Visit the Shut up about Barclay Perkins site

Bitter had kicked off the war generally weaker in the rest of England than in London. But, just like WW I, WW II tended to iron out regional differences.

I’ve so much data for the post-war period that this section is going to be vert table-heavy. Though it is mostly for bottled Pale Ales rather than draught ones. Which is a bit of a shame. But it reflects who was responsible for collecting the samples: Whitbread. While they sampled plenty of draught Pale Ales from London and its environs, from breweries further away they mostly only analysed bottled beers.

These examples are a bit stronger than those from London. There’a a simple explanation: they’re from a few years later when gravities had bounced back a little. The average of 1036.4º is very close to overall average OG, which was around 1037º for the whole of the 1950s.

As in London, the rate of attenuation is high, averaging over 80%.

Some stronger Pale Ales were brewed in the North, too:


Northern strong bottled Pale Ale after WW II
Year Brewer Beer Price per pint (d) OG FG ABV App. Atten-uation colour
1955 Hewitt Bros. Pale Ale 23 1040.8 1008.4 4.21 79.41% 28
1953 Westoe Export 30 1042.2 1008.3 4.41 80.33% 23
1953 Duttons Special 28 1045 1007.2 4.93 84.00% 28
1953 Vaux Special Export Pale Ale 30 1046.9 1010.4 4.75 77.83% 30
1951 John Smith Magnet Ale 26 1047.1 1011.5 4.62 75.58% 24
1948 Duncan Gilmour Export Quality Golden PA 1053.1 1011.8 5.38 77.78% 21
1951 John Smith Pale Ale 1059.4 1016.9 5.52 71.55% 22
Average 27.4 1047.8 1010.6 4.8 78.07% 25.1
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.


A couple would have been considered pretty strong even before WW II. I suspect that the John Smith beer was for export. I know that they shipped beer to Belgium and the lack of a price was often a sign of a beer which wasn’t sold in the UK.


Northern bottled Pale Ale after WW II
Year Brewer Beer Price per pint (d) OG FG ABV App. Atten-uation colour
1955 Samuel Smith Taddy Ale 22 1032.6 1007.2 3.30 77.91% 23
1955 Catterall & Swarbrick XL Pale Ale 22 1034.1 1005.1 3.77 85.04% 19
1955 Moors & Robson Pale Ale 16 1034.1 1007.3 3.48 78.59% 14
1950 T Taylor Special Pale Ale 28 1034.7 1008.3 3.42 76.08% 24
1955 Thwaites Pale Ale 27 1034.7 1005.5 3.80 84.15% 17
1955 Hydes Pale Ale 21 1034.9 1004 4.03 88.54% 23
1955 Newcastle Breweries Amber Ale 20 1034.9 1007.5 3.56 78.51% 30
1951 Peter Walker SB Ale 19 1035.1 1005.7 3.82 83.76% 28
1955 Tennant Bros. Lion Pale Ale 27 1036.6 1009.9 3.46 72.95% 23
1955 Tetley Bitter 25 1037.1 1004 4.32 89.22% 23
1955 Birkenhead Brewery India Pale Ale 21 1037.2 1007.2 3.90 80.65% 21
1955 Threlfalls Blue Label 22 1037.4 1008 3.82 78.61% 19
1948 Carlisle State Brewery Pale Ale 20 1037.5 1006.5 4.03 82.67% 17.5
1955 Hey & Son Gold Cup Ale 25 1037.6 1006.6 4.03 82.45% 19
1955 Moors & Robson Red Cap Bitter Beer 20 1038.1 1008.1 3.90 78.74% 15
1951 Peter Walker Pale Ale 21 1038.5 1007.3 4.06 81.04% 24
1953 Duttons DPA Pale Ale 24 1038.9 1005.2 4.39 86.63% 20
1955 Greenall Whitley Pale Ale 22 1039.1 1008.1 4.03 79.28% 20
1950 Tennant Bros. Pale Ale 1039.4 1012.2 3.52 69.04% 27
Average 22.3 1036.4 1007.0 3.82 80.73% 21.6
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.


More...