BEER AND ALE
Early Scots drank fermented grain-based brews made from corn weed or
coarse
barley flavoured with heather, rowan or bog myrtle.
Monks were the first commercial brewers. By the fifteenth century, brewing
of ale for
domestic consumption was mostly done by women, who would sell their ‘excess’
produce. Unregulated brewster-wives dominated the brewing trade in Edinburgh,
to
the annoyance of the town council.
Many of Scotland’s most famous
brewing firms
emerged during the eighteenth century
including, Archibald Campbell’s and William
Younger’s in Edinburgh; Tennent’s in Glasgow,
and George Younger’s in Alloa. Technical and
scientific developments contributed to the
flourishing of a large number of breweries in
Edinburgh. The only one left in 2007 is the
Caledonian Brewery.
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Fleet of Campbell, Hope & King (The ‘Holy
Trinity’) delivery vans, Chambers Street,
c. 1950s (photo, SBA)
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Women labelling whisky bottles, J G Thomson's, Leith, c. 1930s (photo, SBA)
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WHISKY
Whisky - or uisge beatha - was
distilled for
domestic consumption from early times. Excise duty
was introduced in 1644 and from 1781 distilling
needed a licence. Small-scale illicit production
continued until the 1840s but commercial production
increased with the introduction of the Coffey Patent
Still in the 1830s. Several distilleries were established
in Edinburgh in the 1800s including, Croft-an-Righ,
Bonnington, Caledonian, Dean and Lochrin. The
only one remaining in 2007 is the North British,
which produces whisky for blending.
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