Van Diemen's Land brewed IPA

The other day I posted about the imported IPA that was available in Tasmania during the 19th century. While it might not have been the most popular drink in the colony, it was certainly readily available from the 1830s through to Federation.

This time I want to explore the evidence for local breweries trying their hand at the style. As far as I could find there is only evidence in the newspaper archives for two Tasmanian breweries producing IPA, Walker's in Hobart and Ditcham, Button & Co. in Launceston. The difficult thing with this kind of search is that it's only possible to find positive evidence and finding that evidence depends on whether the brewery advertised or not. It looks like only the bigger of the local breweries spent much money advertising their beer and ale.

The first example I've been able to find comes from a puzzling ad for walkers XXX Ale. I'm no expert on brewery abbreviations but I thought that the ‘X’ labelled beers referred to milds. While the milds of the 19th century were very different to those of the 20th century, I was surprised to see the XXX label used interchangeably with India pale ale. I'm sure there's precedence for this that I'm just ignorant about though.

Colonial Times (Hobart), 13 August, 1852

Whatever the story with the XXX/IPA, Walker's brewery seems to have been highly regarded through the mid to late 19th century. Below is a snippet from a report on a Hobart regatta. It includes a nice little reference Peter Dudgeon (who was in the last months of his life at that stage) and the author sharing a glass of Walker’s ale. Also see how important it is to Tasmanians even in the 1850s to compare their produce to the rest of the world.

Colonial Times (Hobart), 6 December, 1850

The other point that is worth noting is that it was made expressly for bottling rather than for cask sales. This seems to be a trend with both imported and locally made IPA.

Walker’s continued to produce an IPA at least up to the 1880s. It also seems to have been the more expensive of their ales based on the ad below.

The Mercury, 27 February, 1879 

In Launceston, Ditcham, Button & Co. were also producing an IPA by the late 1870s if not earlier. Charles Button was an member from an important family in the North. His father was William Stammers Button - what a great name - the first mayor of Launceston and a brewer himself. He ran the Launceston Brewery in partnership with Waddell after William Barnes retired. Charles brewed with his father in the early days, spent some time in New Zealand and then returned to Launceston, overseeing the brewery operations for Ditcham, Button & Co.

Launceston Examiner, 16 October, 1877

Ditcham, Button & Co. produced an East India Pale Ale and a No. 3 strong ale, a lineup which sounds very similar to the Younger and Bass brews that were being advertised in the colony at the time. The IPA was bottled and have a blue label and seems to have been known by that mark. As far as is possible to tell they seem to have been quite successful in imitating the well-known imports.

While there isn't a huge amount of information about local breweries producing IPAs, I think that what we’ve got here is the tip of the iceberg. Walker's Brewery was producing IPA for at least 30 years yet there are only a couple of mentions of it in advertising. This raises the question of how many other breweries with producing IPA (and other styles for that matter) but weren't advertising in the newspapers. The existence of their IPA is just assumed in that 1879 ad. Hopefully I'll be able to discover a bit more over time.

While the full extent is difficult to work out with the available information, at least a couple of Tasmanian breweries jumped on the original IPA bandwagon and seem to have produced quality versions of the style. However, as with so many other aspects of the brewing industry in colonial times, imitation rather than creation seems to have been the main concern.

India Pale Ale in Van Diemen's Land

The first reference to IPA in Tasmania that I've been able to find is in February 1830, just months after the first known use of the term. Whether this term indicates A genuinely different beer at this stage or merely a different label for beer that was already being brewed, it catches on very quickly.

It's also described as “the best summer drink” which was an important quality to settlers in the colonies I guess since we actually have summers.

Hobart Town Courier, 27 February, 1830

Launceston wasn't far behind Hobart. They had Ind & Smith’s IPA as early as 1833 and overall, seem to have enjoyed a wider variety of IPAs than Hobart did.

By 1840 we’ve got Ind & Smith & Dunbar IPAs to go along with some unnamed India pale ales. IPA is well and truly a thing by this point and comes up regularly in the newspapers.

