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05-06-2014, 08:10
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As promised, I'm now taking a look at Truman's beers themselves. Based on information in document B/THB/C/256c.

This wasn't Truman's full beer range. Their brewery in Burton provided all of the posher Pale Ales and Burton Ales, including Barley Wine.

The Pale Ales they brewed in London, LK (London Keeper) and BLK (its bottled form), were really more like Light Ales.

In 1925, their range was this, in terms of styles:

2 Pale Ales
2 Mild Ales
1 Strong Ale
1 Porter
5 Stouts

What's odd about that? Do you remember the breakdown of Truman output by Ales and Stouts? In 1925, just 28% of Brick Lane's output was Stout. Yet there were more different types of Ale brewed than Stout. The inevitable conclusion is that some of the Stouts must have been brewed in pretty small quantities.

In 1933 just under 44,000 barrels of Stout were brewed, but there were seven different types. Meaning, on average, a bit over 6,000 barrels were brewed of each type. While in the same year 240,000 barrels were brewed of 9 types of Ale, an average of over 26,000 barrels of each type.

You can clearly see the fault line of Snowden's 1931 emergency budget again. The gravity of every beer in the range fell between 1931 and 1932. Except for those which were discontinued or appeared in that year.

Notable changes are the replacement of X by the weaker LM (though X did reappear the following year). Considering X was probably their biggest-selling beer, that's quite a significant move. A weaker Brown Ale was introduced, one that's obviously a bottled version of the weak Mild A. The name, NBA, stands for Nut Brown Ale. Sp. A looks like another draught variation of A, quite possibly coloured differently at racking time. Barclay Perkins introduced a very dark version of their Ale around this time.

Over on the Stout side, Stout was split into two differently-priced versions and the two versions of CS replaced by a single, weaker one.

What else have I learned? That Truman started brewing a Brown Ale in 1926. And that it was stronger than their strongest Mild Ale. Though I do know that it was parti-gyled with it. How do I know that? From another dead handy document. One that we'll be looking at soon.




Truman Brick Lane gravities 1925 - 1933


Beer
Style
1925
1926
1927
1928
1929
1930
1931
1932
1933


BLK
Pale Ale
1040.0
1040.0
1040.0
1039.8
1039.8
1039.8
1039.8
1036.4
1036.4


LK
Pale Ale
1029.2
1029.2
1029.2
1029.3
1029.3
1029.1
1029.2
1028.4
1028.4


SA
Strong Ale
1056.2
1055.8
1055.8
1055.9
1055.7
1055.7
1055.6
1049.2
1047.5


X
Mild
1043.0
1043.1
1043.0
1042.9
1042.8
1042.7
1042.9

1039.5


LM
Mild







1034.8
1034.8


BA
Brown Ale

1044.6
1044.8
1044.8
1044.7
1044.7
1044.8
1041.7
1041.7


A
Mild
1029.4
1029.4
1029.4
1029.5
1029.4
1029.5
1029.6
1028.4
1028.4


Sp. A
Mild







1028.4
1028.4


NBA
Brown Ale







1028.4
1028.4


Stock IDS
Stout
1083.7
1083.6
1095.4








BS
Stout
1058.4
1058.5
1058.3
1058.4
1058.7
1058.8
1059.0
1053.7
1053.7


St.
Stout
1050.1
1050.2
1050.2
1050.2
1050.3
1050.1
1050.5




St. 8d
Stout







1047.8
1047.8


St. 7d
Stout







1040.9
1040.9


CS Town
Stout
1044.8
1047.1
1046.7
1046.3
1048.5
1049.1
1049.0




CS Country
Stout

1044.3


1045.4
1045.3
1045.3




CS B








1038.9
1038.9


R
Porter
1037.4
1037.5
1037.5
1037.4
1037.2
1037.2
1037.1
1035.3
1035.3


SS
Stout
1054.5
1054.7
1054.6
1054.4
1054.5
1054.8
1054.8
1050.3
1050.3


Scotch St.
Stout

1058.4









RDS
Stout








1044.5


Source:


Document B/THB/C/256c held at the London Metropolitan Archives





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