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28-07-2016, 09:02
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Mild. But not just any Mild. Best Mild.
Sometimes I really wish I’d lived in the 1950’s. Hang on a minute. I did. Sometimes I really wish I’s been an adult during the 1950’s. Especially when I see strong Milds like this. In London they seem to have flowered briefly, then disappeared forever. Which is a shame. Maybe if some of the stronger versions had hung around Mild itself would have fared better.
All these stronger are Milds are from large breweries. I don’t know if that’s just the vagaries of my sample, which is pretty small in size. Or if it was generally the bigger boys that bothered with more than one cask Mild. Because that’s one thing all these beers have in common: they had a weedier younger brother with an OG of around 1030º. No brewery produced just a strong Mild.
Taylor Walker were unusual in having particularly strong branding for their Best Mild, Mainline. A beer which they pushed quite a bit. And, unusually for a Mild, was found in both draught and bottled form. Main Line Special in the table is the bottled version, which you can see was considerably stronger than its draught counterpart.
The gravity averages 7 points higher than for Ordinary Mild, while the ABV is more than 0.5% higher. Watney’s Best comes in at over 4.5% ABV, which would have been a very reasonable strength for a Best Bitter in the early 1950’s.
Once again, they’re pretty dark beers. Not quite as dark on average as the Ordinary Milds from large breweries, but darker than the ones from small brewers. The lesson? Londoners liked their Mild dark.
Large London brewery Best Mild Ale 1950 - 1954
Year
Brewer
Beer
Price per pint d
Acidity
OG
FG
ABV
App. Atten-uation
colour
1950
Charrington
Best Mild Ale
14
0.05
1037.4
1010.4
3.50
72.19%
105
1950
Ind Coope
Mild Ale
15
0.05
1039.2
1009.6
3.84
75.51%
75
1951
Ind Coope
XXX
14
1034.76
1951
Taylor Walker
Mainline
15
0.08
1035.2
1007.6
3.58
78.41%
100
1951
Watney
Best
20
0.07
1043.1
1008
4.57
81.44%
110
1952
Ind Coope
X
13
1036.69
102
1954
Ind Coope
Strong Mild Ale
19
0.05
1043.5
1010.7
4.26
75.40%
110
1954
Taylor Walker
Mainline
15
0.04
1036.5
1014.5
2.84
60.27%
95
1954
Taylor Walker
Main Line Special
27
0.05
1044.5
1017.5
3.48
60.67%
125
Average
16.89
0.06
1039.0
1011.2
3.72
71.99%
102.8
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.
Truman Gravity Book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/C/252
Provincial Mild next.
More... (http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2016/07/large-london-brewery-best-mild-ale-1950.html)
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Mild. But not just any Mild. Best Mild.
Sometimes I really wish I’d lived in the 1950’s. Hang on a minute. I did. Sometimes I really wish I’s been an adult during the 1950’s. Especially when I see strong Milds like this. In London they seem to have flowered briefly, then disappeared forever. Which is a shame. Maybe if some of the stronger versions had hung around Mild itself would have fared better.
All these stronger are Milds are from large breweries. I don’t know if that’s just the vagaries of my sample, which is pretty small in size. Or if it was generally the bigger boys that bothered with more than one cask Mild. Because that’s one thing all these beers have in common: they had a weedier younger brother with an OG of around 1030º. No brewery produced just a strong Mild.
Taylor Walker were unusual in having particularly strong branding for their Best Mild, Mainline. A beer which they pushed quite a bit. And, unusually for a Mild, was found in both draught and bottled form. Main Line Special in the table is the bottled version, which you can see was considerably stronger than its draught counterpart.
The gravity averages 7 points higher than for Ordinary Mild, while the ABV is more than 0.5% higher. Watney’s Best comes in at over 4.5% ABV, which would have been a very reasonable strength for a Best Bitter in the early 1950’s.
Once again, they’re pretty dark beers. Not quite as dark on average as the Ordinary Milds from large breweries, but darker than the ones from small brewers. The lesson? Londoners liked their Mild dark.
Large London brewery Best Mild Ale 1950 - 1954
Year
Brewer
Beer
Price per pint d
Acidity
OG
FG
ABV
App. Atten-uation
colour
1950
Charrington
Best Mild Ale
14
0.05
1037.4
1010.4
3.50
72.19%
105
1950
Ind Coope
Mild Ale
15
0.05
1039.2
1009.6
3.84
75.51%
75
1951
Ind Coope
XXX
14
1034.76
1951
Taylor Walker
Mainline
15
0.08
1035.2
1007.6
3.58
78.41%
100
1951
Watney
Best
20
0.07
1043.1
1008
4.57
81.44%
110
1952
Ind Coope
X
13
1036.69
102
1954
Ind Coope
Strong Mild Ale
19
0.05
1043.5
1010.7
4.26
75.40%
110
1954
Taylor Walker
Mainline
15
0.04
1036.5
1014.5
2.84
60.27%
95
1954
Taylor Walker
Main Line Special
27
0.05
1044.5
1017.5
3.48
60.67%
125
Average
16.89
0.06
1039.0
1011.2
3.72
71.99%
102.8
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.
Truman Gravity Book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/C/252
Provincial Mild next.
More... (http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2016/07/large-london-brewery-best-mild-ale-1950.html)