Barclay Perkins in Sydney, 1820

Look what I found:

The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser,
30 September, 1820

When I posted about Barclay Perkins in the colonies I missed this reference. It puts the first mention of BP more than a year earlier than the December 1821 one I had. And it's parked next to Edinburgh ale!

It's also second earliest reference to imported beer I can find that carries the name of a brewery (Hodgson's pale ale is the first I've found with one mention in 1819). The previous mentions of imports are all generic like brown stout, porter, pale ale or Edinburgh ale. I've got also got Taylor's brown stout in 1823.

There's not much more to say about this, I just wanted to add it to the list for the sake of completeness.

A first look at Scottish ale in the colonies

One thing I hadn't realised in my searches so far was just how much Scottish ale was available throughout the colonies. Until the 1850s and 1860s it's often advertised with the generic place name rather than brewery but there are references to Younger's in the 1840s and following. I'd come across it of course but the number of references when I started searching for it blew me away. Scottish ale seems to have been quite popular in the colonies.


Edinburgh Ale
Edinburgh was a major brewing centre in the early days of the Australian colonies and it shows with both the number of references and in how early the first ones come. In the early 1820s there wasn't a great choice in beer and ale but there was as much Edinburgh ale as just about anything else.

The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser,
28 September 1820.

Hobart Town Gazette and Van Diemen's Land Advertiser,
28 September, 1822.

Hobart Town Gazette, 19 August, 1826

McEwans wasn't established until the mid-19th century but once they got going, plenty of their beer saw the colonies. The first mention I could find of them is in Melbourne from 1864, less than 10 years after the brewery was established. It's tricky to be sure that this is their first mention because there were several McEwans in the colonies importing all kinds of things including ale. Also, if you want to search for them on OCR'd newspapers, I recommend searching for "M'Ewans".

The Argus (Melbourne), 23 August, 1864

Your ale really is global if it's advertised in Zeehan!
Zeehan and Dundas Herald, 9 September, 1891.

Alloa Ale
As with Edinburgh ale, there are plenty of generic references to Alloa ale but they don't start until the late 1830s and hit their peak in 1880-1889. The first reference I've been able to find is in Hobart in 1837 and there's 'strong Alloa ale' in Sydney in 1839.

Southern Australian, 16 January, 1840

Probably the most significant Alloa brewery, Younger's, is first mentioned by name in Sydney, 1848 and then later throughout the colonies.

Sydney Morning Herald, 21 November 1848

That's quite a nice list in addition to the Younger's!
Launceston Examiner, 11 October, 1860

The Argus, 25 August, 1863

For those interested in brewing up a taste of history, Shut Up About Barclay Perkins has a recipe for Younger's No. 3 Export Ale from 1868, presumably not too different from the 1863 version above (I've actually got an Australian homebrew recipe from 1835 that is quite similar to the Younger's No. 3 as well. I'll post about that sometime). If you brew it, let me know how it goes!


Aitkens in Falkirk
The first reference to Aitkens I've been able to find so far is in Melbourne, 1856. It appears again in the 1860s and the on and on into the First World War.

Why don't other breweries market their beers to invalids?
Evening News (Sydney), 3 February, 1875

Some of their beer was sold as Aitken's Life Belt (sometimes Life Bouy) Ale and came with this pretty terrible label.

Pic pinched from Shut Up About Barclay Perkins

Scotch Pale Ale and Porter

Hobart Town Gazette and Van Diemen's Land Advertiser,
18 May, 1822

Along with the reference in Hobart, there's also a reference to Scotch pale ale in Sydney in 1825 and again in 1837-8, 1842, 1846 and a few others throughout the remainder of the 19th century. I'm not sure what the Scotch pale ale was like and it's relation to the English pale ales. Whatever it was like, it's not imported in great quantities.

The Scotch porter appears in Hobart in 1826 (see the 1826 snippet in the Edinburgh ales section) and 1827 and in Sydney the year after. Like the pale ale it is only around sporadically. It also pops up in Geelong and Melbourne in 1850 and Launceston in 1852 and occasionally afterwards throughout the 19th century and into the 20th.

