Sunday 4 December 2011

Tennent's beers 1923 - 1939

As we're discussing Tennent, it seems like a good time to take a look at some of their beers.

Sadly, there's only one Pilsner and one Lager amongst them. As they are the most famous Tennent products, let's start with them.

1043º looks like a reasonable gravity for a Lager today. But what about in the 1930's? Before the war, British Lager was usually brewed to about Continental strength. I've analyses of 15 British Lagers for the inter-war years. The average OG is 1046º. Only two a weaker than the Tennent's Lager. At 78%, its apparent attenuation is a touch higher than the average of 1076º. But not much. All in all, a fairly typical beer of its type and time.

I've only 5 pre-was British Pilsener analyses. So not much to compare the Tennent's beer to. The average OG is 1050º and the apparent attenuation 80%. Tennent's Pilsener, at 1051.2º and 79% attenuation, is about dead on average.

How does that compare with the modern versions? According to RateBeer, Tennent's Lager is 4% ABV and Tennent's Pilsner3.4%. Fascinating, eh? The Lager isn't far away from the pre-war version in terms of strength. While the Pilsener has lost both one of the E's from its name and about a third of its ABV. Odd  that the Pilsner is now the weaker of the two. I wonder when the change happened?

Once again, a majority of the beers are Pale Ales. They fall into three strength groups: 1027º - 1032º, 1035º - 1039º, and 1050. The latter is a single Export PA. All of these strengths are pretty low compared to London beers. A typical Best Bitter in London was 1048º - 1050º, and an ordinary Bitter around 1040º. Beers around 1030º only existed as Light bottled Pale Ales. Though in the English provinces Pale Ales were more commonly in the low to mid 1030ºs.

The most striking difference - and one that must have struck drinkers, too - is the colour. Quite a few of the samples are over 40º Lovibond. That's pretty dark. London Pale Ales were 20º to 25º Lovibond. Only a couple of Tennent's beers are that colour. The variation in colour, from 25º to 48º is very large. It leads me to suspect that Tennent, like other Scottish breweries, had colour variations of the same basic beer.

The changes in Tennent's Nourishing Stout are revealing of the trends within Scotland.  The FG remains fairly constant while the OG plummets. Changing the attenuation from a fairly normal 70% to only around 50% or less. When the change started, 1932, is no surprise. There was a big rise in beer duty in 1931 that led many brewers to cut their gravities so they could keep the same retail price. It's a ph3enomenon which has repeated itself several times over the years. By the end of the 1930's, it looks like a typical sweet Scottish Stout.

The one Strong Ale doesn't tell us much. The gravity is a bit low. Closer to 1080º was more typical.

Here's the table. If you're lucky there will be a second part tomorrow.


J & R Tennent Beers 1923 – 1939
Year Beer Style Price size package Acidity FG OG colour ABV App. Attenuation
1931 Lager Beer Lager pint bottled 1009.3 1043.1 8 4.39 78.42%
1937 Pilsener Beer Pils pint bottled 0.08 1010.8 1051.2 5.26 78.91%
1923 Beer Pale Ale pint draught 1006 1038 45 4.17 84.21%
1923 Carbonated Beer Pale Ale 4d half pint bottled 1007 1038 44 4.03 81.58%
1923 Carbonated Beer Pale Ale 4d half pint bottled 1005.5 1039.61 45 4.44 86.04%
1923 PA 90/- Pale Ale pint bottled 1006 1039 4.30 84.62%
1924 Pale Ale Pale Ale 4d half pint bottled 1009.8 1037.3 48 3.57 73.73%
1926  90/- Pale Ale pint bottled 1005 1035 40 3.91 85.71%
1926 PA Pale Ale pint bottled 1007 1035 35 3.64 80.00%
1928 90/- Pale Ale pint bottled 1008 1036 30 3.64 77.78%
1928 Export PA Pale Ale pint bottled 1009 1050 25 5.35 82.00%
1929 90/- Glasgow Pale Ale Pale Ale pint bottled 1008 1039.25 No. 9 Same as our standard. 4.06 79.62%
1929 90/- Glasgow Pale Ale Pale Ale pint bottled 1008.5 1039.5 Between 9 - 10. 4.03 78.48%
1931 Pale Ale Pale Ale pint bottled 1008 1031 31 2.98 74.19%
1931 90/- Pale Ale pint bottled 1007 1031.5 30 3.18 77.78%
1931 90/- Pale Ale nip bottled 1006.5 1031.5 31 3.25 79.37%
1932 Light Beer Pale Ale pint bottled 1006 1047 5.36 87.23%
1933 3d Pale Ale Pale Ale 3d half pint bottled 1008 1027.5 2.52 70.91%
1933 Pale Ale Pale Ale 3d half pint bottled 1007 1024 25 2.20 70.83%
1938 90/- Pale Ale Pale Ale pint bottled 1005 1031.5 9 – 10 3.45 84.13%
1939 60/- Ale Pale Ale pint bottled 1007.8 1037.75 13 – 14 3.90 79.47%
1924 Nourishing Stout Stout pint bottled 1010.8 1038.3 3.56 71.80%
1925 Nourishing Stout Stout pint bottled 1011 1037 3.37 70.27%
1927 Nourishing Stout Stout pint bottled 1014 1039 3.23 64.10%
1928 Nourishing Stout Stout pint bottled 1015 1039 3.10 61.54%
1931 Nourishing Stout Stout 3d nip bottled 1016 1039 2.97 58.97%
1932 Nourishing Stout Stout pint bottled 1012 1030 2.32 60.00%
1933 Light Stout Stout pint bottled 1014 1032 2.32 56.25%
1933 Nourishing Stout Stout pint bottled 1015 1024 1.16 37.50%
1933 Nourishing Stout Stout pint bottled 1014 1029 1.93 51.72%
1933 Nourishing Stout Stout pint bottled 1013 1031 2.32 58.06%
1924 Strong Ale Strong Ale pint bottled 1022 1063.3 74 5.35 65.24%
Sources:
Younger, Wm. & Co Gravity Book document WY/6/1/1/19 held at the Scottish Brewing Archive
Thomas Usher Gravity Book document TU/6/11 held at the Scottish Brewing Archive
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001

1 comment:

Tandleman said...

I am reasonably sure that Tennents Pilsner is a fairly recent invention, not the same beer in continual decline.