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What sort of condition was Burton Ale in down the pub in the 1920's? It's the sort of answer I wouldn't expect to get an answer to. Yet, courtesy of the Whitbread Gravity Book, some evidence does exist.

Because in the early years it also included information about the appearance and flavour of the beer being analysed.

Let's begin with Watney's Burton:

Watney's Strong Ale condition 1922 - 1924
Year Beer FG OG ABV App. Atten-uation Appearance Flavour
1922 KK 1012.5 1058.5 6.00 78.63% cloudy v fair
1922 KK 1012.2 1057.2 5.87 78.67% bright fairly full
1922 KK 1013.9 1055.9 5.46 75.13% v bright good
1922 KK 1010.8 1056.3 5.94 80.82% bright unpleasantly bitter
1923 KK 1012.9 1059.4 6.06 78.28% fairly bright good
1923 KK 1013.6 1056.6 5.60 75.97% bright poor
1923 KK 1015 1059.5 5.79 74.79% hazy only fair
1923 KK 1015 1059 5.72 74.58% bright good
1923 KK 1014.2 1058.2 5.73 75.60% bright going off
1923 KK 1014.8 1061.8 6.12 76.05% bright fair
1923 KK 1010.6 1061.6 6.67 82.79% not bright fair
1924 KK 1014.1 1059.5 5.91 76.30% bright fair
1924 KK 1015.1 1060 5.84 74.83% bright v good
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001.

Only three of the 13 examples weren't bright. Not too bad at all. Perhaps the other three pubs were marketing it as "unfined" beer. The beers came out a little worse in terms of flavour, with 4 examples not up to snuff.

The Burtons from other London brewers were much more of a mixed bunch:

London Strong Ale condition in 1922
Brewer Beer FG OG ABV App. Atten-uation Appearance Flavour
Barclay Perkins KK 1011.7 1056.2 5.80 79.18% cloudy fair
Beasley KK 1014.4 1056.6 5.49 74.56%
Cannon Brewery KK 1015.4 1054.4 5.06 71.69% not bright no head v poor
Charrington KK 1015.6 1055.9 5.23 72.09% bright American cask
City of London KK 1008.5 1056.7 6.30 85.01% cloudy fair
Courage KK 1013.2 1053.7 5.27 75.42% bright v good
Hoare KK 1015.5 1056.5 5.33 72.57% cloudy fair
Huggins KK 1012.6 1056.1 5.67 77.54% bright good
Lion Brewery KK 1010.7 1056.7 6.00 81.13% cloudy fair
Mann KK 1013 1057 5.73 77.19% bright not good too sweet
Meux KK 1007.4 1058.4 6.68 87.33% cloudy good
Truman KK 1013.8 1052.8 5.07 73.86% rather bitter
Wenlock KK 1010 1054 5.74 81.48% cloudy poor
Whitbread KK 1016.3 1054 4.89 69.81% almost bright fair
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001.

Only four out of 14 were properly bright, though for a couple of examples the clarity isn't noted. On the upside, 8 of 14 didn't taste bad. But what really struck me was what is said about Charrington KK: "American cask".

I know exactly what that refers to. It means that the cask was made of American oak and its tainted the beer. Although they usually used unlined casks, the last thing British brewers wanted was any wood flavour in their beer. That was seen as a fault.

Overall, the condition of Burton Ales wasn't that bad. If you entered a random set of London pubs today, what percentage of their cask beers would be in good condition? Probably lower than the percentage of well-kept Watney's Burton in the table above.

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