Sunday 5 April 2015

Bottled IPA in the 1950’s

Still can’t be arsed to take on draught Mild. Too much like hard work. So I’ve gone for a relatively easy option: IPA.

Though I know IPA is quite popular in some quarters. Also a thing known as English-style IPA, which has little in common with many of the beers we’ll see.

Talking of styles, I’ve split this bunch into three groups. Not a totally arbitrary exercise this time. I’ve chosen as a dividing line the spot where there was a big gap in gravities: 1036.6 to 1043.1; 1053.5 to 1058.7. Leaving us with weak IPAs: 1030 to 1036.6; mid-strength IPAs: 1043.1 to 1053.5; and strong IPAs: 1058.7 to 1063.7. It seems like they form these groups quite naturally.

You can see how much fun this is going to be. Because two of the three groups are totally unlike the “official” English IPA, which has a gravity range of 1050 to 1075. What’s particularly amusing are the Bass examples. The fit the guidelines pretty well, but were marketed as Pale Ale, not IPA.

It’s clear that IPA was a vague term, that meant different things to different brewers. The range of gravities is enormous, from 1030 to 1063.7. Do they form a single style? Are some of them mislabelled? Did anyone back in the 1950’s give a toss about any of that? I think not.

To anyone who says: “That isn’t an IPA. It’s a Bitter or a Pale Ale.” My reply is, don’t you think it’s a bit arrogant to impose your definition of IPA on a brewer in the past? And drinkers. If they were happy to call it IPA, who are we to call them deluded?

I knew this was a good topic. Lots of opportunity for ranting. Not done much of that of late. Mellowed or worn out? You decide.

Call me a traditionalist, but let’s start with the weakest first. The least IPA-ey, you could say.

Bottled weak IPA in the 1950's 
Year Brewer Beer Price per pint (d) Acidity OG FG ABV App. Attenua- tion colour
1958 Bernard IPA (Bottling) 1030 1010 2.59 66.67%
1955 Wm. Younger IPA 19 0.04 1030.2 1006.9 3.02 77.15% 22
1956 Barclay Perkins IPA 20 0.04 1030.5 1007.3 3.01 76.07% 19
1958 Bernard IPA 25 0.04 1030.6 1008.9 2.71 70.92% 50
1954 Barclay Perkins IPA 19 0.05 1031.2 1007.5 3.07 75.96% 19
1959 Usher IPA 20 0.03 1032.3 1008.4 2.99 73.99% 18
1955 Vaux & Co IPA 18 0.05 1032.9 1008.2 3.20 75.08% 30
1959 Greene King IPA 20 0.04 1033.3 1010 3.02 69.97% 25
1956 Whitbread PA 22 0.05 1033.5 1005.8 3.60 82.69% 20
1954 Whitbread Pale Ale 21 0.05 1034 1005.2 3.75 84.71% 22
1955 Whitbread Pale Ale 22 1034.5
1959 Whitbread Pale Ale 24 1034.7 1007.8 3.49 77.52% 18
1959 Whitbread Pale Ale 24 0.04 1034.7 1008.4 3.41 75.79% 19
1956 Hope & Anchor Brewery, Sheffield IPA 24 0.04 1036.6 1008 3.71 78.14% 18
Average 21.4 0.04 1032.8 1007.9 3.20 75.74% 23.3
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.
T & J Bernard's brewing records held at the Scottish Brewing Archive


You’ve probably spotted something there: the Whitbread beer is called Pale Ale. But in their brewing records it’s called IPA. Up until 1958, when the name changes to WPA. So you can ignore the 1959 examples if you like. But it was the same beer.

What’s weird is that the analyses come from the Whitbread Gravity Book. And they called it a Pale Ale, even though they must have been able to read the label of the beer they were sampling. The answer probably is that they didn’t really differentiate between Pale Ale, IPA, Bitter and Light Ale. They were all flavours of Pale Ale for them.

You can see the eccentric relationship between Scottish brewing and colour. Edinburgh brewery Bernard’s IPA is way darker than any of the others.

The football is on so I don’t want to waste much time. You can read can’t you? Average attenuation, quite pale colour, not that strong.

