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Ten of fifteen years ago - not sure exactly when, but it was ages ago - I did a massive trawl of the internet looking for old brewery price lists. As well as going through all my brewery history books. It took weeks. But well worth it.
I transcribed them all into a spreadsheet. One with over 5,000 entries. That work compiling it was one of the reasons it took so long. Dead handy to have it now. As it enables me to quickly find dozens of examples of AK. 46, to be precise.
They come from a broad swathe of England. From Exeter in the Southwest across the South coast to Maidstone in Kent. Also the rest of London and the South, East Anglia, the Midlands and Yorkshire. Pretty much the whole of England except for the Northeast and the Northwest. (Including my hometown of Newark, obviously.) None come from either Wales or Scotland.
What did Victorians think AK was.? Going by the descriptions that accompany AK in price lists, most thought it was a Bitter. More than half the descriptions (25) include that word. Light crops almost as many times (21 plus one Crystal). Often in conjunction with Bitter (18). Looks like back in the day drinkers, in general, thought AK was a Light Bitter.
Multiple occurrences of Family and Dinner (there's also one Luncheon) clearly illustrate that AK was considered a beer to be drunk at home with meals.
Put that all together and you have a beer that's light in three senses - colour, body and alcoholic strength - that will slip down nicely with food.
AK descriptions
descriptions
no. examples
Bitter
25
Light
21
Family
8
Pale Ale
5
Dinner
5
Mild
2
AK Bitter Ale
8
AK Light Bitter
3
AK Light Bitter Ale
10
Mild turns up just twice, once in a phrase which sounds an oxymoron to moderns ears: Mild Bitter. Mild here is clearly being used in the sens unaged, rather than to Mild Ale.
The relatively low alcoholic strength of AK is easily demonstrated by its price. One of the wonderful things about studying the period 1880 to 1914 is that beer prices were totally stable. A beer that was 36 shillings a barrel in 1880 was still 36 bob in 1914. So you can directly compare, as I do in my next table, a beer from 1877 and another from 1913.
To put prices into context, here's a full set for one brewery, coincidentally, from Newark.
Brewery
Place
year
beer
price per barrel
Goodwin Bros.
Newark
1885
Light Mild Ale
36
Goodwin Bros.
Newark
1885
X Mild Ale
36
Goodwin Bros.
Newark
1885
XX Mild Ale
42
Goodwin Bros.
Newark
1885
XXX Mild Ale
48
Goodwin Bros.
Newark
1885
XXXX Strong Ale
54
Goodwin Bros.
Newark
1885
XXXXX Strong Ale
60
Goodwin Bros.
Newark
1885
Extra Strong
72
Goodwin Bros.
Newark
1885
AK Bitter Ale
36
Goodwin Bros.
Newark
1885
PA Bitter Ale
42
Goodwin Bros.
Newark
1885
IPA Bitter Ale
54
Goodwin Bros.
Newark
1885
Double Stout
48
Goodwin Bros.
Newark
1885
Extra Stout
54
Not a bad range of beers.
36 shillings a barrel was the cheapest beer at most breweries.You can see that they go up in increments of six shillings, which is 2d per gallon, or a farthing (a quarter of a penny) per pint. AA farthing being the smallest coin. Most didn't go as high as a 72 shilling beer. A beer that expensive would have been well North of 1100º.
Despite costing the same, AK and X Mild Ale most likely weren't the same strength. Pale Ales sold at a premium compared to Mild Ale or Porter. Usually around 2d per pint, though that was eroded over time. As I showed in an earlier post (http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2021/04/ak-1878-1911.html), AK had a gravity in the range 1045º-1050º. X Mild Ale was more likely 1050º-1055º.
Two-thirds of the AKs I'm rummaging around in cost 36 shillings a barrel, 31 out of 46 examples. Eight were cheaper and seven more expensive. Six were in one price class up - 42 shillings - which implies to me a slightly stronger beer, 1050º-1055º. While the five that were one class weaker, at 30 shillings a barrel, were likely just 1040-1045º. Though there were always regional variations in the relation between gravity and price.
