A bottle of Allsopp’s Arctic Ale dating from 1875 was auctioned in Exeter last week and despite an estimated selling price of between £300-500, it went for an astounding £750! The purchaser was Jamie Allsopp who is the Great Great Great Great Great Grandson of Samuel Allsopp.
“This is a very special bottle for me as it is a physical link to the heyday of my family’s old brewery Samuel Allsopp and Sons,” said Jamie. “Bottles come up for sale very rarely.”
The full bottle has an attractive lead seal depicting the company’s trademark Red Hand and an inscription “Brewed for the Arctic Expedition 1875.” Other examples can have a blue and white label attached.
Allsopp’s Arctic Ale has a fascinating history; in 1851 the Lords of the Admiralty invited all the great brewers to submit an ale to accompany Admiral Sir Edward Belcher’s 1852 mission to rescue Sir John Franklin, who had been lost whilst charting the Northwest Passage. Samuel Allsopp and Sons won the prestigious commission and Belcher set sail with 540 gallons of Arctic Ale. Two further brews were provided for Sir Leopold McLintock in 1857 and Sir George Nares in 1875. The beer was the strongest ever brewed by Allsopp’s and was so viscous it had to be lifted out of the mashtun using buckets as it would not flow via the usual tap.
The 1875 brew was sampled by Brewing Historian Alfred Barnard in 1888, who noted that the beer had a large amount of unfermentable sugar, making it also a valuable foodstuff. The beer was around 9% alcohol by volume with an Original Gravity of 1126o and was designed to withstand the extremes of the Arctic, remaining liquid even at temperatures of -41oC.
Versions of Arctic Ale would continue to be brewed until modern times; in 1897 it was advertised at seven shilling per dozen pint bottles and records show it was produced by Ind Coope & Allsopp in 1937. By 1956 the name had changed to Arctic Barley Wine, it “Keeps out the cold” according to the advertisement. In the 1970’s it became known as Triple A, with the three A’s signifying Allsopp’s Arctic Ale.
The story doesn’t end there though, in 2007 a bottle of the 1852 brewing sold on eBay for $503,000. Although the winning bid was later found to be a hoax, a brewer from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania called Chris Bowen became obsessed with Arctic Ale, even going as far to brew his own version in the Arctic Circle; he made a film called Arctic Alchemy about his story. Chris came to Burton ten years ago and opened a bottle of the 1875 Arctic Ale for a public tasting session.
Jamie Allsopp recalls another such uncorking: “My Father remembers tasting it with his Father when a few bottles had been discovered at Hindlip Hall, the old Allsopp family home,” Jamie however has no plans to open his new prized possession. “My Father said it was quite disgusting!”
In the early 1970’s Bass’s opened up an 1860’s Sherry (I think it had been bricked-in at Joules’) which was quite drinkable.
Some of the old beers are drinkable, take the 1859 Ratcliff Ale or Bass King’s Ale. I tried the 1875 Allsopp Arctic Ale one and it was like cough mixture. I had a thimble full and that was more than enough.