Friday 1 February 2013

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

3 comments:

Martyn Cornell said...

Thag kOnig pilsener must, surely, eb one of the earliest post WW2 small regional brewery lagers ...

Ron Pattinson said...

Martyn, quite a few regional breweries came out with Lagers around 1960. Lees were brewing one in 1959, Tolly in 1960, Greene King in 1960, Hall and Woodhouse in 1961. They're jusrt the ones I know about.

Martyn Cornell said...

Well, that's something I've missed noticing. Thanks for that. GK's couldn't have lasted long, as I remember them coming out with a bastardised "chilled pale ale" called Polar, advertised with a polar bear, about 1971-2.