Shut up about Barclay Perkins - Adnams PA 1945 - 1959

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Right. I really am doing PA. Really.

I thought I’d already done this, to be honest. Just shows how busy I am. This being one of several series I’m currently engaged in. Oh, before we start one thing: this is going to be very number heavy. Thought I’d best warn you.

Adnams PA, or Bitter as it was doubtless called down the boozer, has a long history. It shows up in the first Adnams brewing record that’s been preserved, one from 1878-79. Back then it was a reasonably strong beer, with an OG of 1058.2º. It was little changed when WW I erupted, still having a very respectable gravity of 1056º and an ABV of around 6%.

As with everything else, WW I knocked the stuffing out of PA. By 1918 it was down to 1033º and 3.25% ABV. In the interwar period it bounced back a bit, to 1039º where it remained until 1941, when another slow reduction in strength set in. It ended the war at 1036º.

Our first table shows what I’ve said many times: the hardest years came after war’s end. Its nadir was reached in 1949, when, oddly enough, PA was exactly where it had been in 1928: 1033º. A tax cut in 1950 saw it rise back to 1036º, before slipping back a little again.

What can I say about PA? It’s a classic Ordinary Bitter at around 3.5% ABV. A beer of which there were hundreds in the 1950’s. Even though the biggest shift in the 1950’s was from draught to bottled, there was also a swing from Mild to Bitter.

Adnams PA 1945 - 1959
Date	Year	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	boil time (hours)
4th Jan	1945	1036.0	1008.9	3.59	75.38%	7.20	1.02	2
16th Jan	1945	1036.0	1009.4	3.52	73.84%	7.20	1.02	2
1st Jan	1946	1036.0	1008.9	3.59	75.38%	7.20	1.02	2
7th Jan	1947	1034.1	1009.4	3.26	72.36%	8.00	1.06	2
1st Jan	1948	1034.0	1008.9	3.33	73.93%	7.58	1.02	2
1st Jun	1948	1034.0	1008.3	3.40	75.56%	7.58	1.02	2
7th Apr	1949	1034.0	1006.1	3.69	82.08%	7.58	1.00	2
4th Oct	1949	1033.0	1006.1	3.56	81.53%	8.00	1.00	2
1st Jun	1950	1036.0	1008.9	3.59	75.38%	7.58	1.03	2
2nd Aug	1951	1036.0	1008.9	3.59	75.38%	7.37	1.02	2
8th Nov	1951	1036.0	1009.4	3.52	73.84%	6.67	0.97	2
8th Jan	1952	1036.0	1008.9	3.59	75.38%	7.00	1.01	2
5th Mar	1952	1035.0	1010.5	3.24	69.93%	6.67	0.92	2
4th Nov	1953	1035.0	1008.3	3.53	76.26%	6.67	0.92	2
18th Jun	1954	1035.0	1008.9	3.46	74.67%	5.56	0.92	2
13th Sep	1954	1035.0	1009.4	3.38	73.09%	7.08	0.96	2
21st Jul	1955	1036.0	1013.3	3.00	63.07%	8.00	1.12	2
3rd Sep	1956	1035.0	1010.5	3.24	69.93%	8.56	1.21	2
22nd Oct	1956	1034.0	1011.1	3.03	67.41%	8.00	1.10	2
25th Jan	1957	1034.0	1008.9	3.33	73.93%	8.00	1.08	2
7th Aug	1957	1035.0	1012.2	3.02	65.18%	8.56	1.20	2
5th Dec	1959	1034.0	1011.1	3.03	67.41%	7.99	1.08	1.58
Source:
Adnams brewing records held at the brewery.

Let’s take a look at the grist. Another point that I’ve made often and loudly is that crystal malt in Bitter is, for the most part, a recent phenomenon. Post WW II. And Adnams Bitter confirms this. The grist is just base malt an No. 1 invert sugar. The only exception is in the immediate post-war years when government-mandated flaked barley was also included.

