Kmflett's Blog

Dry January of course doesn’t mean avoiding the pub. Non alcoholic drinks can be found in many bars now.

 I’ve been looking back at the peak period of such brews, late Victorian Britain.

The template was fermented ginger beer which was marketed as an alternative to beer although it may well have been alcoholic.

One well known manufacturer of alternative fermented brews was Wheatley’s of Sheffield.

A brief summary of their production is here, with a link to some more details:

In the latter part of the 19th century they were large-scale producers of “hop bitters”, that is, refreshing, non-alcoholic drinks with a base of hops, dandelion etc. One of the firm’s most popular products a century ago was “Stym”, a form of hop bitters. They evidently produced 200 barrels per day of this “Highly successful non-intoxicating substitute for ordinary ale”, using water from their “own artesian wells”.

https://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/topic/417721-wheatley-amp-bates-mineral-water-manufacturers-etc/