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03-02-2014, 08:17
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Hoare's Red Lion Brewery was another very old one, founded in 1492*. It was located on Lower East Smithfield (now called St. Katherine's Way) just to the East of St. Katherine's Dock.

It was another of the big 18th-century Porter breweries, though it was never quite in the Premier League. Its output peaked at 97,600 barrels in 1796**, when it ranked 6th amongst London brewers. After that, production fell and by 1830 it was down to 57,073 barrels***. Charrington bought the Red Lion Brewery in 1933 and ended brewing there in 1934*. Charrington nicked Hoare's Toby jug trademark, which they used even after their brewery on Mile End Road had closed.

The brewery must have been demolished soon after closure because the site is now occupied by what looks like a 1930's block of flats.

Not long ago I bought a history of Hoare, which was published recently. Quite odd to write the history of a brewery 70-odd years after it had closed. I really should fish some more historical salmon from it. But, you know what it's like, you start 30 projects and have little time for reading.

You can see that they were another brewery with a relatively weak X Ale. Milds of this strength sold for 6d a pint in 1922, dropping to 5d in 1923 when the tax was lowered from 100 shillings to 80 shillings per standard barrel. Milds in the low 1040's sold for a penny more a pint.



Hoare Mild Ale quality 1922 - 1923


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


1922
X
1007
1033.9
3.44
78.17%
not bright
poor
-1


1922
X
1008
1033.5
3.31
76.12%
bright
fair
1


1922
X
1009
1034.3
3.31
74.34%
bright
fair
1


1922
X
1010
1033.2
2.98
69.28%
bright
fair
1


1922
X
1011
1034
2.97
67.65%
bright
fair
1


1923
X
1012
1034
2.84
64.71%
bright
v fair
2


1923
X
1012
1034.3
2.91
65.60%
bright
thin
-2


1923
X
1010
1033
2.98
69.70%
fairly bright
American wood
-3


1923
X
1009
1033.7
3.17
72.70%
not quite bright
v fair
2


1923
X
1009
1034.1
3.24
73.31%
bright
fair
1



Average





0.30


Source:


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



They seem to have the brilliancy of their Mild sorted out, because there's only one that wasn't bright.

Flavourwise they don't fare quite so well, with thre out of ten getting a negative score. I love the way "American wood" is used as a serious flaw. British brewers didn't usually use American oak because of the flavour the wood imparted to the beer it contained. One exception was Guinness, but they only brewed Porter and Stout where any taint would be much less noticeable.

Hoare is another brewery to get a small positive average. This is going to be really close.



* "A Century of British Breweries Plus" by Norman Barber, 2005, page 86.

** “The Brewing Industry in England 1700-1830”, Peter Mathias, 1959, p 551-552.

*** Whitbread brewing log, document LMA/4453/D/09/023.

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