Burton Ale after WW II

In London Burton Ale remained a standard draught beer. Though after the mid-1950’s it increasingly became a winter seasonal. There were also stronger versions that the standard KK. These were mostly sold in bottles, but sometimes appeared on draught.

Before WW I draught Burton Ale, or KK as it was often known, was a very powerful dark beer with an OG of 1070º-1075º. The war knocked the stuffing out of Burton and in the 1920s and 1930s it had a gravity of around 1055º. The next war lopped off another ten gravity points or so.

The lack of any analyses in the Whitbread Gravity Book is an indication that Burton was going out of fashion. By the 1960s, only a few London breweries still made a draught version. When Fullers replaced their Burton with ESB and Youngs changed the name of theirs to Winter Warmer the style was, in terms of its name, dead. 

Draught Burton Ale 1948 - 1954
Year	Brewer	Beer	Price	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour
1951	Barclay Perkins	Strong Ale	27	1079	1011	8.96	86.08%	120
1951	Barclay Perkins	Burton	21	1043	1010.5	4.22	75.58%	100
1954	Barclay Perkins	KK	21	1043	1011.1	4.14	74.19%	120
1953	Charrington	Strong Ale	19	1039.9				144
1954	Charrington	KK	19	1048.1	1010.7	4.86	77.75%	130
1951	Charrington	Burton	20	1046.3	1012.1	4.44	73.87%	180
1948	Courage	Burton	21	1044.5	1008.5	4.69	80.90%	140
1951	Courage	Strong Ale XXX	20	1048.1	1015.5	4.22	67.78%
1954	Courage	XXX	20	1046.2	1013.8	4.20	70.13%	200
1951	Ind Coope	Double Burton	24	1054.3	1013.9	5.25	74.40%	110
1953	Ind Coope	Strong Ale	19	1043.0				112
1951	Mann Crossman	Burton	19	1041.5	1007.6	4.41	81.69%	145
1948	Meux	Burton	20	1041	1006.4	4.51	84.39%	245
1951	Meux	XXX	20	1046.2	1013.1	4.29	71.65%
1953	Meux	Strong Ale	20	1045.8				152
1951	Taylor Walker	Burton	21	1050	1014.3	4.63	71.40%	120
1954	Taylor Walker	KKK	21	1049.1	1017	4.15	65.38%	110
1951	Truman	Strong Ale	22	1047.7	1010.7	4.81	77.57%
1953	Truman	Strong Ale	22	1045.6
1954	Truman	SA	22	1049.1	1009.3	5.19	81.06%	110
1948	Watney	KKKK	21	1046.1	1010.5	4.63	77.22%	115
1954	Watney	KKKK	24	1055.2	1013.5	5.42	75.54%	140
1953	Wenlock	Strong Ale	20	1043.4				176
1949	Whitbread	Strong Ale	20	1046.7				104
1951	Whitbread	KKKK	23	1053.5
1953	Whitbread	Strong Ale	23	1052.1				104
1954	Whitbread	KKKK	23	1051.2	1011.9	5.11	76.76%	100
	Average		21.8	1049.4	1011.9	5.11	75.96%	128
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.
Truman Gravity Book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/C/252.

This is an excerpt from my book on UK brewing in the aftermath of WW II, Austerity!

http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/austerity/23181344