The hopping is equally simple: overwhelmingly English hops. With occasionally a few from Eastern Europe. At this time Britain was self-sufficient and had no need to import any. Unlike in the late 19th and early 20th century. The same was true of malt. A huge increase in barley acreage had seen British brewing wean itself off imported barley. In particular, Californian barley, malt made from which had been an essential ingredient in pre-WW II beers, especially Pale Ales.

Adnams PA grists 1945 - 1959
Date	Year	OG	pale malt	MA malt	medium malt	PA malt	flaked barley	no. 1 sugar	Hydrol	hops
4th Jan	1945	1036.0	93.10%					6.90%		English
16th Jan	1945	1036.0	87.93%				5.17%	6.90%		English
1st Jan	1946	1036.0	41.38%		46.55%		5.17%	6.90%		English
7th Jan	1947	1034.1	86.54%				5.77%	7.69%		English, Czech
1st Jan	1948	1034.0	21.82%		65.45%		5.45%	7.27%		English
1st Jun	1948	1034.0	53.57%		37.50%		5.36%	3.57%		English
7th Apr	1949	1034.0	92.73%					7.27%		English
4th Oct	1949	1033.0	92.31%					7.69%		English
1st Jun	1950	1036.0	92.73%					7.27%		English
2nd Aug	1951	1036.0	92.73%					7.27%		English
8th Nov	1951	1036.0	48.84%		41.86%			9.30%		English
8th Jan	1952	1036.0			93.10%			6.90%		English
5th Mar	1952	1035.0			90.70%			9.30%		English
4th Nov	1953	1035.0		90.70%				9.30%		English
18th Jun	1954	1035.0		92.31%				7.69%		English
13th Sep	1954	1035.0		89.19%				10.81%		English
21st Jul	1955	1036.0	88.24%					11.76%		English
3rd Sep	1956	1035.0		52.94%		35.29%		11.76%		English
22nd Oct	1956	1034.0		23.53%		64.71%		11.76%		English
25th Jan	1957	1034.0		15.79%		78.95%		5.26%		English
7th Aug	1957	1035.0	76.47%	11.76%				7.84%	3.92%	English
5th Dec	1959	1034.0	75.00%	8.33%				11.11%	5.56%	English, Styrian
Source:
Adnams brewing records held at the brewery.

I’m going to finish with another table. This time showing the decline in gravity in Whitbread’s Pale Ales and Adnams PA:

Changing gravities 1939 - 1950
	1939	1945	1946	1947	1948	1949	1950	1939 - 1950
Whitbread PA	1048.2	1039.5	1039.7	1034.2	1034.4	1035.9	1039.9
% change		-18.05%	0.51%	-13.85%	0.58%	4.36%	11.14%	-17.22%
Whitbread IPA	1037.1	1031.6	1031.3	1032.4	1032.3	1032.4	1034.5
% change		-14.82%	-0.95%	3.51%	-0.31%	0.31%	6.48%	-7.01%
Adnams PA	1039	1036.0	1036.0	1034.0	1034.0	1033.0	1036.0
% change		-7.69%	0.00%	-5.56%	0.00%	-2.94%	9.09%	-7.69%
average OG	1040.93	1034.54	1034.72	1032.59	1032.66	1033.43	1033.88
% change		-15.61%	0.52%	-6.13%	0.21%	2.36%	1.35%	-17.22%
Sources:
Brewers' Almanack 1955, p. 50
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/107, LMA/4453/D/01/112, LMA/4453/D/01/113, LMA/4453/D/01/115, LMA/4453/D/01/116, LMA/4453/D/01/117 and LMA/4453/D/01/118.
Adnams brewing records held at the brewery.

It’s weird how Whitbread PA fell by exactly the overall average. Whereas the weaker Whitbread IPA and Adnams PA declined in gravity by less than half the average. What is that telling us? That stronger beers were harder hit? Or that once you’d hit a certain low level of gravity, you really couldn’t drop much further? Anyway, you can see that the strength differential between Whitbread PA and IPA was seriously eroded.

I do know what’s coming next. In this series, at least. It’s Adnams Mild. I know because I’ve already started writing it.

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