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Look, I'm a deeply lazy person. Let's be realistic. You can't expect me to pen an erudite essay every day of the year. So it's back to that reliable standby, 19th-century Dutch beer adverts. Courtesy of Historische Kranten.

Algemeen Handelsblad 02-09-1839

Note that they are using the technically more accurate term. Brown Stout, rather than just Stout. I hope you can still remember my explanation of Brown Stout and Pale Stout from a few days ago. Because I'm not going to repeat them now.

I was a little surprised that it's all bottled beer. 1839 seems quite early for that. A few decades later and bottled Porter had pretty much disappeared. It became an exclusively draught beer with only Stout being bottled.

Journal de La Haye 15-02-1834

You've probably already spotted what's odd about this ad: it's in French. As was the rest of the newspaper. Not sure why. ("Huguenots, dad".) Maybe they thought French was posher. ("Huguenots, dad".) Or more international. ("Huguenots, dad".) Definitely not Huguenots, Andrew.

Apart from the interesting spelling of Scotch, it was the mention of Burton that attracted me. I wonder which Burton they mean? If it were the Pale Ale, I'd expect, well, Pale Ale after the Burton. From that and the comparatively early date, I'd put my money on it being Burton Ale. You know, the stuff that eventually evolved into Bass No. 1.

That was fairly painless. Now on with my day.


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