Monday 22 February 2010

1950's Mild

It's almost March. Time to start getting ready for Mild Month. Let's kick off with a description of Mild from the 1950's.


"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, Cardiff
Dark Malt

pint

1032



1955
Hancock, Cardiff
XXXX

pint

1031



1953
Ind Coope
X
14d
pint

1033.4
100


1954
Ind Coope
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
Worthington
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
Cardiff Pubs and Breweries” by Brian Glover, 2005. pages 97-101
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:

Cooking Lager said...

You'll have to tell us youngsters the difference between a public and saloon bar. Do saloon bars have those swing doors and cowboys?

Ron Pattinson said...

Cooking, that's it in a nutshell.

Matt said...

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.

Ron Pattinson said...

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.

Oblivious said...

Interesting to see mild grist still had regular inclusion of amber malt in 1950's

Ron Pattinson said...

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.

Matt said...

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.

Anonymous said...

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.)