Greene King Burton Ale

Burton Ale wasn't a style confined to just London. There were brewers outside the capital (and Burton-on-Trent) who brewed one. I know that from, amonst other evidence, old beer labels.

It wasn't until I stumbled upon this advert that Greene King had a draught as well as a bottled Burton Ale. Which is intriguing. Especially as it sold for the same price - 1s 3d - as their Best Bitter.

Bury Free Press - Friday 20 May 1949, page 11.

The question I immediately asked myself was: how strong were Greene King Burton and Best Burton? Time to scan my spreadsheets and take a look at their brewing records.

Unfortunately, I don't have records from spring 1949, just late 1948 and January 1949. Which is just that little bit too early. I'm hoping that the relevant brewing book is one of the ones Henry photographed. And that I will eventually get the pictures off him.

On the upside, I do have quite a few analyses of Green King beers from just a little later. Combining all of this, I've got a pretty good idea of the character of their beers.

Let's take a look at their bottled range first:

Greene King bottled beers 1954 - 1960
Year	Beer	Style	Price per pint (d)	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour	Index of Hop Bitter
1960	Burton Ale	Brown Ale	20	1033.4	1011.7	2.80	64.97%		16
1956	Harvest Brown Ale	Brown Ale	22	1035.2	1013.9	2.75	60.51%	105
1959	India Pale Ale	IPA	20	1033.3	1010	3.02	69.97%	25
1960	India Pale Ale	IPA	20	1033	1007.7	3.16	76.67%	25
1960	India Pale Ale	IPA	20	1033.2	1008.5	3.20	74.40%		24
1960	Lager	Lager		1034.9	1006.4	3.56	81.66%	9.5
1960	Abbot Ale	Pale Ale	30	1048.6	1006.7	5.24	86.21%	19
1954	Stout	Stout	19	1034.3	1012.7	2.79	62.97%	450
1954	Sweet Stout	Stout	26	1046.6	1020.3	3.39	56.44%	450
1960	Suffolk Ale	Strong Ale	34	1056.8	1015.7	5.14	72.36%	70
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002
Which Beer Report, 1960, pages 171 - 173.

What first strikes me about their bottled Burton Ale is that it looks more like a Brown Ale than a London Burton. It's called BA in the brewing records and, had I not known they brewed a beer called  Burton, I would have assumed that it stood for Brown Ale.

From the brewing records, I know that in late 1948 all three of the bottled beers listed, Stout, IPA and Burton Ale, all had an identical OG: 11.1 lbs per barrel, or 1031º. By 1960 that had increased a few degrees to 1033-1034º. They had also expanded their bottled range, which included a higher OG Stout and a stronger Pale Ale in the form of Abbot Ale.

Index of hop bitterness, if you're wondering, seems to be about the same as IBUs. The figure of 16 certainly tallies with what you'd expect from a Brown Ale. London Burton Ales were more heavily hopped than that.

Now their draught beers:

Greene King draught beers 1954 - 1960
Year	Beer	Style	Price per pint (d)	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour	Index of Hop Bitter
1960	Mild	Mild	12	1030.7	1006.05	3.20	80.29%		18
1960	Abbot Ale	Pale Ale	22	1051.3	1007.9	5.43	84.60%	20
1960	Best Bitter	Pale Ale	15	1038.4	1007.4	3.88	80.73%	20
1960	Bitter	Pale Ale	15	1037.0	1006.25	4.00	83.11%		33
1960	Ordinary Bitter	Pale Ale	13	1033.9	1005.7	3.53	83.19%	26
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002
Which Beer Report, 1960, pages 171 - 173.

Note that the draught beer prices are the same as in 1949. The explanation is that the tax had decreased between 1949 and 1960. Though it also seems that draught Best Burton had disappeared. But, given that it cost the same price as Best Bitter, I'm guessing that its OG was around 1038º. Which is more like a Best Mild than a London Burton. Even in the darkest days of post-war austerity, London Burton had a gravity of over 1040º.

Though it was called IPA Cask within the brewery, the trade name seems to have been plain old Bitter. I wonder when they started calling the draught version IPA in pubs?