Friday 19 November 2010

The decline of Stock Ales (part 2)

A short quote highlighting the change in public taste at the end of the 19th century.

"The bottling of beer necessitates a further amount of information being obtained, especially now that the public taste is tending toward a newly-bottled beer rather than to its old friend the fully-matured aged pale ale, more especially associated with the name of Burton. The modern method of bottling comparatively newly-brewed beers, rapidly forcing into condition, and distributing for what is practically immediate consumption, is unfortunately growing far too rapidly, as, I believe, such beers are far less healthy to the consumer than the old-fashioned, fully-matured, naturally-fined, stock bottled ale."
"Journal of the Federated Institutes of Brewing, Volume 1, 1895", page 189.

Those bastard brewers, moving from naturally-conditioned bottled beer to force-carbonated junk. Someone should have started a campaign to save the older style.

2 comments:

Gary Gillman said...

Some useful pointers here (1915) on the distinctions, including from a taste standpoint, between stock ales and mild beers, see pg. 806-812, written on the cusp of the modern brewing age but with a foot still in the older era:

http://books.google.com/books?id=5IZ9AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA809&dq=stock+ale&hl=en&ei=fYXmTMeXDsP58AbuttyhCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage

The table gives "fixed" (acetic?) and lactic acid percentages on a combined basis for a number of kinds of beer including Guinness FES. Oddly, the average stated for American lagers is considerably higher than for American stock beer and Bass (indeed about half that of FES, which is the highest). Hmmm. What happened to the vaunted benefits of lager brewing?

Gary

Chad said...

By fully-matured aged pale ale are they referring to a pale ale which has been conditioned in bottles or barrels or are they referring to a pale ale that has become sour? This would be the first reference I've seen of a aged pale ale besides modern Petrus aged Pale ale...