Shut up about Barclay Perkins - Mann Porter quality 1922 - 1923

Visit the Shut up about Barclay Perkins site

Don't worry. The torture will only last a few more weeks. Once we've dumped the vinegary Porters down the drain, there's just the Stouts left.

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Mann was a brewery which ended the 19th century well and managed to survive the troubles which beset the brewing industry in the early decade of the 20th century. It helped that they were the originators of a hot new beer style, Brown Ale. Their relativley good performance is well illustrated by comparing their output with that of Barclay Perkins:

Beer output of Barclay Perkins and Mann 1900 - 1924 (barrels)
	1900	1901	1902	1903	1904	1905	1906	1907	1908
Barclay Perkins	589,201	573,302	541,822	539,153	534,284	549,634	560,103	555,370	527,716
Mann	500,029	557,403	593,694	624,718	644,162	672,104	657,161	650,254	625,130
	1909	1910	1911	1912	1913	1914	1915	1916
Barclay Perkins	525,854	500,205	549,841	589,543	587,547	582,263	511,870	438,242
Mann	601,363	590,608	630,417	619,058	611,704	609,623
	1917	1918	1919	1920	1921	1922	1923	1924
Barclay Perkins	426,170	247,089	325,965	464,033	393,045	348,576	293,728	303,676
Mann	365,525	269,475		699,297				619,608
Sources:
The British Brewing Industry, 1830-1980 T. R. Gourvish & R.G. Wilson, pages 610-611
Document ACC/2305/1/711/1 in the London Metropolitan Archives
"Albion Brewery 1808 - 1958" by Hurford Janes, 1958, pages 87, 89 and 91.

Mann overtook Barclay Perkins in 1902 and stayed a little in front up until WW I. The war years were slightly more kind to Mann: Barclay Perkins produced 42% of their 1914 output in 1918. For Mann it was 44%. But it's what happened after the war that really tells a story. Barclay Perkins never got back to anywhere near their pre-war level and in 1924 brewed just over half what they had in 1914. While Mann brewed slightly more in 1924 than 1914. Unfortunately, I don't have figures for any other breweries. My guess would be Barclay Perkins were closer to the norm than Mann. The hard times of the interwar years saw most breweries production fall.

One little titbit from the Mann's brewery history. In 1924, 88,000 of the 619,608 barrel they brewed were bottled. (They produced 6 bottled beers: London Stout, Oatmeal Stout, Extra Stout, Family Ale, Brown Ale and Bitter Ale.) That's just over 14%. By 1958 that had increased to 70% of their output*. That's extremely high, even for the 1950's. I wonder how much of that was Brown Ale? Probably quite a bit as it was one of a handful of bottled beers - like Guinness, Bass and Worthington - which were regularly sold in other breweries' tied houses.

Now it's time to review Mann's season so far. In the Mild competition they topped the table of 17, with an average score of 1.33. Their Burton Ale came third of fourteen, averaging 1.25. But their Pale Ale let them down a little, coming tenth of fourteen, just staying positive with a score of 0.07.

Hoare's Porter is the strongest of the bunch, with the highhest average OG, ABV and rate of attenuation. So good value for money for all you pisshead. But what about its quality?

Mann Porter quality 1922 - 1923
Year	Beer	FG	OG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	Flavour	score	Price
1922	Porter	1009.6	1040.3	3.99	76.18%	v fair	2	6d
1922	Porter	1007	1034	3.51	79.41%	v poor	-3	6d
1922	Porter	1009.6	1041.1	4.09	76.64%	v poor	-3	6d
1923	Porter	1009.6	1039.6	3.89	75.76%	fair	1	6d
1923	Porter	1010.6	1038.6	3.63	72.54%	fair	1	5d
1923	Porter	1009.3	1039.3	3.89	76.34%	fairly good	1	6d
1923	Porter	1008.9	1039.9	4.03	77.69%	nasty flavour	-3	6d
1923	Porter	1009.2	1037.2	3.63	75.27%	v fair	2	6d
Average		1009.2	1038.8	3.83	76.23%		-0.25
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001

Bit of a mixed bag, eh? Three real stinkers (literally, based on the descriptions) leave it with a negative average score of -0.25. But the other five score fairly well, five of eight having a positive score, including two twos. That would leave me to believe that the problem lies in the pub cellar rather than the brewery.

Time traveller advice? Choose your Mann's pub wisely if you're drinking Porter.




* "Albion Brewery 1808 - 1958" by Hurford Janes, 1958, page 91.

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