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24-03-2019, 07:45
Visit the Shut up about Barclay Perkins site (http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2019/03/scottish-pale-aleipa-in-middle-of-19th.html)


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Scotland, more specifically Edinburgh, was one of the first places outside Burton to take up brewing the trendy new IPA style. As early as the 1840’s, Edinburgh brewers were producing IPA for both the home and the Indian markets.

Trying to split apart Pale Ale and IPA in this early period is pointless. Brewers were highly inconsistent in their use of the two terms. In general, IPA was used to describe all early Pale Ales, regardless of their characteristics. Later in the 19th century Scottish brewers generally adopted the term Pale Ale instead, though IPA was sometimes used to denote one particular beer in a range of Pale Ales. Confused? You should be. I’ve been trying to get my head around this for a decade and still struggle.

Here’s confirmation that that early date Scotland was both exporting, and drinking, IPA:


"Large quantities of a light, pale, and highly-hopped variety of ale have been for some considerable time past exported to the East Indies, where it is in high estimation; and is now, also, rather extensively used in summer in this country."
"A Dictionary, Practical, Theoretical, and Historical, of Commerce and Commercial Navigation" by John Ramsay McCulloch, 1844, page 9.
Despite what you may have been told to the contrary, early IPAs were not particularly strong beers, at least by the standard of the day. They were, however, extremely heavily hopped. AT levels that just look plain crazy today. Heavy hopping was very necessary for export versions, if the beer were to arrive in India in good shape.

WH Roberts provides some intriguing analyses of Scottish-brewed IPAs in the 1840’s. Some are surprisingly weak, even ones genuinely exported to India:



