Southern Brown Ale after WW II

Despite covering a large area of Southeast England, there’s a reasonable amount of consistency in this set of Brown Ales.

The gravities are mostly on the low side, with only two examples over 1035º, and averaging a tad below 1032º. Surprisingly, there are a couple below the magic 1027º. It made little sense to brew a beer weaker than that, because you had to pay tax as if were 1027º. That was the minimum rate of tax.

With middling attenuation – there are a couple of beers with over 80%, but also four below 70%. Which means that the average ABV only just pokes its head above 3%.

There are some pretty watery beers, especially from Simonds. Most examples are well below 3% ABV. It’s odd because Simonds Berry Brown Ale was a reasonably big brand.

As in London, the colours are mostly pretty dark. Though the Portsmouth United and Wethered beers fall into the semi-dark region. In general, these Southern Brown Ales look quite similar to those from London. Which isn’t so surprising as there breweries were mostly not that far from the capital.

Southern Brown Ale after WW II
Year	Brewer	Beer	Price per pint (d)	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour
1951	Benskin	Nut Brown Ale	16	1032.9	1008.1	3.22	75.38%	83
1952	Brickwoods	Brown Brew	18	1032.2	1008.9	3.02	72.36%	80
1952	Cobb & Co	Brown Ale	18	1034.3	1007.5	3.48	78.13%	80
1950	Ind Coope	Nut Brown Ale	18	1032.3	1008.6	3.07	73.37%	75
1951	Ind Coope	Nut Brown Ale	19	1031.9	1008.3	3.06	73.98%	110
1952	Ind Coope	Nut Brown Ale	19	1030.9	1011.7	2.48	62.14%	83
1952	McMullen	Nut Brown Ale	18	1035.5	1012.6	2.96	64.51%	110
1948	Portsmouth United	Brown Ale	17	1038.2	1005.4	4.27	85.86%	55
1948	Simonds	Brown Ale	18	1025.7	1006.4	2.50	75.10%	105
1949	Simonds	Brown Ale	15	1026.1	1008	2.34	69.35%	140
1952	Simonds	Brown Ale	18	1029.9	1009.7	2.61	67.56%	110
1952	Simonds	Berry Brown Ale	19	1032	1005.5	3.44	82.81%	60
1948	Tamplin	No. 1 Brown Ale	19	1033.6	1008.5	3.25	74.70%	87
1952	Tamplin	No.1 Ale	20	1034.1	1009.7	3.16	71.55%	80
1947	Wethered	Golden Brown Ale	12	1025.6	1004	2.81	84.37%	48
	Average		17.6	1031.7	1008.2	3.04	74.08%	87.1
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.