KENNET AND XX. ALES BROWN STOUT. 313 



of the quantity of the doctor which I swallowed. 

 This beer was finely brewed, alive, with a fine head, 

 but it heated and annoyed .the stomach, and palled 

 the appetite ; in short, was quite the antipodes to 

 the genuine and generous extract of malt and hops, 

 for which, unfortunately, the great and paramount 

 majority have no partiality. The Kennet ale, a fa- 

 vourite in London, would indeed merit high enco- 

 mium, did it receive no useful additions in the brew- 

 ing. The xx ale, as the manufacturer styles it, a 

 London-brewed Scotch ale, is most skilfully brewed, 

 and barring g. p. sugar, &c. would be among the 

 most vinous, smoothest, and finest ales in Britain. 



Although a beer, as well as a wine-bibber, but 

 within the bounds of healthful moderation, since the 

 date of years of discretion, it is somewhat strange that 

 I do not recollect to have tasted stout until late years, 

 when it was strongly recommended to .me by a gen- 

 tleman of the law, as the most salubrious of beers. 

 I have since drank bottled stout regularly, vicissim, 

 with ales, and find it fully deserving the character 

 this gentleman had given of it. It is a good even- 

 ing drink, and its effects on my stomach are similar 

 to those produced by Port wine. I suppose it to be 

 the brown stout, or butt beer, of former days. It 

 sits very light in the head and stomach, and nothing 

 stupifying results from a moderate quantity. 



BROWN STOUT is an old article in the common brew- 

 ery, and mentioned by the once-noted brewer and 

 rural economist, Ellis, of Little Gaddesden, Herts. 

 This conscientious writer, whose seventh edition lies 

 before me, date 1759, in despite of the classical 



