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I'm back from a brief holiday in Newark. Making this an approriate time to reveal the mistakes in that description of Snake River's AK Session.

To remind you, here's the quote:

"AK Session is traditional English mild ale. Mild refers to its low hopping rate. Mild is an ale intended to be consumed in quantity, thus the name “session”. AK is thought to stand for “Ale Kyte”, Flemish for “small ale”. This is a tawny colored brew that was a favorite among the farmers and laborers of the West Midlands. The alcohol content is 3.9% abv. This beer is a collaboration between Chris Erickson and Cory Buenning."
The first is pretty obvious: AK is a type of Pale Ale, not Mild. Bloody McMullens, by badging their AK as a Mild for a while they've led many to believe AK = Light Mild. An error repeated in David Sutula's Mild Ale book. It's another example of people not understanding what "mild" meant in the 19th century. As you can see from the table below, in no case is AK described as Mild Ale. The closest is "mild bitter Ale", where mild is clearly referring to the fact that it's unaged. "Bitter" or "Pale Ale" appear in the vast majority of the descriptions.



AK's
Brewery Place year beer price per barrel (shillings) price per gallon (pence)
Ind Coope Romford 1871 AK 36 12
Daniell & Co., Donyland Brewery Colchester 1884 AK 36 12
Bedford Brewery Bedford 1870 AK (a mild bitter Ale, very celebrated) 36 12
Hodson & Baverstock, Sun Brewery Godalming 18?? AK (Pale for Families) 36 12
John Bird Westerfield, Suff. 1883 AK Ale 36 12
Shakespeare Brewery Cambridge 1889 AK Ale
Langton & Sons Thorpe End, Leics AK Ale
George Stibbs, Steam Brwry Cheltenham 1871 AK Bitter 42 14
John Murton Croydon 1867 AK Bitter Ale 36 12
Battersea Park Brewery (S.G. Mason & Co.) London 1869 AK Bitter Ale 38 12.67
Hodges and Ritchie, College Brewery Brighton 1884 AK Bitter Ale 42 14
Walcot Brewery Bath 1884 AK Bitter Ale 36 12
Goodwin Bros. Newark 1885 AK Bitter Ale 36 12
Charrington Nicholl & Co Colchester 1885 AK Bitter Ale 36 12
Roger's Bristol 1889 AK Bitter Ale 36 12
Rogers' Ales Bristol 1890 AK Bitter Ale 36 12
Arnol, Perret & Co Wickwar, Gloucs 1895 AK Bitter Ale 36 12
Henry Collett Chippenham 1870/90 AK Bitter Ale
Adey and White St. Albans 1884 AK Bitter Beer 36 12
Eltham Brewery Eltham 1874 AK Bitter Dinner Ale 36 12
Thomas Gundry Redhill, Surrey 1878 AK Family Ale 42 14
Flower & Sons Stratford-on-Avon 1890 AK Family Ale 30 10d
Northampton Brewery Northampton 1880 AK Family Pale Ale, a sparkling and agreeable Tonic 36 12
Major Lucas & Co Northampton 1893 AK Light Amber Ale 36 12
Major Lucas Northampton 1893 AK Light Amber Ale 36 12
Waltham Bros. London 1898 AK Light Biitter Ale 36 12
Reffell's Brewery Bexley, Kent 1888 AK Light Bitter 36 12
Ind Coope Romford 1890 AK Light Bitter 42 14
Epping Brewery Epping 1898 AK Light Bitter 36 12
A.E. Druce & Sons, Hans Town Brewery Chelsea 1855 AK Light Bitter Ale 34 11.33
E. Greene & Son Bury St Edmonds 1887 AK Light Bitter Ale
Fuller, Smith & Turner Chiswick 1893 AK Light Bitter Ale 36 12
Humby & Baillie Stafford 1896 AK Light Dinner Ale 36 12
Godsell & Sons Stroud, Gloucs 1902 AK Light Dinner Ale 36 12
Byles & Co Henley 1876 AK Light Pale Ale 36 12
James Hole & co. Newark 1890 AK Luncheon Ale
Leney Wateringbury 1884 AK Pale Ale 42 14
Daniell & Son Colchester 1894 AK Pale Ale 36 12
Wordsley Brewery Stourbridge 1897 AK similar to above but lighter 36 12
Waltham Abbey Brewery Waltham Abbey 1882 AK Stock Bitter Ale 36 12
Sources:
19th-century price lists


I've already explained what's wrong about the second sentence: Mild doesn't mean lightly hopped. It means unaged.

There are no real errors in sentence three. But session is a very modern was of describing low-gravity beers. And I've most often seen it associated with Bitter, i.e. Session Bitter.

"AK is thought to stand for “Ale Kyte”, Flemish for “small ale”." Good bit of garbling there. I think they mean "ankel koyt" (though there are many different spellings of koyt: keyte, keut, kuyte). This is Martyn Cornell's theory of the derivation of AK. It doesn't mean small ale, but single Koyt. The standard form of Koyt as opposed to double Koyt. Personally, I don't believe this theory for a minute. There's a couple of hundred years gap between Flemish brewers settling in England an the name AK appearing. But that's another argument

"a tawny colored brew". I'm not sure what colour they mean with that description. But it sounds darker than the pale colour of AK.

"a favorite among the farmers and laborers of the West Midlands" Er, no. AK was mostly brewed in the South. As the map below shows. I can only see three that could possible be describes as West Midlands: Stafford, Stourbridges and Stratford. I think they're getting confused with Dark Mild, which still retains some popularity around Birmingham.



View AK distribution in a larger map

Note that Newark is the most northerly outpost of AK.

I'll make no comment about the ABV. It seems about right for a Light Bitter.

Give yourself a pat on the back if you spotted them all.


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