A couple of the names from the 1930's are familiar: Crystal Ale and Double Stout. The former, you may recall, is BAK, or bottling AK. It's fascinating to see how this beers was described over the years. In the 1890's it was a "Light Dinner Ale", after WW II simply "Light Ale". I've long suspected that the origin of Light Ale was in longer 19th-century names like Light Bitter Ale. It's nice to have a specific example.
We can see how the gravity of these two beers has fallen since our last look at Eldridge Pope's beers, on the eve of WW I:
beer | 1896 | 1911 | % fall | 1934/35 | % fall |
Crystal Ale | 1048.5 | 1044.3 | 8.66% | 1037 | 16.48% |
Double Stout | 1061.5 | 1059.3 | 3.58% | 1044.2 | 25.46% |
I need to say something about the size of the gravity drop 1911 to 1934. Between those two dates were two gravity drop events: WW I and the 1931 tax rise. That accounts for the large size of the fall.
The Dorset Brown Ale, judging by its gravity, I would guess was a tweaked version of their Mild.
Moving on to the beers from the 1950's, we've an IPA a Strong Ale and Sweet Stout. Based on labels, I've seen, there was probably still a plain old Double Stout in the 1950's. I'm quite surprised that it has the same OG as the pre-war Double Stout. Less surprisingly, the FG is 50% higher.
Both the IPA and Dorset Special Ale have very reasonable gravities for the 1950's. Eldridge Pope brewed quite a few strong beers. We'll be seeing more of this when we look at their brewing records from the 1960's in more detail.
Goldie Barley Wine is a case in point. This seems to have been a precursor to Hardy Ale. It's clearly a beer that has been designed to fit the Gold Label pale style of Barley Wine slot. The gravity is lower than Hardy Ale, but the grist is much the same.
The at 1968 Best Bitter is, let's be honest, way too weak to live up to the Best part of its name. And there's hardly any difference in strength between it and Crystal Bright, which I think was a keg version of BAK. Aaahh - could that be the beer called BK in the logs? The Best Bitter role is clearly being performed by IPA.
Next time we'll be looking at the logs from 1964. So many laughs in that lot.
Eldridge Pope beers 1934 - 1968 | |||||||||||
Year | Beer | Style | Price | size | package | Acidity | FG | OG | colour | ABV | App. Attenuation |
1934 | Crystal Ale | Pale Ale | 7d | pint | bottled | 0.05 | 1007.3 | 1037 | 3.86 | 80.27% | |
1935 | Double Stout | Stout | pint | bottled | 0.07 | 1013.5 | 1044.2 | 3.98 | 69.46% | ||
1938 | Crystal Ale | Pale Ale | 4d | half pint | bottled | 0.10 | 1005.9 | 1036.7 | 26 | 4.01 | 83.92% |
1938 | Dorset Brown Ale | Brown Ale | 4d | half pint | bottled | 0.07 | 1009.5 | 1038.2 | 40 + 13 | 3.72 | 75.13% |
1955 | India Pale Ale | IPA | 1/2.5d | half pint | bottled | 0.05 | 1012.8 | 1044.1 | 20 | 4.06 | 70.98% |
1959 | Dorset Special Ale | Strong Ale | halfpint | bottled | 0.05 | 1019.9 | 1076.1 | 90 | 7.33 | 73.85% | |
1959 | Sweet Double Stout | Stout | 14d | halfpint | bottled | 1020.2 | 1044.2 | 250 | 3.09 | 54.30% | |
1961 | König Pilsener Lager | Pils | 18d | half pint | bottled | 0.04 | 1007.3 | 1038.6 | 8 | 3.91 | 81.09% |
1967 | Huntsman Goldie Barley Wine | Barley Wine | 24d | nip | bottled | 0.06 | 1016.9 | 1080.4 | 23 | 7.94 | 78.98% |
1968 | Mild Ale | Mild | 18d | pint | draught | 0.04 | 1005.6 | 1029.8 | 105 | 3.02 | 81.21% |
1968 | IPA | IPA | 24d | pint | draught | 0.04 | 1008 | 1041.5 | 27 | 4.19 | 80.72% |
1968 | Best Bitter | Pale Ale | 20d | pint | draught | 0.05 | 1005.3 | 1031.5 | 20 | 3.28 | 83.17% |
1968 | Crystal Bright | Pale Ale | 20d | pint | draught | 0.04 | 1005.9 | 1029.7 | 21 | 2.98 | 80.13% |
Sources: | |||||||||||
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001 | |||||||||||
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002 |
3 comments:
Thag kOnig pilsener must, surely, eb one of the earliest post WW2 small regional brewery lagers ...
Martyn, quite a few regional breweries came out with Lagers around 1960. Lees were brewing one in 1959, Tolly in 1960, Greene King in 1960, Hall and Woodhouse in 1961. They're jusrt the ones I know about.
Well, that's something I've missed noticing. Thanks for that. GK's couldn't have lasted long, as I remember them coming out with a bastardised "chilled pale ale" called Polar, advertised with a polar bear, about 1971-2.
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