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Bottled Pale Ales fell into similar classes, except the same strength of beer cost 1d per pint more.

By far the most popular price class was the 7d per pint one, the equivalent of a 6d per point draught beer. Note that there’s only a single beer in the most expensive 9d class. Which is significant because the equivalent draught beer class was one of the more popular ones, at least in London.

One of the lasting effects of WW I was to make bottled Pale Ales generally weaker than draught versions. The big exception being the classic Burton beers, such as Bass Pale Ale which remained stronger than draught versions.

The rate of attenuation is generally pretty high, with only one example under 75% and around half are above 80%. Not so surprising, given that they would have been conditioned in the brewery for a while before bottling.

The war would swing production away from bottled to draught beer. For a couple of reasons. First was a shortage of glass and bottles. The second was simple economy: draught beer required less energy and labour to produce.


London bottled Pale Ale 1936 - 1938
Year Brewer Beer Price per pint (d) OG FG ABV App. Atten-uation colour
1938 Charrington Golden Dinner Ale 6 1033.8 1006.3 3.57 81.36% 22
1938 Truman Sparkling Ale 6 1029.6 1007.3 2.89 75.34% 27
1938 Truman Eagle Ale 6 1036.6 1005.4 4.06 85.25% 20
1936 Beasley PA 6 1036.6 1007.4 3.79 79.78%
1938 Barclay Perkins Pale Ale 7 1038.3 1008.7 3.84 77.28%
1937 Fullers Pale Ale 7 1039.8 1009.9 3.88 75.13%
1938 Ind Coope Sparkling Ale 7 1040.4 1008 4.21 80.20% 20
1938 Lovibond Yeoman Ale 7 1043.9 1005.4 5.03 87.70% 20
1938 Mann Bitter Ale 7 1037.5 1006.6 4.02 82.40% 21
1938 Meux Pale Ale 7 1037.6 1006.5 4.05 82.71% 23
1938 Taylor Walker Pale Ale 7 1034.6 1010.6 3.11 69.36% 19
1937 Wenlock Pale Ale 7 1042.2 1007.6 4.50 81.99%
1936 Friary Holroyd Friary Ale 7 1038 1008.1 3.88 78.68%
1936 Lion Brewery Dinner Ale 7 1039.9 1006.7 4.32 83.21%
1936 Watney Watney's Pale Ale 7 1041 1009 4.16 78.05%
1938 Charrington Toby Ale 8 1045.5 1011.1 4.47 75.60% 25
1938 Mann Rustic Ale 9 1051.3 1008.03 5.65 84.35%
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001.


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