PDA

View Full Version : Shut up about Barclay Perkins - The condition of Burton Ale in the 1920's



Blog Tracker
13-01-2014, 08:12
Visit the Shut up about Barclay Perkins site (http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-condition-of-burton-ale-in-1920s.html)

What sort of condition was Burton Ale in down the pub in the 1920's? It's the sort of answer I wouldn't expect to get an answer to. Yet, courtesy of the Whitbread Gravity Book, some evidence does exist.

Because in the early years it also included information about the appearance and flavour of the beer being analysed.

Let's begin with Watney's Burton:



Watney's Strong Ale condition 1922 - 1924


Year
Beer
FG
OG
ABV
App. Atten-uation
Appearance
Flavour


1922
KK
1012.5
1058.5
6.00
78.63%
cloudy
v fair


1922
KK
1012.2
1057.2
5.87
78.67%
bright
fairly full


1922
KK
1013.9
1055.9
5.46
75.13%
v bright
good


1922
KK
1010.8
1056.3
5.94
80.82%
bright
unpleasantly bitter


1923
KK
1012.9
1059.4
6.06
78.28%
fairly bright
good


1923
KK
1013.6
1056.6
5.60
75.97%
bright
poor


1923
KK
1015
1059.5
5.79
74.79%
hazy
only fair


1923
KK
1015
1059
5.72
74.58%
bright
good


1923
KK
1014.2
1058.2
5.73
75.60%
bright
going off


1923
KK
1014.8
1061.8
6.12
76.05%
bright
fair


1923
KK
1010.6
1061.6
6.67
82.79%
not bright
fair


1924
KK
1014.1
1059.5
5.91
76.30%
bright
fair


1924
KK
1015.1
1060
5.84
74.83%
bright
v good


Source:


Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001.



Only three of the 13 examples weren't bright. Not too bad at all. Perhaps the other three pubs were marketing it as "unfined" beer. The beers came out a little worse in terms of flavour, with 4 examples not up to snuff.

The Burtons from other London brewers were much more of a mixed bunch:



London Strong Ale condition in 1922


Brewer
Beer
FG
OG
ABV
App. Atten-uation
Appearance
Flavour


Barclay Perkins
KK
1011.7
1056.2
5.80
79.18%
cloudy
fair


Beasley
KK
1014.4
1056.6
5.49
74.56%




Cannon Brewery
KK
1015.4
1054.4
5.06
71.69%
not bright no head
v poor


Charrington
KK
1015.6
1055.9
5.23
72.09%
bright
American cask


City of London
KK
1008.5
1056.7
6.30
85.01%
cloudy
fair


Courage
KK
1013.2
1053.7
5.27
75.42%
bright
v good


Hoare
KK
1015.5
1056.5
5.33
72.57%
cloudy
fair


Huggins
KK
1012.6
1056.1
5.67
77.54%
bright
good


Lion Brewery
KK
1010.7
1056.7
6.00
81.13%
cloudy
fair


Mann
KK
1013
1057
5.73
77.19%
bright
not good too sweet


Meux
KK
1007.4
1058.4
6.68
87.33%
cloudy
good


Truman
KK
1013.8
1052.8
5.07
73.86%

rather bitter


Wenlock
KK
1010
1054
5.74
81.48%
cloudy
poor


Whitbread
KK
1016.3
1054
4.89
69.81%
almost bright
fair


Source:


Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001.



Only four out of 14 were properly bright, though for a couple of examples the clarity isn't noted. On the upside, 8 of 14 didn't taste bad. But what really struck me was what is said about Charrington KK: "American cask".

I know exactly what that refers to. It means that the cask was made of American oak and its tainted the beer. Although they usually used unlined casks, the last thing British brewers wanted was any wood flavour in their beer. That was seen as a fault.

Overall, the condition of Burton Ales wasn't that bad. If you entered a random set of London pubs today, what percentage of their cask beers would be in good condition? Probably lower than the percentage of well-kept Watney's Burton in the table above.

More... (http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-condition-of-burton-ale-in-1920s.html)