"Mild beer is usually the cheapest available in any bar. In some parts of the country it can still be bought for under a shilling a pint. Before we started rearming against Hitlerism, fourpence a pint was a common bar price. Some bars will not serve mild. This is not due either to snobbery or a desire on the part of the publican to make more profit by selling more costly beer. It is an unquestionable fact that there is not a great demand for mild beer in the saloon bars of some public houses. A barrel of mild must be consumed within a few days and slow sales mean sour and spoilt beer.
All public bars and most saloon bars sell a good mild beer, which is an honest drink with a soft sweet flavour that goes down very well if it is served at the right temperature, but there is nothing more unpleasant than rather warm mild on a hot day.
Mild beers are usually rather lightly hopped, and in some districts, including London, rather sweet. The dgree of sweetness will differ from brewery to brewery. Most mild beers will range from 1030º to 1033º with about three per cent of alcohol by volume, though some are very much weaker. London milds are dark in colour; in the country the colour varies, and some breweries produce both a dark and a light mild.
Best mild has a higher gravity from 1033º to 1040º, with the same general characteristics, and may be on sale alone or as an alternative to ordinary mild. Some brewers give their best mild special names: Whitbread's have Treble X, Watney's a XX and Taylor, Walker's a Main Line.
. . .
Mild beer grists may be of up to two-thirds pale ale malt, and the balance a blend, in almost equal proportions, of amber malt and sugar."
"The Book Of Beer" by Andrew Campbell, 1956, pages 84-85.
How accurate is Andrew Campbell's description? Let's take a look at some real beers of the period:
Draught Mild Ales in the mid 1950's | |||||||||
Year | Brewer | Beer | Price | size | FG | OG | Colour | ABV | Atten-uation |
1954 | Barclay Perkins | XX | 14d | pint | 1005.2 | 1029.4 | 17 + 40 | 3.14 | 82.31% |
1953 | Beasley | X | 13d | pint | 1031.5 | 116 | |||
1953 | Benskins | X | 13d | pint | 1031.5 | 84 | |||
1953 | Cannon | X | 13d | pint | 1031.8 | 96 | |||
1953 | Charrington | X | 14d | pint | 1032.6 | 108 | |||
1954 | Charrington | Ale | 1/1d | pint | 1009.6 | 1030.7 | 19 + 40 | 2.73 | 68.73% |
1954 | Courage | Ale | 1/2d | pint | 1006.2 | 1032.6 | 20 + 40 | 3.43 | 80.98% |
1955 | Hancock, | Dark Malt | pint | 1032 | |||||
1955 | Hancock, | XXXX | pint | 1031 | |||||
1953 | X | 14d | pint | 1033.4 | 100 | ||||
1954 | Strong Mild Ale | 1/7d | pint | 1010.7 | 1043.5 | 17 + 40 | 4.26 | 75.40% | |
1953 | Mann Crossman | Best Ale | 1/2d | pint | 1009.2 | 1032.9 | 17 + 40 | 3.07 | 72.04% |
1954 | Meux | Mild Ale | 1/2d | pint | 1007.3 | 1031.2 | 120 | 3.10 | 76.60% |
1953 | Taylor Walker | X | 13d | pint | 1030.3 | 116 | |||
1953 | Taylor Walker | X | 13d | pint | 1032.7 | 96 | |||
1953 | Tetley | X | 13d | pint | 1031.4 | 58 | |||
1955 | Thwaites | Mild Ale | 1/4d | pint | 1006.1 | 1032.2 | 40 | 3.39 | 81.06% |
1953 | Tollemache | X | 16d | pint | 1037.7 | 144 | |||
1954 | Truman | LM | 14d | pint | 1007.8 | 1034 | 14 + 40 | 3.40 | 77.06% |
1953 | Watney | Ale | 1/2d | pint | 1010.1 | 1033 | 14 + 40 | 2.96 | 69.39% |
1953 | Watney | X | 14d | pint | 1031.7 | 110 | |||
1954 | Watney | XX | 1/2d | pint | 1011.4 | 1032.3 | 17 + 40 | 2.70 | 64.71% |
1953 | Wenlock | Amber Ale | 1/2d | pint | 1006.5 | 1031.6 | 15 + 40 | 3.26 | 79.43% |
1954 | Whitbread | Best Ale | 1/2d | pint | 1009.9 | 1032.9 | 16 + 40 | 2.98 | 69.91% |
1954 | Whitbread | XXX | 14d | pint | 1037.6 | 140 | |||
1955 | Whitbread | Best Ale | 1009.5 | 1030.4 | 95 | 2.70 | 68.75% | ||
1955 | Whitbread | XXX | 1010 | 1034.8 | 115 | 3.21 | 71.26% | ||
1953 | Wm. Younger | X | 14d | pint | 1033.3 | 82 | |||
1955 | Wm. Younger | X | 14d | pint | 1030.2 | 96 | |||
1955 | Special Mild Ale | 1/7d | pint | 1007.9 | 1036.9 | 85 | 3.77 | 78.59% | |
1953 | Young & Co | X | 13d | pint | 1030.7 | 60 | |||
Sources: Whitbread Gravity Book Truman Gravity Book “ Whitbread brewing records. |
Considering breweries were pretty secretive about gravities, I don't think he did a bad job. Standard Milds were indeed around 1030. He was a little optimistic about the gravity of London Best Milds, which were only a couple of degrees stronger than ordinary Mild. But there were indeed a few Milds even of 1040 and above.
8 comments:
You'll have to tell us youngsters the difference between a public and saloon bar. Do saloon bars have those swing doors and cowboys?
Cooking, that's it in a nutshell.
I've just got a copy of Campbell's The Book of Beer. What's interesting is how he classifies beer into four types: dark (mild, brown ale, Scotch ale, Burton and stout), light (pale, light and export ales), strong and lager.
He thus makes no distinction between beer and ale (grouping mild and stout together) and also has no concept of a light mild.
Matt, and is his system of classification any less valid than others? Not quite sure where he fits in all the stronger beers. Still good fun.
Wait until I get to his descriptions of beers. The vast majority also feature in the Whitbread Gravity Book. It'll be fun to juxtapose the two.
Interesting to see mild grist still had regular inclusion of amber malt in 1950's
Oblivious, I don't think amber was by any means universally used in Mild.
Barclay Perkin's X (at least up until 1944, which is as far as I've got) did contain amber malt, Whitbread's didn't.
Having read on a bit further, Campell does actually say "London milds are dark in colour; in the country the colour varies, and some breweries produce both a dark and a light mild" which rather contradicts his intial classification of it as a dark beer.
I think a classification system that distinguishes between beers (bitter and brown beer, i.e. porter/stout) and ales (old and mild) does make more sense because it's based on the actual history of English brewing.
Cooking, did you ever see that famous sketch, often repeated, of John Cleese, Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett representing the different classes found in Britain ("I look down on him …")? Well, the Ronnie Corbett character would drink mild in the public bar, taking care not to spill any on his whippet, while the Ronnie Barker character would be drinking bitter in the saloon bar before climbing into his saloon car. (The John Cleese character, of course, would have ordered his chauffeur to drive him to his club for a glass or three of Chambertin-Clos de Bèze '63.)
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