Beer in Scotland
Encyclopedia
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
for approximately 5,000 years. The Celtic tradition of using bittering herbs remained in Scotland longer than the rest of Europe. The two main cities of Scotland, Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
and Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, are where, historically, the main breweries developed; and Edinburgh, in particular, became a noted centre for the export of beer around the world. By the end of the 20th century, small breweries had sprung up all over Scotland.
Despite a widespread belief that beers in Scotland used fewer hops than in England, all the available evidence shows that the Scots imported hops from around the world and used them extensively.
History
Brewing in Scotland goes back 5,000 years; archaeologist Merryn Dineley has suggested that ale could have been made from barley at Skara BraeSkara Brae
Skara Brae is a large stone-built Neolithic settlement, located on the Bay of Skaill on the west coast of Mainland, Orkney, Scotland. It consists of ten clustered houses, and was occupied from roughly 3180 BCE–2500 BCE...
and at other sites dated to the Neolithic
Neolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
. The ale would have been flavoured with meadowsweet
Meadowsweet
Filipendula ulmaria, commonly known as Meadowsweet, is a perennial herb in the family Rosaceae that grows in damp meadows. It is native throughout most of Europe and Western Asia...
in the manner of a Kvass
Kvass
Kvass, kvas, quass or gira, gėra is a fermented beverage made from black...
or Gruit
Gruit
Gruit is an old-fashioned herb mixture used for bittering and flavoring beer, popular before the extensive use of hops. Gruit or grut ale may also refer to the beverage produced using gruit....
made by various North European tribes including the Celts and the Picts. By studying the analyses of organic remains found inside Grooved ware
Grooved ware
Grooved ware is the name given to a pottery style of the British Neolithic. Its manufacturers are sometimes known as the Grooved ware people. Unlike the later Beaker ware, Grooved culture was not an import from the continent but seems to have developed in Orkney, early in the 3rd millennium BC, but...
pots and by working with her husband, Graham, who is a craft brewer of some twenty years' experience, it was possible to reconstruct this ancient ale. They named it Meadowsweet Ale. The ancient Greek Pytheas
Pytheas
Pytheas of Massalia or Massilia , was a Greek geographer and explorer from the Greek colony, Massalia . He made a voyage of exploration to northwestern Europe at about 325 BC. He travelled around and visited a considerable part of Great Britain...
remarked in 325 BC that the inhabitants of Caledonia were skilled in the art of brewing a potent beverage.
The use of bittering herbs to flavour and preserve beer continued longer in remote parts of Scotland than it did in the rest of the British Isles. Thomas Pennant
Thomas Pennant
Thomas Pennant was a Welsh naturalist and antiquary.The Pennants were a Welsh gentry family from the parish of Whitford, Flintshire, who had built up a modest estate at Bychton by the seventeenth century...
wrote in A Tour in Scotland in 1769 that on the island of Islay
Islay
-Prehistory:The earliest settlers on Islay were nomadic hunter-gatherers who arrived during the Mesolithic period after the retreat of the Pleistocene ice caps. In 1993 a flint arrowhead was found in a field near Bridgend dating from 10,800 BC, the earliest evidence of a human presence found so far...
"ale is frequently made of the young tops of heath, mixing two thirds of that plant with one of malt, sometimes adding hops". Though, as in the rest of Britain, hops had replaced herbs in Scotland by the end of the 19th century, this Celtic tradition of using bittering herbs was revived in Brittany
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
by Brasserie Lancelot
Brasserie Lancelot
The brasserie Lancelot is a French brewery founded in 1990 by Bernard Lancelot, located on the site of a gold mine in Roc-Saint-André in Morbihan...
in 1990, and in Scotland by the Williams Brothers two years later.
Even though ancient brewing techniques and ingredients remained longer in Scotland than the rest of Britain, the general pattern of development was the same, with brewing mainly in the hands of "broustaris", or alewives, and monasteries, just as it was throughout Europe; though, as with brewing ingredients, the trend was for developments to move more slowly. The Leges Quatuor Burgorum, a code of burgh
Burgh
A burgh was an autonomous corporate entity in Scotland and Northern England, usually a town. This type of administrative division existed from the 12th century, when King David I created the first royal burghs. Burgh status was broadly analogous to borough status, found in the rest of the United...
laws, showed that in 1509 Aberdeen had over 150 brewers – all women; and this compares with figures for London which shows that of 290 brewers, around 40% were men. After the Reformation in the 1560s commercial brewing started to become more organised, as shown by the formation in 1598 of the Edinburgh Society of Brewers – though London had formed its Brewers' Guild over 250 years earlier in 1342.
However, after the Acts of Union 1707
Acts of Union 1707
The Acts of Union were two Parliamentary Acts - the Union with Scotland Act passed in 1706 by the Parliament of England, and the Union with England Act passed in 1707 by the Parliament of Scotland - which put into effect the terms of the Treaty of Union that had been agreed on 22 July 1706,...
