Light Bitter or Running Bitter that became very popular in the last half of the 19th century. The had a variety of names and descriptions, AK being quite a common one. Luncheon Ale and Dinner Ale were amongst the descriptions used. The original Pale Ales had been Stock Ales, stored for long periods before sale - sometimes more than 12 months. They were expensive to produce, which was refelcted in a price higher than than you would expect from their gravity, which was usually 1060-1065º. Running Bitters had a lower gravity - 1050-1055º - were sold at a price closer to that of X Ale and were ready for sale after a couple of weeks.
While I'm talking about Stock Pale Ale, that's probably what Holes IPA was, judging by the price.
Now the three Mild Ales. By thuis point the big London brewers were down to just a single Mild, X Ale. Oddly also their biggest seller. Holes we can see still brewed three. Four, probably, as the XXXX was most likely just a stronger version of the Milds. My guess would be that the four were parti-gyled in various combinations. What does "Light Mild Ale" really mean? Does the light refer to colour or strength? It's impossible to know because this is about when some Milds srtarted turning dark.
BB. Now there's a fascinating designation. It looks to me, from the price, like a really strong Burton Ale. I've never seen BB used for a Strong Ale by any other brewery. BB is normally used as shorthand for Bitter Beer. Obviously not the case here. Worthington used all sorts of weird letters for their beers, but their Strong Ales were B, F and G.
As we've already done IPA, there's just Double Stout left. Also significant that there's only one. Many breweries still produced a coiple of different ones. The rise of bottled beer helped brewers keep a larger range of Stouts as some, especially the stronger ones, probably didn't sell well on draught. And talking of bottles, it's significant that no bottled beers appear. While other Newark breweries had been advertising them since the 1880's.
Here, for comparison purposes, are Whitbread's beers from a price list of a few years earlier:
Whitbread price list of 1888
beer
price per barrel
price (per gallon)
price (per doz) pint
size
London Porter
38
12.67
London Stout
46
15.33
Family Ale
38
12.67
London Cooper
2s 6d
Imperial pint
Family Ale
2s 6d
Imperial pint
London Stout
3s
Imperial pint
Pale Ale
3s
Imperial pint
Extra Stout
3s 6d
Imperial pint
And here from the breing records of 1892:
Whitbread Ales and Porters in 1892
Date
Year
Beer
Style
OG
FG
ABV
App. Atten-uation
lbs hops/ qtr
hops lb/brl
15th Aug
1892
X
Mild
1060.9
1018.0
5.68
70.46%
8.04
2.11
9th Mar
1892
KK
Stock Ale
1076.5
1025.0
6.81
67.30%
14.32
5.10
25th Mar
1892
2KKK
Stock Ale
1079.8
1027.0
6.98
66.16%
13.74
5.05
2nd Nov
1892
KKK
Stock Ale
1088.6
1033.0
7.36
62.77%
14.00
6.00
29th Sep
1892
FA
Pale Ale
1051.0
1013.0
5.02
74.49%
10.89
2.53
29th Aug
1892
2PA
Pale Ale
1053.2
1016.0
4.92
69.92%
10.97
2.75
15th Aug
1892
PA
Pale Ale
1059.0
1018.0
5.42
69.49%
10.90
3.00
7th Apr
1892
P
Porter
1057.9
1015.0
5.67
74.09%
7.58
1.63
8th Mar
1892
C
Porter
1058.2
1014.0
5.84
75.93%
7.26
1.88
16th Mar
1892
SS
Stout
1084.5
1030.0
7.21
64.49%
10.62
4.91
16th Mar
1892
SSS
Stout
1093.3
1034.0
7.85
63.58%
10.62
5.42
Source:
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/057, LMA/4453/D/01/058 and LMA/4453/D/09/086.
FA - or Family Ale - was Whitbread's Light Bitter. Note that though porter cost the same, it had a significantly higher gravity.
cccc
More... (http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-beers-of-james-hole-in-1892.html)