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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