There's also strong Scotch ale from 1833 and occasionally double strong Scotch ale which follows much the same pattern as the pale ale and porter.

So there you have it, there was a lot of Scottish ale in the colonies and people seemed to like it.

The first reference to IPA. Just.

About this time last year, beer historian Martyn Cornell posted about the first occurrence of the term 'India Pale Ale', 29 August, 1829. It was 6.5 years before the previous known first usage and was notably from a Sydney newspaper. Australia was into IPA before it was cool. We're just a bunch of beard-wearing hipster convicts.

As I was ferreting around in the depths of Trove today I discovered a reference to IPA from 27 August of the same year, just two days earlier. It's the same ad, run in the same newspaper so it's not really moving the needle in terms of the history but I guess it's worth pointing out.

The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser,
27 August, 1829

The ad is a bit unclear as to whether it's advertising an IPA brewed by Taylor or whether it's referring to Taylor's pale ale and an East India pale ale. The former is a possibility with "Taylor's" referring to their stout or porter. Taylor's brown stout (or porter) and pale ale had been advertised together a number of times in the preceding years. Their stout in particular appears so often in colonial advertising that it's conceivable that it could be referred to simple as "Taylor's". However, the latter seems to make more sense grammatically. Check out the post by Cornell for more discussion about it.

This is the kind of ad I'm talking about. From:
The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser,
25 July, 1828

So there you go, a tiny discovery that doesn't change things at all! That's what I'm all about.

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!

Brewing with wheat, colonial style

1827 brought an abundant wheat harvest in Van Diemen's Land. All these settlers had extra wheat that they couldn't sell for a decent price so suddenly there are lots of homebrewers. It makes sense that homebrewers would use what they had on hand, we've already seen them turn to bran and treacle or molasses when they had to but today we've got something pretty cool because it's tied to a colony-wide event rather than random household  shortages. What else would you do with it all? The savings for brewing beer instead of buying would amount to more than the low price they'd get for selling the wheat. True farmhouse ale.

George Frankland's 'Hobart Town', 1827. Pic pinched
from UTAS

There aren't any recipe details of course, there'd probably be as many recipes as brewers. I think a good place to start would be with something like a wheat version of the burton or strong pale ale style beers that were being brewed in the colonies at the time. 100% wheat malt to 1.070-1.100, the stronger is probably better given we're talking about dealing with surplus wheat. For hops we're ideally after Tasmanian Goldings or something similar with alpha acids in the low range. Probably shoot for 60-100+ IBUs. Chuck in an English ale yeast and you're all set. Really though, any combination of wheat & Tasmanian hops is likely just as authentic as what I've outlined. I wonder if any of the farmers roasted their wheat malt dark to make a wheat porter?

Hobart Town Gazette, 26 May, 1827

It'd probably require all the rice hulls in the land if you're brewing on a 3 vessel system but BIAB brewers can just go for it.

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!

Thanks, but no thanks to London porter

Ha! My speculation about the long absence of Barclay Perkins from Launceston - that the local beer was too popular - now has some evidence to support it.

Colonial Times and Tasmanian Advertiser,
October 12, 1827

It wasn't just Launceston, the whole state seemed pick local brews based on their evaluation of the cost/quality/availability equation. It doesn't necessarily mean that the local beer was always better but it does indicate that the imported stuff wasn't worth the extra cost. I feel a bit proud.

The 'this we are happy to hear' is significant. Imported beer was expensive and more importantly, it saw the money sail away as the boat the beer came on left port. In the absence of actual coin, rum became the de facto currency to pretty disastrous social consequences. As if a colony that was 75% male and had a high proportion of ex criminals wasn't bad enough. Anyway, the solution as many saw it was to promote local breweries and the growing of barley and hops. Keep money circulating in the colony and reduce the problems associated with excessive consumption of spirits. Good solution, it's probably worth a try now, too.

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.