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I’m going to stick my neck out here, but my guess is that Queen’s Ale was first brewed in either 1952 or 1953.

It was a strong (by the standards of the day) Bitter which had a good reputation, at least in its early days. This is what one of Tennant’s brewers thought of it:

“Queen's Ale was a premium draught beer. It was a pale, hoppy beer with a good body. Its perfect balance of malty sweetness and the bitterness of the finest hops ensured that it was the best draught beer that I have ever tasted (and that is saying something).”
"The Brewer's Tale" by Frank Priestley, 2010, page 11.
Praise indeed. By the time I started drinking Tennant brewed no cask beer. But in the early 1981 they did reintroduce cask and guess which beer it was? Queen’s Ale. And at exactly the same gravity as this version.

Getting back to this beer, the grist is much the same as Best Bitter’s. Except this contains No. 1 instead of No. 2 invert. Plus CWA, which I’ve interpreted as No. 2 invert. There’s also no malt extract.

Note the lack of any malt other than pale and a touch of enzymic. As I keep saying, the use of crystal malt in Bitter is a pretty recent thing. Even after WW II, it was the exception rather than the rule.

The hops are all English: Kent Fuggles (1954), Worcester Fuggles (1954 CS) and Kent Goldings (1955 CS); plus Kent Goldings (1955) dry hops.


1956 Tennant's Queen's Ale
pale malt 6.25 lb 67.57%
enzymic malt 0.25 lb 2.70%
flaked maize 1.25 lb 13.51%
No. 1 invert sugar 0.50 lb 5.41%
No. 2 invert sugar 0.75 lb 8.11%
lactose 0.25 lb 2.70%
Fuggles 90 mins 0.75 oz
Goldings 90 mins 0.25 oz
Goldings 40 mins 0.50 oz
Goldings 20 mins 0.50 oz
Goldings dry hops 0.125 oz
OG 1044
FG 1009
ABV 4.63
Apparent attenuation 79.55%
IBU 26
SRM 6
Mash at 148º F
Sparge at 165º F
Boil time 95 minutes
pitching temp 60º F
Yeast Wyeast 1099 Whitbread ale



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