Launceston Advertiser, 26 December, 1833

Hobart Town Courier, 7 December, 1838

As with all malt beverages at the time, it was very important to praise the medical value of India pale ales. Apparently they had “high tonic properties,” which sounds like a nicely vague kind of thing to say in order to sell it.

Over this time, Ind & Smith seem to be the dominant brand on the market. That is, if the number of advertisements is anything to go by.

Cornwall Chronicle, 11 August, 1852

In 1850 Allsopp gets in on the action and in the 1860s the Scottish breweries really move in on the Tasmanian scene. William Younger's and Dawson Kirkstall’s IPAs are very visible along with appearances from the English breweries Harvey’s and Jeffrey’s. Bass also arrives on the scene during this period.

When looking into the historical side of beer and brewing, the obvious question is ‘what were these beers like?’ And although I haven't found any good descriptions, the ad for Younger’s IPA below mentions the ‘delicacy of aroma’ which is cool to see given the time and distance it had passed on its way to Van Diemens Land. Even though the aroma (and probably everything else) would be quite different from today's crazy hoppy IPAs, it's nice to know that aroma was very important then as well as now.

Cornwall Chronicle, 3 December, 1850

The Mercury, 12 March, 1864

The Mercury, 28 March, 1872

In 1881 we've even got McEwan's IPA. While they started late in the IPA game in Australia, retailers made up for it with an incredible barrage of advertising throughout the 1880s and 1890s. If the number of ads are anything to go by, they dominated the IPA market with Bass IPA a distant second and and one or two others further back.

McEwan's IPA trademark application from 1909. Note the
globe in their branding. Taken from www.ipaustralia.com.au

To round out the gang of Scottish IPAs, Tennent’s IPA was also available in Hobart on occasion. It seems that they were making push to export their beer and it made the journey to Tasmania at least on one or two occasions. Stone & Sons also sent IPA to Tasmania in the late 19th century.

The Mercury, 6 April, 1882

It's crazy how much Scottish IPA was exported to Tasmania - at least 4 breweries were sending their IPA our way. I completely missed those IPAs when I did that post on Scottish ale. Just as well I hedged and called it “A first look…”! There was a real surge of popularity for the style during the 19th century but by the time of Federation, IPA had waned in the public's estimation if the number of newspaper ads is a guide. Still, from the earliest Times IPA was available and popular in Van Diemen's Land.

Next I'm going to look at locally brewed IPAs to see what kinds of things they got up to.

A death in a Hobart brewery, 1830

Just a little snippet today. I always find it shocking to hear about deaths in breweries, even if they're from the 19th century. Beer is fun and light and rarely too serious and I think it makes this kind of thing especially sobering. Safety has obviously improved since then but a brewery is an industrial environment and there's always an element of danger.

A serious accident happened on Saturday last, to a man of the name of Stephen Ward, who was in the service of Mr. GATEHOUSE, at New-town. It appears that some alterations were considered necessary with respect to the replacing of some of the coolers, which were in the process of being removed, the part of the building where they stood being rendered unsafe, through one of the side walls having given away, and with it the first floor. A new wall was just finished to replace it. The morning following the replacing of the coolers, the unfortunate man was turning in the water to supply the brewery and malt cistern, when sad to relate, the new wall gave way, and with it the floor of the cooling room, on which he was standing, and with it the coolers, all of which were instantly precipitated to the underground cellar. The poor man's right leg was locked between the beam and the edge of one of the coolers, and was crushed in a most dreadful manner. Surgical assistance was obtained as early as possible, but he only survived the amputation about half an hour. We understand he has left a wife and large family to lament his loss. [taken from Colonial Times (Hobart), 30 April, 1830]

This is the second brewery related amputation I've read about in the early brewing scene (James Whyte is the other). Both guys died soon after probably because they had amputations in the early 19th century.

