Bitter! - hot

Sales of "Bitter!" are going through the roof over at Kindle. A mouse-scale roof, but better than no roof at all.

It's a funny book. I've never really pushed it. Not sure why.

Best put that right now. How does this go? Booky goodness, table perfection, recipe exposition, joke superfluity, er , loads of other crap. You know, the usual stuff my books are full of. Except about Pale Ale.

Buy "Bitter!" before you become it.

ZBF 2013

I've not been going to as many beer festivals over the last year or two. Too many clashes with other activities. Plus, in the case of Belgian festivals, the awful train service puts me off.

I like the ZBF enough that, despite the physical trouble of getting there, I'm prepared to put the effort in. And, believe me, it was quite an effort. Leuven is only about 160 km form Amsterdam, yet it takes almost 4 hours, changing 2 or 3 times, to get there by train. The Fyra, a jerry-built Italian train, that's supposed to provide a high-speed connection between Amsterdam and Brussels has been withdrawn from service for an indeterminate period while they attempt to get it to work properly. The slower, intercity service it replaced no longer runs. Which means, apart from the expensive, reservation-only Thalys, there's no direct train connection between Amsterdam and Belgium.

Getting to Leuven wasn't the end of the horror. Brabanthallen, where the festival is held, is on the outskirts of town. There's a free shuttle bus, but when we arrived there was a huge scrum waiting at the its stop. After watching the crowd swell for 15 or 20 minutes, a bus eventually arrived, onto which we were swept by the throng behind us. Quite scary, but not as bad as the ride itself. 82 standing and 44 seated passengers the bus said it could cope with. There were a lot more than that onboard, judging by the way it struggled up every incline. It barely made it to the top of one hill. But it was the cornering that got to me. Every time the bus made a sharp left turn, it leant worryingly far to the right. Unfortunately it was almost all left turns on the final approach.

Inside the festival we found seats, which is always a plus. Next to the bloke with a beard who's always in Wildeman on a Saturday afternoon. Time to survey the land and decide what to drink next. (I'd picked up a Houblon Chouffe on the way to finding a seat.) That's when I noticed where we were sitting: right next to the St. Bernardus stand. There were my next three beers sorted out: St. Bernardus Christmas Beer, St. Bernardus Abt 2009 and draught St. Bernardus Abt. I'm so adventurous.

As three and a bit hours were all the time we'd get, I only bought 12 tokens. Just eight to go. Last year I'd enjoyed Tilquin's Lambiek a lot and luckily their stand wasn't far from my seat this year. I moseyed on over and was delighted to see they'd handpulled Lambiek. All lovely and flat, just the way I like my beer. It seemed silly to just have the one, especially as I had to wait 5 minutes to get served while the barman chatted with his mate. Some of us are thirsty out here, you know. The second and third went down well. It seemed a shame to stop there, so I had another three.

Just two tokens left. Beer Nut slowed down my pace when I bumped into him beer-less and hung around a bit for a chat. By the time I got back to Mike and our seats, there wasn't a great deal of time left. Having picked up some ondescript brown beer on the last leg of my walkabout, I had a single token left. What to spend it on? Obvious, really: St. Bernardus Abt 2009.

I managed to lose Mike in Mechelen station while he was fetching a shoarma. While between trains in Antwerp, I slipped into Spar and picked up some impulse schnapps and two cans of Gordon's Platinum. Just to make the journey pass a little more quickly. The Gordon's was cannily full of beer flavour. And high in alcohol, which is what I look for most in a train beer.

I hope the train service is sorted out by next year. I'm too old for these day-long journeys. 10 hours travelling for just 3 hours boozing. It should be the other way around.

Lager arrives after WW II

It may not look like at the start of the article, but it does eventually get around to the topic of Lager. Of damned foreign Lager invading our shores.

You need to understand the context of the article. In 1947 there were still restrictions on brewing, specifically on the gravity of beer produced. There was some relaxation in 1947, allowing brewers to make slightly stronger beer. Of course, these restrictions didn't apply to continental brewers, which is why some feared foreigners would gain an unfair advantage. The solution was to limit imported beer to a maximum OG of 1036º*.