, new commercial opportunities became available that proved a substantial stimulus to Scottish brewers. Tax on beer was held at a lower amount than the rest of the United Kingdom, and there was no tax on malt in Scotland – this gave Scottish brewers a financial advantage. During the 18th century some of the most famous names in Scottish brewing established themselves, such as William Younger in Edinburgh, Robert & Hugh Tennent
Hugh Tennent
Hugh Tennent was a Scottish brewer, the great-great-grandson of the founder of the Tennent's brewery. He began production of Tennent's lager in 1885, having acquired his brother's share of the business a year earlier....
in Glasgow, and George Younger in Alloa. In Dunbar
Dunbar
Dunbar is a town in East Lothian on the southeast coast of Scotland, approximately 28 miles east of Edinburgh and 28 miles from the English Border at Berwick-upon-Tweed....
in 1719, for example, Dudgeon & Company's Belhaven Brewery
Belhaven Brewery
Belhaven brewery is a brewery near Dunbar in Scotland owned by Greene King.-History:Belhaven claims to have begun brewing in 1719. In that year the burgh of Dunbar levied a local tax on brewers to fund civic improvements...
was founded. Scottish brewers, especially those in Edinburgh, were about to rival the biggest brewers in the world.
Charles McMaster, the "leading historian of the Scottish brewing industry" according to Roger Protz, believes that the hard water of Edinburgh was particularly suitable for the brewing of Pale Ale
Pale ale
Pale ale is a beer which uses a warm fermentation and predominantly pale malt. It is one of the world's major beer styles.The higher proportion of pale malts results in a lighter colour. The term "pale ale" was being applied around 1703 for beers made from malts dried with coke, which resulted in a...
- especially the water from the wells on the "charmed circle" of Holyrood through Canongate, Cowgate, Grassmarket and Fountainbridge; and that due to the quality of this water brewer Robert Disher was able to launch a hoppy Edinburgh Pale Ale in 1821. While Martyn Cornell in Beer: The Story of The Pint, shows that when the brewers of Burton in the late 19th century were exporting their hoppy Burton Ales in the form of India Pale Ale
India Pale Ale
India Pale Ale or IPA is a style of beer within the broader category of pale ale. It was first brewed in England in the 19th century.The first known use of the expression "India pale ale" comes from an advertisement in the Liverpool Mercury newspaper published January 30, 1835...
, so were the William McEwan
McEwan's Brewery
McEwan's is a brand of ales, with the draught beers brewed at the Caledonian Brewery in Edinburgh, Scotland and the canned and bottled beers brewed at the Eagle Brewery, Bedford, England. It is now owned by Wells & Youngs following the sale of the brands by Heineken in 2011...
and William Younger breweries. When the Burton brewers exported strong malty Burton Ales, so did the Edinburgh brewers, under the name Scotch Ale. The Edinburgh brewers had a very large and well respected export trade throughout the British colonies rivalling that of the Burton brewers. By the mid-19th century Edinburgh had forty breweries and was "acknowledged as one of the foremost brewing centres in the world".
Some writers, such as Pete Brown in Man Walks into a Pub, believe that beer brewed in Scotland developed significantly different from beer brewed south of the border. The belief is that hops were used sparingly, and that the shilling designation was uniquely Scottish. However, Dr John Harrison in Old British Beers gave a recipe for the English brewery Brakspear's 1865 50/- Pale Ale in which 1.8 oz of hops are used per imperial gallon, along with the Scottish brewery W. Younger's 1896 Ale No 3 (Pale) which also uses 1.8 oz of hops per imperial gallon. These both indicate that there was no difference in use of hops, even for the everyday domestic beers, and that the shilling designation was used in other parts of the British Isles.
Scotch ales
Although the market for strong ales started to decline toward the end of the 19th century, the Belgian importer John Martin in the 1920s encouraged both English and Scottish brewers to make strong beers for his Belgium customers. John Martin used the names Bulldog Ale, Christmas Ale and Scotch Ale. Although John Martin's Scotch Ales are now brewed in Belgium, the assumption has grown that Scotch Ale is a style of strong ale unique to Scotland.Scottish ales
While beers made in Scotland are sometimes labelled "Scottish ale" by the brewery in the same way that beers from Cornwall may be labelled "Cornish ale" and beers from Kent may be labelled "Kentish ale", there is no evidence that these beers are any different from those made in other parts of the British Isles.However, brewers in the United States tend to apply the term "Scottish ale" to pale ales with low hop levels and a malty sweetness.