Early 19th century IPA


Year
Brewer
Beer
Price
size
package
FG
OG
ABV
App. Atten-uation


1844
Unknown
90/- IPA Export, India
20.00d
gallon
bottled
1007.75
1067.6
7.60
88.54%


1844
Unknown
84/- IPA Export
18.67d
gallon
draught
1005.25
1060.4
7
91.30%


1844
Unknown
95/- IPA Export
21.11d
gallon
draught
1008
1069.4
7.8
88.48%


1844
Unknown
90/- IPA Export, India
20.00d
gallon
draught
1008
1066.3
7.4
87.93%


1844
Unknown
84/- IPA Export, India
18.67d
gallon
draught
1010
1062
6.6
83.86%


1844
Unknown
81/- IPA Home
18.00d
gallon
draught
1012
1059.3
6
79.75%


1844
Unknown
60/- IPA Export, India
13.33d
gallon
bottled
1006.5
1053.8
6
87.91%


1844
Unknown
60/- IPA Export, India
13.33d
gallon
bottled
1005
1053.8
6.2
90.71%


1844
Unknown
60/- IPA Export, India
13.33d
gallon
bottled
1013
1054.2
5.23
76.00%


1844
Unknown
90/- IPA Export, India
20.00d
gallon
bottled
1012
1065.6
6.8
81.69%


1844
Unknown
95/- IPA Export, India
21.11d
gallon
bottled
1007.25
1067.1
7.6
89.20%


1844
Unknown
90/- IPA Export
20.00d
gallon
bottled
1007.5
1068.9
7.8
89.12%


1844
Unknown
60/- IPA Home
13.33d
gallon
bottled
1005
1044.7
5.04
88.81%


1844
Unknown
60/- IPA Home
13.33d
gallon
bottled
1004.25
1049.9
5.8
91.49%


1844
Unknown
60/- IPA Home
13.33d
gallon
bottled
1006
1047.2
5.23
87.28%


1844
Unknown
81/- IPA Export
18.00d
gallon
bottled
1003
1061.3
7.4
95.10%


1844
Unknown
81/- IPA Export
18.00d
gallon
bottled
1003.25
1058.4
7
94.43%


1844
Unknown
66/- IPA Export
14.67d
gallon
bottled
1004
1054.4
6.4
92.65%


1844
Unknown
90/- IPA Export, India
20.00d
gallon
bottled
1010.25
1070.1
7.6
85.38%


1844
Unknown
90/- IPA Export
20.00d
gallon
bottled
1009
1067.3
7.4
86.62%


1845
Unknown
81/- IPA Home
18.00d
gallon
draught
1006.5
1053.8
6
87.91%


1845
Unknown
81/- IPA Home
18.00d
gallon
bottled
1006
1054.8
6.2
89.06%


1845
Unknown
81/- IPA Home
18.00d
gallon
bottled
1005
1058.6
6.8
91.46%


1845
Unknown
81/- IPA Home
18.00d
gallon
bottled
1005
1060.1
7
91.68%


1845
Unknown
81/- IPA Home
18.00d
gallon
bottled
1005.25
1058.8
6.8
91.07%


1845
Unknown
90/- IPA Export
20.00d
gallon
draught
1012.25
1062.7
6.4
80.45%


1845
Unknown
90/- IPA Export
20.00d
gallon
draught
1012.25
1064.2
6.6
80.93%


1845
Unknown
90/- IPA Export
20.00d
gallon
draught
1012
1062.4
6.4
80.77%


1845
Unknown
90/- IPA Export, India
20.00d
gallon
bottled
1010.5
1068.5
7.4
84.68%


1845
Unknown
60/- IPA Export
13.33d
gallon
bottled
1004.25
1048.4
5.6
91.21%


1845
Unknown
60/- IPA Export
13.33d
gallon
draught
1004.25
1048.4
5.6
91.21%


1845
Unknown
63/- IPA Export
14.00d
gallon
draught
1005.5
1049.6
5.6
88.91%


1845
Unknown
81/- IPA Export
18.00d
gallon
bottled
1003.75
1058.9
7
93.63%


1845
Unknown
63/- IPA Export
14.00d
gallon
bottled
1003.25
1055.2
6.6
94.11%


1845
Unknown
90/- IPA Export
20.00d
gallon
draught
1007.5
1068.9
7.8
89.12%


1845
Unknown
90/- IPA Export
20.00d
gallon
draught
1007.75
1069.2
7.8
88.80%


1846
Unknown
90/- IPA Export
20.00d
gallon
draught
1006
1054.8
6.2
89.06%


1846
Unknown
90/- IPA Home
20.00d
gallon
draught
1006.5
1055.3
6.2
88.25%


1846
Unknown
90/- IPA Export
20.00d
gallon
bottled
1005
1052.3
6
90.43%


1846
Unknown
65/- IPA Export
14.44d
gallon
bottled
1005.25
1062
7.2
91.53%


Source:


“Scottish Ale Brewer”, by W.H. Roberts, Edinburgh, 1847, pages 171 and 173



The weakest IPA exported to India was just over 5% ABV. That’s not even a strong beer by modern standards. It’s interesting that they go all the way from 60/- to 90/-. The latter is very rare as a beer designation. Though weirdly it popped up again in the 1920’s to describe a low-gravity (low 1030º’s) bottled Pale Ale. More recently it’s been used for Strong/Scotch Ales.

The IPAs William Younger was brewing a few years later look remarkably similar to those analysed by Roberts.



William Younger Pale Ales 1851 - 1853


Year
Beer
OG
FG
ABV
App. Atten-uation
lbs hops/ qtr
hops lb/brl


1851
XP
1060
1018
5.56
70.00%
20
5.15


1851
XXP
1072
1018
7.14
75.00%
24
8.18


1852
XP
1056
1018
5.03
67.86%
20
4.66


1852
XXP
1067
1017
6.61
74.63%
24
8.20


1853
XP
1056
1015
5.42
73.21%
20
5.14


Source:


William Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/2/5.



The text above is another excerpt from my tone-setting tome on the history of Scottish beer. Way better than any other book on the subject.




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http://www.lulu.com/shop/ronald-pattinson/scotland-vol-2/paperback/product-23090497.html (http://www.lulu.com/shop/ronald-pattinson/scotland-vol-2/paperback/product-23090497.html)

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