Brewing History: An Early Mention of (West) India Pale Ale...?

A couple of interactions on social media recently regarding the term 'India Pale Ale' both - East and West - got me digging into references to the term, and the earliest I could find via my go-to newspaper archive was this advertisement in a Barbados newspaper from March 1824:

It is certainly a nice early reference to to the term 'India Pale Ale' although it is with regard to the West Indies version, and Edd Mather has asserted it was darker than the 'East' version as referenced in the below-linked post by Gary Gillman. (I will list all references flagged during that interaction at the end of this post too, including one from Alan McLeod and from Martyn Cornell regarding EIPA.)

It does make me wonder if the term West India Pale Ale - purely as a descriptor - predates the use of East India Pale Ale? It is probable of course that both terms were in use well before this time but seeing it in print certainly gives, at the very least, a time-stamp to its use and perhaps how its meaning was perceived. (I have no doubt we will come across earlier examples as more printed material is digitised but it is important to record these these references when we find them.)

What is certainly of interest to me and Irish brewing history is that Lane's of Cork were using the descriptor for their West India Porter - a product they were relatively famous and well-known for - earlier in print, as this advertisement from the same newspaper but from March 1821 shows:

Again this is meaningless in a way but it is good to record these things, and it is certainly of interest to see it in print. (Incidentally, I have a huge amount of scans of documents from the Murphy's Archive in Cork University, and in a few brewing logs there are references and recipes for 'West India' beers that need analysing and time spent on them, they don't show which brewery they are from but the could be from Lane's given the movement of personnel between all the Cork breweries and their more recent merges? I need to get back into those soon.)

Anyhow, there is lots of more information written by others for you to read through but it certainly is a subject that needs more digging into, if quite carefully given the geography, history and other implications of the commercial enterprises.

More reading that came from that original interaction:

Gary Gillman: 1829 Canadian References to India Pale Ale & a follow up here West and East India Madeira: Lessons for Beer

Martyn Cornell: The earliest use of the term India pale ale was … in Australia?

Edd Mather: J & R TENNENT : ALES 1830 - 1831

Alan McLeod : More References To That Shadowy Taunton Ale

Also:

I have posted previously about Lane's Brewery in Cork.

Liam K

West India Pale Ale mention - Barbados Mercury and Bridge-town Gazette - Saturday 27 March 1824
Lane's Porter mention - Barbados Mercury and Bridge-town Gazette - Saturday 24 March 1821
(Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Licence.  Attributed to the National Archives of Barbados)

All written content and the research involved in publishing it here is my own unless otherwise stated and cannot be reproduced elsewhere without permission, full credit to its sources, and a link back to this post. Newspaper image © The British Library Board - All rights reserved. With thanks to The British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk) from whom I have received permission to display this image on this site.