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14-04-2019, 08:21
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In the capital, two or even three draught Pale Ales was standard. Fitting the 6d, 7d and 8d per pint niches, when sold on draught. Though, as you can see in the table below, 7d and 8d Bitters were the norm.

7d Bitters had gravities in the high 1040º’s, and 8d Bitters ones in the mid-1050º’s. These gravities and prices had remained constant since the early 1920s, with the exception of the years 1931 to 1933, when there had been a disastrous tax increase. Brewers’ reaction was to reduce gravities to leave retail prices the same, rather than raise prices by 1d per pint as the government had expected.

You can see that there wasn’t a huge amount of variation in the strength of beers in each class. That isn’t coincidence. Brewers were well aware of the gravities of their rivals’ beers, despite them not being made public. I’m sure that all the larger breweries, just like Whitbread and Truman, had their rivals’ beers analysed. It’s only drinkers who were in the dark as to how strong their beer was.

The rate of attenuation is fairly high, at least 75% in all but two examples. The ABVs are accordingly also quite high, with the Mann’s example even hitting 6% ABV. There would never be a London-brewed Bitter of a similar strength again.




London draught Pale Ale in 1938


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


1938
Barclay Perkins
PA
7
1043.9
1011.3
4.23
74.26%



1938
Charrington
PA
7
1046
1007.2
5.06
84.35%



1938
Taylor Walker
Pale Ale
7
1043.1
1015.7
3.54
63.57%



1938
Truman
Pale Ale
7
1048
1006.8
5.38
85.83%
24


1938
Watney
Pale Ale
7
1048.8






1938
Whitbread
Pale Ale
7
1048.6
1011
4.89
77.37%
27



Average


1046.4
1010.4
4.62
77.08%



1938
Courage
PA
8
1050.2
1012.7
4.87
74.70%



1938
Mann
PA
8
1052.4
1006.5
6.01
87.60%
27


1938
Watney
PA
8
1055
1012.2
5.57
77.82%
27


1938
Wenlock
Pale Ale
8
1054







Average


1052.9
1010.5
5.48
80.04%



Sources:


Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.


Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/01/105.


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




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