In the early 1800's there was quite a difference between how English and Scottish brewers practiced their art. Roberts recognized that brewing texts of the time described the English system of brewing in detail, but they did not address the Scottish system. To this end, he wrote The Scottish Ale Brewer. Originally, published in 1837, as The Scottish Ale-Brewer, it was revised for a second edition in 1846 and its title was extended to The Scottish Ale-Brewer and Practical Maltster,. Finally, in 1847, a 3rd edition was released. The 3rd edition is in Roberts' own words: the 2nd edition with the addition of an article on the value of sugar in brewing.

The Scottish Ale Brewer is recognized as the the foremost resource on on Scottish brewing in the 1800s. (It is referenced/quoted from by Noonan in his excellent book, Scotch Ale.) We are proud to present the fourth book in our Classic Brewing and Distilling Series, a republication of the Scottish Ale Brewer and Practical Maltster 3rd edition, 1847. If you are a fan of Scottish ale, this book is a must-have for your reading pleasure.

Scottish Perspective
Every aspect of brewing, mashing, and malting is described from the Scottish perspective in The Scottish Ale-Brewer. Different techniques, opinions on hops, how to proceed with malting, developing beers for the India market, and analysis of current commercial beers provides for an indepth view of brewing the Scottish way when every other book of the time was written from the English perspective.

Analysis of Period Beers
Period information about actual commercial beers is difficult to find, but The Scottish Ale Brewer includes a good amount of this type of information. Roberts sketches a brilliant picture of beers of the day, by performing analysis on over 110 commercial beers. The beers were from "various Scottish Brewers" and "Eminent Brewers of London, Burton, Edinburgh, etc." The analysis includes original gravity, apparent attenuation, price, and more. He notes that he has chosen to leave out the brewers' names so that he wouldn't upset anyone by publishing the information. Analysis is provided for 74 Scotch Ales and 40 India Ales. This information alone makes this volume an important read for the savy brewer.

New Brewing Techniques: Sparging
Most every brewer today practices the art of sparging, trickling water over the mash to recover the remaining sugars. Most do not know however that it is an art that the Scottish brewers were performing before the English brewers adopted it. At this time, the English brewers were still using double and triple mashing to recover all of the potential sugars in the mash. In an effort to help educate brewers, Roberts includes a chapter on Sparging and includes a couple plates showing the Scottish Sparging machine.

India Beers
A surprising addition to the book is an entire chapter devoted to developing beers for the India export market. These beers were already being called "India Pale Ale" at this point. Roberts included sections discussing the merits of the business, mashing heats, sparging, boiling, and fermentation of India Beers. He also importantly includes analysis of 40 India Ales of the time from various brewers.

Malting
With the 2nd edition, Roberts rightfully added Practical Maltster to the title of this book. He added almost 50 pages devoted to malting, how the quality of the malt impacts the brewer, and analysis resulting from experiments in malting.

Sugar in Brewing
With the 3rd edition, Roberts added a discussion on using sugar in brewing. Apparently, bad barley crops had caused the price of malt to rise significantly and the Government was forced to permit sugar in brewing. The topic was getting quite a bit of consideration and Roberts wanted to provide some quality information on what was to be gained or not by the use of sugar in the brewing process.

Table of Contents
To get a better idea of what the book contains, take a look at the table of contents from the actual book. A PDF version can be viewed by clicking here. The PDF is 138k.

Book Details
The book is hard cover bound in bonded leather with gold foil stamping on the spine and front cover. It is 253 pages and printed on 60lb. natural offset paper.

Review
If you would like to read an independent review of one of our books, Click here to read a review written by Jeff Renner, about our Complete Practical Brewer title. (This review appeared in the Homebrew Digest.)

How to Order

The book is in stock and available for $34.95 Sale Price US$15.00 plus shipping.

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Scottish Ale-Brewer
To order The Scottish Ale-Brewer : US$34.95 Sale Price US$15.00
19th Century British Brewer's Set (2 books)
To order the Scottish Ale-Brewer and order The Town and Country Brewery Book: US$62.00 Sale Price US$45.00
Complete British Brewer's Set (4 books)
To order The Town and Country Brewery Book, Scottish Ale-Brewer, The Theory and Practice of Brewing, and Every Man His Own Brewer : US$155.00 Sale Price US$125.00
5 Pack (Books #3-7):
To order The Town and Country Brewery Book,Scottish Ale-Brewer, M'Harry's Practical Distiller, Combrune's Theory and Practice of Brewing, and Every Man His Own Brewer: US$190.00 Sale Price US$160.00
All Six Remaining Books In The Series:
To order The Complete Practical Brewer, Scottish Ale-Brewer, The Town and Country Brewery Book, M'Harry's Practical Distiller, Combrune's Theory and Practice of Brewing, and Every Man His Own Brewer: US$200.00

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* A limited quantity of these sets are available due to the limited number of copies remaining of some of the books. (Complete Practical Brewer and Complete Practical Distiller.)

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* Disclaimer: Recipes from old books should be viewed with caution. Ingredients may have since been deemed dangerous. These books are being published soley for the historical perspective and information.