The gold standard and Australian ale

The little editor's note is what caught my eye: "fully equal to the best V. D. Land ale." The beers and ales of Van Diemen's Land were the standard by which Australian brews were judged at least through the first half of the 19th century. I get the impression that this had changed somewhat by the time of federation and I'd like to try and figure that out sometime.

The Sydney Monitor, 25 August, 1830.

It's also an early indication of brewers successfully adapting to Australian conditions. It understandably took time for Australian brewing to develop an identity of its own but it's useful to have a hint of it happening in 1830.

I haven't been able to find out anything meaningful about Eveson and this is the only mention of his brewery. With death and financial ruin pretty constant realities to be contended with, many breweries popped up and then vanished again very quickly.

The tradition of Tasmanian stingo

One of the popular ales brewed in Hobart was Tasman Brewery's Stingo, a Tasmanian take on the aged Yorkshire strong ale. It was only brewed for a short time before the owner and brewer, James Whyte, died in a pretty dreadful way. His brewery was continued by his wife but the stingo seems to have disappeared.

Check out the Don Draper-esque ad:

Hobart Town Gazette and Van Diemen's Land Advertiser,
2 August, 1823

The hyperbole of that ad aside, it was a very popular brew in Hobart. Even in 1829 there was a newspaper article complaining about the absence of Tasman's stingo from the market. It didn't end there though, Tasman's stingo was something like a cult classic.

So in 1835 the Tasmanian Brewery, run by the new owners of the original Tasman Brewery, decided to relaunch the stingo. It not clear how the relaunch was but the absence of further mentions in newspaper advertising is not a positive sign. I've also found a mention that Noake's Brewery in Longford was also brewing one in 1852 and presumably earlier since at that point it already had a good reputation.

There were very limited quantities of the real deal Yorkshire stingo imported into the colonies but that local versions were produced over several decades is a fun little distinctive of Tasmanian brewing.

Peter Dudgeon: brewer, publican & delinquent goat owner

Let me introduce you to Peter Dudgeon. Google won't tell you much about him, he didn't succeed or fail in spectacular enough ways to be remembered or written about. He was known but never one of the leading members of the Van Diemen's Land colony. His story is interesting because it illustrates something of the promise and frustration of operating a brewery in the colony.

Dudgeon was part of the second wave of brewers in Hobart. He arrived in Tasmania in on October 4th, 1825, on board the Triton which had set sail for Hobart from Leith, Edinburgh on May 21st. He was a single bloke and only 21 years old who came out from Scotland with high hopes of 'carrying on an extensive brewery in the colony.'

He soon met Frederick Bell who had shipped out from London and arrived in Hobart just a month before Dudgeon. Soon the new arrivals formed a partnership and bought the Derwent Brewery in January 1826. The brewery had been started by James Ogilvie and included a malting house and kiln and was listed as one of 6 licensed breweries in Hobart in 1823. Ogilvie's stated reason for selling was the burden of managing the brewery on top of his other business ventures, which included the British Hotel and importing goods to the colony. However, the snippet below hints at problems with keeping a regular supply of ingredients, an ongoing problem faced by those running breweries in the colonies and which may have been a factor in his decision.

Hobart Town Gazette & Van Dieman's Land Advertiser,
April 23, 1824.

Ogilvie first put the brewery on sale in May 1825 and it was still on sale in October as Dudgeon arrived on the Triton. Ogilvie was willing to sell the brewery on pretty generous terms with only a deposit, allowing the balance to be paid over time. The sale to Dudgeon and Bell finally went through in January 1826 and in May they started the process of buying barley in preparation for malting and brewing their first batch.

Colonial Times and Tasmanian Advertiser,
June 2, 1826

The brewery got off to a good start, producing ale that was highly regarded if not immediately acclaimed the best in the colonies. They produced a single ale, selling for £6 10s a hogshead of which they sold 15-20 per week in Hobart. The frequent criticism of Dudgeon and Bell's ale was that their beer wasn't high enough in alcohol so in 1827 they began selling a stronger one as well. By April 1827 Dudgeon & Bell's was the standard by which to judge other colonial beers according to at least one NSW writer. It seems to have been regarded as far superior to any of the beers produced in Sydney.

