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14-03-2014, 07:42
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Did I remember to tell you how much these Burton Ales cost? 9d a pint falling to 8d in 1923. By comparison, the different strengths of Mild were 7d, 6d and 5d, falling to 6d, 5d and 4d. just thought I'd get that out of the way.

Lots of tables is what you're in for. Tables which will prove . . . . I'm not quite sure. Let's take a look at the numbers and see if anything jumps out as at us.

To start, let's recap the Mild results:



League table of London Milds in the 1920's by score


Brewery
Beer
No. examples
no. bright
% bright
no. good flavour
% good flavour
average score


Mann
X
15
10
66.67%
11
73.33%
1.33


Watney
X
17
16
94.12%
15
88.24%
1.25


Wenlock
X
12
8
66.67%
10
83.33%
1.17


Whitbread
MA
3
0
0.00%
2
66.67%
0.67


Cannon
X
14
9
64.29%
9
64.29%
0.54


Truman
X
14
11
78.57%
9
64.29%
0.5


Lion Brewery
X
10
5
50.00%
6
60.00%
0.40


Courage
X
16
15
93.75%
11
68.75%
0.38


Hoare
X
10
7
70.00%
7
70.00%
0.30


Huggins
X
10
6
60.00%
7
70.00%
0.20


Meux
X
11
6
54.55%
6
54.55%
0


Whitbread
X
5
3
60.00%
2
40.00%
-0.2


Meux
MA
7
4
57.14%
2
28.57%
-0.57


Truman
MA
8
4
50.00%
2
25.00%
-0.63


Barclay Perkins
X
14
1
7.14%
5
35.71%
-0.64


Charrington
X
10
3
30.00%
5
50.00%
-0.70


City of London
X
12
4
33.33%
3
25.00%
-1.25


Source:


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



A good showing for Mann, Watney and Wenlock. Disappointing from Charrington, Barclay Perkins and, Truman and Meux. The number of beers with negative score was 6 from 17, or 35%. The average of all scores was just positive, 0.16.

You can see that the scores for Burton were generally higher:



League table of London Burton Ales in the 1920's by score


Brewery
FG
OG
ABV
App. Atten-uation
score


Whitbread
1010.6
1053.2
5.56
80.26%
1.33


Courage
1012.1
1052.5
5.25
76.95%
1.25


Mann
1011.7
1053.9
5.49
78.31%
1.25


Meux
1009.7
1053.3
5.69
81.69%
1.11


Charrington
1014.6
1054.5
5.19
73.28%
1.00


Wenlock
1011.2
1052.5
5.38
78.69%
1.00


Lion
1012.6
1053.7
5.35
76.47%
0.78


Watney
1013.4
1058.7
5.90
77.11%
0.77


Truman
1013.4
1058.7
5.90
77.11%
0.77


Hoare
1017.2
1054.9
4.89
68.70%
0.67


Huggins
1012.5
1054.2
5.42
76.88%
0.67


City of London
1010.2
1051.3
5.36
80.03%
0.09


Barclay Perkins
1010.8
1052.4
5.42
79.41%
-0.18


Cannon
1013.3
1052.8
5.13
74.77%
-0.73


Average
1012.4
1054.0
5.42
77.12%
0.70


Source:


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



Only 2 from 14, or 14%, of the beers had negative scores. And the average of all scores was a reasonable 0.70.

I think we can ignore Whitbread because of the small sample size. Mann and Wenlock both place high again, while there's a big improvement for Meux and Charrington. City of London and Barclay Perkins again do badly. This is really sad. It's starting to look as if Barclay's beers were mostly shit.

I've combined the placings for Mild and Burton to come up with an overall league table:



Brewery
Burton
Mild
Total


Mann
3
1
4


Whitbread
1
4
5


Wenlock
6
3
9


Courage
2
8
10


Watney
8
2
10


Lion
7
7
14


Meux
4
11
15


Truman
9
6
15


Cannon
14
5
19


Hoare
10
9
19


Charrington
5
16
21


Huggins
11
10
21


Barclay Perkins
13
15
28


City of London
12
17
29



Mann is the clear winner, followed by, if we ignore Whitbread, by Wenlock, Courage and Watney. This is odd. Three of the top four later became Big Six breweries. I really don't know what that tells us.

Time for the next table. This includes details of the number of bright and well-flavoured examples:



League table of London Burton Ales in the 1920's by score


Brewery
No. examples
no. bright
% bright
no. good flavour
% good flavour
average score


Whitbread
3
1
33.33%
3
100.00%
1.33


Courage
12
6
50.00%
9
75.00%
1.25


Mann
12
6
50.00%
10
83.33%
1.25


Meux
9
4
44.44%
6
66.67%
1.11


Truman
11
6
54.55%
9
81.82%
1.09


Charrington
9
6
66.67%
7
77.78%
1.00


Wenlock
9
4
44.44%
7
77.78%
1.00


Lion
9
2
22.22%
6
66.67%
0.78


Watney
13
9
69.23%
9
69.23%
0.77


Hoare
9
2
22.22%
5
55.56%
0.67


Huggins
9
4
44.44%
7
77.78%
0.67


City of London
11
3
27.27%
5
45.45%
0.09


Barclay Perkins
11
3
27.27%
6
54.55%
-0.18


Cannon
11
5
45.45%
3
27.27%
-0.73


total
138
61
44.20%
92
66.67%



Source:


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



As I suspected, the level of clarity is rubbish: fewer than 50% of the examples were bright. Flavour is much better, with two-thirds getting positive scores. Six breweries had 75% or more of their samples with good flavour. I think that's not bad going. Probably as good, if not better, than today.

Finally, the same table but ordered by the percentage of beers that were clear:



League table of London Burton Ales in the 1920's by clarity


Brewery
No. examples
no. bright
% bright
no. good flavour
% good flavour
average score


Watney
13
9
69.23%
9
69.23%
0.77


Charrington
9
6
66.67%
7
77.78%
1.00


Truman
11
6
54.55%
9
81.82%
1.09


Courage
12
6
50.00%
9
75.00%
1.25


Mann
12
6
50.00%
10
83.33%
1.25


Cannon
11
5
45.45%
3
27.27%
-0.73


Meux
9
4
44.44%
6
66.67%
1.11


Wenlock
9
4
44.44%
7
77.78%
1.00


Huggins
9
4
44.44%
7
77.78%
0.67


Whitbread
3
1
33.33%
3
100.00%
1.33


City of London
11
3
27.27%
5
45.45%
0.09


Barclay Perkins
11
3
27.27%
6
54.55%
-0.18


Lion
9
2
22.22%
6
66.67%
0.78


Hoare
9
2
22.22%
5
55.56%
0.67


Source:


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



There's some correlation between good scores and clarity, but not a complete one. Standing out is City of London, slightly above half way for clarity, in the bottom three for score.

My conclusions? That draught Burton was mostly in reasonably good nick in 1920's London, if not always perfectly bright. And draught Burton was a safer bet than draught Mild.

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