It's not such a big jump as it might seem. Both Guinness and Bass were extensively bottled by other brewers for sale in their tied houses.
If you've been paying attention when I've been hammering away about British beer gravities in the 20th century, you'll notice that Bass suffered less from gravity cuts than most other beers. And there's the very high degree of attenuation - often well over 80%. I guess that's the Burton water for you.
Impressive stuff. That Dog's Head of circa 1900 is almost 100% attenuated which must largely explain the very high ABV for this bottling. Dog's Head was I believe a trade mark used in the Far East. I wonder if long shipment of bottle-conditioned beer to warm climes would explain the unusual dryness of the beer.
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