My guess is that some of the success of Dudgeon and Bell was due to their commitment to using colonial grown hops, and being willing to spend quite a bit of money to do so. Those first batches of beer were made with hops grown by Mr. Shoobridge in Providence Valley, North Hobart. Shoobridge himself had migrated to Tasmania from Kent in order to develop a hop garden and by 1826 his hops were beginning to reach maturity. The benefit of using these hops was that they were far superior in quality to the imported hops which were long past their best after the voyage from England.

Hobart Town Gazette, August 19, 1826

Hobart Town Gazette, December 30, 1826

Then in early 1827 Dudgeon was in the news for something else completely. His goat managed to escape and wreck the garden of a poor man called Turner. Turner impounded the goat asking for 10 shillings to cover the damages to his garden. Dudgeon refused but somehow managed to pinch it back from the pound. The goat, in classic goat style, escaped again and this time destroyed Turner's cabbages! Turner locked it up again and demanded 20 shillings from Dudgeon. Then Dudgeon abused him, threatened him and then when the magistrate's ruling didn't go 100% his way, went out and found another who would write an order for the goat's release for him. So he got it back without paying Turner or the pound-keeper for their expenses. Not a classy move.

Still, things seemed to be going very well for him. A few months after the goat incident he was married to Mary Lord at St David's in Hobart. She was the oldest daughter of David Lord, an important and wealthy character from the 1820s through to the 1840s. At this point he's 24 years old and seems like he's becoming an important character in the colony.

Praise for Dudgeon & Bell's ale in:
The Sydney Gazette and NSW Advertiser,
July 20, 1827

Within the first five months of operation they were successfully exporting a limited quantity of their ale to Sydney and soon after had increased the strength of their beer in response to public feedback. In August 1827 Dudgeon and his new wife sailed to Sydney to secure their export business and to try and find a market for malt among the distillers in Sydney. Although it was small at the time, the prospect of having a successful and growing colonial brewery, one that could potentially challenge the London breweries' export to India was important to establishing a functioning economy in the colony as well as addressing the social problems associated with the consumption of spirits. The newspapers were very excited about the possibilities.

Not just favourably compared to London, but Scotch ale
as well. The Sydney Gazette and NSW Advertiser,
September 17, 1827

Colonial Times and Tasmanian Advertiser,
October 12, 1827

In November of the same year, soon after returning from the trip to Sydney, his partnership with Bell was formally dissolved. What happened isn't clear but whatever the case was, Bell seemed to do alright for himself afterwards. In 1829 he was importing rum and brandy. In 1835 he'd been granted some land near Ouse and in 1839 he was making a claim for a grant of 2000 more acres of land in a similar part of central Tasmania. He was also made a justice of the peace in 1839. He had an estate in Sandy Bay and in 1840 he made Sandy Bay an attraction by building the Sandy Bay baths.

Dudgeon retained the brewery but after the excitement and acclaim of the first 18 months, the following years appear to have been relatively quiet. The brewery was never huge volume of beer but from 1828-1831 Dudgeon's and other Tasmanian breweries seem to have operated only sporadically. The exact cause is difficult to determine. Dudgeon upgraded the brewery early in 1828, presumably in preparation for a greater volume of exports, which caused a stoppage in brewing over what seems to have been a couple of months but that only explains the first few months of the period. A shortage of ingredients or a glut of imported spirits and British ales are other possibilities, it was probably a combination of both. It's a fascinating little puzzle that I'm trying to work out and I'll post about it when I reach some conclusions.

Colonial Times, 26 June, 1829

Whatever the cause of the stoppages, he was still working on building his business and exporting to the other colonies. At the time the brewery had a copper that could boil 40 barrels of wort along with mash tubs of suitable size, a pump, cooler and fermentation vats. Along with that was the malting floor and a 20 foot square kiln. By October 1830 Dudgeon had added a beer to his lineup and we've got a shipment of an unknown quantity of beer to the Swan River settlement which was just over a year old at the time.

