A Shot of Beer History #12: Castlebellingham Christmas Ale

Christmas Ale wasn't something that breweries promoted in Ireland so it's nice to come across an advertisement for one that was to some extent. This is a probably just Castlebellingham's 'ordinary' strong ale marketed in a different fashion, and their sister brewery in Drogheda were certainly brewing something along those lines around this time. That one was classed as a Mild ale, sugar was added to the brew as well as malt and it was relatively well hopped and probably pale in colour but the actual type of pale malt and the sugar used might have had an effect to make it a little darker and more of a deep golden shade. It would have been between 6% and 7% alcohol content based on those records, depending on where the fermentation finished out after its maturation. This is probably the beer that developed into their Stingo beer which was available a few years later and sold as a winter warmer style of ale.

There are recipes in the Castlebellingham & Drogheda Brewery (Cairnes) brewing logs for this period in the Guinness Archive but some of the information as to the precise ingredients is somewhat lacking. Nevertheless, I brewed a possible 1912 version of this beer - from the abovementioned brewing records - and it turned out pale and interesting. It was also incredibly drinkable and not overly challenging give it ended up over 7%, as the fermented out sugar had given it quite a dry quality. I did it find it didn't age very well but that could be down to my brewing method. Plus, I was aging it in bottles, they would have aged it in wooden barrels.

Anyhow, here's to Christmas ales, long may they last. If we can just keep clear of the nutmeg and cinnamon ...

Cheers!

Liam K

Please note, 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 research was thanks to The British Newspaper Archive, who have kindly let me share the above images from The Newry Telegraph - 18th December 1915. DO NOT STEAL THIS CONTENT!