John Smiths beers 1960 - 1967

This is a totally unscheduled post. Something that sort of created itself out of a Facebook conversation.

It started when someone posted this John Smiths price list from 1971:

I remembered that I had a wealth of analyses of John Smiths beers from the Whitbread Gravity Book.

John Smiths beers 1960 - 1967
Year	Beer	Style	Price	size	package	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour
1960	Pale Ale (sold in Belgium)	Pale Ale			bottled	1055.5	1013.7	5.22	75.32%	17
1961	Golden Keg Ale	Pale Ale	22d to 24d	pint	draught	1039.1	1009	3.76	76.98%	19
1964	Double Brown	Brown Ale	24d	pint	bottled	1047.3	1016.7	3.82	64.69%	80
1964	Milk Maid Stout	Stout	16.5d	half pint	bottled	1042.2	1022.2	2.50	47.39%	325
1964	Golden Keg	Pale Ale	24d	pint	draught	1039.1	1009.4	3.71	75.96%	23
1964	Draught Magnet	Pale Ale	20d	pint	draught	1043	1007.4	4.45	82.79%	35
1964	Bitter	Pale Ale	18d	pint	draught	1038.3	1007.6	3.84	80.16%	23
1964	Mild Ale	Mild	15d	pint	draught	1030.9	1008.5	2.80	72.49%	30
1964	Magnet Pale Ale	Pale Ale	14.5d	half pint	bottled	1043.5	1007.2	4.54	83.45%	16
1964	Light Ale	Light Ale	10.5d	half pint	bottled	1031.9	1009.6	2.79	69.91%	29
1965	Pale Ale (sold in Belgium)	Pale Ale			bottled	1056.1	1011.8	5.54	78.97%	13
1967	Magnet Pale Ale	Pale Ale	24d	pint	draught	1043.5	1008.7	4.35	80.00%	33
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001.

There's a personal connection with one of these beers. Milk Maid Stout was a Warwick & Richardson brand. And the beer my Mum used to drink. The label appers prominently on the cover of  The Home Brewer's Guide to Vintage Beer.

There's not a huge difference between the prices in the two lists. Take Golden, for example. 24d = 10p, meaning it had gone up 4p between 1964 and 1971. But that would soon change. The early 1970's were a time of high inflation.

That's it. Just a pile of random crap. Oh, except one last thing. Golden and Bitter were probably the same beer. Note how much worse value the keg beer is.