Lingering on

It's odd the thoughts that random newspaper articles prompt. When I first looked at the Brewers' and Allied Traders' Exhibition competition categories, they seemed a little odd. Why did they have categories for strengths of Mild which no longer existed?

Probably they were a hangover from the 1930s. When stronger version sid still exist. Though I'm still a bit dubious about ones in the strongest category. Perhaps there was the odd one still. But that got me looking at the gravity bands more closely.

One of the lasting effects of WW I was to set draught beer strengths and prices for the whole of the interwar period. Through the last set of price controls. The only change was that the price per pint fell by 1d across the board when the tax was reduced in 1924.

It looks very much as if the competition categories were based on pre-war beers of 4d, 5d, 6d, 7d and 8d per pint. Which means that these were still being directly influenced by emergency legislation from WW I in the late 1950s. Even when they had an increasingly tenuous connection with the beers usually being brewed. 

Brewer's Exhibition categories and price control
price per pint	1st Apr 1920	categories
5d	1027-1032	1030-1035
6d	1033-1038	1036-1041
7d	1039-1045	1042-1046
8d	1045-1053	1047-1055
9d	>1054	1056-
Sources:
The Brewers’ Almanack 1928 pages 100 – 101.
Birmingham Daily Post - Tuesday 01 October 1957, page 5.