Fullers beers in 1946

I’m so busy collecting brewing records I sometimes forget to fully process those I already have. I was shocked to realise that I hadn’t gone through any of the post-war Fullers. And it’s years ago That I harvested them.

What better place to start than 1946, the first post-war year. Which also neatly ties in with my austerity theme. The idea is that it will become a book at some point. Presumably when I get bored of the research. That doesn’t look like happening anytime soon.

WW II, like WW I, did a good job of forcing brewers to rationalise their range. Before the war, Fullers brewed 8 different beers: 3 Pale Ales, 2 Mild Ales, 2 Strong Ales and Porter. In 1946, that was down to just 6: 2 Pale Ales, 1 Mild, 1 Strong Ale and Porter. Though one of the Pale Ales, DA (presumably Dinner Ale) was a new beer. One that seems to have got the chop in 1946.

There were different reasons for dropping beers. XX and OBE were presumably dropped for being too strong. While AK and XK had no place when PA was dropped down to a gravity lower or equal to them. The same process did for 4d Ale at other breweries, the WW I relic weak Mild with a gravity or around 1028º. When WW II forced standard Mild down to a similar gravity, it disappeared.

Here’s a table to show the changes in range and gravity at Fullers across the war years:

Fullers beers in 1939 and 1946
Beer	Style	1939	1946	% change
DA	Pale Ale	-	1031.0	-
AK	Pale Ale	1033.4	-	-
XK	Pale Ale	1039.4	-	-
PA	Pale Ale	1051.1	1034.6	32.30%
X	Mild	1032.3	1030.7	4.87%
XX	Mild	1042.5	-	-
BO	Strong Ale	1055.5	1038.8	30.07%
OBE	Strong Ale	1068.9	-	-
P	Porter	1038.5	1030.7	20.27%
Source:
Fullers brewing records held at the brewery.

PA took the biggest gravity hit, falling by almost a third. While X saw only a slight reduction in strength.

Now let’s look more closely at the 1946 beers. My first impression is: you weren’t going to get very pissed in a Fullers pub. Especially in the Autumn when gravities were cut and only the Burton, BO, had an ABV over 3%. Desperate times.

I’m struck by the poor degree of attenuation. Pre-war it was mostly at least 75%. This is because they haven’t reduced the FG by much. That implies to me that they were sacrificing ABV for body. Fearing the beers would seem thin if too highly attenuated.

Not much I can say about the hopping, other than that it looks about normal for beers of this period and gravity.

Don’t get confused by the Porter. It wasn’t sold as Porter anymore and wasn’t a draught beer. A bottled beer called Nourishing Stout is what it really was.

Fullers beers in 1946
Date	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Attenuation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)	Pitch temp	max. fermentation temp	length of fermentation (days)
6th Jun	PA	Pale Ale	1034.6	1010.8	3.15	68.80%	6.74	0.97	1.5	1.75	62º	68º	8
6th Jun	DA	Pale Ale	1031.0	1010.0	2.79	67.86%	6.74	0.87	1.5	1.75	62º	68º	8
12th Jun	X	Mild	1030.7	1009.1	2.86	70.27%	4.48	0.61	1.5	1.75	62º	68º	7
13th Jun	PA	Pale Ale	1034.6	1010.0	3.26	71.20%	7.01	0.97	1.5	1.75	62.5º	68º	6
13th Jun	DA	Pale Ale	1030.8	1008.9	2.90	71.22%	7.01	0.86	1.5	1.75	62º	68º	6
17th Jun	X	Mild	1030.7	1009.7	2.79	68.47%	4.79	0.61	1.5	1.75	62º	68º	5
20th Jun	P	Porter	1030.7	1011.1	2.59	63.87%	5.93	0.81	1.75		62º	67º	6
2nd Oct	PA	Pale Ale	1029.5	1008.3	2.81	71.86%	6.94	0.83	1.5	1.75	62.5º	68º	7
3rd Oct	X	Mild	1029.6	1008.3	2.81	71.88%	4.83	0.59	1.5	1.75	62.5º	68º	5
22nd Oct	P	Porter	1029.3	1010.5	2.48	64.08%	5.95	0.81	1.75		63º	67º	5
25th Nov	BO	Strong Ale	1038.8	1010.8	3.70	72.14%	4.77	0.77	1.5	1.75	61º	69º	8
25th Nov	X	Mild	1029.7	1008.6	2.79	71.06%	4.77	0.59	1.5	1.75	62º	68º	5
Source:
Fullers brewing records held at the brewery.

Now for the grists. Not there’s much to them. Just pale malt, flaked barley and sugar. Lots of different types of sugar, though the percentage of the grist they formed was relatively low, only 8% or 9%. Had the brewer been given a free choice, it would have been higher,  probably around double that level. But sugar was rationed and brewers could only use what they were allowed.

Fullers only used a grand total of two malt: pale malt and black malt in P. Not that the war had anything to do with that. They’d operated exactly the same way before the war.

I can’t say much about the hops. Only the growers name is listed, not region of origin or variety. Then there’s hopulon, some sort hop preparation or substitute. Whitbread also used it in this period. 1 lb of hopulon is the equivalent of 7 lbs of hops. At least that’s what it says on the brewing record.

Fullers beers in 1946
Date	Beer	Style	OG	pale malt	black malt	flaked barley	no. 2 sugar	caramel	glucose	PEX	Intense	Sp. Dark	primings	hops
6th Jun	PA	Pale Ale	1034.6	75.76%		15.46%	2.06%		2.06%	2.06%	0.21%		2.39%	English, hopulon
6th Jun	DA	Pale Ale	1031.0	75.76%		15.46%	2.06%		2.06%	2.06%	0.21%		2.39%	English, hopulon
12th Jun	X	Mild	1030.7	78.29%		14.50%			3.48%	1.93%	1.46%		0.35%	English, hopulon
13th Jun	PA	Pale Ale	1034.6	77.57%		15.85%	2.22%		1.67%	2.22%	0.21%		0.25%	English, hopulon
13th Jun	DA	Pale Ale	1030.8	77.57%		15.85%	2.22%		1.67%	2.22%	0.21%		0.25%	English, hopulon
17th Jun	X	Mild	1030.7	75.57%		15.26%			3.88%	2.42%	1.57%		1.30%	English, hopulon
20th Jun	P	Porter	1030.7	58.62%	10.19%	7.65%		4.79%		3.40%		13.59%	1.76%	English, hopulon
2nd Oct	PA	Pale Ale	1029.5	77.80%		16.21%	2.16%		1.62%	1.62%	0.24%		0.35%	English, hopulon
3rd Oct	X	Mild	1029.6	76.47%		15.29%			3.64%	2.18%	1.57%		0.84%	English, hopulon
22nd Oct	P	Porter	1029.3	57.36%	11.47%	5.74%		5.19%		3.82%		15.30%	1.13%	English, hopulon
25th Nov	BO	Strong Ale	1038.8	74.61%		15.87%			4.23%	2.12%	1.40%		1.77%	English, hopulon
25th Nov	X	Mild	1029.7	74.61%		15.87%			4.23%	2.12%	1.40%		1.77%	English, hopulon
Source:
Fullers brewing records held at the brewery.

More Fullers fun to come if I can be arsed to go through more of their records. Maybe some recipes. Not done any Fullers ones for a while.