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24-01-2014, 08:12
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Watery Mild. That'll bring in the punters. Everyone wants to know about low-gravity, cheap Milds from the 1930's.

No, I realise that's just fantasy. But you know, once I've started something it's hard to stop. I just couldn't hold myself back from following up the piece about watery Milds in the 1920's with once about the same beers in the 1930's.

4d Ale is a funny beer style. Born in WW I, deceased in WW II. There were probably a lot of people for that was also the case. Though more tragic. This is just a beer style we're talking about, after all. Not like real flesh and blood. The styles roots were in the price-controlled beers of the latter years of WW I. It was originally called Government Ale. Until the government outlawed the term. I can see why. I wouldn't want my name associated with a piss-weak beer, either.

How did it get the catchy name of 4d Ale (Fourpenny Ale)? Er, because that's what it cost per pint. And it was an Ale. Under the WW I price control restrictions, brewers were obliged to put the retail price on the cask. The original definition in October 1917 was a beer with a gravity lower than 1036º. By the last set of price controls in 1920, the gravity band of beer that retailed at 4d had fallen to 1020 - 1026º. Pretty weak stuff, but not the weakest. 3d beer was anything under 1019º.

Other names were used for this type of beer: Ale or LA (Light Ale). The latter is dead confusing for a couple of reasons. First, these beers weren't often light in colour. Second, Light Ale was later used to describe a totally different type of beer a low-gravity Pale Ale.



4d Ale 1930 - 1939


Year
Brewer
Beer
Price per pint (pence)
Acidity
FG
OG
colour
ABV
App. Atten-uation


1930
Buddon Bigg
Ale
4d


1026.5





1930
Fremlin
Ale
4d


1035.7





1930
Isleworth Brewery
RA
4d

1011.2
1032

2.69
65.00%


1930
Kemp Town
L.A.
4d

1006.7
1034

3.55
80.29%


1930
Leney & Co.
Ale
4d


1026.3





1930
Mackeson
L.A.
4d

1005.4
1027

2.80
80.00%


1930
Mason
Ale
4d


1030.4





1930
Portsmouth & Brighton Breweries
L.A.
4d

1001.9
1027

3.27
92.96%


1930
Shepherd Neame
Ale
4d


1028.5





1930
Style & Winch
Ale
4d


1028.2





1930
Tamplin
L.A.
4d

1007.4
1031

3.06
76.13%


1931
Fullers
Ale
4d


1033.7





1931
Nalder & Collyer
X
5d


1027





1931
Taylor Walker
Ale
4d

1008
1024
40B + 11R
2.07
66.67%


1931
Truman
Ale
4d


1028.6





1931
Watney
Ale
5d


1030.5





1931
Watney
Ale
4d


1031.6





1931
Young & Co
Ale
5d


1028.9





1932
Fullers
Ale
5d


1030.1





1932
Ind Coope
Ale
5d


1030.7





1932
Truman
Ale
4d


1026.9





1932
Truman
Ale
4d


1029.1





1932
Watney
Ale
5d


1028.8





1932
Wells Watford
Ale
4.5d


1028.7





1932
Young & Co
Ale
5d


1032.8





1933
Courage
Mild Ale
4d
0.05
1010.8
1033

2.87
67.27%


1935
Charrington
Ale
4d


1031.5





1935
Fullers
LA
4d
0.07
1007.9
1032.8

3.23
75.91%


1935
Ind Coope
Ale
4d


1028.8





1935
Isleworth
LA
4d
0.06
1011.2
1032

2.69
65.00%


1935
Kidd
Ale
4d


1032.2





1935
Leney & Co
X
4d
0.06
1006
1028

2.85
78.57%


1935
Mann
Ale
4d


1029.1





1935
Mann
Brandon's LA
4d
0.04
1004.4
1031

3.46
85.81%


1935
Meux
Ale
4d


1028.3





1935
Truman
Ale
4d


1030





1935
Watney
Ale
4d


1031.5





1935
Whitbread
Ale
4d


1027.1





1936
Barclay Perkins
Ale 4d
4d

1007
1029.1
44-46
2.87
75.95%


1936
Greene King
Ale
4d


1028.9





1936
Wells & Winch
Ale
4d


1031.8





1937
Tamplin
LA
4d
0.05
1007.3
1032.7

3.30
77.68%


1938
Ballard
Mild Ale
4d
0.05
1004.8
1030.7
40 + 4
3.37
84.36%


1938
Steward & Patteson
Mild Ale
4d
0.04
1004.9
1030.1
40 + 3.5
3.28
83.72%


1939
Barclay Perkins
A
4d

1008.8
1030.7
42
2.83
71.31%


Sources:


Barclay Perkins brewing records.


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


Truman Gravity Book document B/THB/C/252 held at the London Metropolitan Archives



The more observant amongst you have probably already noticed that not all the beers in the table below sold for 4d. There's a good reason for that, and not just that I'm a sloppy bastard. Look closer and you'll see that they're all from 1931 and 1932. When there was a big hike in beer duty. for many beers, the brewer's response was to lower the gravity and leave the price the same. But 4d Ale was already about as weak as a respectable beer could get and some brewers were forced to bump up the price.

About half the beers in the table are below 1030º, and most of the rest just barely above that level. The average OG is 1029.9. It's a shame that I have so few FG's. You can blame Truman. They mostly only bothered to record the OG and price. It's annoying because I can't really come to any conclusions about the degree of attenuation. In the beers that do have an FG, I can see two contradictory trends. Some have quite a high FG, presumably to retain some body. Others have obviously been fermented out as far as possible to get a decent ABV.

One last point. The vast majority of beers of this class were sold on draught, but there were some bottled examples. Another odd development as a result of WW I was the relationship between the bottled and draught versions of a beer. Before the war, bottled versions were the same strength or stronger than draught. During the war this changed and the bottled versions became weaker. Sometimes by quite a lot. Barclay Perkins brewed three versions of XLK, their Ordinary Bitter. Draught was the strongest, followed by pint and half pint bottles. Weakest was what they called "crate beer". A crate was four quart bottles and was the cheapest form of bottled beer.

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