Recorded in The Sydney Gazette and NSW Advertiser,
23 October, 1830

At this point Dudgeon seems to have changed course. He obtained a license to retail wine, spirits and beer at his brewery in 1830 and in 1832 he's operating Dudgeon's Cellars on Elizabeth St. It seems like he was attempting to diversify and insulate himself financially from the fluctuations of the brewery. Particularly as in 1832 he leased the brewery out to William Adams Brodribb.

This strategy doesn't seem to have worked, he was in fairly constant financial trouble throughout 1832-1836 which culminated in a court ordered sale of the brewery. A notice was put in the newspapers that the brewery was up for sale in September 1835 and while Dudgeon managed to stave it off at that time, when the matter was heard in March 1836 he was declared insolvent and the brewery was to be sold to cover his debts. At just about the same time there was a flood of the Hobart rivulet which ran through the brewery property. It took away a wall of the brewery and some of the brewing equipment and it's possible that this ended Brodribb's time running the brewery.

Hobart Town Courier, 4 March, 1836

Ads for the sale or leasing of the brewery appear in 1836 and it's still on offer into 1838 when it was under the operation of Reeves, Boreham and Co. That arrangement seems to have ended very quickly and an L. J. Prentis & Son were operating it in 1840 or earlier. Charles Bilton is the agent selling the lease in 1848 and through until 1850 when the whole property was auctioned off. The ad for the auction suggests that the brewery plant might be sold separately and since there's no more mention of the brewery, it appears to have ended its life at that point. A sad petering out of what seemed like such a promising brewery.

Map of Hobart pinched from the Parliament of
 Tasmania website. Download the full size thing.

Back to Dudgeon, he and his wife moved to Launceston around 1837 and spent a number of years there, Dudgeon working as a constable in the George-Town district. Following the untimely death of Mary in 1842 at only 38 years old, he returned to Hobart and the pub trade. He took over the Britannia on Macquarie Street in February 1845 and the following year transferred his license and took over the Boar's Head on the corner of Harrington and Macquarie Street and only a month later is listed as the licensee of the Golden Gate on the corner of Harrington and Collins Street. He certainly threw himself back into things.

Unfortunately he didn't fare too well and he was back in insolvency court in 1847. The result of that episode is not clear but he turns up in 1850 as the licensee of The Palace which was later renamed Holyrood House and stood on the corner of Murray & Patrick Streets. He died there in 1852 after a 'protracted and painful illness'. The license of Holyrood House passed to his second wife, Elizabeth Dudgeon who continued to operate the pub throughout the 1850s and into the early 1860s.

In some ways Peter Dudgeon's experience matches the arc of the colony itself. While far from a failure, he never managed to make good on his early promise. The colony had so much going for it but somehow never managed to thrive the way it might have. Whatever else might be said about him, he was persistent and entrepreneurial through setbacks and loss and he brewed a very good ale.

The evils of tea

Hobart Town Gazette and Van Diemen's Land Advertiser,
3 September, 1824

Get the working classes off that miserable and expensive tea and get them brewing their own nourishing beer!

On trial for the crime of spilling beer. Hobart, 1835

I actually do still brew and have several beers I need to do tasting notes for but in the meantime, more Tasmanian beer history.

This is an odd little story about something that pains brewers to think about: the loss of a batch of beer. It happened in Hobart but was somehow deemed important enough to be reported in the Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, November 26, 1835.

IMPORTANT TRIAL.-We understand that an eminent brewer, in the neighbourhood of the Church, has had the misfortune to lose a whole "batch" of strong ale, under the following circumstances :-It was under the operation of fermentation on Sunday last, when, about eleven o'clock, the 21st Regiment arrived at Church, and the "earthquakers" let fly such a tremendous volley at the door while the men were entering the Church, that it had exactly the effect of a thunder-storm, and totally discharged a large batch of XXX ale! We understand that an action is commenced against Mr. Young, the adjutant, who, having looked at the drum-major, indicative of a "point of War" that great functionary gave three extra flourishes of his mace, and the big drummer-the middle drummer, and the little drummers let fly accordingly.

