Draught Strong Ale in the 1950’s

I still can’t quite face going through all the Milds. There are so many of them and there aren’t really subtypes. Not unless I really force things. So I’m dodging the problem and looking at Strong Ales instead.

It’s another very London-heavy set. But at least that tells me what precisely most of these beers were: Burton. A couple are even specifically called KK, the usual brewhouse name for Burton in the capital. One exception is the Barclay Perkins beers with a gravity of 1077.2. That’s KKKK, a beer only sold in the winter. That was called Old Burton.

These were some of the strongest beers regularly available on draught. Which isn’t that impressive, what with them averaging a bit under 5% ABV. But British beer, especially on draught, was generally pretty weak after WW II. In fact, it’s only in the last decade or two that more strong draught beers have appeared. It’s weird to think that beers like Old Peculiar, Fuller’s ESB and Rutland County were for a long time the strongest around.

The two different methods of colour notation make it difficult to do any averaging. What I can say is that they’re all dark brown, starting at the colour of Dark Mild and ending close to Stout.

Once again, attenuation is all over the place. As far as I can see, there is no real pattern.

Draught Strong Ale in the 1950's
Year	Brewer	Beer	Price per pint (d)	Acidity	OG	FG	ABV	App. Attenua-tion	colour
1954	Charrington	KK	19	0.08	1048.1	1010.7	4.86	77.75%	21R+40B
1953	Barclay Perkins	Strong Ale	37		1077.15				120
1954	Barclay Perkins	KK	21	0.06	1043	1011.1	4.14	74.19%	19+40
1953	Charrington	Strong Ale	19		1039.85				144
1954	Courage	XXX	20	0.08	1046.2	1013.8	4.20	70.13%	31R+40B
1955	Hancock	Five Five			1055
1953	Ind Coope	Strong Ale	19		1042.98				112
1953	Lacons	Strong Ale	21		1046.8
1953	Mann	Strong Ale	24		1050.21				168
1954	Mann	Dragon Ale	24	0.07	1051.2	1019.1	4.15	62.70%	25R+40B
1953	Meux	Strong Ale	20		1045.79				152
1954	Taylor Walker	KKK	21	0.05	1049.1	1017	4.15	65.38%	17R+40B
1953	Truman	Strong Ale	22		1045.59
1954	Truman	SA	22	0.05	1049.1	1009.3	5.19	81.06%	17+40
1954	Watney	KKKK	24	0.10	1055.2	1013.5	5.42	75.54%	23R+40B
1953	Wenlock	Strong Ale	20		1043.36				176
1953	Whitbread	Strong Ale	23		1052.06				104
1954	Whitbread	KKKK	23	0.06	1051.2	1011.9	5.11	76.76%	15R+40B
	Average		22.3	0.07	1049.5	1013.3	4.65	72.94%
Sources:
Truman Gravity Book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/C/252.
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.
“Cardiff Pubs and Breweries” by Brian Glover, 2005. pages 97-101

It’s interesting that the average price isn’t much more than for Keg Bitter. Take out Barclay Perkins much more expensive beer and it’s about exactly the same. While the average gravity of Strong Ales was much higher. Another example of keg’s poor value for money. Which is still the case.

I really can’t understand why people are happy to pay five quid for a murky pint of keg when you can get a top-class cask beer for half the price. More money than sense, as my mum used to say.

Not sure where we’ll be going next. I could chicken out on Mild again and opt for bottled beers. Depends on my arsing situation.