As beer styles go, Golden Ale is
intrinsic in its importance in reviving the fortunes of real ale during the last
decade of the 20th century, luring drinkers away from the lurid
commercial lagers that were on the scene at the time. The British Guild of Beer
Writers describe it as “a hop-forward, average-strength to moderately-strong
pale bitter. Drinkability and a refreshing quality are critical components of
the style.”
Typically suited to the summer months, a notable feature of this style is its
appearance which they further note “straw to golden in color. Good to brilliant
clarity. Low to moderate white head. A low head is acceptable when carbonation
is also low.” Typical golden ales measure around a rating 10 EBC, although some
brewers have released lighter coloured beers, these tend to be classed in the blonde
ale category. A good deal of beer writers and industry experts including the
BGBW seem to believe that Golden Ales are a relatively recent innovation first
developed during the Eighties. The story goes, that the first such example was
produced in 1986 when the Golden Hill Brewery (later known as Exmoor Ales) based
in Wiveliscombe in Somerset, produced Exmoor Gold (4.5%) to commemorate
their 1000th brew since they established the brewery in 1980. Initially
a on-off release, its unusual appearance caused a stir at the time, Roger Protz
notes “but news of a beer that was as pale as lager but hummed and boomed with
rich malt and hops spread like a forest fire and it became a regular beer.”
Yet Protz isn’t blindsided by the bogus claim that golden ales were first
introduced in the Eighties, he adds “golden ales have been around for a tad
longer. Would you believe the early 19th century? It was a time of profound
change in the brewing industry.”
As the old adage goes, it has been done before.
Although the likes of Exmoor
Gold (4.5%) helped popularise the growing interest of Golden Ales as a beer
style in the late Eighties and early Nineties, conversely the production of Golden
Ales has its roots stretching back to the early years of the 19th
century. In his book “Amber, Gold and Black”, Martyn Cornell stated “the
tradition of Golden Beer went back at least to 1842, when William Sander’s
Brewery in Burton on Trent was advertising its East India Pale Ale and Golden
Ales.”
Ron Pattison was able to find an even earlier record from the 14th
November 1832, where a trade report mentions that “MESSRS. FRITH, BOMANJEE AND
CO., have just commenced issuing a choice batch of the following, October
Brew'd Ales, which they can recommend as of superior quality, sound and ripe.”
One of the beers they mentioned for sale was Allsopp's Golden Ale, that was selling
at 8 rupees per dozen, which predates Sander’s
by a decade. The development of Golden Ales, Protz notes was made possible by
the introduction of coke to the curing process of malt; first introduced during
the 16th century, coke enabled malt to be cured over longer period
of time, and a lower temperature, thus enabling a paler coloured malt as a
result.
Initially it was seldom used, Protz adds “once it was made on an industrial
scale, brewers and maltsters used coke in preference to wood. The result was
pale rather than brown beer.” This neatly tied with the gradual increase in popularity
of pale ales and IPA’s during the early 19th century as the East
India export market encouraged their proliferation, which in turn encouraged
brewers to brew lighter coloured beers. As early as 1825, Shepherd Neame
developed Brilliant Ale (5.6%), a straw-coloured concoction only made
possible by the introduction of pale malt production. Beer Today notes “brewery folklore
has it that the bright golden, straw-coloured hue of Brilliant Ale was inspired
by the vision of the early morning sun sending its golden shafts of light
through the brewhouse window.
Historically, this recipe was formulated with 100% pale malt and was
bittered by the brewery’s signature East Kent Goldings hops, resulting in a
golden, brilliantly bright, hoppy ale.”
Nearly two centuries later in 2013, Shepherd Neame resurrected the beer as part
of their Classic Collection series, which met with great acclaim and surprised
a good deal, to discover that Golden Ales were once marketed and developed
during the 19th century, over a century earlier than previously
claimed.
As the century wore on, there
were cases of other breweries releasing their own Golden Ales, including the likes
of Golden Sunlight Pale Ale (1851) – Hereford and Tredegar, Golden Ale (1858) –
Gartons and Golden Sunlight Ale (1887) – Watkins and Sons. The latter example,
Boak and Bailey interestingly note “it’s clear from this that Golden Sunlight
is definitely a brand name, if not a trademark – and, in fact, the brewery
itself eventually came to be known as the Sunlight Brewery to cash-in on the
popularity of this particular product.”
In the trade adverts from the time it is described as a light golden ale of
wonderful value, resembling a traditional German style Lager. Like their modern
counterparts at Exmoor Ales and Hop Back Brewery, even at this point history
their were laying claim to Golden Ale being an ideal alternative to lager. Going
into the 20th century, breweries continued to release Golden Ales,
although they were often described as Pale Ale, Light Bitter or Dinner Ale at the time, for example Golden Ale (3.8%) sold
by Strong’s in 1934 was described as a Pale Ale, and when this beverage was
still being sold in 1960, again it was retailed at a Pale Ale in the company
accounts.
