Revealing beer gravity

UK brewers were extremely cagey when it came to the strength of their beer. Resisting attempts to make them reveal OG or ABV.

There had been an unsuccessful attempt in in 1954 to pass an Act of parliament forcing brewers to reveal gravities. The topic came up repeatedly in the 1950s, without anything actually happening.

In the 1970s, CAMRA tried to provoke the government to take action As this article reveals.

They want beer gravity revealed
BRITAINS brewers will have to disclose the gravity of their products from the Campaign for Real Ale are accepted by the government.

The Ministry of agriculture the recently asked the Food Standards Committee to look into all of aspects of the definition and labelling of beer.

Camra’s report suggests that beer stored casks, kegs or tanks should be defined underone of four headings - draught, bright, keg or lager drawn or pressure. should be defined as either drawn or pressure.

All counter mountings should clearly state the type of beer and the methods of dispensing.

Bottled and canned beers should be described as pale or light ale, brown or dark ale, stout, strong ale or barley wine.

Ingredients
Terms which imply standards of quality, should be governed by the minimum original gravities or alcohol percentages.

Camra recommend that both original gravity (the measure of solid materials mixed with water to make beer) and the percentage of alcohol by volume should be publicly stated for all beers, either on bottle or can labels or at points where cask, keg or tank beers are dispensed.

Emphasis is also laid on the ingredients of beer and the report puts forward proposals for limiting the use of materials other than malted barley and sugar or sugar substitutes used should be stated on all labelling.
Coventry Evening Telegraph - Thursday 27 June 1974, page 32.

In the end, CAMRA forced the brewers' hands. By analysing beers and publishing the results, gravities were no longer a secret. Even before legislation compelled them to, some brewers started voluntarily putting gravities on labels and pump clips.

Note that CAMRA also wanted beer pumps to specify if beer was cask, bright or keg. That never happened.  But revealing beer gravities was helpful for everyone.