Shut up about Barclay Perkins - Tennant’s Gold Label (part two)

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One of the most frustrating features of reading historical documents about brewing is how rarely the flavour of the finished product is described.

Making Frank Priestley’s description of tasting of Gold Label all the more useful.

“I also got into the habit of tasting them to round off my sampling of the draught beer. By choosing a suitably old one, I would find myself with a glass of perfectly matured barley wine. The drinking experience was incredible. The smooth malty, hoppy flavour was wonderful and as it went down, you could feel the warm alcoholic glow diffuse throughout your body. However, when there was still work to be done, it had to be treated with respect. The advice often directed at other drinks, was more than relevant here:

'A glass of barley wine is like a woman's breast - one is rarely enough, but three is one too many.'”
"The Brewer's Tale" by Frank Priestley, 2010, page 20.

It sounds like wonderful stuff. Just the sort of beer I enjoy. You know what it reminds me of? Pretty Things 1832 XXXX Mild Ale. It’s making me even more determined to get it rebrewed to the original recipe and have it properly matured in oak.

Rather disconcertingly the book is sprinkled with slightly sexist comments like that little quote. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that the sensibilities of earlier generations were somewhat different to those of today.

It sounds as if those working at the Exchange Brewery were quite partial to a drop of it themselves:

“One day I learned that the head brewer had long since banned anyone else from sampling from these casks as he had come upon one which had been drunk dry. The only other people who had access to the sample room were the brewers and although I knew that they all were partial to Gold Label, one of them in particular was suspected. This was Tom Newton, whom Tennant's had inherited when the Nottingham brewery was taken over. Tom was a large, jolly man who still wore the traditional brown brewers' boots. Whenever he saw me around the brewery, he would call out: 'Keep your bowels open laddie and trust in the Lord' But since I was, by now, embracing the art of drinking with some enthusiasm, the first part of the advice, at least, was superfluous.”
"The Brewer's Tale" by Frank Priestley, 2010, page 20.

The brewing industry was full of colourful characters in the 1950’s. Many of them rather to partial to a drink, like Tom Newton.

Remember me mentioning the small number of 1950’s beers with gravities of over 1090º? I thought you might like to see a few more details.

Strong Ales in the 1950's
Year	Brewer	Beer	Style	OG	FG	Price per pint d	ABV	App. Attenuation	colour
1953	Barclay Perkins	Russian Stout	Stout	1101	1018	45	10.97	82.18%	500
1953	Bass	Barley Wine	Barley Wine	1104.6	1036.3	60	8.90	65.30%	80
1952	Bass	Barley Wine	Barley Wine	1104.1	1035.6	64.5	8.93	65.80%	80
1958	Bass, Burton	No. 1 Barley Wine	Barley Wine	1106.8	1039.8	63	8.71	62.73%	100
1955	Benskin	Colne Spring Ale	Barley Wine	1091.8	1011.1	60	10.69	87.91%	75
1953	Benskin	Colne Spring Ale	Barley Wine	1090.7	1008.2	60	10.95	90.96%	100
1959	Ind Coope	Benskins Colne Spring Ale	Barley Wine	1092.8	1009.3	47	11.08	89.98%	80
1958	Lacons	Audit Ale	Strong Ale	1095	1017.8	54	9.65	81.26%	90
1952	McEwan	Scotch Ale	Scotch Ale	1090.3	1023.1		8.80	74.42%	60
1953	Mitchell & Butler	Strong Ale	Strong Ale	1106	1026.5	56	10.45	75.00%	63
1958	Tennant Bros.	Gold Label No.1 Barley Wine	Barley Wine	1102.5	1017.9	57	10.58	82.54%	35
1955	Tennant Bros.	Gold Label Barley Wine	Barley Wine	1102.4	1020.8	57	10.77	79.69%	45
1954	Tennant Bros.	Gold Label No.1 Sparkling Barley Wine	Barley Wine	1101.5	1021.1	60	10.60	79.21%	90
1955	Tennant Bros.	No. 1 Barley Wine	Barley Wine	1097.5	1022.6	57	9.84	76.82%	175
1953	Truman	No. 1 Burton Barley Wine	Barley Wine	1095.4	1023.6	60	9.42	75.26%	63
1952	Watney	Stingo	Barley Wine	1090.7	1008	57	10.98	91.18%	125
1954	Younger, Geo.	Gordon Highland Scotch Ale (purchased in Belgium)	Scotch Ale	1090.9	1028		8.20	69.20%	60
1955	Younger, Geo.	Gordon Highland Scotch Ale (purchased in Belgium)	Scotch Ale	1090.3	1029.9		7.86	66.89%	55
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.

The vast majority are Barley Wines. With one Imperial Stout and a couple of Scotch Ales. Though the two from George Younger were probably exclusively for the Belgian market. Interesting to see how many were called No. 1, presumably in imitation of the original Barley Wine from Bass.

These weren’t cheap beer, with most around 60d per pint, though they were never sold in anything larger than a half pint, mostly in nips. To put that price into context, an Ordinary Mild of around 3% ABV was 14-15d in the mid-1950’s, Ordinary Bitter 16-18d. Bottled beer is obviously more expensive that draught. A pint of bottled 3%-ish ABV Brown Ale was around 20-24d. So, in terms of alcohol for your pennies, these very strong beers weren’t that bad value. A couple of beers – Barclay’s Russian Stout, Lacon’s Audit Ale and M & B Strong Ale look like a bargain.

One last point. Most of the beers come from quite large breweries, either big regionals like Tennant or national brewers like Bass and Truman. Only really Lacons and George Younger were smallish concerns.

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