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 have recreated “the stronger, darker styles of the past, and the listing sections of successive Good Beer Guides are packed with stouts, porters, barley wines and old ales.” In recent years craft brewers in the US, UK and elsewhere have brewed Burton Ales, described as such, based on old recipes. Historic Burton Ale recipes are also available for homebrewing. "Ballantine Burton was one of Fritz Maytag's inspirations in the creation of his Old Foghorn Barley Wine at the Anchor brewery, in San Francisco" and the Pabst Brewing Company recreated Ballantine Burton Ale in 2015. To mark its 25th anniversary, BOSS