Tennent's beers 1923 - 1939

As we're discussing Tennent, it seems like a good time to take a look at some of their beers.

Sadly, there's only one Pilsner and one Lager amongst them. As they are the most famous Tennent products, let's start with them.

1043º looks like a reasonable gravity for a Lager today. But what about in the 1930's? Before the war, British Lager was usually brewed to about Continental strength. I've analyses of 15 British Lagers for the inter-war years. The average OG is 1046º. Only two a weaker than the Tennent's Lager. At 78%, its apparent attenuation is a touch higher than the average of 1076º. But not much. All in all, a fairly typical beer of its type and time.

I've only 5 pre-was British Pilsener analyses. So not much to compare the Tennent's beer to. The average OG is 1050º and the apparent attenuation 80%. Tennent's Pilsener, at 1051.2º and 79% attenuation, is about dead on average.

How does that compare with the modern versions? According to RateBeer, Tennent's Lager is 4% ABV and Tennent's Pilsner3.4%. Fascinating, eh? The Lager isn't far away from the pre-war version in terms of strength. While the Pilsener has lost both one of the E's from its name and about a third of its ABV. Odd  that the Pilsner is now the weaker of the two. I wonder when the change happened?

Once again, a majority of the beers are Pale Ales. They fall into three strength groups: 1027º - 1032º, 1035º - 1039º, and 1050. The latter is a single Export PA. All of these strengths are pretty low compared to London beers. A typical Best Bitter in London was 1048º - 1050º, and an ordinary Bitter around 1040º. Beers around 1030º only existed as Light bottled Pale Ales. Though in the English provinces Pale Ales were more commonly in the low to mid 1030ºs.

The most striking difference - and one that must have struck drinkers, too - is the colour. Quite a few of the samples are over 40º Lovibond. That's pretty dark. London Pale Ales were 20º to 25º Lovibond. Only a couple of Tennent's beers are that colour. The variation in colour, from 25º to 48º is very large. It leads me to suspect that Tennent, like other Scottish breweries, had colour variations of the same basic beer.

The changes in Tennent's Nourishing Stout are revealing of the trends within Scotland.  The FG remains fairly constant while the OG plummets. Changing the attenuation from a fairly normal 70% to only around 50% or less. When the change started, 1932, is no surprise. There was a big rise in beer duty in 1931 that led many brewers to cut their gravities so they could keep the same retail price. It's a ph3enomenon which has repeated itself several times over the years. By the end of the 1930's, it looks like a typical sweet Scottish Stout.

The one Strong Ale doesn't tell us much. The gravity is a bit low. Closer to 1080º was more typical.

Here's the table. If you're lucky there will be a second part tomorrow.

J & R Tennent Beers 1923 – 1939
Year	Beer	Style	Price	size	package	Acidity	FG	OG	colour	ABV	App. Attenuation
1931	Lager Beer	Lager		pint	bottled		1009.3	1043.1	8	4.39	78.42%
1937	Pilsener Beer	Pils		pint	bottled	0.08	1010.8	1051.2		5.26	78.91%
1923	Beer	Pale Ale		pint	draught		1006	1038	45	4.17	84.21%
1923	Carbonated Beer	Pale Ale	4d	half pint	bottled		1007	1038	44	4.03	81.58%
1923	Carbonated Beer	Pale Ale	4d	half pint	bottled		1005.5	1039.61	45	4.44	86.04%
1923	PA 90/-	Pale Ale		pint	bottled		1006	1039		4.30	84.62%
1924	Pale Ale	Pale Ale	4d	half pint	bottled		1009.8	1037.3	48	3.57	73.73%
1926	90/-	Pale Ale		pint	bottled		1005	1035	40	3.91	85.71%
1926	PA	Pale Ale		pint	bottled		1007	1035	35	3.64	80.00%
1928	90/-	Pale Ale		pint	bottled		1008	1036	30	3.64	77.78%
1928	Export PA	Pale Ale		pint	bottled		1009	1050	25	5.35	82.00%
1929	90/- Glasgow Pale Ale	Pale Ale		pint	bottled		1008	1039.25	No. 9 Same as our standard.	4.06	79.62%
1929	90/- Glasgow Pale Ale	Pale Ale		pint	bottled		1008.5	1039.5	Between 9 - 10.	4.03	78.48%
1931	Pale Ale	Pale Ale		pint	bottled		1008	1031	31	2.98	74.19%
1931	90/-	Pale Ale		pint	bottled		1007	1031.5	30	3.18	77.78%
1931	90/-	Pale Ale		nip	bottled		1006.5	1031.5	31	3.25	79.37%
1932	Light Beer	Pale Ale		pint	bottled		1006	1047		5.36	87.23%
1933	3d Pale Ale	Pale Ale	3d	half pint	bottled		1008	1027.5		2.52	70.91%
1933	Pale Ale	Pale Ale	3d	half pint	bottled		1007	1024	25	2.20	70.83%
1938	90/- Pale Ale	Pale Ale		pint	bottled		1005	1031.5	9 – 10	3.45	84.13%
1939	60/- Ale	Pale Ale		pint	bottled		1007.8	1037.75	13 – 14	3.90	79.47%
1924	Nourishing Stout	Stout		pint	bottled		1010.8	1038.3		3.56	71.80%
1925	Nourishing Stout	Stout		pint	bottled		1011	1037		3.37	70.27%
1927	Nourishing Stout	Stout		pint	bottled		1014	1039		3.23	64.10%
1928	Nourishing Stout	Stout		pint	bottled		1015	1039		3.10	61.54%
1931	Nourishing Stout	Stout	3d	nip	bottled		1016	1039		2.97	58.97%
1932	Nourishing Stout	Stout		pint	bottled		1012	1030		2.32	60.00%
1933	Light Stout	Stout		pint	bottled		1014	1032		2.32	56.25%
1933	Nourishing Stout	Stout		pint	bottled		1015	1024		1.16	37.50%
1933	Nourishing Stout	Stout		pint	bottled		1014	1029		1.93	51.72%
1933	Nourishing Stout	Stout		pint	bottled		1013	1031		2.32	58.06%
1924	Strong Ale	Strong Ale		pint	bottled		1022	1063.3	74	5.35	65.24%
Sources:
Younger, Wm. & Co Gravity Book document WY/6/1/1/19 held at the Scottish Brewing Archive
Thomas Usher Gravity Book document TU/6/11 held at the Scottish Brewing Archive
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001