A nip in the air calls for

By the end of 1949 few genuinely strong beers were starteing to escape from breweries. Some were even confident enough of their ability to supply such beers that they advertised them. Like Friary, with their Audit Ale.

Audit Ales were extremely strong beers originally brewed once a year for colleges at Oxford and Cambridge. After they closed down their own brewhouses, the colleges contracted the brewing out to commercial brewers.

I'm not sure that Friary's Audit Ale has any connection with either university and genuine Audit Ales. Other than it being pretty strong.

"A nip in the air calls for FRIARY AUDIT ALE
There's nothing like a nip of Friary Audit Ale for making you forget the weather. Extra strong, and specially brewed to take the sting out of an English Winter, Friary Audit at 15/6d. per dozen nips coats that little extra — but by Jove it’s worth it!
THE STRONG ALE THAT WARMS LIKE WINE
TYLER & CO LTD
WOKING SURREY"
Chichester Observer - Saturday 03 December 1949, page 7.

And exactly how strong was extra strong? Around 8% ABV is the answer. So genuinely pretty strong. Here are the details of it and some other beers of the period, inlcuding several Audit Ales.

Audit Ale and other Strong Ales 1948 - 1958
Year	Brewer	Beer	Price per pint (d)	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour
1948	Usher	Strong Ale		1090.5	1024.5	8.63	72.93%
1949	Flower	Extra Strong		1078	1012	8.68	84.62%
1949	Fowler	Prestonpans Twelve Guinea Ale	45	1077.7	1030.3	6.13	61.00%	100
1949	Mann Crossman	Strong Ale	30	1071.2				128
1951	Barclay Perkins	Strong Ale	37	1079	1011	8.96	86.08%	120
1951	Friary	Audit Strong Ale	46.5	1084.6	1022.1	8.17	73.88%	52
1953	Friary Holroyd	Audit Ale	45	1084	1025.1	7.67	70.12%	52
1955	Dales (Brewed by Wells & Winch)	Audit Ale	36	1062.2	1023.5	5.00	62.22%	115
1955	Greene King	Audit Ale	36	1083.2	1017.7	8.59	78.73%	100
1955	Wells & Winch	Audit Ale	36	1062.2	1023.3	5.03	62.54%	115
1958	Lacons	Audit Ale	54	1095	1017.8	9.65	81.26%	90
Sources:
Truman Gravity Book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/C/252.
Thomas Usher Gravity Book held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document TU/6/11.
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.

Not that the Friary beer was quite a bit paler than all the other Audit Ales.

Beer and food pairing in the 1950’s (part two)

We’re getting to the meat now, so to speak. With specific beer and food pairings, sort of. As well as some non-parings.

First one of the latter:

“Bottled beer is becoming too popular at table. To bombard the tongue with bubbles of gas while eating is wrong. For an appetizer, yes: and at least one strong light ale now brewed with a slightly bitter tang, sold in something less than half-pints, makes an excellent aperitif. Beer, while it assists the appreciation of good food, also makes bad food endurable, and by the standards of former rough, farm-worker's fare food to-day is insipid. Mrs. Carlyle at the Frome inn could not stomach the meat, but she ate the bread with the aid of her pint of porter. In refreshment rooms a good frothy ale — and here's every excuse for bottled  — often gives a flattering zest to rigid sandwiches or cardboard-tasting pie.”
"Beer in Britain", 1960, page 105.

I wish he’d named that Strong Light Ale. Even though that’s a bit of an oxymoron. Light Ale was, by definition, not particularly strong. If it were, it would be called a Pale Ale. I guess with “something less than half-pints” he means a nip bottle. Which was a popular bottle size for stronger beers. Probably to save drinkers the shock of the price of a half or a pint.

I’m with him on fizzy beer. But it’s a problem that’s easily solved with a spoon. A minute or so’s agitation knocks most of the CO2 out of a beer.

Beer certainly will liven up crap food, or at least take your mind off it. In 1958 memories of rationing, which had only finally ended a few years earlier, in 1954, were still strong. And the often unpalatable food that was served up as a result. People had plenty of experience of eating rubbish food.

Now for some examples of cooking with beer as well as drinking it as an accompaniment to food:

“Beer has its place in food as well as with it. Welsh rarebit, when the cheese is blended with a little four-X ale, is delicious. The Suffolk farmer's pig absorbed a quantity of old ale in the curing process, being immersed for three weeks in a liquor of it before smoking. The flavours of beer, oak smoke, and barley-fed pork were combined in the result, and the fat was very rich. When a friend, thinking to give me a treat, partnered one of these hams with audit ale, he overdid it, especially as we were in a small sloop on a choppy sea. Mild beer would have been fitter. On the whole, mild is the best accompaniment to a square meal. Bitter has its virtues, and can give the motorist's appetite an edge which the walker's has gained naturally. Old beer is too sweet for a full meal: it is the ale of evening, of a companion rather than a crowd, and its accompaniment should be slight—a biscuit, or walnuts.”
"Beer in Britain", 1960, page 107.

It’s weird that he’s still calling Mild four-X Ale. True XXXX Ale hadn’t existed since before WW I. True, there were still beers called XXXX in the 1950’s, but they were just ordinary strength Mild Ales of around 3% ABV. A proper XXXX Ale was 8-10% ABV.

That marinated pig has me salivating like a dog outside a butcher’s shop. But I can see the author’s point about Audit Ale not necessarily being the best beer to slop back on a sloop. It was powerful stuff, even in the 1950’s:

Audit Ale 1951 - 1958
Year	Brewer	Price per pint d	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour
1951	Friary Holroyd	46.5	1084.6	1022.1	8.17	73.88%	51
1953	Friary Holroyd	45	1084	1025.1	7.67	70.12%	51
1955	Dales (Brewed by Wells & Winch)	36	1062.2	1023.5	5.00	62.22%	115
1955	Greene King	36	1083.2	1017.7	8.59	78.73%	100
1955	Wells & Winch	36	1062.2	1023.3	5.03	62.54%	115
1958	Lacons	54	1095	1017.8	9.65	81.26%	90
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.

I’m also with him on Mild going particularly well with food. It matches perfectly with hearty pub meals like pies, stews or fish and chips. That’s me drooling again, imagining a crusty pie, covered in rich gravy with a pint of Harvey’s Mild to wash it down.

Not all Stouts were good with food:

“Sweet stout is popular, but to me it is as mawkish as a Victorian ballad. A bitter tonic stout, on the other hand, is the best awakener of the sedentary man's digestion, or stand-by if he is hard-pressed and has only ten minutes in which to snatch a bite. A tonic stout is worth a bushel of indigestion tablets, not to mention tranquillizers.”
"Beer in Britain", 1960, page 107.

Proof, incidentally, that not all Stout other than Guinness was sweet in the 1950’s. Again, I’d have to agree with him. For most English dishes a beer like Mackeson is way too sweet. Though perhaps it might work with pudding. This talk of “tonic” is very 19th century, when doctors often recommended a Pale Ale like Bass to aid digestion.

At first I thought this next paragraph was a mention of the elusive commercial style of Home-Brewed. But I’m sure it’s meant more literally – beer brewed by someone at home.

“Finally, there is — or was — homebrewed. There was a jolly miller once who lived on a hill in Suffolk. The sails of his mill twirled merrily in March, and as often as you paid his bill he celebrated the fact with a pint of his home-brewed. It was cloudy — most home-brewed was — but very good, and an inducement to prompt payment. I remember too on my entry into a farmhouse being met by two powerful mingled odours. One came from a batch of loaves fresh from the oven. As to the other ... I sniffed questioningly. The old farmer tapped his nose, put a finger to his lips and opened a door. In a little room a mash-tub was steaming. He was breaking the law; but his tough old age and his son's and daughter's blooming health demonstrated that they understood the basic principles of good living.”
"Beer in Britain", 1960, page 107.

Home brewing wasn’t necessarily illegal in the 1950’s. It was perfectly fine, as long as you bought a licence. As late as 1960, just a couple of years before licences for home brewing were abolished, more than 1,000 were issued:

Brewing licences 1945 - 1960
	Brewers for sale
Year ending 31st March	No.	Duty paid £	Other brewers - not for sale	Total
1945	703	249,637	3,734	4,437
1946	680	255,863	3,512	4,192
1947	648	248,690	3,224	3,872
1948	625	240,265	3,073	3,698
1949	602	229,913	2,998	3,600
1950	567	212,902	2,673	3,240
1951	539	201,909	2,406	2,945
1952	524	199,122	2,225	2,749
1953	501	199,893	2,015	2,516
1954	479	197,056	1,758	2,237
1955	460	192,395	1,523	1,983
1956	426	192,956	1,396	1,822
1957	416	192,387	1,412	1,828
1958	399	198,331	1,317	1,716
1959	378	191,053	1,189	1,567
1960	358	196,675	1,055	1,413
Source:
1962 Brewers' Almanack, page 67.

Strong Ale ca 1955 (part two)

Now we're getting onto the good stuff. The beers with some real umph.

"Original gravities run from 1060º to 1100º, with alcohol from six to ten per cent by volume. Wines run from eight per cent alcohol by volume upwards. There are a few celebration or private brews of even greater strength. A King's Ale brewed by Bass on the occasion of a visit by King Edward VII was found in 1932 to have a present gravity of 1043º, which allowing for less than the usual three-quarters attenuation puts the original gravity above 1125º. To-day this would be taxed at over £1 a gallon, or about two shillings and ninepence a pint. Queen's College at Oxford still brew two handsome ales or college use: a College Ale of 1068.2º and a Chancellor Ale of 1135º, which is eleven per cent alcohol by volume.

. . . .

Strong ales are mostly dark; held up to the light they will show a rich ruby hue, some will have a brown rather than red tinge. Some are filtered, some left to mature in the bottle. Some pour without excessive head, others froth and fob vigorously. Some are well carbonated, others slightly or not at all. Some strong ales are available from the barrel, mostly from bottles. There is a close relationship between Barclay's Winter Brew, the draught beer championship winner at the 1954 Brewers' Exhibition, and their Barley Wine in bottle; and between Younger's No.1 Strong Scotch Ale on draught and their King of Ales in bottle.

Because of their strength, most strong ales are sold in 'nips', small bottles that may be of five- or six-ounce capacity, and prices range from one shilling to one shilling and sixpence. Some are sold in the usual small bottle containing about 10 oz, prices ranging from one shilling and sixpence to two shillings and sixpence. Two of the most celebrated strong ales are Bass No.1 Barley Wine and Benskin's Colne Spring Ale, which are both sold in the 10 oz bottle. Where strong ales are available on draught, and this will normally be only in winter, prices range around three shillings a pint.

Choice between strong ales is limited; rarely will a bar have more than one or two types to offer, yet they are as different as clarets or burgundies from different vineyards. Rich in aroma, they have a rather full sweet flavour which limits their popularity with drinkers of strong liquor whose palates are often attuned to dryer flavours. Some are very much dryer than others, and the informed drinker should be able to get the brand he likes, just as he can select his wine, his whisky or his cigarettes.

Now wasn't that revealing? Not all British beer was piss-weak after WW II. Just most of it.

I'm off to to select my whisky and cigarettes.

Bruno

I've been revisiting the Whitbread Gravity Book part two. At least 50% I haven't transcribed yet.
I told you it was an amazing resource.

It wasn't too hard finding where I had got to. And when I did, I remembered why I stopped there. Blurry page. And bad handwriting. No wonder I hadn't fancy it. I almost skipped it, until I noticed a Lacon's Audit Ale. I wasn't going to miss that.

In the end, there weren't as many question marks in my spreadsheet as I had feared. Only three brewery names and seven beer names I couldn't work out. See if you can do any better. An image of the page is to your right. Lines 2, 4 and 21 contain the brewery names I was unable to decypher.

And, if you're watching Jeffo, three quarters of the way down the page Gold Label puts in an appearance. The bastards have knocked down its strength of late. The 1958 version was 10.5% ABV.

I suppose I should explain the title, shouldn't I? I was getting to that. You're an impatient bunch. Never heard of trying to build tension? I thought not.

My real reason for returning to the Whitbread Gravity Book is something we've discussed recently. C Ale. I'm still hoping to find one. There are plenty of Groves & Whitnall entries. Unfortunately, all for Red Rose Stout. But I live in hope.

Brown Ale. It's surprising how many breweries made more than one in the 1950's. Whitbread had Double Brown and Forest Brown. Fullers had Brown Ale and Old Harry. A weak one and a strong one. Ansells had two as well. Nut Brown Ale and Bruno Sweet Brown Ale.

As you can see, there's a huge difference in the colour and attenuation of the two beers. Perhaps, as a Midlands brewery they were compromising and brewing both a Northern and a Southern type of Brown Ale.

Though, hang on, the Nut Brown isn't strong enough to be a Northern type. Maybe I've found a new sort of Brown Ale. A Midland Brown Ale. I should trademark that sharpish before someone steals the name.