Articles – E

E

“East India Company” at page 315 states: “… the East India Company was responsible for supplying Britain’s numerous garrisons on the subcontinent.” Except during times when regular British regiments were stationed in India to assist, the garrisons were the East India Company’s own, rather than “Britain’s”, and were the bases for the company’s own three armies, those of the Presidencies of Bombay, Madras and Bengal. See, eg Wild, Antony, The East India Company, trade and conquest from 1600, Harper Collins, 1999. It also states: “The men were desperate for their ‘home comforts’, and regular supplies of cheese, wine, hams etc. were shipped out.” This was done by the commanders of the East Indiamen, trading on their own behalf, not by the East India Company. There were also European women in India at the time, who had accompanied their men. It also states: “… brewers vied to produce a beer robust enough to survive the arduous months-long journey to India. Thus was born the India pale ale beer style.” There is no evidence that IPA was born of attempts to make a “robust” beer: beers in other styles survived the journey to India perfectly well, and in particular British troops in India mostly drank porter, which the East India Company regularly exported in large quantities.

“East Kent Golding (hop)” in this entry it states that “hops were first planted in the region by immigrant Flemish farmers around the beginning of the 1400s” most historians put the date at around 1520, see for example here and here. It continues “East Kent Golding was released commercially and officially only a little more than a century ago” but Goldings have been grown in East Kent since the early 1800s, see here. The typical alpha acid value is given in the entry as 4% to 5.5% but in a recently published leaflet hop merchants Charles Faram and Co Ltd give the typical value as 5% to 8%.

“Eastwell Golding (hop)” There are two different Eastwell Golding clones in the National Hop Collection with different ripening dates so they are listed as “Eastwell Golding” and “Late Eastwell Golding”. The entry also states that Eastwell Goldings bear similarities to the Fuggle hop, but they are unrelated and have distinctly different oil composition, see here

“Egypt” at page 319 the caption to the picture states that the statuette illustrated is “fifth dynasty (589-618 CE)”. The Egyptian Fifth Dynasty was from 2495-2345 BCE.

“English Hops” in this entry it states that English hops were introduced by Flemish farmers during the hundred years war (1336-1453). Most historians put the date much later at around 1520. At page 324 this entry states that “King Henry VIII … forbade the use of hops outright at his court. He considered hops to be an aphrodisiac that would drive the populace to sinful behaviour.” Henry VIII did NOT ban hops outright: his officials banned the ALE brewers who supplied the court with ALE from using hops, but placed no such ban on the BEER brewers. See A Collection of ordinances and regulations for the government of the royal Household made in Diverse Reigns, published by the Royal Society of Antiquaries, 1790, p217, “Articles devised for the Purveyor of Ale, and the Brewers, for the well serving of the King’s Highness for his Beere and Ale”. Nor is there any evidence whatsoever that Henry VIII considered hops an aphrodisiac. See this article at the Zythophile blog for details. It also states that “Samuel Johnson, author of the first Dictionary of the English Language, wrote in his seminal work as late as 1775 that “beer” is a “liquor made from malt and hops,” whereas “ale” is “a liquor made by infusing malt in hot water and fermenting the liquor.” By 1775, however, virtually all British ales were made with hops. Perhaps Johnson should have known better, considering that he wrote much of his dictionary over pints of hopped ale in an alehouse along the Thames called The Anchor Inn, in London’s Southwark district, just a stone’s throw from the Hop Exchange.” However, Johnson’s was a standard definition of “ale” at the time, eg, see “The New and Complete Dictionary of the English language”, by John Ash, also published 1775 : “ALE … a fermented liquor made by the infusion of malt in hot liquor, a merry meeting in the country” and “BEER … Liquor made of malt and hops …” In addition, Johnson did NOT write his dictionary at the Anchor Inn, Southwark: he stayed occasionally at Thrale’s Anchor brewhouse in Southwark, and it is sometimes claimed, without evidence, that he wrote parts of his dictionary there. It is also anachronistic to suggest that he might have been working “just a stone’s throw from the Hop Exchange”, since the Hop Exchange was not built until 1867. It also states “… Fuggle was propagated by Richard Fuggle in 1875.” Although this claim has been around since 1902, recent investigation has failed to identify a Richard Fuggle who might have introduced the hop of the same name. See Kim Cook, “Who produced Fuggle’s Hops”, Brewery History magazine, Spring 2009, issue 130). See also Hops.

“English pale ale” is described as being 4.5% – 5.5% ABV though most sold in England are less than 4.5% ABV, including Draught Bass, one of the beers mentioned in the entry. Conversely another of the beers mentioned, Worthington White Shield, is actually above this range at 5.6% ABV. The bottled version is brewed in Molson Coor’s large Burton North plant only the draught version is brewed at the White Shield Brewery in the National Brewery Centre. At page 325 states that “English Pale Ale … is essentially a bottled beer …” English pale ale is identical with English bitter, and can therefore be either draught or bottled. Numerous traditional English brewers have identified their beers as “PA” for “pale ale” in the brewery and sold it as draught bitter in the pub. See Cornell, Amber Gold and Black, chapter one. It also states: “English Pale Ale derives from Burton-on-Trent India pale ales (IPAs) of the 19th century.” However, there was a family of pale bitter beers, more lightly hopped than IPA, represented by such types as AK, that were almost certainly not derived from IPA, and it is unclear how much the bitter beers of the 1840s and 1850s owed to IPA. It is wrong, therefore, to say that English Pale Ale, or English Bitter Beer “derives” from IPA. In addition, hopped pale ales of the IPA type were first brewed in London, and were being brewed in Scotland as well as Burton.

“Ethanol” entry at page 330, in the second paragraph states “Ethanol is a straight chain alcohol with a molecular formula of C2H5OH and a structural formula.” This makes no grammatical sense.

“extra special bitter (ESB)” according to this interview with John Keeling, the head brewer at Fuller’s, the grist for Fuller’s ESB is 95% pale malt and 5% crystal malt.