Friday 29 July 2016

East Anglia and Midlands Mild Ale 1950 – 1953

I’m getting to less specific as this series progresses. And why not?

I’m far too many analyses to make a single manageable table. Splitting them up makes sense. And it also highlights regional variations. Isn’t that fun?

Starting with the middle bit of the England. Which I’ve divided into the Midlands and East Anglia. For no particular reason, other than convenience. And I have to draw the lines somewhere. What’s fascinating about these two sets is how different they are. It tells us that Mild had considerable regional variations.

Starting with the colour. All the East Anglian Milds are dark, with the exception of the one from Grays. The average, just over 80, is well in dark brown territory. While the Midlands Milds are, except for Offiler’s, in the twilight zone between pale and dark. Significantly, that’s the only example from the East Midlands. The average of 45.9 is well short of dark brown.

There’s a big difference between the gravities, too. Remove Tollemache from the East Anglian set and the remainders are weaker than every Midlands Mild, except Offiler’s. The average ABV of the Midlands set it 0.75% higher than the East Anglian ones.

Both sets have high rates of attenuation, but it’s particularly high for the Midlands. Note that the FG’s are very similar for the two sets, despite the much higher average OG for the Midlands.

What have we learned? That in the West Midlands they liked their Mild strong but quite pale. While in East Anglia they preferred it weaker and darker.

East Anglia and Midlands Mild Ale 1950 - 1953
Year Brewer Beer Price per pint d Acidity OG FG ABV App. Atten-uation colour
1950 Grays X 11 1029.1 56
1950 Lacons X 12 1032.7 100
1951 Lacons Mild Ale 14 0.04 1031.4 1006.9 3.18 78.03% 65
1951 Lacons X 13 1034.4 88
1951 Morgans Mild Ale 14 0.04 1032.4 1007.2 3.27 77.78% 65
1951 Ridley Mild Ale 13 0.06 1030.3 1004.9 3.30 83.83% 70
1951 Tollemache Mild Ale 14 0.04 1028.7 1005.6 3.00 80.49% 60
1951 Wells & Winch Mild Ale 14 0.05 1029.3 1008.6 2.68 70.65% 80
1951 Young Crawshay Mild Ale 14 0.06 1031.2 1003.7 3.58 88.14% 70
1952 Lacons X 14 1031.9 92
1953 Tollemache X 16 1037.7 144
Average 13.5 0.05 1031.7 1006.2 3.17 79.82% 80.9
1950 Ansell Mild Ale 13 0.04 1034.8 1005.2 3.85 85.06% 50
1950 Bass, Burton Mild Ale 15 0.07 1041.4 1008 4.34 80.68% 40.1
1950 Mitchell & Butler Mild Ale 13 0.04 1034.6 1005.4 3.80 84.39% 37
1950 Mitchell & Butler Mild Ale 17 0.05 1034.5 1003.8 4.00 88.99% 38
1950 Mitchell & Butler X 15 1038.4 41
1950 Offilers Mild Ale 13 0.06 1031.2 1004.7 3.45 84.94% 70
1951 Ansell Mild Ale 15 0.07 1038.3 1005.7 4.25 85.12% 45
Average 14.4 0.06 1036.2 1005.5 3.95 84.86% 45.9
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.
Truman Gravity Book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/C/252

The North and Scotland next.

2 comments:

Lee said...

So, how about a recipe pr two for the Bass and Ansels with the yop OG on the table?

Ron Pattinson said...

Lee,

if only I had them. Would love to.