When Wittig and Beaton started Shaftebury they hired John Mitchell as the brewer. They were drawn to one of Mitchell's beers, an English mild called Mount Tolmie dark. Wittig and Beaton decided to model the Shaftebury beer recipe after this beer. Wittig explained that the original Shaftebury Cream Ale was dark brown: "At the time when we made it, it had a completely different flavour. It was 4.8 alcohol by volume and it got its dark colour from the chocolate and crystal malt that we imported from England."