Lager ca 1955

I'm just about at the end of Andrew Campbell's description of 1950's styles. ("Hurray!", I hear you say.) We've got to Lager.

It was very much a minority style, though there was probably at least as much choice of different brands as in Britain today. Though, as I recently posted, lager accounted for about 20% of  Barclay Perkins output. The bigger profit margin Lager offered was beginning to attract the attention of the larger brewers.

"Lager

Although more popular on the continent of Europe and in the United States, there are several well-known brands of British lager - Barclay's, Graham's, Red Tower and others. With the return to normal trading, the leading Czech, German, Danish and Dutch lagers are available  in those bars that hold varied stocks. Important differences in brewing practice have already been noted. A fairly high percentage of maize flakes and a more light cured pale ale barley malts are used for light lagers, whilst dark lagers of the Munich type have many qualities of light stouts. The decoction method of mashing and very light hopping with bottom fermentation are the general rule. After the first stages of fermentation the beer is left to mature in 'lagers' or storage tanks for as long as a year. Attenuation is as high as eighty percent.

The treatment results in a beer of subtle flavour, and sometimes of deceptive alcoholic strength. The very light mild flavour is popular with the ladies. Lagers are refrigerated, most carefully filtered and can be served ice-cold without any risk of clouding or hazing.

Strengths vary. Some lagers are weak, others appear to be, their lighter flavour misleading the drinker. An average of four per cent alcohol is common. Some British lagers are rather below the average, some German lagers well above. The famous Danish Carlsberg and Tuborg brands are near the average, and some of the popular Dutch types, Oranjeboom and Heinekens, and the French beers from Alsace are of fair body and flavour."
"The Book Of Beer" by Andrew Campbell, 1956, page 94.

Popular with the ladies. I hadn't realised anyone had ever said that without irony. But I think we can excuse Campbell this one piece of condescension.

It just so happens that I have details of pretty much every Lager Campbell mentions:

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Lager in Britain in the 1950's
Year	Brewer	Country	Beer	Price	size	package	FG	OG	Colour	ABV	Atten-uation
1957	Amstel	Holland	Lager	1/9d	half	bottled	1007.2	1030.8	9.5	3.06	76.62%
1956	Artois Brewery	Belgium	Sparta Special Lager		half	bottled	1015.2	1053.2	20	4.93	71.43%
1957	Artois Brewery	Belgium	Stella Lager	1/8d	half	bottled	1007.6	1044.3	8	4.78	82.84%
1957	Barclay Perkins	UK	Pilsner Lager		half	bottled	1006.3	1035	9	3.73	82.00%
1957	Bierbrouwerij De Wereld	Holland	Piraat Lager Beer	2/-	16 oz	bottled	1005.7	1032.8	9	3.52	82.62%
1957	Brasseries Artois, Louvain	Belgium	Stella Lager		half	bottled	1006.5	1039.7	9	4.32	83.63%
1957	Carlings	Canada	Black Label	1/9d	half	bottled	1006	1031	4.5	3.25	80.65%
1957	Carlings Brewery	Canada	Black Label	2/-	half	bottled	1007.7	1036.3	75	3.71	78.79%
1957	Carlsberg, Copenhagen	Denmark	Danish Pilsner	1/8d	half	bottled	1008.4	1031.5	9	2.99	73.33%
1956	Carlton & United Breweries Ltd.	Australia	Export Lager	2/-	half	bottled	1004.5	1046.2	8	5.45	90.26%
1957	Carlton United	Australia	Fosters Export Lager	2/-	half	bottled	1005.8	1046	8.5	5.25	87.39%
1957	Dortmunder Union	Germany	Pilsener	1/9d	0.25 litre	bottled	1007.4	1042.8	8	4.61	82.71%
1956	Flowers	UK	Lager	1/6d	half	bottled	1014	1040.4	9	3.41	65.35%
1957	Flowers	UK	Lager	1/6d	half	bottled	1017.9	1045	9	3.50	60.22%
1957	Flowers Breweries Ltd.	UK	Flowers Lager		half	bottled	1017.5	1050	14	4.20	65.00%
1956	Frydenlunds Brewery, Oslo	Norway	Peak Lager	1/3d	half	bottled	1005.7	1034.3	12	3.72	83.38%
1957	Graham's	UK	Pilsener Lager	1/8d	half	bottled	1007.2	1035.6	9	3.69	79.78%
1957	Graham's Golden Lager	UK	Pilsner Lager		half	bottled	1007.3	1030.4	11	3.00	75.99%
1957	Heineken's	Holland	Lager	1/9d	half	bottled	1009	1038.7	5	3.86	76.74%
1957	Holsten Brewery, Germany	Germany	Holsten Pilsner	1/9d	half	bottled	1008.2	1044.7	8	4.75	81.66%
1955	Liebmann Breweries	USA	Rheingold Extra Dry Lager			can	1011.6	1049.8	6	4.97	76.71%
1957	Löwenbräu	Germany	Pale Bock	2/6d	0.33 litre	bottled	1014.3	1061.9	6	6.20	76.90%
1956	Miller, Milwuakee	USA	High Life (as sold to US forces in UK)	1/1d	13 fl. oz	can	1012.3	1045.7	6	4.33	73.09%
1955	National Brewery [USA]	USA	Beer			bottled	1011	1050.9	10	5.19	78.39%
1956	NV Bierbrouwerij, Holland	Holland	Breda Lager	2/-	half	bottled	1005.3	1033.2	7	3.63	84.04%
1957	Oranjeboom Brewery, Holland	Holland	Dutch Pilsener	1/9d	half	bottled	1007.8	1033.3	9	3.31	76.58%
1955	Pabst [USA]	USA	Blue Ribbon			can	1011.7	1048.9	9	4.84	76.07%
1957	Pilsner Urquell	Czech Republic	Pilsener	2/-	half	bottled	1010	1036.3	9	3.41	72.45%
1956	Red Tower Lager Brewery	UK	Red Tower Pilsner Lager	1/4d	half	bottled	1005.9	1031.2	10	3.29	81.09%
1955	Ringnes	Norway	Export Pilsener	2/-	pint	bottled	1010.9	1053.8	11	5.59	79.74%
1957	Schous Brewery, Norway	Norway	Norwegian Beer		half	bottled	1006.6	1042.2	12	4.64	84.36%
1954	Steel & Coulson	UK	Lager Beer	1/3d	half	bottled	1004.3	1032	11	3.60	86.56%
1955	Swedish Beer Export Co. Gothenburg	Sweden	Three Crowns Beer (Lager)	1/3d	half	bottled	1008.7	1052.9	9	5.77	83.55%
1955	Tennent	UK	Lager	1/3d	half	bottled	1007.7	1036.1	9	3.69	78.67%
1957	Tennent	UK	Lager Beer	1/8d	12 oz	bottled	1008.6	1040.6	11	4.16	78.82%
1957	Tuborg	Denmark	Export Beer	1/8d	half	bottled	1011.5	1052.3	7	5.31	78.01%
1957	Tuborg	Denmark	Lager	1/8d	half	bottled	1005.8	1030.7	10	3.23	81.11%
1957	Vandenheuvel, Belgium	Belgium	Ekla	1/9d	half	bottled	1008.2	1046.3	7	4.96	82.29%
1957	Wm. McEwan & Wm. Younger	UK	"MY" Export Lager	1/3d	half	bottled	1006.3	1033.6	13	3.55	81.25%
1957	Z.H.B.	Holland	Export Pilsner Lager	1/9d	half	bottled	1006.2	1031.6	10	3.30	80.38%
Source: Whitbread Gravity Book

Intriguing stuff, eh? Especially as many of today's brands are in there: Stella, Fosters, Heineken, Tennents, Skol (then still called Graham's) and Amstel.

There appears to have been little direct correlation between price and strength. For 1s 9d a half pint bottle you could get Lagers of 3.06%, 3.25%, 3.3%, 3.31%, 3.86%, 4.61%, 4.75% and 4.96% ABV. A bottle of Three Crowns Lager, weighing in at 5.77% ABV, was just 1s 3d. You explain the logic to me. Looks like they were just charging whatever they could get away with. Since, as Campbell states, it was hard for British drinkers to estimate the strength of Lager, it would have been easy for a brewery to take advantage.

Campbell wasn't far off on the alcoholic strengths. Foreign-brewed Lager averaged (at least the examples I have) 4.27% ABV. British-brewed Lagers 3.57% ABV.

Well that's the chapter on beer types finished. Now onto the one on specific beers.