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Nope, wasn’t done. How could I have forgotten about IPA, everyone’s current favourite?

It’s not a huge set, then again it wasn’t that common for beers to be labelled IPA. And the term was used very loosely, covering very different beers. I’ll prove that in a moment. Why is that? Because, unlike today, people had no particular expectation about what an IPA would be like, other than being pale and reasonably hoppy. Hard to imagine such vague desires now.

Another problem is that the classic Burton IPAs weren’t always even called IPA. Often they were billed merely as “Pale Ale”, as was the case with Bass. Whose Red Triangle (trademark No. 1 in the UK) brand Pale Ale is a notable omission from the list. As is White Shield. Weird, that. I’d expect them to have been first on the list.

In table number two you can see for yourself how varied IPA was in terms of strength, ranging from 3% to 8% ABV. Pretty difficult to lump such dissimilar beers into a single description. Which is why I’m not going to bother. Most are, indeed, pretty pale. A colour below 20 is at the pale end of British Pale Ale’s colour spectrum. The one exception is from Vaux.

Sadly I only have analyses for two of the beers in the brand table, Brickwood’s Sunshine and Hope & Anchor’s Anchor. The former is a mid-strength example, the latter towards the limp end.

Branded IPA in 1953
Brewery Brand Type
Cheltenham & Hereford Breweries Double Chelt Bottled I.P.A.
Courage Alton I. P. A.
Abington Brewery Double Ace I.P.A.
Gibbs, Mew Sarum Special I.P.A.
Hope & Anchor Anchor I.P.A.
Vallances Brewery Wessex I.P.A.
Brickwood Sunshine I.P.A., bottled
Campbell, Praed Cromwell Ale I.P.A., bottled
Source:
Brewery Manual 1953-1954, pages 382 - 394.

Bottled IPA in the 1950's
Year Brewer Beer Price per pint (d) Acidity OG FG ABV App. Attenua- tion colour
1956 Barclay Perkins IPA 20 0.04 1030.5 1007.3 3.01 76.07% 19
1959 Usher India Pale Ale 20 0.03 1032.3 1008.4 2.99 73.99% 18
1955 Vaux & Co India Pale Ale 18 0.05 1032.9 1008.2 3.20 75.08% 30
1959 Greene King India Pale Ale 20 0.04 1033.3 1010 3.02 69.97% 25
1956 Hope & Anchor IPA 24 0.04 1036.6 1008 3.71 78.14% 18
1955 Hansons IPA 22 0.04 1043.1 1007.8 4.60 81.90% 19
1955 Eldridge Pope IPA 29 0.05 1044.1 1012.8 4.06 70.98% 20
1960 Brickwoods Sunshine India Pale Ale 28 0.04 1044.7 1011.4 4.16 74.50% 25
1955 Flowers IPA 28 0.05 1045.9 1009.7 4.71 78.87% 25
1957 McEwan Export IPA 32.5 0.05 1046.4 1010.7 4.64 76.94% 22
1954 Courage John Courage IPA 28 0.05 1050.4 1011.2 5.10 77.78% 20
1955 Bass Pale Ale (Red Triangle) 0.04 1063.2 1009.6 7.02 84.81% 19
1955 Worthington India Pale Ale (Green Shield) 0.05 1063.3 1009.4 7.06 85.15% 18
1955 Bass Pale Ale (Blue Triangle) 0.07 1063.5 1003.1 7.96 95.12% 19
1955 Worthington India Pale Ale (White Shield) 0.05 1063.7 1002.9 8.02 95.45% 18
Average 24.5 0.05 1046.3 1008.7 4.88 79.65% 21.0
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.
T & J Bernard's brewing records held at the Scottish Brewing Archive

I may still be able to drag some more material from this. I’m sure I’ve not done every beer type yet.

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