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Despite covering a large area of Southeast England, there’s a reasonable amount of consistency in this set of Brown Ales.

The gravities are mostly on the low side, with only two examples over 1035º, and averaging a tad below 1032º. Surprisingly, there are a couple below the magic 1027º. It made little sense to brew a beer weaker than that, because you had to pay tax as if were 1027º. That was the minimum rate of tax.

With middling attenuation – there are a couple of beers with over 80%, but also four below 70%. Which means that the average ABV only just pokes its head above 3%.

There are some pretty watery beers, especially from Simonds. Most examples are well below 3% ABV. It’s odd because Simonds Berry Brown Ale was a reasonably big brand.

As in London, the colours are mostly pretty dark. Though the Portsmouth United and Wethered beers fall into the semi-dark region. In general, these Southern Brown Ales look quite similar to those from London. Which isn’t so surprising as there breweries were mostly not that far from the capital.


Southern Brown Ale after WW II
Year Brewer Beer Price per pint (d) OG FG ABV App. Atten-uation colour
1951 Benskin Nut Brown Ale 16 1032.9 1008.1 3.22 75.38% 83
1952 Brickwoods Brown Brew 18 1032.2 1008.9 3.02 72.36% 80
1952 Cobb & Co Brown Ale 18 1034.3 1007.5 3.48 78.13% 80
1950 Ind Coope Nut Brown Ale 18 1032.3 1008.6 3.07 73.37% 75
1951 Ind Coope Nut Brown Ale 19 1031.9 1008.3 3.06 73.98% 110
1952 Ind Coope Nut Brown Ale 19 1030.9 1011.7 2.48 62.14% 83
1952 McMullen Nut Brown Ale 18 1035.5 1012.6 2.96 64.51% 110
1948 Portsmouth United Brown Ale 17 1038.2 1005.4 4.27 85.86% 55
1948 Simonds Brown Ale 18 1025.7 1006.4 2.50 75.10% 105
1949 Simonds Brown Ale 15 1026.1 1008 2.34 69.35% 140
1952 Simonds Brown Ale 18 1029.9 1009.7 2.61 67.56% 110
1952 Simonds Berry Brown Ale 19 1032 1005.5 3.44 82.81% 60
1948 Tamplin No. 1 Brown Ale 19 1033.6 1008.5 3.25 74.70% 87
1952 Tamplin No.1 Ale 20 1034.1 1009.7 3.16 71.55% 80
1947 Wethered Golden Brown Ale 12 1025.6 1004 2.81 84.37% 48
Average 17.6 1031.7 1008.2 3.04 74.08% 87.1
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.



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