Here's yet another table:
Price of AK
Price
no. examples
%
30
5
11%
32
2
4%
34
1
2%
36
31
67%
38
1
2%
42
6
13%
total
46
And to end, the full table.
AK 1877 - 1913
Brewery
Place
year
beer
price per barrel
Source
A. Stannard
Portsmouth
1880
AK Light Family Bitter
36
Hampshire Telegraph - Saturday 18 December 1880, page 7
A.E. Keyes (Isherwood, Foster & Stacey Ltd.)
Maidstone
1890
AK Family Tonic Ale
36
Maidenhead Advertiser - Wednesday 17 December 1890 page 3.
Adey and White
St. Albans
1884
AK Bitter Beer
36
Gibbs' illustrated handbook to St. Albans, 1884
Arnol, Perret & Co
Wickwar, Gloucs
1895
AK Bitter Ale
36
Aylesbury Brewery
Aylesbury
1900
AK
30
Bucks Herald - Saturday 03 November 1900, page 1.
Baddow Brewery
Great Baddow
1905
AK Light Dinner Ale
36
Essex Newsman - Saturday 19 August 1905, page 1.
Byles & Co
Henley
1876
AK Light Pale Ale
36
Harrod & Co.'s Directory of Beds, Bucks ..., 1876
C. & J. Attlee
Tooting
1885
AK Bitter Ale
32
Charrington Nicholl & Co
Colchester
1885
AK Bitter Ale
36
Crowley & Co.
Alton
1905
AK Family Ale
36
Hants and Berks Gazette and Middlesex and Surrey Journal - Saturday 09 December 1905, page 1.
Daniell & Son
Colchester
1894
AK Pale Ale
36
Kelly's Directory of Essex, Herts & Middx, 1894
Dunnell
Banbury
1890
AK Light Bitter
30
Banbury Guardian - Thursday 30 January 1890, page 1.
E. Greene & Son
Bury St Edmonds
1887
AK Light Bitter Ale
Eldridge Pope
Dorchester
1890
AK Bitter Ale
36
Hampshire Chronicle - Saturday 25 January 1890, page 2.
Epping Brewery
Epping
1898
AK Light Bitter
36
F.R. Sutton
Brigg
1894
AK Light Bitter Ale
42
Lincolnshire Chronicle - Friday 03 August 1894, page 4.
Flower & Sons
Stratford-on-Avon
1890
AK Family Ale
30
Frank Higgens
Buckingham
1890
AK Specially recommended
42
Buckingham Advertiser and Free Press - Saturday 04 January 1890, page 6.
Fullers
Chiswick
1893
AK Light Bitter Ale
36
Kelly's Directory for Ealing, Acton, 1893-94
Gardner
near Sandwich
1882
AK Mild Beer
30
Hastings and St Leonards Observer - Saturday 25 November 1882, page 1
Godsell & Sons
Stroud, Gloucs
1902
AK Light Dinner Ale
36
Kelly's Directory of Somerset, 1902
Goodwin Bros.
Newark
1885
AK Bitter Ale
36
Henry Lovibond
Fulham
1889
AK Mild Bitter
38
Hodges and Ritchie
Brighton
1884
AK Bitter Ale
42
Pike's Weald of Kent & Romney Marsh Directory, 1884-85
Holes
Newark
1901
AK Luncheon Ale
36
Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald - Saturday 11 May 1901
Humby & Baillie
Stafford
1896
AK Light Dinner Ale
36
Kelly's Directory of Warwickshire 1896
Ind Coope
Romford
1890
AK Light Bitter
42
Eyre's Post Office Plymouth & District Directory, 1890
Ind Coope
Romford
1890
AK Light Bitter Beer
36
East Anglian Daily Times - Monday 31 March 1890, page 4.
Kidd & Co.
Donnington (near Newbury, Berks)
1877
AK Light Bitter Ale
36
Newbury Weekly News and General Advertiser - Thursday 27 September 1877, page 7.
