Sunday 20 July 2014

League table of London Pale Ales in the 1920's

I may have processed the final individual Pale Ale, but I'm not quite done. A review of results is in order.

I'll warn you now: it's going to be table overload. I can't help playing around with the numbers and presenting them in different ways. I think we can learn much from them, especially the overall numbers for each type of beer.

The good news is that the majority of average scores per brewery were positive. The two negative average score - for Cannon and Charrington - were only very slightly below zero. I'm not sure how significant it is that both are Ordinary Bitters.

This first table demonstrates one point very clearly: that the beers of each type were very similar in their specifications across the different breweries. The Best Bitters in particular have virtually identical gravities. I think this is partly as a result of the price/gravity controls which were in place in the years after WW I. And also just commercial reality. Because so much of the price was solely the tax, there was little room for flexibility. Tax made up about 40% of the retail price in the 1920s.

Let's start with the league table based on average score. Once again, Whitbread are the champions:


League table of 1920s London Pale Ales by score
Brewery FG OG ABV App. Atten-uation score
Whitbread 1011.3 1046.0 4.51 75.55% 2.25
Truman 1008.0 1047.5 5.14 83.09% 1.62
City of London 1008.7 1045.5 4.79 80.82% 1.00
Huggins 1008.7 1046.0 4.86 81.10% 0.36
Meux 1007.4 1044.8 4.87 83.36% 0.33
Barclay Perkins 1008.7 1045.6 4.81 80.88% 0.25
Wenlock 1006.9 1044.5 4.90 84.56% 0.09
Hoare 1012.1 1046.3 4.44 73.83% 0.00
Lion Brewery 1010.7 1046.5 4.65 77.05% 0.00
Cannon 1009.0 1045.2 4.72 80.06% -0.09
Charrington 1008.7 1048.2 5.14 81.91% -0.09
Average 8d 1009.1 1046.0 4.80 80.20% 0.52
Watney 1011.4 1053.8 5.54 78.90% 2.21
Courage 1012.0 1053.8 5.46 77.93% 1.25
Mann 1008.3 1053.4 5.88 84.44% 0.07
Benskin 1010.1 1053.6 5.68 81.23% 0.00
Average 9d 1010.4 1053.7 5.64 80.63% 0.88
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001

I'm struck by the high degree of attenuation. For both Ordinary and Best Bitter it's over 80%.
Overall the standard is pretty high, at least in terms of score. Let's see how they do for clarity:


League table of 1920s London Pale Ales by clarity
 Brewery No. examples no. bright % bright no. good flavour % good flavour
Truman 13 11 84.62% 12 92.31%
Whitbread 4 3 75.00% 4 100.00%
Watney 14 9 64.29% 14 100.00%
Wenlock 11 7 63.64% 6 54.55%
Cannon 11 6 54.55% 6 54.55%
Huggins 11 6 54.55% 7 63.64%
Barclay Perkins 12 6 50.00% 7 58.33%
Courage 12 6 50.00% 8 66.67%
Hoare 10 5 50.00% 4 40.00%
Lion Brewery 10 5 50.00% 6 60.00%
Meux 12 5 41.67% 9 75.00%
City of London 13 5 38.46% 10 76.92%
Mann 14 5 35.71% 7 50.00%
Benskin 9 3 33.33% 4 44.44%
Charrington 11 3 27.27% 5 45.45%
Average 167 85 50.90% 109 65.27%
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001

Just ever so slightly over half being fully bright is poor. Only Whitbread and Truman scored really well on this point. And as for Charrington - pathetic. Barely a quarter of their samples were clear. You can see that there's not a direct relationship between clarity and flavour quality. City of London is a good example. Not much more than a third clear, but three-quarters with a good flavour. Whoever would have thought I'd be able to check something like this almost 100 years later?

There are some impressive performances in terms of flavour:

League table of 1920s London Pale Ales by % good flavour
 Brewery No. examples no. bright % bright no. good flavour % good flavour
Whitbread 4 3 75.00% 4 100.00%
Watney 14 9 64.29% 14 100.00%
Truman 13 11 84.62% 12 92.31%
City of London 13 5 38.46% 10 76.92%
Meux 12 5 41.67% 9 75.00%
Courage 12 6 50.00% 8 66.67%
Huggins 11 6 54.55% 7 63.64%
Lion Brewery 10 5 50.00% 6 60.00%
Barclay Perkins 12 6 50.00% 7 58.33%
Wenlock 11 7 63.64% 6 54.55%
Cannon 11 6 54.55% 6 54.55%
Mann 14 5 35.71% 7 50.00%
Charrington 11 3 27.27% 5 45.45%
Benskin 9 3 33.33% 4 44.44%
Hoare 10 5 50.00% 4 40.00%
Average 167 85 50.90% 109 65.27%
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001

Whitbread, Watney and Truman all do very well, the first two with perfect scores, the other pretty close. I must admit surprise at Charrington's piss poor performance. They're a brewery that had a good reputation, yet they're stumbling along at the bottom end of the tables.

Now it's time to compare the statistics of the beer types we've looked at so far. In all, there are almost 500 samples:


Averages per beer type
beer type No. examples no. bright % bright no. good flavour % good flavour average score
Burton Average 138 61 44.20% 92 66.67% 0.72
Mild Average 188 112 59.57% 112 59.57% 0.16
X Average 170 104 61.18% 106 62.35% 0.23
MA Average 18 8 44.44% 6 33.33% -0.18
PA Average 167 85 50.90% 109 65.27% 0.62
8d PA Average 118 62 52.54% 76 64.41% 0.52
9d PA Average 49 23 46.94% 33 67.35% 0.88
Average 493 258 52.33% 313 63.49% 0.57
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001

Burton Ale comes out on top for score. As long as we lump all the Pale Ales together. Split out Best and Ordinary Bitter and Best Bitter wins. Surprisingly, Burton scores worst for clarity. Elsewhere, Mild is bottom for everything. Splitting out X Ale and MA improves things a bit for the former. Other than for clarity, a general rule seems to be the higher the gravity, the better chance of a good pint.

Finally a ranking by brewery. The number is the position in the relevant league table.


Ranking by brewery
Brewery Burton Mild PA Total
Whitbread 1 4 1 6
Watney 8 2 2 12
Courage 2 8 4 14
Mann 3 1 10 14
Truman 9 6 3 18
Wenlock 6 3 9 18
Meux 4 11 7 22
Lion 7 7 12 26
Huggins 11 10 6 27
Hoare 10 9 11 30
Cannon 14 5 14 33
City of London 12 17 5 34
Barclay Perkins 13 15 8 36
Charrington 5 16 15 36

You know what's really spooky about that result? The top five - Whitbread, Watney, Courage, Mann and Truman - were, if I remember correctly, the last five large breweries in London. Most of the bottom half are breweries that disappeared before WW II. With the exception of the two relegation positions. I'm very surprised - and disappointed - to see Barclay Perkins and Charrington propping up the table.

It looks as if, in general, the better the quality of your beer, the better your chances of long-term survival. Either that or the larger the brewery, the better the beer quality.

Finally done with Pale Ale. Next it's the turn of Porter.

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