William Murray's beers in the 1940's and 1950's

Now the end is near and we face the final curtain. Yes, you'll be glad to hear this is the last part of my series on the beers of William Murray.

I'll work through the styles in alphabetical order. It's as good a method as any. So we'll be starrting with Brown Ale. Do you remember me saying, many years ago, what a diverse bunch Brown Ales were? Here's proof. Both are way too strong, even the one at 1037º. In the late 1940's a typical Brown Ale would have been around 1030º.  The stronger one, well, it's got me wondering whether I typed it in wrongly. That's very strong for just about any style in 1950.

There's something else about the Brown Ales worth mentioning: the colour.  Those values, if my conversion is correct, are around 50 EBC. At the dark end of the spectrum for a Brown Ale.

Don't you just love the random use of shilling designations for the Pale Ales. There are 60/-, 70/- and 105/- examples with very similar gravities around 1030º. That's about right for an Ordinary Bitter in the 1940's. The ones from 1940 and 1946 are probably the same beer. The difference in gravity being the effect of WW II.

What really draws my attention, though, are those ones with Export in the name. They look very much like, er, Export. The modern 80/- type thing. I'm becoming convinced that the term, at least the way it's used in style nazi fiction, is a post-war phenomenon.

Those two Stouts are very different in style. The Export Stout looks like a pre-WW I Stout. Perhaps it was genuinely brewed for export. The high degree of attenuation is very unlike most post-war Scottish Stouts. The colour, 350, is pretty much opaque black.

The weak , sweet one looks more typical. Interesting that it has a higher FG than the Export Stout, despite having a much lower OG. 175 is on the pale side for a Stout. Just about enough to be in Stout territory.

Finally the Strong Ales, or as the brewery called them, Heavy Ales. Funny, isn't it, that although Export was being used in the modern sense around 1950, Heavy wasn't. Clearly it's still being used as a synonym for "strong". The gravity is very decent for the immediate post-war period. Many Strong Ales were under 1050º.

Obviously these beers don't necessarily include the whole of Murray's range, but there is one obvious omission: any sort of Mild Ale. The style seems to have been dead as a doornail pretty much by the time WW II rolled around. So a good 50 years before it suffered the same fate in most of England.

William Murray beers in the 1940's and 1950's
Year	Beer	Style	Price	size	package	FG	OG	colour	ABV	App. Atten-uation
1949	Brown Ale	Brown Ale	1/-	pint	bottled	1010	1037.8	18 + 40	3.60	73.54%
1950	Brown Ale	Brown Ale	1/-	half pint	bottled	1013.4	1057.1	11 + 40	5.69	76.53%
1940	Pale Ale	Pale Ale		pint	bottled	1005.75	1036.25		3.97	84.14%
1946	60/- Ale	Pale Ale		pint	bottled	1007	1028.5		2.79	75.44%
1947	105/- Ale	Pale Ale	15d	pint	bottled	1004.5	1032		3.58	85.94%
1947	70/- Ale	Pale Ale	15d	pint	bottled	1006.5	1032.5		3.38	80.00%
1947	Pale Ale	Pale Ale		pint	bottled	1009.5	1031		2.78	69.35%
1949	PA 60/-	Pale Ale		pint	bottled	1006	1030		3.12	80.00%
1949	Pale Ale	Pale Ale		half pint	bottled	1010.5	1029.5		2.45	64.41%
1949	Strong Pale Ale Export	Pale Ale		pint	bottled	1010.5	1038.5		3.63	72.73%
1954	Export Ale	Pale Ale			bottled	1016	1044	23	3.62	63.64%
1955	Export Ale	Pale Ale	1/3d	half pint	bottled	1010.7	1044.5	25	4.39	75.96%
1959	"Wee Murray" Pale Ale	Pale Ale	10d	half pint	bottled	1011.2	1032.7	30	2.69	65.75%
1955	Export Stout	Stout	1/3d	nip	bottled	1015.8	1064.6	350	6.36	75.54%
1959	Extra Sweet Stout	Stout	14d	halfpint	bottled	1018.3	1039.6	175	2.74	53.79%
1947	Heavy Ale	Strong Ale		pint	bottled	1017.25	1066.25		6.38	73.96%
1955	Heavy Ale	Strong Ale	1/3d	nip	bottled	1021	1071.7	105	6.59	70.71%
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002
Thomas Usher Gravity Book document TU/6/11 held at the Scottish Brewing Archive