Ale 3-3.5% alcohol and quite sweet; in the north they are red-brown, 4.5-5% and drier. English brown ales first appeared in the early 1900s, with Manns Brown Ale and Newcastle Brown Ale as the best-known examples. The style became popular with homebrewers in North America in the early 1980s; Pete's Wicked Ale is an example, similar to the English original but substantially hoppier. Pale ale was a term used for beers made from malt dried with coke. Coke had been first used for roasting malt in 1642, but it wasn't until around 1703 that the term pale ale was first used.
Burton Ale and "needed cellaring for months before serving, and ... it almost certainly had some degree of secondary fermentation going on during that time – sour beers aren’t a new or strictly continental-European thing". At least in London the terms Burton Ale and old ale were interchangeable, but compared to other old ales and barley wines Burton Ale is distinctively dark, sweet and fruity. Old Burton is a strong version of Burton Ale. Allsopp’s Arctic Ale was originally 11.24% ABV. Old Burton was referenced in The Wind in the Willows: "The Rat, meanwhile, was busy examining the label on one of