Tuesday 21 August 2012

The Price of Lager

Nailing together information from different sources is great fun. And can generate fascinating new data. That's why I enjoy doing it so much.

This all started when I stumbled across a wine merchant's price list from 1932. This one:

Cheltenham Chronicle - Saturday 18 June 1932, page 1.

It's like a roll call of Britain's most famous beers of the time. And what did it remind me of? The Whitbread Gravity Book. Because that's full of famous beers from the 1930's. A quick check of my mega gravity spreadsheet confirmed what I suspected: I'd got the gravity of most of the beers.

This where it gets really exciting: working out the relative cost of each. That is, the price per gravity point per dozen pints. The results are intriguing and not quite what I had expected in every case.


Brewery
Place
year
beer
OG
date OG
size
price per dozen (pence)
price per gravity point (pence)
Truman
Burton
1932
Pale Eagle Ale
1038
1932
half pint
48
2.53
Truman
Burton
1932
Pale Eagle Ale
1038
1932
pint
90
2.37
Truman
Burton
1932
Pale Eagle Ale
1038
1932
quart
168
2.21
Flower's
Stratford
1932
Light Bitter Ale
1041
1936
half pint
48
2.34
Flower's
Stratford
1932
Light Bitter Ale
1041
1936
pint
90
2.20
Whitbread
London
1932
Pale Ale
1046.1
1932
half pint
54
2.34
Whitbread
London
1932
Pale Ale
1046.1
1932
pint
96
2.08
Mitchell & Butler
Birmingham
1932
All Bright Ale
1044
1932
pint
102
2.32
George
Bristol
1932
Home Brewed Ale
1055.6
1936
quart
204
1.83
Worthington
Burton
1932
Pale Ale
1055.4
1933
half pint
72
2.60
Worthington
Burton
1932
Pale Ale
1055.4
1933
pint
132
2.38
Bass
Burton
1932
Pale Ale
1054.7
1932
half pint
72
2.63
Bass
Burton
1932
Pale Ale
1054.7
1932
pint
132
2.41
William Younger
Edinburgh
1932
Scotch Ale
1051.5
1932
half pint
78
3.03
Wrexham
Wrexham
1932
Welsh Lager Beer


half pint
72

Tennent
Glasgow
1932
Lager Beer
1043.1
1933
half pint
72
3.34
Tennent
Glasgow
1932
Lager Beer
1043.1
1933
pint
138
3.20
Barclay Perkins
London
1932
Lager Beer
1049.4
1934
half pint
72
2.91
Alloa Brewery
Alloa
1932
Graham's Golden Lager Beer
1044.5
1933
half pint
72
3.24
Whitbread
London
1932
London Stout
1044.3
1932
half pint
66
2.98
Whitbread
London
1932
London Stout
1044.3
1932
pint
114
2.57
Raggett
London
1932
Nourishing Stout
1056.3
1935
half pint
72
2.56
Raggett
London
1932
Nourishing Stout
1056.3
1935
pint
132
2.34
Simmond
Reading
1932
Milk Stout
1049
1933
half pint
72
2.94
Simmond
Reading
1932
Milk Stout
1049
1933
pint
132
2.69
Guinness
Dublin
1932
Extra Stout
1055.2
1933
half pint
66
2.39
Guinness
Dublin
1932
Extra Stout
1055.2
1933
pint
126
2.28
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/098 and LMA/4453/D/01/099
Barclay Perkins brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives document number ACC/2305/1/641
Cheltenham Chronicle - Saturday 18 June 1932, page 1.


Here, for clarity's sake, are just the half pints, sorted in descending order of price:


Brewery
Place
year
beer
OG
date OG
size
price per dozen (pence)
price per gravity point (pence)
Tennent
Glasgow
1932
Lager Beer
1043.1
1933
half pint
72
3.34
Alloa Brewery
Alloa
1932
Graham's Golden Lager Beer
1044.5
1933
half pint
72
3.24
William Younger
Edinburgh
1932
Scotch Ale
1051.5
1932
half pint
78
3.03
Whitbread
London
1932
London Stout
1044.3
1932
half pint
66
2.98
Simmond
Reading
1932
Milk Stout
1049
1933
half pint
72
2.94
Barclay Perkins
London
1932
Lager Beer
1049.4
1934
half pint
72
2.91
Bass
Burton
1932
Pale Ale
1054.7
1932
half pint
72
2.63
Worthington
Burton
1932
Pale Ale
1055.4
1933
half pint
72
2.60
Raggett
London
1932
Nourishing Stout
1056.3
1935
half pint
72
2.56
Truman
Burton
1932
Pale Eagle Ale
1038
1932
half pint
48
2.53
Guinness
Dublin
1932
Extra Stout
1055.2
1933
half pint
66
2.39
Whitbread
London
1932
Pale Ale
1046.1
1932
half pint
54
2.34
Flower's
Stratford
1932
Light Bitter Ale
1041
1936
half pint
48
2.34
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/098 and LMA/4453/D/01/099
Barclay Perkins brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives document number ACC/2305/1/641
Cheltenham Chronicle - Saturday 18 June 1932, page 1.


I wasn't surprised that the two most expensive beers were Lagers. They were marketing as premium beers and priced accordingly. What interested me more was that the top three were all Scottish, with Younger's No. 3 almost as expensive as the Lagers. I guess that must have been marketed as a premium beer, too. Come to think of it, I have come across dozens of adverts for it. (In case you're wondering how I know that the beer in the price list is No. 3, I've another price list where explicitly says Younger's No. 3 and the price is exactly the same. Plus Younger only marketed two beers as Scotch Ale: No. 1 and No. 3. The price is too cheap for it to possibly be No. 1.)

I hadn't expected Stouts to come in at numbers four and five. Especially not those types of Stout. Which brings me to the biggest shock: how relatively cheap Guinness was. Remarkably good value, in fact. I've no explanation. I would have expected it to be dearer than Whitbread's London Stout.

The Burton Pale Ales are nicely grouped together in the middle. I'm not surprised that Bass and Worthington had almost identical gravities and were the same price. I would have expected the weaker Truman Pale Ale to be cheaper.

Getting back to the price of Lager (it is the title, after all), let's see exactly how much more expensive it was in percentage terms. I make Tennent's and Graham's Lagers 27% more expensive than Bass Pale Ale and a whopping 43% more expensive than Whitnbread Pale Ale. If we look at cheaper beers, the difference is even bigger - almost double the price of Whitbread's draught X Ale.


Draught Beers
Brewery
Place
year
beer
OG
date OG
size
price per dozen (pence)
price per gravity point (pence)
Guinness
Dublin
1933
Extra Stout
1054.6
1933
pint
11
2.42
Whitbread
London
1932
Pale Ale
1045.3
1932
pint
8
2.12
Truman
Burton
1932
Pale Ale
1045.5
1932
pint
8
2.11
Flower
Stratford
1935
Pale Ale
1047.2
1935
pint
8
2.03
Whitbread
London
1933
Stout
1047.8
1933
pint
8
2.01
Worthington
Burton
1936
Pale Ale
1046.9
1936
pint
7
1.79
Whitbread
London
1933
X
1034.9
1933
pint
5
1.72
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001


The moral of all this? Drink Mild not Lager!

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