"Derby To Get Stronger Beer After Whitsun
SUPPLIES NOW "IN BREW"
Supplies of the stronger beer, already "in brew" at Ind, Coope and Allsopp's Burton breweries, will reach the firm's houses in Derby and Burton a week after Whitsun.

BASS brewers in the town are also preparing some stronger bitter, but at Marston's breweries an official stated that the gravity increase would hardly affect the strength of any of their beers.

A "Telegraph" representative was officially informed at Ind Coope and Allsopp's to-day that the old prices applying up to July, 1946, would be restored for the stronger beer.

8d. A HALF

This will mean a return to 8d. a half pint for best bitter (the present price for bitter is 7.5d. in Burton) and several other qualities of the firm's beer will be affected.

It was pointed out that the quality was not being restored in every type of beer brewed.

"We have still got to have quantity as well as quality," an official stated, "and this means that supplies of ordinary beer will have be maintained."

He added that Ind Coope houses in Derby and Burton would receive the bulk of the supply of stronger beer.

In the meantime, supplies of ordinary beer to public houses in the district from all the Burton breweries are gradually increasing each week.

QUOTA INCREASED

Many houses have received nearly double their reduced quota this week for the Whitsun holidays.

Main reaction of Burton brewers to the news of Continental beer—mainly lager at about 1s. a half-pint—arriving in this country shortly, was to ask how it is intended to send it.

They assert that bulk supply is out of the question as the acute bottle shortage in this country would make it impossible to deal with the bottling here.

If as they anticipate It is sent over already bottled, they forecast heavy losses through the non-return of bottles.
Derby Daily Telegraph - Friday 23 May 1947, page 6.

Bottled beer is pretty costly to export in comparison with bulk beer. All those bottles take up space, increase the weight and have to be returned or discarded, both expensive options.

Which foreign Lagers were imported? Glad you asked that, as it gives me a good excuse to produce another table.

You can see that most of the beers below were clearly trying to stick to the rules, though a few are a gravity point or two too high. The usual versions of beers like Tuborg, Carlsberg, Amstel and ZHB were much stronger, at or around 5% ABV. They were obviously brewing special versions just for the UK.

During the 1950's Heineken produced three versions of their Pils, one for domestic consumption, one for the UK and one for the USA.

Here they are:

Heineken's Pilsners
Year	Beer	FG	OG	colour	ABV	App. Atten-uation
1957	Pils	1012.5	1051	3.7	4.8	75.49%
1957	Pils (UK)	1007.5	1030.5	3.1	2.9	75.41%
1957	Pils (USA)	1012	1049	3.7	4.6	75.51%
Source:
Heineken (Rotterdam) brewing record held at the Amsterdam Stadsarchief, document number 834 - 1770.

Note how much weaker the UK version was. Not sure why the US version was slightly weaker. It hardly looks worth the trouble of brewing a different version.

A note on the colours. The ones from the Whitbread Gravity Book below use a large cell than the modern EBC numbers and are approximately double the modern EBC number.