Kirkstall Brewery
Leeds
1888
AK Light Bitter Ale
36
Yorkshire Gazette - Saturday 30 June 1888, page 3
Leney
Wateringbury
1884
AK Pale Ale
42
Pike's Weald of Kent & Romney Marsh Directory, 1884-85
Major Lucas
Northampton
1893
AK Light Amber Ale
36
Northampton Directory, 1893-94
Northampton Brewery
Northampton
1880
AK Family Pale Ale, a sparkling and agreeable Tonic
36
Spencers' Illustrated Leicester Almanac, 1880
Reffell's Brewery
Bexley, Kent
1888
AK Light Bitter
36
Rigden
Faversham
1913
AK Light Bitter Ale
34
William Whiteley General Price List October, 1913, Volume 2, page 1197.
Roger's
Bristol
1889
AK Bitter Ale
36
Stansfeld & Co.
Fulham
1903
AK Crystal Ale
36
Sussex Agricultural Express - Saturday 24 January 1903, page 9.
Thomas Gundry
Redhill, Surrey
1878
AK Family Ale
42
Post Office Directory of Sussex, 1878
Tomson & Wotton
Ramsgate
1899
AK Light Bitter Ale
30
Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald - Saturday 07 October 1899, page 4
Tomson & Wotton
Ramsgate
1899
AK Light Bitter Ale
36
Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald - Saturday 07 October 1899, page 4
Vincent & Co.
Bracknell
1883
AK Family Pale Ale
36
Reading Mercury - Saturday 03 November 1883, page 7.
W.E. & J. Rigden
Faversham
1902
AK Light Bitter Ale
36
Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald - Saturday 06 December 1902, page 1
Walcot Brewery
Bath
1884
AK Bitter Ale
36
Post Office Bath Directory, 1884-85
Waltham Abbey Brewery
Waltham Abbey
1882
AK Stock Bitter Ale
36
Kelly's Directory of Essex, 1882
Waltham Bros.
London
1898
AK Light Biitter Ale
36
Watney, Combe, Reid
London
1913
AK Ale, Bitter Ale (Dinner Bitter)
36
William Whiteley General Price List October, 1913, Volume 2, page 1197.
Wimbeldon Brewery
Wimbledon
1889
AK Dinner Ale
32
advertisement in Surrey Independent
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Ten of fifteen years ago - not sure exactly when, but it was ages ago - I did a massive trawl of the internet looking for old brewery price lists. As well as going through all my brewery history books. It took weeks. But well worth it.
I transcribed them all into a spreadsheet. One with over 5,000 entries. That work compiling it was one of the reasons it took so long. Dead handy to have it now. As it enables me to quickly find dozens of examples of AK. 46, to be precise.
They come from a broad swathe of England. From Exeter in the Southwest across the South coast to Maidstone in Kent. Also the rest of London and the South, East Anglia, the Midlands and Yorkshire. Pretty much the whole of England except for the Northeast and the Northwest. (Including my hometown of Newark, obviously.) None come from either Wales or Scotland.
What did Victorians think AK was.? Going by the descriptions that accompany AK in price lists, most thought it was a Bitter. More than half the descriptions (25) include that word. Light crops almost as many times (21 plus one Crystal). Often in conjunction with Bitter (18). Looks like back in the day drinkers, in general, thought AK was a Light Bitter.
Multiple occurrences of Family and Dinner (there's also one Luncheon) clearly illustrate that AK was considered a beer to be drunk at home with meals.
Put that all together and you have a beer that's light in three senses - colour, body and alcoholic strength - that will slip down nicely with food.
AK descriptions
descriptions
no. examples
Bitter
25
Light
21
Family
8
Pale Ale
5
Dinner
5
Mild
2
AK Bitter Ale
8
AK Light Bitter
3
AK Light Bitter Ale
10
Mild turns up just twice, once in a phrase which sounds an oxymoron to moderns ears: Mild Bitter. Mild here is clearly being used in the sens unaged, rather than to Mild Ale.
The relatively low alcoholic strength of AK is easily demonstrated by its price. One of the wonderful things about studying the period 1880 to 1914 is that beer prices were totally stable. A beer that was 36 shillings a barrel in 1880 was still 36 bob in 1914. So you can directly compare, as I do in my next table, a beer from 1877 and another from 1913.
To put prices into context, here's a full set for one brewery, coincidentally, from Newark.
