Adnams beers before and after WW I

I thought we'd have a look at how another brewery's beers were changed by WW I. This time a small country brewery.

With batch sizes of 40-odd barrels, Adnams certainly qualifies as pretty small. At least in comparison to most of the other breweries I have records for.

Adnams started the war with a range of seven beers: two Milds, two Pale Ales, two Stouts and one Strong Ale. That's fewer beers than at some large breweries. The beer themslves were also differnet to those in London.

Mostly by being weaker. BS (presumably Brown Stout) was only about the same strength as a London Porter. Even the stronger XX Mild is much lower gravity than a standard London X Ale, which was over 1050º. No London beer was as weak as the 1033º of Adnams X Ale. And a top-level London Pale Ale was at least 1060º.

These are the 1914 beers:

Adnams beers in 1914
Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
X	Mild Ale	1033	1005.5	3.64	83.33%	4.38	0.58
XX	Mild Ale	1042	1007	4.63	83.33%	4.20	0.73
Tally Ho	Old Ale	1082	1029.5	6.95	64.02%	5.92	2.21
BLB	Pale Ale	1044	1007	4.89	84.09%	7.00	1.34
PA	Pale Ale	1056	1011	5.95	80.36%	6.53	1.30
BS	Stout	1055	1013.5	5.49	75.45%	5.86	1.43
DS	Stout	1065	1016.6	6.40	74.43%	6.97	2.11
Source:
Adnams brewing record Book 2 held at the brewery.

They're mostly quite highly attenuated for the period. Many pre- WW I beers had less than 70% apparent attenuation.

When things had settled down after the war, Adnams beer range looked quite different:

Adnams beers in 1923
Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
XX	Mild Ale	1029	1004.2	3.29	85.67%	4.99	0.59
XXXX	Old Ale	1057	1016.6	5.34	70.84%	6.70	1.53
PA	Pale Ale	1038	1007.2	4.07	81.05%	8.52	1.29
DS	Stout	1044	1010	4.50	77.34%	6.59	1.19
Source:
Adnams brewing record Book 9 held at the brewery.

You can addd Tally Ho to those four. I know they brewed it in the 1920s, I just didn't spot a brewing record for it.  XXXX seems to have been introduced in 1915. I assume to partially replace Tally Ho.

Not that the decline in gravity is inconsistent. XX fell by around 31%, PA by 32% but DS just by 17%. The average fall for the UK was 19%.

XX is very weak for a standard Mild of the interwar period. They were usually 1035º-1040º. In London you did find cheap Milds of a similar strength, but they were brewed in small quantities and there was always a stronger version, too. Mmm. Just realised that a 50-50 blend of XX and XXXX would be 1043º: the classic strong Mild OG of the 1920s. I wonder if Adnams did blend them for customers that wanted a higher gravity Mild?