Bass's Strong Ale Is Recorded as Barley Wine

On January 15, 1870, the British Medical Journal published an analysis of British malt liquors that listed "Bass's Barley Wine" among its old ales. The sample had been obtained from the Holborn Tavern in London. This contemporary record documents the barley wine name being applied to a commercial British beer in the nineteenth century. The terminology belonged to a brewing culture in which strong ale, old ale, and Burton ale could overlap. The journal's classification places Bass's beer within that existing tradition, illustrating the historical connections between barley wine and other British strong ales.