Brewery
Place
year
beer
price per barrel
Goodwin Bros.
Newark
1885
Light Mild Ale
36
Goodwin Bros.
Newark
1885
X Mild Ale
36
Goodwin Bros.
Newark
1885
XX Mild Ale
42
Goodwin Bros.
Newark
1885
XXX Mild Ale
48
Goodwin Bros.
Newark
1885
XXXX Strong Ale
54
Goodwin Bros.
Newark
1885
XXXXX Strong Ale
60
Goodwin Bros.
Newark
1885
Extra Strong
72
Goodwin Bros.
Newark
1885
AK Bitter Ale
36
Goodwin Bros.
Newark
1885
PA Bitter Ale
42
Goodwin Bros.
Newark
1885
IPA Bitter Ale
54
Goodwin Bros.
Newark
1885
Double Stout
48
Goodwin Bros.
Newark
1885
Extra Stout
54
Not a bad range of beers.
36 shillings a barrel was the cheapest beer at most breweries.You can see that they go up in increments of six shillings, which is 2d per gallon, or a farthing (a quarter of a penny) per pint. AA farthing being the smallest coin. Most didn't go as high as a 72 shilling beer. A beer that expensive would have been well North of 1100º.
Despite costing the same, AK and X Mild Ale most likely weren't the same strength. Pale Ales sold at a premium compared to Mild Ale or Porter. Usually around 2d per pint, though that was eroded over time. As I showed in an earlier post (http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2021/04/ak-1878-1911.html), AK had a gravity in the range 1045º-1050º. X Mild Ale was more likely 1050º-1055º.
Two-thirds of the AKs I'm rummaging around in cost 36 shillings a barrel, 31 out of 46 examples. Eight were cheaper and seven more expensive. Six were in one price class up - 42 shillings - which implies to me a slightly stronger beer, 1050º-1055º. While the five that were one class weaker, at 30 shillings a barrel, were likely just 1040-1045º. Though there were always regional variations in the relation between gravity and price.
Here's yet another table:
Price of AK
Price
no. examples
%
30
5
11%
32
2
4%
34
1
2%
36
31
67%
38
1
2%
42
6
13%
total
46
And to end, the full table.
AK 1877 - 1913
Brewery
Place
year
beer
price per barrel
Source
A. Stannard
Portsmouth
1880
AK Light Family Bitter
36
Hampshire Telegraph - Saturday 18 December 1880, page 7
A.E. Keyes (Isherwood, Foster & Stacey Ltd.)
Maidstone
1890
AK Family Tonic Ale
36
Maidenhead Advertiser - Wednesday 17 December 1890 page 3.
Adey and White
St. Albans
1884
AK Bitter Beer
36
Gibbs' illustrated handbook to St. Albans, 1884
Arnol, Perret & Co
Wickwar, Gloucs
1895
AK Bitter Ale
36
Aylesbury Brewery
Aylesbury
1900
AK
30
Bucks Herald - Saturday 03 November 1900, page 1.
Baddow Brewery
Great Baddow
1905
AK Light Dinner Ale
36
Essex Newsman - Saturday 19 August 1905, page 1.
Byles & Co
Henley
1876
AK Light Pale Ale
36
Harrod & Co.'s Directory of Beds, Bucks ..., 1876
C. & J. Attlee
Tooting
1885
AK Bitter Ale
32
Charrington Nicholl & Co
Colchester
1885
AK Bitter Ale
36
Crowley & Co.
Alton
1905
AK Family Ale
36
Hants and Berks Gazette and Middlesex and Surrey Journal - Saturday 09 December 1905, page 1.
Daniell & Son
Colchester
1894
AK Pale Ale
36
Kelly's Directory of Essex, Herts & Middx, 1894
Dunnell
Banbury
1890
AK Light Bitter
30
Banbury Guardian - Thursday 30 January 1890, page 1.
E. Greene & Son
Bury St Edmonds
1887
AK Light Bitter Ale
Eldridge Pope
Dorchester
1890
AK Bitter Ale
36
Hampshire Chronicle - Saturday 25 January 1890, page 2.
