Shut up about Barclay Perkins - 1950's Mild
Visit the Shut up about Barclay Perkins site
It's almost March. Time to start getting ready for Mild Month. Let's kick off with a description of Mild from the 1950's.
"Mild beer is usually the cheapest available in any bar. In some parts of the country it can still be bought for under a shilling a pint. Before we started rearming against Hitlerism, fourpence a pint was a common bar price. Some bars will not serve mild. This is not due either to snobbery or a desire on the part of the publican to make more profit by selling more costly beer. It is an unquestionable fact that there is not a great demand for mild beer in the saloon bars of some public houses. A barrel of mild must be consumed within a few days and slow sales mean sour and spoilt beer.
All public bars and most saloon bars sell a good mild beer, which is an honest drink with a soft sweet flavour that goes down very well if it is served at the right temperature, but there is nothing more unpleasant than rather warm mild on a hot day.
Mild beers are usually rather lightly hopped, and in some districts, including London, rather sweet. The dgree of sweetness will differ from brewery to brewery. Most mild beers will range from 1030º to 1033º with about three per cent of alcohol by volume, though some are very much weaker. London milds are dark in colour; in the country the colour varies, and some breweries produce both a dark and a light mild.
Best mild has a higher gravity from 1033º to 1040º, with the same general characteristics, and may be on sale alone or as an alternative to ordinary mild. Some brewers give their best mild special names: Whitbread's have Treble X, Watney's a XX and Taylor, Walker's a Main Line.
. . .
Mild beer grists may be of up to two-thirds pale ale malt, and the balance a blend, in almost equal proportions, of amber malt and sugar."
"The Book Of Beer" by Andrew Campbell, 1956, pages 84-85.
How accurate is Andrew Campbell's description? Let's take a look at some real beers of the period:
Draught Mild Ales in the mid 1950's
Year
Brewer
Beer
size
Atten-uation
1954
Barclay Perkins
XX
pint
1953
Beasley
X
pint
1953
Benskins
X
pint
1953
Cannon
X
pint
1953
Charrington
X
pint
1954
Charrington
Ale
pint
1954
Courage
Ale
pint
1955
Hancock, Cardiff
Dark Malt
pint
1955
Hancock, Cardiff
XXXX
pint
1953
Ind Coope
X
pint
1954
Ind Coope
Strong Mild Ale
pint
1953
Mann Crossman
Best Ale
pint
1954
Meux
Mild Ale
pint
1953
Taylor Walker
X
pint
1953
Taylor Walker
X
pint
1953
Tetley
X
pint
1955
Thwaites
Mild Ale
pint
1953
Tollemache
X
pint
1954
Truman
LM
pint
1953
Watney
Ale
pint
1953
Watney
X
pint
1954
Watney
XX
pint
1953
Wenlock
Amber Ale
pint
1954
Whitbread
Best Ale
pint
1954
Whitbread
XXX
pint
1955
Whitbread
Best Ale
1955
Whitbread
XXX
1953
Wm. Younger
X
pint
1955
Wm. Younger
X
pint
1955
Worthington
Special Mild Ale
pint
1953
Young & Co
X
pint
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity Book
Truman Gravity Book
“Cardiff Pubs and Breweries” by Brian Glover, 2005. pages 97-101
Whitbread brewing records.
Considering breweries were pretty secretive about gravities, I don't think he did a bad job. Standard Milds were indeed around 1030. He was a little optimistic about the gravity of London Best Milds, which were only a couple of degrees stronger than ordinary Mild. But there were indeed a few Milds even of 1040 and above.https://blogger.googleusercontent.co...s.blogspot.com
More...
