Just about the only breweries founded between 1910 and 1970 were clubs breweries. They were set up just after the end of WW I by clubs who felt exploited by brewers and who decided they'd be better off brewing their own beer. They were usually co-operatives, jointly owned by the clubs they supplied.
Yorkshire Clubs, Midlands Clubs, Northants And Leicestershire Clubs, South Wales & Monmouthshire United Clubs and Northern Clubs Federation. The last is the only one still open, though in the hands of multinational Heineken. A bit sad really.
Northern Clubs Federation did something unique. They listed their beers' gravity on the label. Very sporting of them.
Mild Ale 1032
Pale Ale 1032
Light Brown Ale 1032
Special Ale 1041
Sweet Stout 1044
Export Ale 1046
Championship Brown Ale 1050
Between 1960 and 1966 Mild Ale seems to have changed itself into Light Brown Ale. Both, I assume, were simply bottled versions of their Dark Mild.
Based on the Whitbread Gravity Book, usually my only source for this period, Pale Ale and Special Ale appear to be bottled versions of their Ordinary Bitter and Special Bitter, respectively.
Let's take a look at those gravity book entries, shall we?
Northern Clubs Federation beers | |||||||||
Year | Beer | Price | size | package | FG | OG | Colour | ABV | atten-uation |
1959 | Sweet Stout | 13d | halfpint | bottled | 1021.9 | 1048.1 | 500 | 3.37 | 54.47% |
1959 | Sweet Stout | 14d | halfpint | bottled | 1022.9 | 1047.3 | 500 | 3.14 | 51.59% |
1955 | Brown Ale | 1/1d | halfpint | bottled | 1016.5 | 1053.6 | 75 | 4.81 | 69.22% |
1960 | Brown Ale | 11d | pint | bottled | 1010.4 | 1051.4 | 70 | 5.13 | 79.77% |
1961 | Sweet Stout | 16d | halfpint | bottled | 1016.7 | 1045.6 | 300 | 3.61 | 63.38% |
1964 | Sweet Stout | 16.5d | halfpint | bottled | 1019.5 | 1046.9 | 300 | 3.43 | 58.42% |
1964 | Special Bitter | 17d | pint | draught | 1011.5 | 1040.9 | 17 | 3.68 | 71.88% |
1964 | Ordinary Bitter | 13d | pint | draught | 1004.5 | 1033.1 | 25 | 3.57 | 86.40% |
1967 | Special Bitter | 21d | pint | draught | 1010.5 | 1041.2 | 18 | 3.84 | 74.51% |
1967 | Ordinary Bitter | 17d | pint | draught | 1010.3 | 1031.9 | 30 | 2.70 | 67.71% |
Source: Whitbread Gravity Book | |||||||||
What am I doing? Trying to fill in some of the 1960's chapter of my book, that's what. It's weird. I've far more information for the 1860's.
Fantastic pump clips (or beermats?) I'd pluck for these if I saw them in at the local every time
ReplyDeleteActually, it was the Sunday Mirror that had the major beers analysed and the results published. I actually remember the article and the talk it caused at work.
ReplyDeleteI have a reproduction of the Sunday Mirror table in a book. Although it credits the Sunday Mirror, it does not give a date, but I am pretty sure that it was 1971.
It gives Federation Special a gravity of 1040.8 and 3.91% alcohol, so their analyses were pretty accurate.
All the Watney's beers were in the "Weak" category and the two weakest ones in the whole table were also Watney's. Lots of young manhood was washed away that weekend and that was the beginning of the end of Watneys.
Graham I swear there was a blog posting on the Sunday Mirror results, I could be wrong but was it not the beginning of the end for Watney's with the article?
ReplyDeleteGraham, I've posted about that newspaper article. Yes, it revealed some gravities, but not all that many. As you said, it was mainly just major national brands.
ReplyDeleteThe article was reproduced in the Batham's brewery history, if I remember correctly. You can find it here:
http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2008/07/i-blame-young.html
It was originally printed in the Daily Mirror on July 10th 1972.
Ron,
ReplyDeleteThat is not the same article. It was a Sunday Mirror article that contains 55 beers, in three tables categorised as strong, medium and weak. The beer names do not tally with the beers in your article, nor do the gravities for that matter. Worthing E is given as 1037.8 in your article, but given as 1036.8 in the Sunday Mirror article. They are certainly separate analyses.
The Sunday Mirror table seems earlier because "Watney's Red Barrel" is in the Sunday Mirror, whereas it is "Watney's Red" in your article.
It was the Sunday Mirror article that prompted Watney's to up the gravity of "Red Barrel" by a couple of points and relaunch it as "Watney's Red"
There was some remark in the article along the lines of "If Watney's mild was any weaker, it could be legally sold to children". Being branded with the label of producing the weakest beers in Britain probably hit Watney's sales hard.
However, the article cause such a stink that this was milked for weeks and resurfaced from time to time. I think it even prompted an OFT investigation. Too long ago for me to remember the details, but I actually kept the article for some time.
Sort of postscript
Aha! I've just had one of those flashes of inspiration (or memory). It was March 1971. I have just found reference to it in Michael Dunn's, Penguin Guide to Real Draught Beer, although not the table itself.
Apparently Which? performed the same exercise in 1960. Dunn reveals a couple of largish gravity drops between those dates; Ansell's bitter dropped from 1045 to 1037; Watney's Special from 1043 to 1038.
Got there in the end, but I am too lazy to amend the previous stuff.
Graham, you can understand why I assumed it was the same article as I had seen, the years and the newspaper being similar.
ReplyDeleteI can also remember there being an article in an early issue of What's Brewing along similar lines. That must have been no more than a couple of years later, 1974 or 1975.
Ron Pattinson said...
ReplyDeleteGraham, you can understand why I assumed it was the same article as I had seen, the years and the newspaper being similar.
Yes. I don't know why I remember it. I was only about 20 at the time. The 1971 article was certainly a profound turning point. It probably inspired the formation of CAMRA, which happened the same year.
You can see the effect just 18 months later. In the 1972 article many of the gravities, particularly the weaker kegs, had increased by a point or two. Watney's Red Barrel had been relaunched as "New Watney's Red".
It dealt a severe blow to Watney's from which they never recovered and probably marked the start of consumer awareness in beer quality, including my own.
It dealt a wake-up call to all the brewers.
I can also remember there being an article in an early issue of What's Brewing along similar lines. That must have been no more than a couple of years later, 1974 or 1975.
It was 1975.
About this time Watney's started removing the branding from the exterior of their pubs. Anything bright red in the external livery (as most of their pubs were), was repainted a subdued green or khaki, and all signs of Watney removed. This, they hoped, would encourage people to accidentally wander into them.
In desperation they attempted to reintroduce real ale for a while before eventually throwing in the towel and selling up in 1979.
A top-30 company to nothing in about eight years. I would love to read the board-room minutes for that period.
Many thanks for these posts,I cannot personally remember the articles but i do remember red barrel,at the time I have to admit that i did not have my now great interest in all things beer related,but it goes a long way to explain a lot of of things i remember about the taste of beers now and then,and my apparent ability to quaff far more as a younger man.and as for those terminal gravities 1022!!
ReplyDeleteThere was a nice external shot of a Watney's pub complete with Watney's Red Oval on the wall in a repeat of Minder a few days ago.
ReplyDeleteThere was also a Lancashire Club's Brewery at Barrowford and a Metropolitan and Home Counties Club's Brewery at Aylesford in Kent.
ReplyDelete