KINDS OF BEER, COSTS, CUSTOMERS
Says the Encyclopaedia Britannica (14th ed.) speaking of different kinds of beer:
The essential difference . . . lies in the flavour and colour, which depend particularly on the type of malt and the quantity of hops used in brewing them.
Beyond a certain stage of fermentation the chemistry of beer is a mystery—highly complex, not yet known. Brewers proceed empirically. Differences between different kinds of beer can be shown on the basis of their alcohol carbohydrate and proteid content.
Alcohol % by weight, Carbohydrate and Proteid %. Strong Ale 5.15 9.6 Bottled Pale Ale (best quality) 4.44 4.4 Light Bitter 3.28 3.06 {From 3.45 4.44 Mild {To 2.58 2.8
Mild is the most commonly drunk beer in Worktown. It costs fivepence a pint—minimum price. In parlours and lounges, the pub's best rooms, patronized by hat and tie rather than cap and scarf, all beer prices are a penny a pint more.
Most of it is supplied by Magees (a local) and Walkers (a nearby) brewery. Other firms are Threlfalls, Hamers, Cornbrooks . . . But Magees and Walkers dominate the local pub scene.
As well as mild there is "best mild", penny a pint more, stronger, and in observers' opinions, nicer than the common mild. It is light in colour, like bitter, which is seldom drunk here.
Other draught beers are strong ale, I.P.A., stout. So that Worktowners' choice is:
MILD 5d. a pint BEST MILD 6d. a pint I.P.A. 7d. a pint STRONG ALE 11d. a pint
Draught stout no longer counts. At one time commonly drunk, it now is extremely rare here; we have only seen it sold in one pub. Strong ale is not often drunk; when kept it is displayed on the bar counter in a little barrel.
I.P.A. is interesting. Originally a light bottled ale brewed in this country to be sent to India, specially suitable for hot weather, its introduction to English drinkers was the result of an accident. Hodgson's India Pale Ale was the standard drink of Englishmen imperializing in the east. In the 1820's Bass came in on this market. (They were able to do this as the result of a "misunderstanding" between Hodgson's and the East India Co.) By 1827 shiploads of Bass's I.P.A. were walloping their way down the Irish Channel. One was wrecked. But much of its cargo was salvaged and sold at Liverpool. There, the local drinkers acclaimed it, and Bass's developed a good market in the whole of the area. A bar selling I.P.A. at the 1851 Great Exhibition launched it as a world drink.
But, now, in Worktown, I.P.A. (which is to-day made by all the main brewers) — only sold in bottles in most places — is largely draught. It isn't drunk very much except in a few pubs, is considered to be very intoxicating and to give you a bad hangover. Of it, a barman in a pub that sold it said, "It's a good appetizer — but I wouldn't like to have a lot of it".
Draught beers, on the other hand, are served through pumps, whose handles, sometimes wood, sometimes brass and china, plain, coloured, or patterned, stick up conspicuously upon the bar-counter. The average pub has three or four pumps; these used to be used for mild, best, and stout. Now one or two are often disused, and the others connected up to barrels of mild.
"The Pub and the People" by Mass Observation, 1943 (reprinted 1987), pages 30 - 31.
Lots of good stuff in there. Let's kick off with the draught beers. Mild, Bitter, Strong Ale and Stout. The proportions of each sold are quite different to London. Draught Stout was still sold in every London pub in the 1930's, compared to in just one in Bolton. Mild was much less dominant in London. Theses are the percentages of Whitbread's total output of each of their draught beers in 1937: