London draught beers in the late 1930s

Lucky old London had a pretty decent range of draught beers available in the 1930s. Around a dozen, split over Mild Ales, Pale Ales, Burton Ales, Porters and Stouts. 

Were all the London brewers knocking out a dozen different draught beers? No, they weren’t. I haven’t found one brewery that produced every single type. My favourite Barclay Perkins comes closest with nine.

One slight caveat: for brewers where I don’t have brewing records, there may well be some beers missing. In those cases, I’m dependent on the Whitbread and Truman Gravity Books. And which beers those two brewers bothered to get analysed.

Only one type of beer was produced by every brewery: 7d Pale Ale. The equivalent of Ordinary Bitter.  All but Fullers produced a 5d Mild Ale. Unsurprising, as X Ale was the most popular type of beer. Unless they blended it up from the other two Mild Ales.

Most brewers also had a cheaper, 4d Mild Ale. It’s an interesting one, that. As I know that the quantities brewed by Whitbread and Barclay Perkins were pretty modest. Far less than of the 5d version. It’s interesting that continued to brew it, even though the market was quite small. Without parti-gyling, it probably wouldn’t have been financially viable.

It’s fascinating that ten of the twelve breweries were still making a Porter. Despite sales collapsing disastrously after WW I.

The more expensive type of Burton Ale, the 8d version, was pretty popular, too. Every brewery produced at least one Burton Ale. And several brewers made both a 7d and an 8d version.

Fullers was unique in having no draught Stout. Really odd, that. Every other brewer had one either in the 7d or 8d class.

Every brewery had at least one of these types: Mild Ale, Pale Ale, Burton Ale, Porter/Stout. Which I suppose makes sense, as that would be the typical range of draught beers in a London pub. 

London draught beers in the late 1930s

type

price per pint

OG

BP

Ch

C

F

M C

M

TW

T

Wa

We

Wh

Y

Ale

4d

1030

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

5d

1036

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

XX

6d

1042

X

X

X

PA

6d

1042

X

X

X

PA

7d

1048

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

PA

8d

1054

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

KK

7d

1048

X

X

X

X

X

X

KK

8d

1054

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

KKK

>10d

>1070

X

X

X

Porter

5d

1036

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

Stout

7d

1048

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

Stout

8d

1054

X

X

X

X

Sources:

A Whitbread 1934 price list

Truman Gravity Book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/C/252.

Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001.

Fuller's brewing records held at the brewery

Young's brewing record held at Battersea Library, document number YO/RE/1/8.

Barclay Perkins brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number ACC/2305/01/622.

 

Brewery key:
BP	Barclay Perkins
Ch	Charrington
C	Courage
F	Fullers
M C	Mann Crossman
M	Meux
TW	Taylor Walker
T	Truman
Wa	Watney
We	Wenlock
Wh	Whitbread
Y	Young