Epping Brewery
Epping
1898
AK Light Bitter
36
F.R. Sutton
Brigg
1894
AK Light Bitter Ale
42
Lincolnshire Chronicle - Friday 03 August 1894, page 4.
Flower & Sons
Stratford-on-Avon
1890
AK Family Ale
30
Frank Higgens
Buckingham
1890
AK Specially recommended
42
Buckingham Advertiser and Free Press - Saturday 04 January 1890, page 6.
Fullers
Chiswick
1893
AK Light Bitter Ale
36
Kelly's Directory for Ealing, Acton, 1893-94
Gardner
near Sandwich
1882
AK Mild Beer
30
Hastings and St Leonards Observer - Saturday 25 November 1882, page 1
Godsell & Sons
Stroud, Gloucs
1902
AK Light Dinner Ale
36
Kelly's Directory of Somerset, 1902
Goodwin Bros.
Newark
1885
AK Bitter Ale
36
Henry Lovibond
Fulham
1889
AK Mild Bitter
38
Hodges and Ritchie
Brighton
1884
AK Bitter Ale
42
Pike's Weald of Kent & Romney Marsh Directory, 1884-85
Holes
Newark
1901
AK Luncheon Ale
36
Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald - Saturday 11 May 1901
Humby & Baillie
Stafford
1896
AK Light Dinner Ale
36
Kelly's Directory of Warwickshire 1896
Ind Coope
Romford
1890
AK Light Bitter
42
Eyre's Post Office Plymouth & District Directory, 1890
Ind Coope
Romford
1890
AK Light Bitter Beer
36
East Anglian Daily Times - Monday 31 March 1890, page 4.
Kidd & Co.
Donnington (near Newbury, Berks)
1877
AK Light Bitter Ale
36
Newbury Weekly News and General Advertiser - Thursday 27 September 1877, page 7.
Kirkstall Brewery
Leeds
1888
AK Light Bitter Ale
36
Yorkshire Gazette - Saturday 30 June 1888, page 3
Leney
Wateringbury
1884
AK Pale Ale
42
Pike's Weald of Kent & Romney Marsh Directory, 1884-85
Major Lucas
Northampton
1893
AK Light Amber Ale
36
Northampton Directory, 1893-94
Northampton Brewery
Northampton
1880
AK Family Pale Ale, a sparkling and agreeable Tonic
36
Spencers' Illustrated Leicester Almanac, 1880
Reffell's Brewery
Bexley, Kent
1888
AK Light Bitter
36
Rigden
Faversham
1913
AK Light Bitter Ale
34
William Whiteley General Price List October, 1913, Volume 2, page 1197.
Roger's
Bristol
1889
AK Bitter Ale
36
Stansfeld & Co.
Fulham
1903
AK Crystal Ale
36
Sussex Agricultural Express - Saturday 24 January 1903, page 9.
Thomas Gundry
Redhill, Surrey
1878
AK Family Ale
42
Post Office Directory of Sussex, 1878
Tomson & Wotton
Ramsgate
1899
AK Light Bitter Ale
30
Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald - Saturday 07 October 1899, page 4
Tomson & Wotton
Ramsgate
1899
AK Light Bitter Ale
36
Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald - Saturday 07 October 1899, page 4
Vincent & Co.
Bracknell
1883
AK Family Pale Ale
36
Reading Mercury - Saturday 03 November 1883, page 7.
W.E. & J. Rigden
Faversham
1902
AK Light Bitter Ale
36
Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald - Saturday 06 December 1902, page 1
Walcot Brewery
Bath
1884
AK Bitter Ale
36
Post Office Bath Directory, 1884-85
Waltham Abbey Brewery
Waltham Abbey
1882
AK Stock Bitter Ale
36
Kelly's Directory of Essex, 1882
Waltham Bros.
London
1898
AK Light Biitter Ale
36
Watney, Combe, Reid
London
1913
AK Ale, Bitter Ale (Dinner Bitter)
36
William Whiteley General Price List October, 1913, Volume 2, page 1197.
Wimbeldon Brewery
Wimbledon
1889
AK Dinner Ale
32
advertisement in Surrey Independent
More... (http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2021/04/ak-1877-1913.html)