Mid-strength:

Bottled mid-strength IPA in the 1950's 
Year Brewer Beer Price per pint (d) Acidity OG FG ABV App. Attenua- tion colour
1955 Hansons IPA 22 0.04 1043.1 1007.8 4.60 81.90% 19
1955 Eldridge Pope IPA 29 0.05 1044.1 1012.8 4.06 70.98% 20
1955 Flowers IPA 28 0.05 1045.9 1009.7 4.71 78.87% 25
1957 McEwan Export IPA 32.5 0.05 1046.4 1010.7 4.64 76.94% 22
1954 McEwan India Pale Ale 0.05 1048.6 1008.2 5.27 83.13% 24
1954 Courage John Courage IPA 28 0.05 1050.4 1011.2 5.10 77.78% 20
1959 Courage IPA 32 0.05 1050.7 1010.8 5.19 78.70% 23
1959 Bass Pale Ale 32 0.02 1050.7 1010.7 5.21 78.90% 17
1959 Worthington India Pale Ale 32 0.02 1051.6 1011.5 5.22 77.71% 18
1956 Bass Pale Ale (Blue Triangle) 34 0.04 1051.9 1012.4 5.14 76.11% 21
1956 Bass Pale Ale (Red Triangle) 34 0.05 1053.5 1004.1 6.48 92.34% 20
Average
29.1 0.04 1048.8 1010.0 5.06 79.39% 20.8
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.

Now I’m getting less certain of my classifications. Just noticed that the top four are versions of the Bass/Worthington strong IPA’s. They clearly dropped the gravities in the second half of the Sixties.

Odd that this set is paler than the last. But let’s keep moving along . . .

The strong set:

Bottled strong IPA in the 1950's 
Year Brewer Beer Price Acidity OG FG ABV App. Attenua- tion colour
1953 Bass Blue Label PA 24 0.08 1058.7 1013.8 5.85 76.49% 18.5
1953 Bass Pale Ale (Blue Triangle purchased in Belgium) 0.04 1060.8 1010.5 6.58 82.73% 21
1953 Worthington India Pale Ale 0.04 1061.1 1013.5 6.21 77.91% 27
1955 Bass Pale Ale (Red Triangle) 0.04 1063.2 1009.6 7.02 84.81% 19
1955 Worthington India Pale Ale (Green Shield) 0.05 1063.3 1009.4 7.06 85.15% 18
1955 Bass Pale Ale (Blue Triangle) 0.07 1063.5 1003.1 7.96 95.12% 19
1955 Worthington India Pale Ale (White Shield) 0.05 1063.7 1002.9 8.02 95.45% 18
Average 24.0 0.05 1062.0 1009.0 6.96 85.38% 20.1
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.

This is really a single beer. Blue Triangle was the pasteurised version of bottled-conditioned Red Triangle. And Green Shield was the processed version of White Shield. Just differently packaged and processed versions of one beer.

This lot is way the most highly attenuated. As you would expect of genuine Burton Pale Ales. Also the palest. Ponder on that while I watch the footy.

7 comments:

J. Karanka said...

Do any modern examples have a 95% attenuation? They must be almost wine-like in body!

Ron Pattinson said...

J. Karanka,

I doubt it very much.

Gary Gillman said...

Wells Young IPA at 5 pc ABV is the driest pale ale/IPA I know, denuded of any sweetness almost to a fault. I'd guess it's real attenuation is 85 pc or possibly more. There is no question in my mind that the brewery is following some old recipe in its archives, descended from a time when it was realized that multiple fermentations made the beer very lean in body and this was surely an Indian character recognized as a hallmark of the style by some brewers. (It has mineral or Burton like character as well and a marked note of steely hop, nothing like the American IPA. This is the export one we get in Canada.

Gary

Ed said...

The IBD mag had the fascinating titbit that White Shield used to be bottled with Saccharomyces diastaticus, a yeast strain that can ferment dextrins normal brewers yeast can't cope with. This will in part explain the very high attenuation.

Ron Pattinson said...

Ed,

now that is interesting. I wonder if that was to mimic Brettanomyces?

Oblivious said...

Pro brewer still list's Saccharomyces diastaticus as a wild yeast. Interesting

Gary Gillman said...

At first I thought the term Saccharomyces diastaticus was a delayed April 1rst joke, but clearly not.

Gary