Thomas Usher's beers in the 1940's

Sadly I have no details of Usher's beers during the war years so we've jumped over that and gone straight into austerity. Or should that be Austerity? Surely one of the most miserable periods in British history. All of the inconveniences food-wise, without any of fun. At least the bombing had stopped.

Working through the styles alphabetically again because, to be honest, I can't be arsed to think of a new way of doing it. Oh, look at that. They've changed Amber Ale. I can see it's no longer a version of PA 60/-. Clearly it's moved up a grade and is now PA 70/-. I can barely contain my excitement.

Now on to those Pale Ales. They did make up the vast bulk of what Usher brewed. The war has taken its toll on their gravities. And one has gone to the great ullage tank in the sky. It's pretty obvious why IPA disappeared: PA has taken the baseline gravity slot. I've prepared an additional table to demonstrate this and the changes in gravity over the war:

	1928	1931	1946	1947	1948	1949
IPA		1032
PA	1035	1034		1029	1028.5	1028
PA 60/-	1041	1040	1031	1032.5	1031.5	1031.5
PA 70/-	1048	1047		1037.5	1037.5	1037.5
PA 80/-	1055	1055	1044.25	1044.5	1044.5	1044.5

Neat eh? It makes it simple to see what the war did to Usher's gravities. It knocked approximately 10 points off them. Which left 80/- not much stronger than 60/- had been in the 1930's.

What else can I see? That Export seems to be becoming the name for 80/-. And that the gravities of 60/-, 70/- and 80/- haven't really changed since 1949. More than 60 years. That's an incredible amount of stability, if you compare it with what happened in the 60 years before 1949.

This has me puzzled still. Why is 70/- sometimes called 105/- and 80/- 120/-? I can see the pattern, but why do it? 

No Stouts this time so we'll be ending on Strong Ale. There's something unusual about the Strong Ale/Scotch Ale. The 1948 version is as strong as the one from the 1920's. Something that could be said about virtually no British beer. With a gravity of over 1090º it must have been one of the strongest beers available in Britain.

Almost, but not quite, done with Usher. I've a few more beers from the 1950's and 1960's.

Thomas Usher's beers in the 1940's
Year	Beer	Style	package	FG	OG	colour	ABV	App. Attenuation
1947	Amber Ale	Amber Ale	bottled	1009	1037		3.63	75.68%
1947	Amber Ale	Amber Ale	bottled	1012.5	1038		3.30	67.11%
1946	60/- Ale	Pale Ale	bottled	1008.5	1029.5		2.72	71.19%
1946	60/- Ale	Pale Ale	bottled	1008.5	1031		2.91	72.58%
1946	Export	Pale Ale	bottled	1011.25	1044.25		4.28	74.58%
1947	60/- Ale	Pale Ale	bottled	1006.5	1027.5		2.72	76.36%
1947	Pale Ale	Pale Ale	bottled	1009.5	1029		2.52	67.24%
1947	PA 60/-	Pale Ale	bottled	1011	1031		2.58	64.52%
1947	PA 60/-	Pale Ale	bottled	1011	1031.5		2.65	65.08%
1947	PA 60/-	Pale Ale	bottled	1006	1032.5		3.44	81.54%
1947	70/- Ale	Pale Ale	bottled	1008.5	1036.5		3.63	76.71%
1947	PA 70/-	Pale Ale	draught	1008.5	1037.5		3.77	77.33%
1947	PA 80/-	Pale Ale	bottled	1013	1044.5		4.08	70.79%
1948	PA	Pale Ale	bottled	1011	1028.5		2.26	61.40%
1948	PA 60/-	Pale Ale	bottled	1012.5	1031.5		2.45	60.32%
1948	PA 60/-	Pale Ale	bottled	1008.5	1031.5		2.98	73.02%
1948	105/- Ale	Pale Ale	bottled	1007.5	1037.5		3.90	80.00%
1948	PA 70/-	Pale Ale	bottled	1011.5	1037.5		3.37	69.33%
1948	120/-	Pale Ale	bottled	1011.5	1044		4.22	73.86%
1948	80/- Ale	Pale Ale	bottled	1010.5	1044.5		4.42	76.40%
1948	XP	Pale Ale	bottled	1015	1044.5		3.82	66.29%
1948	120/-	Pale Ale	bottled	1009	1045.5		4.75	80.22%
1949	PA	Pale Ale	bottled	1011.5	1027.5		2.06	58.18%
1949	Pale Ale	Pale Ale	bottled	1008.7	1027.9	32 brown	2.48	68.82%
1949	PA	Pale Ale	bottled	1011	1028		2.19	60.71%
1949	PA 60/-	Pale Ale	bottled	1010.5	1030		2.52	65.00%
1949	PA 60/-	Pale Ale	bottled	1014	1031.5		2.25	55.56%
1949	PA 60/-	Pale Ale	bottled	1011.5	1031.5		2.58	63.49%
1949	PA 70/-	Pale Ale	bottled	1013.5	1036		2.91	62.50%
1949	PA 70/-	Pale Ale	bottled	1008.5	1037.5		3.77	77.33%
1949	Pale Ale	Pale Ale	bottled	1007.6	1038.4	29.5 B	4.00	80.21%
1949	80/- Ale	Pale Ale	bottled	1015	1044.5		3.82	66.29%
1949	PA 80/-	Pale Ale	bottled	1014.5	1044.5		3.88	67.42%
1947	Old Scotch Ale	Scotch Ale	bottled	1020.5	1073.5		6.90	72.11%
1948	Strong Ale	Strong Ale	bottled	1024.5	1090.5		8.63	72.93%
Sources:
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/02/002