I'm finding it hard to picture exactly how drumming, even loudly, would have caused the strong ale to have leaked out. And even if the vibrations were somehow able to upset the fermenter then the brewer should have had things secured better. Regardless, it's good to see they were out for blood in the name of the spilled ale.

The Mr Young in the article seems to have been Wharton Thomas Young. His dad was the Sir Aretus Young, Governor of Prince Edward Island in Canada. Wharton was a lieutenant and adjutant in the 21st Regiment of Royal Scots' Fusileers and got married in 1835 to Amy Kemp. In August and September of the following year he was made an assistant police magistrate for Great Swan Port and coroner and then justice of the peace for Van Diemen's Land. He died suddenly in 1837 when a boat he and 5 soldiers were in capsized.

I'd like some more details about the trial and the church and brewery involved but I haven't been able to ferret that info out.

Ummm... maybe we will take some porter after all?

It seems that the pendulum swung back towards London porter after the heady days of 1826-7 when colonial beer and ale was selling so well that merchants were telling their London agents to slow down on sending porter. For some reason, the local breweries had slowed or even ceased their brewing between 1828-9.

The North-South comparison I posted the other day noted that Dudgeon & Bell and William Barnes had gotten their respective breweries churning out the good stuff in 1826 after something of a lull in beer production in the colony. I speculated that a shortage of ingredients was the problem but it looks like I was probably wrong about that. So now I have no idea what caused it, or this:

Originally from the Colonial Times but
reproduced in The Sydney Gazette,
January 16, 1829

They had the equipment, ingredient and environment on their side so why were they not brewing?Dudgeon's was successful and widely praised, what would make him reduce production? It's doesn't seem to be a financial problem. Dudgeon was paying 10 shillings per pound for colonial hops when he started up in 1826 so 3 shillings per pound is a brilliant price. Whatever the reason, colonists who could afford to were paying £2-3 more per hogshead for imported porter and those who couldn't drank spirits or whatever they could make themselves.

I guess this is just part of the disorganised and chaotic life of the early colony but it's bugging me. Need more details!

Hobart vs Launceston: beer quality in 1826

The Hobart vs Launceston rivalry is a Tasmanian tradition. I assume it goes all the way back to an insignificant incident around the time of the founding of Launceston in 1804. It's pretty ridiculous really, the smaller the population, the more important the dividing lines seem to be. There's a great little article in the Colonial Times and Tasmanian Advertiser that suggests this rivalry was in play by 1826 at least. It keeps things polite though, the main purpose is to be comment on the resumption of work at the local breweries and distilleries though it moves from there to talk about the quality of the beer as well.

This excerpt and the ones that follow are from:
Colonial Times and Tasmanian Advertiser,
December 15, 1826

The article gives no explanation for the cessation of brewing, presumably it's well enough known in the colony to not be worth mentioning. My hunch is that it's related to a lack of ingredients, I can't think of another reason why they'd actually stop brewing beer and distilling spirits. Even then though, it's surprising given the extensive use of various sugars among NSW and even some Tasmanian breweries at the time. I'll try to find out more about it another time.

Quick! Someone in Launceston start a faux craft brewery
built around the history of Barnes!

The comparison between the North and South is fascinating (I'm using that word way too much in these history posts). Actually, it's really a comparison between two breweries, the Derwent Brewery under the management of Dudgeon and Bell and the Port Dalrymple Brewery under the management of Barnes. There were several other breweries in Hobart at least but the article hints that these two are the only ones to have resumed operations at that stage. The good news is that in contrast to beer brewed in NSW at the time, both breweries were producing high quality brews.

