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Beer history design

Imperial Burton Ale

imperialburton

What’s an Imperial Burton Ale? Or a luncheon stout? They both feature on attractive historical beer labels from Essex brewery Ward’s available at the excellent Foxearth local history website. There are also some great historical photos of the brewery and its people from the 19th and early 20th centuries.

3 replies on “Imperial Burton Ale”

All right, I’ll step up to the mark, Lars – I’ve not seen “Imperial Burton Ale” as a descriptor before, but it’s not unimaginable as the name of a very strong Burton, that is a slightly sweetish dark amber/pale ale in the style of Young’s Winter Warmer, but up around 11 per cent abv – Bass No 1 might have conceivably been described as an Imperial Burton, since it was descended from the very strong ales the Burton brewers used to export to St Petersburg and other places in the Baltic before they started brewing IPAs.

Thanks, Z.

I sometimes think these Victorian and Edwardian brewers (much like their American counterparts today) rolled dice to choose these descriptors, but what you suggest sounds logical. And quite tasty.

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