Shut up about Barclay Perkins - Benskin’s beers 1944 - 1960

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Here, as promised, are Benskin’s beers for the immediate post-war years.

It looks like pretty much a full set of their beers, which is nice. There’s a reason for that. Watford being just outside London, it was on Whitbread’s patch. So a competitor, and quite a large one as they had 600-odd pubs. They were bound to have attracted Whitbread’s attention.

Let’s start with the strongest, Colne Spring Ale. Notice something strange about it? A really high degree of attenuation for a beer of its strength. That screams one thing at me: Brettanomyces. It’s hard to see how you could get the FG so low without Brettanomyces playing a part. As you can see, it wasn’t cheap at 5 shillings a pint. Then again, it was four times the strength of their weaker beers.

What else is there? A bog-standard looking Brown Ale. It looks very much like a bottled version of the X Ale. And look there – the IPA is one of the weakest beers. Looks very much in the Southern, low-gravity styles. Light Sparkling Ale seems to have had its name chopped down to just Light Ale in the mid-1950’s. Around 3% ABV is what you’d expect it to be.

The Stout is an interesting one. It looks like a Scottish one, with attenuation below 50%. You can see that the OG fell and the FG rose as the 1950’s progressed. Sweet and barely alcoholic. A bit like me, really.

Not sure what the beer for the Belgian market was. I can’t read the name. Maybe it’s a Scotch Ale. No, a bit weak for that. Pale Ale, maybe. Why have a Jubilee Beer in 1953? Surely it should be a Coronation Beer?

Moving on to the draught beers, they look, well, normal. I’ve seen weaker ones in the 1950’s.

That’s all for Benskin’s for now.

Benskin bottled beers 1944 - 1960
Year	Beer	Style	Price	Acidity	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour
1953	Colne Spring Ale	Barley Wine	60	0.05	1090.7	1008.2	10.95	90.96%	1 + 8
1955	Colne Spring Ale	Barley Wine	60	0.08	1091.8	1011.1	10.69	87.91%	75
1960	Colne Spring Ale	Barley Wine		0.04	1092.2	1007.6	11.25	91.76%	68
1951	Nut Brown Ale	Brown Ale	16	0.06	1032.9	1008.1	3.22	75.38%	11 + 40
1951	India Pale Ale	IPA	20	0.07	1029.3	1006.3	2.98	78.50%	20 B
1944	Bitter Ale	Pale Ale		0.06	1027.6	1008.1	2.52	70.65%	22 B
1956	Light Ale	Pale Ale	19	0.04	1031.4	1009.8	2.79	68.79%	25
1946	Light Sparkling Ale	Pale Ale	13	0.04	1028.9	1004.9	3.12	83.04%	20.5 B
1947	Light Sparkling Ale	Pale Ale	12.5	0.08	1029.4	1008.7	2.68	70.41%	18.5
1947	Light Sparkling Ale	Pale Ale	16	0.08	1029.6	1007	2.93	76.35%	20.5
1951	Light Sparkling Ale	Pale Ale	16	0.08	1032.6	1008.1	3.18	75.15%	18 B
1951	Brown Stout	Stout	20	0.06	1039.2	1013.6	3.31	65.31%	1 + 18
1953	Brown Stout	Stout	21	0.07	1036.6	1014.2	2.89	61.20%	1 + 11.5
1953	Brown Stout	Stout	21	0.04	1037.6	1018.3	2.48	51.33%	275
1955	Double Stout	Stout	24	0.04	1036.2	1018.6	2.26	48.62%	250
1955	Double Stout	Stout	22	0.02	1036.1	1018.3	2.29	49.31%	275
1950	???? Ale Bottled in Belgium	Strong Ale		0.09	1060.3	1011.3	6.40	81.26%	18 B
1953	Jubilee Beer	Strong Ale	30	0.06	1054	1017.7	4.70	67.22%	14.5 + 40
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.

Benskin draught beers 1952 - 1953
Year	Beer	Style	Price	OG	colour
1953	X	Mild	13	1031.5	84
1952	Pale Ale	Pale Ale	18	1039	23
1953	Pale Ale	Pale Ale	16	1037.2	18
Source:
Truman Gravity Book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/C/252

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