Very good but not the best. C'mon Hobart, lift
your game!

To the enduring shame of my people the Launceston beer is said to be superior to the Hobart ale. The main factor seems to be the alcohol content and age of the beer, the punters preferring something with a bit more strength than the Derwent Brewery was providing. I've come across a number of references that seem to connect strength and quality and sometimes even treat them as synonymous. That puts the 19th century beer drinking public in a similar place to the Ratebeer top 50 list which features DIPAs, strong Belgians and imperial stouts prominently. Despite a vocal session beer contingent strength and quality still seem to be pretty tightly connected in the minds of most.

The Port Dalrymple beer is so good that the author says people in Launceston and the surrounding area are mostly drinking the beer produced by Barnes. They're even choosing his beer over London porter! I wonder if that's a factor in the absence of Barclay Perkins from Launceston until the 1840s?

A useful little detail in the mix is a comparison of the price of the Derwent beer to that of the London porters. At less than a third of the cost of London porter, it's not hard to see why people would be drinking it if the quality was there. The author praises the customer service of the Derwent Brewery as well as their provision of cheap but good table beer, an important social issue at the time. He'd just like them to brew something a bit stronger as well.

While Barnes was focussed on supplying the North of the state, Dudgeon and Bell were exporting their Derwent ales to NSW. It's pretty early on for that kind of thing to be happening but given the struggles they were having in Sydney to brew palatable beer, I guess it made sense for the Tasmanian breweries with enough capacity to be exporting. I've found a few other references to Tasmanian beer being exported but that's for another post.

So Launceston won the battle but the big thing to note is that the overall beer quality in Tasmania, even in the early days of the colony, was very high. Chalk that up to the favourable climate. The other thing worth comment is that the resumption of brewing and distilling in the state was news worth reporting. Newspapers from the time are such good resources and we get little insights into the scene like this one because alcohol was such an important issue at the time. Without this, the beer history of 19th century Australia would be virtually non-existent. Granted that's not quite on par with the burning of the Library of Alexandria, but it'd be a shame to be missing these fun little stories.

All this ties in nicely with our new homebrew club. We're planning on having a state competition and because of our state rivalry, having a North-South derby incorporated into the comp. Maybe the competition should be for the 'Dudgeon-Barnes Trophy'?

Colonial homebrew again - Hobart 1823

I keep posting homebrew recipes from the 1800s and this isn't the last one. I find it fascinating that there's so much written evidence of the recipes and methods people were using to brew their own beer from nearly 200 years ago. It gives insight into the ways people tried to deal with the climate and the shortage or high costs of normal beer ingredients. This one is the earliest colonial homebrew recipe I've been able to find; from Hobart this time. It's similar to the NSW one I posted the other day so I won't comment on it too much.

From the Hobart Town Gazette and Van Diemen's Land Journal,
March 1823

The climate wasn't so much a problem for brewing in Tasmania so I'm assuming that this recipe was born of a desire to minimise costs or deal with shortages of malt. The treacle or molasses would have made the brew very dark and also very dry. I'm not sure what the wheat bran would contribute if anything in terms of fermentables. Sounds like the kind of beer you brew and drink because it's got alcohol in it rather than for taste. Actually, it's probably not too far off a kit & kilo brew with all added sugar would be like.

Also, I'm glad we've moved past the technique of straining with a hair sieve.

Barclay Perkins in Australia 1821-1840

This time I've got a story about a couple of guys visiting Parramatta from Sydney in 1827 and some details about the availability of Barclay Perkins in Sydney, Hobart and Launceston.

First, the story. A couple of mates set out on horseback for a daytrip from Sydney to Parramatta. I'm not sure why it was worth including in the newspaper but for history's sake I'm glad they did. The part that's relevant to this blog is in the bar at their destination:

A little after 2 p. m. I found myself with my friend

Oddfish in a snug parlour at Walker's Hotel, admiring

the excellence and enjoying the luxury of a glass of

Barclay and Perkins'-ordered corn for the horses

-at 3 p. m. dinner on table-- roast beef, pigeon pye,  

custard, and good madeira. No disagreeable matters

to discuss by two cockneys after a journey of 15 or 16

miles.