Shilling categories
The shillingShilling
The shilling is a unit of currency used in some current and former British Commonwealth countries. The word shilling comes from scilling, an accounting term that dates back to Anglo-Saxon times where it was deemed to be the value of a cow in Kent or a sheep elsewhere. The word is thought to derive...
categories were based on price charged per hogshead (54 Imperial gallons) during the 19th century. The stronger or better quality beers cost more. The same shilling designation was used for beer of totally different types. Usher's, for example, in 1914 brewed both a 60/- Mild and a 60/- Pale Ale. In 1909 Maclay brewed a 54/- Pale Ale and a 54/- Stout. In 1954 Steel Coulson were still producing both a 60/– Edinburgh Ale and 60/– Brown Ale on draught, both with a gravity of 1030; the third draught beer was 70/– P.X.A. at 1034. Customers would ask for a strength of beer by names such as "heavy" and "export". The terms export and heavy are still widely used in Scotland. Even though the practice of classifying beers by the shilling price was not specific to Scotland, during the cask ale
Cask ale
Cask ale or cask-conditioned beer is the term for unfiltered and unpasteurised beer which is conditioned and served from a cask without additional nitrogen or carbon dioxide pressure...
revival in the 1970s Scottish brewers resurrected the shilling names to differentiate between keg and cask versions of the same beers. This differentiation has now been lost.
While the shilling names were never pinned down to exact strength ranges, and Scottish brewers today produce beers under the shilling names in a variety of strengths, it was largely understood that:-
Light: (60/-) was under 3.5% abv
Alcohol by volume
Alcohol by volume is a standard measure of how much alcohol is contained in an alcoholic beverage .The ABV standard is used worldwide....
Heavy: (70/-) was between 3.5% and 4.0% abv
Export: (80/-) was between 4.0% and 5.5% abv
Wee heavy: (90/-) was over 6.0% abv
- (/- is read as "shilling" or "bob" as in "a pint of eighty-bob, please")
Breweries in Scotland
Wellpark Brewery is the oldest surviving brewery in Scotland, having been founded in 1556 in GlasgowGlasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
. It is currently owned by Tennent Caledonian Breweries which is a subsidiary of InBev
InBev
InBev is a subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev. The company existed independently for several years - since the merger between Interbrew and AmBev and until the acquisition of Anheuser-Busch. InBev has operations in over 30 countries and sales in over 130 countries...
.
Caledonian Brewery
Caledonian Brewery
Caledonian Brewery is a Scottish brewery founded in 1869 in the Shandon area of Edinburgh, Scotland. The Caley, as it is known locally, is the only survivor of over 40 breweries that operated in Edinburgh during the 19th century, although a number of independent breweries have opened in recent...
was founded in 1869 in the Shandon area of Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
. The Caley, as it is known locally, is the only survivor of over 40 breweries that operated in Edinburgh during the 19th century.
- Inveralmond Brewery
- Williams Bros Brewing Co
- Arran Brewery
- Valhalla BreweryValhalla BreweryThe Valhalla Brewery in Baltasound, Unst, Shetland, Scotland, is the northernmost brewery in the British Isles. It was opened by the husband and wife team Sonny and Silvia Priest, in December 1997....
- Orkney BreweryOrkney BrewerySinclair Breweries Limited parent company for the Orkney and Atlas ales' Orkney Brewery was founded in March 1988 by Roger White at the old schoolhouse in Sandwick, Orkney, Scotland. Atlas was formed in 2002 by Neill Cotton and merged with Orkney in 2004 under the name Highland & Islands Breweries...
- Broughton AlesBroughton AlesBroughton Ales is a brewery near Broughton, which lies between the towns of Biggar and Peebles in Scotland. The brewery was founded in 1980.- Beers :* Greenmantle Ale - ABV 3.9%* Merlin's Ale - ABV 4.2%* Scottish Oatmeal Stout - ABV 4.2%...
- BrewDogBrewDogBrewDog is a Scottish brewery located in the town of Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire.- History :BrewDog was founded in 2006 by friends James Watt and Martin Dickie. The brewery at the Kessock Industrial Estate in Fraserburgh produced its first brew in April 2007...
- McEwan's BreweryMcEwan's BreweryMcEwan's is a brand of ales, with the draught beers brewed at the Caledonian Brewery in Edinburgh, Scotland and the canned and bottled beers brewed at the Eagle Brewery, Bedford, England. It is now owned by Wells & Youngs following the sale of the brands by Heineken in 2011...
- BelhavenBelhaven BreweryBelhaven brewery is a brewery near Dunbar in Scotland owned by Greene King.-History:Belhaven claims to have begun brewing in 1719. In that year the burgh of Dunbar levied a local tax on brewers to fund civic improvements...
- Harviestoun Brewery
- Traquair House Brewery
- Houston Brewing CompanyHouston Brewing CompanyThe Houston Brewing Company is a brewery in the village of Houston in Renfrewshire, Scotland. It is attached to, and operated in common with, the public house and, as a result of its size, is classed as a microbrewery....
- Stewart BrewingStewart BrewingStewart Brewing is an independent craft brewery based on the out-skirts of Edinburgh in Loanhead, Midlothian. It was established in 2004 by Steve Stewart....
External links
- John Martin
- Dr. John Harrison Old British Beers
- Charles McMaster: Edinburgh Brewing capital of the Northern Hemisphere? in Beer Glorious Beer Edited by Barrie Pepper and Roger Protz, ISSN 1 899163 46 8
- The History of Beer in Scotland & the True Origins of Scottish Ale