Southwestern Brown Ale after WW II

I'm finally back to writing more of the body of my next book. Not just whacking out recipes

In the Southwest, Brown Ales look somewhat different to in the Southeast. Though I do have samples from fewer different breweries.

The average OG is a good 3º higher, while the ABV is getting on for 0.5% higher. And every single example is over 1030º. None of those watery versions which were fairly common across the rest of the South and London.

Despite being stronger, the average price is only marginally higher than the Southeast: 17.9d as opposed to 17.6d.  Which isn’t really significant at all.

The attenuation, averaging about 77%, is pretty standard. Only one example is below 70%. That’s pretty much in line with most of the rest of the provinces, but it’s a fair bit higher than the 70% average attenuation amongst London examples.

The colour is definitely on the paler side, mostly. Only the St. Anne’s Well and Ushers examples are really dark brown. And the Hancock’s one is barely darker than Bitter. It’s striking how much brewers’ ideas of what constituted “brown” varied so much, even within a single region.

Southwestern Brown Ale after WW II
Year	Brewer	Beer	Price per pint (d)	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour
1948	Devenish	Brown Ale	18	1030.5	1005.8	3.21	80.98%	67
1948	Plymouth	Double Brown Ale	18	1035	1010.8	3.13	69.14%	64
1948	Plymouth	DB	16	1035.7	1008.9	3.48	75.21%	64
1952	Plymouth	Double Brown Ale	18	1035.3	1008.3	3.50	76.49%	58
1952	St. Anne's Well	Brown Ale	19	1034.1	1005.1	3.77	85.04%	100
1952	Ushers	Brown Ale	17	1033.6	1007.7	3.36	77.08%	80
1951	Hancocks	Nut Brown Ale	19	1039.3	1010.2	3.77	74.05%	33.5
	Average		17.9	1034.8	1008.1	3.46	76.86%	66.6
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.