The story is relatively long and not very well told but that reference to the 'luxury of a glass of Barclay and Perkins' is interesting. I've reproduced the whole thing at the end of the post for those who are interested and don't begrudge the extra reading.

The particular beer isn't identified. It's likely to have been the Porter although it could also have been the double brown stout that is referenced a number of times in newspapers. I really like the image of these cockney blokes having the chance to sit down after their journey with a beer from home. The luxury might refer to the taste of home but it's likely a comment on the rarity and cost of drinking a London Porter in the colony. There's a sequence following the above quote where they have to find someone to lend them money so they could pay for their beer and meal which suggests it cost them a bit more than they were expecting.

The early colonial newspapers are really useful sources of information. Aside from the occasional narrative like that one, the classifieds list the availability of just about anything that was imported. The first reference I can find to Barclay Perkins in Australia is in the snippet below, in 1821 Sydney. It's certainly possible that Barclay Perkins was available in the 20 years prior to this but at least we know for certain that it was sporadically available in the 1820s.

The Sydney Gazette & NSW Advertiser, December 1, 1821

Looking through the records it seems that ships arrived in November 1821, December 1823, August 1825, April 1828 and then a bit more regularly between 1829 and the 1830s. Mostly the ads are for their double brown stout and porter but in 1832 we get mention of their East India ale and in 1834 their pale ale, and in 1836, their export stout, 1837 their strong ale and 1839 their super strong ale.

The Sydney Gazette and NSW Advertiser, October 30, 1832

The first reference to Barclay Perkins in Hobart is from 1822. There are occasional references to brown stout in advertising prior to that which could be BP in disguise. There's more in 1823 (superior brown stout) and 1828 but like Sydney, the supply wasn't very regular. The fire that destroyed the London Brewery did get a mention in The Hobart Town Courier in 1832.

Imperial Double Stout Porter?!! Barclay & Perkins know
how to sell beer to beer geeks in 2014. Hobart Town 
Gazette and Van Dieman's Land Enquirer,
December 21, 1822

One of the suspicious brown stouts I was referring to.
Hobart Town Gazette and Southern Reporter,
August 21, 1820

Weirdly, I can't find any references to Barclay Perkins being available in Launceston until 1849. I'm not sure why it should be any different to the other colonial outposts of Hobart and Sydney. It's not hard to find references to Taylor's double brown stout in the 1820s and Truman's in the 1830s among others but no Barclay Perkins. Why was that?


Full reproduction of AN EXCURSION TO PARRAMATTA after the jump:

Guiness Porter in Hobart - 1868?

As I've sifted through Tasmanian newspaper advertisements from the 19th century I've seen plenty of names I'm familiar with: Truman, Whitbread, Barclay Perkins, Allsopp and several more. There are also a bunch of names I've not recognised which isn't shocking, there were plenty of breweries and I'm new to this beer history thing.

The Mercury, 13 November, 1868

So I didn't think much of it when I came across ads for Blood, Wolfe & Co choice porter. Well, beyond thinking they were obviously a vampire law firm as well as a brewery.

Later on I did a bit of searching to see who they were and what they brewed. It turns out that they brewed nothing. Here's an interesting little snippet:

From Guinness: The 250 Year Quest for the Perfect Pint

So it looks like the same thing was happening in Australia, bottling a beer from the barrel and selling it off as their own. I wonder how many other names I've come across are just the names of the people who bottled/exported the beer? The paragraph goes on to talk about how in Adelaide they were brewing a pretty ordinary stout and then selling it as Guinness. Classy move, Adelaide.

I managed to find references to Guinness being sold in Hobart in the 1890s so I guess they'd managed to sort things out by then.

I wonder why the Allsopp beers mentioned in the same advertisement didn't get the same rebranding treatment?