Monday 3 December 2018

Bottled Worthington beers after WW II

More numbers today. Why? Because I have them lying around and may as well do something with them.

It's a random set of Worthington bottled beers. Mostly, they're typical beers from the period, things like Brown Ale and Light Ale. Though the gravities of those two in the 1940s and 1950s is quite high for the styles. Most were barely opver 1030º.

Less typical are a cou0ple of the Stouts. It specifically mentions in the Whitbread Gravity Book that the Export Stout was naturally conditioned. Which definitely wasn't standard practice.I suspect that the Imperial Stout was also bottle-conditioned as it was sold under the White Shield brand.

It's surprising how much the OG of E varied in the 1960s. I wonder why that was? Probably it was being brewed at different breweries. It was one of Bass Charrington's main brands, after all. There's also quite a variation in colour, from 19 to 27. That's enough to notice.


Bottled Worthington beers after WW II
Year Beer Style Price per pint OG FG ABV App. Atten-uation colour
1955 Nut Brown Ale Brown Ale 22 1036 1008.6 3.56 76.11% 80
1967 Nut Brown Ale Brown Ale 32 1033.2 1011.3 2.83 65.96% 125
1946 Dinner Ale Light Ale 15 1037.1 1006.7 3.95 81.94% 20
1947 Dinner Ale Light Ale 15 1033.8 1007.1 3.47 78.99% 19
1947 Dinner Ale Light Ale 15 1035.6 1005.1 3.97 85.67% 19.5
1947 Dinner Ale Light Ale 21 1038.4 1008.1 3.94 78.91% 20.5
1948 Dinner Ale Light Ale 16 1037.8 1009.4 3.68 75.13% 19.5
1948 Dinner Ale Light Ale 17 1035.7 1006.1 3.85 82.91% 20.5
1950 Dinner Ale Light Ale 16 1034.6 1004.8 3.88 86.13% 21
1955 Dinner Ale Light Ale 18 1036.1 1007.8 3.68 78.39% 20
1967 Light Ale Light Ale 16 1031 1006.5 3.18 79.03% 25
1967 M Mild 20 1033.5 1004.1 3.83 87.76% 23
1955 Special Mild Ale Mild 19 1036.9 1007.9 3.77 78.59% 85
1967 BB Pale Ale 21 1036.6 1005.6 4.04 84.70% 19.5
1961 Cannister Pale Ale 26 1043.7 1005.3 5.01 87.87% 19
1961 E Pale Ale 24 1040.7 1003.5 4.86 91.40% 20
1966 E Pale Ale 26 1037.9 1007.6 3.94 79.95% 27
1966 E Pale Ale 28 1037.8 1006.8 4.03 82.01% 21
1967 E Pale Ale 28 1038 1007.8 3.92 79.47% 23
1967 E Pale Ale 25 1041.3 1008.7 4.24 78.93% 19.5
1967 E Pale Ale 26 1041.4 1007.2 4.45 82.61% 21
1957 PA Pale Ale 21 1043.5 1004.6 5.08 89.43% 20
1948 Export Stout Stout 1064.3 1019.4 5.83 69.83%
1955 Imperial Stout Stout 1078.2 1017.3 7.97 77.88% 325
1953 XX Stout Stout 24 1040 1012 3.63 70.00% 275
1956 XX Stout Stout 28 1036.7 1013.8 2.96 62.40% 300
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.

4 comments:

Barm said...

Very very strange that a company the size of Bass wouldn’t have much closer control over the OG of E, especially as variations would make a substantial difference to the amount of duty they were paying.

Mike Austin said...

Ron,
I'm sure that there was a much publicised rise in gravity of Bass / E from 39 to 44 at about this time.
I don't remember any noticeable impact at all.....
Mike

Barm said...

That would appear to make sense – going from the numbers in the table, it dropped from 1040 to 1038 between 1960 and 1966, customers noticed and at some point in 1967 they whacked it up again? Do you have any more numbers from 1967 to confirm or refute this, Ron?

Ron Pattinson said...

Barm,

I don't have any later analyses, unfortunately.