Eldridge Pope beers 1934 - 1968

Here, as promised, is a little gap-filling, courtesy of the Whitbread Gravity book. It doesn't completely fill the hole in the brewing records, but it's still useful to see.

A couple of the names from the 1930's are familiar: Crystal Ale and Double Stout. The former, you may recall, is BAK, or bottling AK. It's fascinating to see how this beers was described over the years.  In the 1890's it was a "Light Dinner Ale", after WW II simply "Light Ale". I've long suspected that the origin of Light Ale was in longer 19th-century names like Light Bitter Ale. It's nice to have a specific example.

We can see how the gravity of these two beers has fallen since our last look at Eldridge Pope's beers, on the eve of WW I:

beer	1896	1911	% fall	1934/35	% fall
Crystal Ale	1048.5	1044.3	8.66%	1037	16.48%
Double Stout	1061.5	1059.3	3.58%	1044.2	25.46%

I need to say something about the size of the gravity drop 1911 to 1934. Between those two dates were two gravity drop events: WW I and the 1931 tax rise. That accounts for the large size of the fall.

The Dorset Brown Ale, judging by its gravity, I would guess was a tweaked version of their Mild.

Moving on to the beers from the 1950's, we've an IPA a Strong Ale and  Sweet Stout. Based on  labels, I've seen, there was probably still a plain old Double Stout in the 1950's.  I'm quite surprised that it has the same OG as the pre-war Double Stout. Less surprisingly, the FG is 50% higher.

Both the IPA and Dorset Special Ale have very reasonable gravities for the 1950's. Eldridge Pope brewed quite a few strong beers. We'll be seeing more of this when we look at their brewing records from the 1960's in more detail.

Goldie Barley Wine is a case in point. This seems to have been a precursor to Hardy Ale. It's clearly a beer that has been designed to fit the Gold Label pale style of Barley Wine slot.  The gravity is lower than Hardy Ale, but the grist is much the same.

The at 1968 Best Bitter is, let's be honest, way too weak to live up to the Best part of its name. And there's hardly any difference in strength between it and Crystal Bright, which I think was a keg version of BAK. Aaahh - could that be the beer called BK in the logs? The Best Bitter role is clearly being performed by IPA.

Next time we'll be looking at the logs from 1964. So many laughs in that lot.

Eldridge Pope beers 1934 - 1968
Year	Beer	Style	Price	size	package	Acidity	FG	OG	colour	ABV	App. Attenuation
1934	Crystal Ale	Pale Ale	7d	pint	bottled	0.05	1007.3	1037		3.86	80.27%
1935	Double Stout	Stout		pint	bottled	0.07	1013.5	1044.2		3.98	69.46%
1938	Crystal Ale	Pale Ale	4d	half pint	bottled	0.10	1005.9	1036.7	26	4.01	83.92%
1938	Dorset Brown Ale	Brown Ale	4d	half pint	bottled	0.07	1009.5	1038.2	40 + 13	3.72	75.13%
1955	India Pale Ale	IPA	1/2.5d	half pint	bottled	0.05	1012.8	1044.1	20	4.06	70.98%
1959	Dorset Special Ale	Strong Ale		halfpint	bottled	0.05	1019.9	1076.1	90	7.33	73.85%
1959	Sweet Double Stout	Stout	14d	halfpint	bottled		1020.2	1044.2	250	3.09	54.30%
1961	König Pilsener Lager	Pils	18d	half pint	bottled	0.04	1007.3	1038.6	8	3.91	81.09%
1967	Huntsman Goldie Barley Wine	Barley Wine	24d	nip	bottled	0.06	1016.9	1080.4	23	7.94	78.98%
1968	Mild Ale	Mild	18d	pint	draught	0.04	1005.6	1029.8	105	3.02	81.21%
1968	IPA	IPA	24d	pint	draught	0.04	1008	1041.5	27	4.19	80.72%
1968	Best Bitter	Pale Ale	20d	pint	draught	0.05	1005.3	1031.5	20	3.28	83.17%
1968	Crystal Bright	Pale Ale	20d	pint	draught	0.04	1005.9	1029.7	21	2.98	80.13%
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002