Another example is Golden Hop (?)
sold by Alton Court Brewery in 1953 is described as a Light Bitter, likewise Golden
Brew (?) sold by G. Ruddle the same year is mentioned as a Light Bitter in
the trade journals. Ron Pattison states “light ale was one
of the most popular types of beer in the 1950’s.” These beers he mentions
tended to be found in the South, especially in London, were often pale in
colour and relatively low ABV, doesn’t that sound familiar? Furthermore, Martyn
Cornell notes “while most British beers continued to be ruddy dark, there were
very pale coloured bitters in England before 1986.” He mentions the likes of
Boddington’s Bitter - Boddingtons, Taddy Bitter – Samuel Smith’s, Golden IPA –
Strong’s, Golden Pale Ale – Holden’s, Golden Bitter – Offlier’s, Golden Ale –
Burt’s and Masterbrew – J.W. Green. All these beers were low in EBU and tended
to be straw coloured, although they all were labelled as Bitter or Pale Ales in
the promotional materials, hence the confusion.
Not much had changed by 1981,
when Hall & Woodhouse (later known as Badger) launched Tanglefoot (5%).
Cornell highlights at the time of its release it was described as a straw-coloured
Bitter, nowhere did it mention that it was a Golden Ale. Developed by then head
brewer John Woodhouse, he named it after an amusing incident when he got his
foot tangled up in a dog lead. At certain times in its early history, it was invariably
marketed as a Strong Ale and Premium Ale on its pump clips. Hywel’s Beer Blog
describes it as “well, it’s very light. It’s quite crisp. There’s something
tangy and spicy about it. And it’s very easy to drink. So easy to drink, it’s
one of the easiest ways to consume a 5% volume drink.”
From appearances alone it looks like a Golden Ale, but during its early years it was marketed as a Bitter, Strong Ale and Premium Ale at certain points in history and only later on with the
growing popularity Golden Ales in the ensuing decades, did the brewery rebrand
it as a Golden Ale. Five years later in 1986, when Exmoor first released Exmoor
Gold (5%), they subsequently claimed that this was the modern Golden Ale.
While Golden Ales had existed beforehand, this was the first example
specifically promoted under its own breakaway style, separate from the likes of
Bitter, Light and Pale Ale. There was essentially a marketing ploy behind this move,
as Cornell highlights “the tendency was also developing for Golden Ales to be
served cooler than traditional amber bitters. This was partly to encourage more
uptake among lager drinkers already attracted to the style by its familiar
colour (to them), partly to emphasise the refreshing aspect of summer drinks.” This
was the case when Summer Lightning (5%) by Hopback Brewery, burst onto
the scene in 1989. Initially it was sold as a one-off festival special produced
by brewer (and founder) John Gilbert,
where he sold it his pub The Wyndham Arms, which he ran with his wife Julie. It
was noted at the time for its very pale colour which later on Michael Jackson
noted “Summer Lightning, too, is golden in colour, until recently, an unusual
feature in a British ale. The colour also makes the beer acceptable to those
people who hitherto felt they must switch from ale to lager in summer.”
It had long been Gilbert’s intention to brew a lager, since his time working as
a brewery at Brixton Brewery. Yet, Boak and Bailey note “it instead became an
ale that merely looked like lager, which he hoped would lure drinkers back from
then highly fashionable brands such as Stella Artois.”
Word quickly spread about this beer as it became popular, and at GBBF 1990 it
won the award of ‘New Brewery Champion beer’, it would subsequently win a slew
of awards over the years. Des de Moor adds, it “became a mainstay when the
Gilberts founded a separate brewery, Hop Back, in 1991. Soon the sincerest form
of flattery was added to the beer’s critical and commercial success, with many
other brewers copying the formula.”
Its success helped inspire a raft of imitators looking to promote their own ‘Golden
Ales’ on the market such as notably the likes of JHB (3.8%) – Oakham, Pale
Rider (5.2%) – Kelham Island and Hophead (3.8%) – Dark Star, their
combined success helped promote Golden Ale as an individual brand under its own
right.
As a beer style Golden Ale is
effectively an elaborate marketing campaign. The mere notion that the first Golden
Ales came about in 1986 is false, as brewers had been producing light straw-coloured
ales for over 150 years at that point. What is true however is that Golden Ales
were first promoted as their own separate style in the late Eighties, purely as
a ploy to move drinkers to move away from lager and drink beer during the summer
months. Over the years, the proacted campaign to promote Golden Ales as its own style has pulled
off and brewers no longer label these types of beers as pale, light ales or
bitters. This was justified following the success of Pale Rider (5.2%)
when it was awarded Champion Beer of Britain at GBBF 2004, the following year a
separate category was created for Golden Ales. Cornell notes “it marked what
might be the coming of age of golden ales just eighteen years after their ‘birth’.” Today, Golden Ales are designated under their own separate beer style according
to the BGBW;
whenever they feature in a pub, beer festival or bottle shop they are marketed
under this style; and virtually every brewery in the land produces this type of
beer in their repertoire. Although, the likes of Golden Ales are not a
relatively recent innovation as some might be led to believe, their importance in the revitalisation
and popularity of real ale is imperative. Boak and Bailey once stated “some of
the best beers being made in Britain today belong to a style that has no name.
They are the colour of pilsner, usually made with only pale malt, but they are
not mere ‘golden ales’—‘golden’ is not, after all, a flavour.” This underlies
the fact that Golden Ale is primarily a cunning brand name, a promotional crusade
that eventually became seen as the flag bearer for the real ale boom, yet when
looked in closer, it roots go much further back in time than was once believed.
‘Hop
Back Summer Lightning’, by Des de Moor, What’s Brewing, Summer 2002