Foreign Lagers 1947 - 1950
Year	Brewer	country	Beer	Style	Price	size	package	Acidity	FG	OG	colour	ABV	App. Atten-uation
1947	Carlsberg	Denmark	Lager	Lager		pint	bottled		1008	1033		3.24	75.76%
1947	Carlsberg	Denmark	Pilsner	Pils		half	bottled	0.05	1008.5	1035.6	13.5	3.52	76.12%
1947	S. Holland Brewery	Holland	Z.H.B. Lager	Lager	1/3d	half	bottled	0.06	1008.2	1032.4	11.5	3.14	71.91%
1947	Tuborg	Denmark	Pilsner	Pils		half	bottled	0.05	1009.1	1036.6	11.5	3.57	75.14%
1947	Tuborg	Denmark	Pilsner	Pils		pint	bottled		1009.5	1035.5		3.37	73.24%
1950	Amstel	Holland	Lager	Lager		half	bottled	0.06	1008.1	1033.6	15.5 B	3.31	75.89%
1950	Breda	Holland	Lager (light)	Lager		half	bottled	0.06	1007.8	1036.9	13.5 B	3.78	78.86%
1950	Carlsberg	Denmark	Lager	Lager		half	bottled	0.06	1010.9	1031.8	13 B	2.70	65.72%
1950	Ekla (Brussels)	Belgium	Lager	Lager		half	bottled	0.06	1009.6	1037.5	10 B	3.62	74.40%
1950	Lamot	Belgium	Lux Lager	Lager			bottled	0.07	1009	1048.9	7 B	5.20	81.60%
1950	Lamot	Belgium	Lager	Lager		half	bottled	0.06	1010.2	1037.4	6 B	3.53	72.73%
1950	Pilsner Urquell	Czechoslovakia	Lager	Lager			bottled	0.08	1013.5	1049	10.5 B	4.61	72.45%
1950	Pilsner Urquell	Czechoslovakia	Lager	Lager		half	bottled	0.05	1010.3	1038.9	11 B	3.71	73.52%
1950	Tuborg	Denmark	Lager	Lager		half	bottled	0.06	1006.1	1032.9	11.5 B	3.48	81.46%
1950	Tucher Brauerei	Germany	Tucher Pils Lager	Pils			bottled	0.06	1014.4	1055.1	15 B	5.29	73.87%
1950	Z.H.B.	Holland	Lager	Lager		half	bottled	0.07	1008.4	1033.7	12 B	3.28	75.07%
1950	Lowenbrau	Germany	Atomator	Bock			bottled	0.14	1025.7	1076.6	40 + 12	6.60	66.45%
1950	Lowenbrau	Germany	Pale Bock Beer	Bock		half	bottled	0.06	1013.9	1067.9	7.5 B	7.06	79.53%
1950	Spatenbrau	Germany	Doppel Spaten	Bock			bottled	0.31	1029.6	1076.7	40 + 10	6.09	61.41%
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002
Thomas Usher Gravity Book held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document TU/6/11

* "The Brewing Trade Review 1947" page 367.

Three fingers in the air

Beers from other Birmingham breweries

While I was on the Brum kick, I thought I may as well hunt out the other analyses I have from Birmingham breweries. It's not a huge number of breweries, just three in total.

I realised when I started looking into the history of M & B that one of those three had also fallen into the hands of the chaps from Cape Hill: Atkinsons. I hadn't realsied that, probably because they had closed without trace by the time I was old enough to poke my head over the top of the bar. M & B bought them in 1959 and the brewery closed in 1962. Well before my time.

Remember, way back at the start of this Birmingham series, me mentioning SPA, known Darby or Dunkirk Pale Ale? Another tasty M & B beer that was irritatingly discontinued. The beer was originally brewed by Darby's Brewery Ltd., Dunkirk Brewery, West Bromwich. They were bought by M & B in 1951 and closed in 1968.

Dare's is the odd brewery out. They didn't fall to M & B or Ansells. They were bought by Davenport in 1961. Presumably the brewery closed pretty much immediately afterwards.


Now all that dull history is out of the way, we can treat ourselves to some cool, refreshing numbers. I intended including Davenport in this post, but I've so many analyses for their beers I've spun them off into a separate post. So our Brum fun will be lasting that little bit longer.

There's not a huge amount of meat in today's sandwich. Just one thin slice of haslet. We'll start with a bite on the Mild side (I think it's about time to drop this metaphor before it gets any more strained). Dare's pair straddling the war nicely demonstrate its downward impact on gravities: from a very respectable 1047º in 1935, to 1034.6º in 1949. Coincidentally the same gravity as Atkinson's. Well, probably not coincidentally really. Especially when you realise that M & B's Mild was 1034.5º and Ansell's 1035.4º. You can't tell me that Birmingham brewers weren't checking each others gravities.

Those gravities look high for 1949 Milds. I can feel a comparison table coming on. How about London Milds of 1949?

Six of the ten London Milds are below 1030º. The strongest, Whitbread Best Ale, is just 1032.5º. I feel comforatble in saying that Birmingham Milds were stronger.

Exactly the same pattern can be seen in Dare's Bitter across the war as with their Mild: a 12.4º fall in gravity. Which maintained the differential between the two at 4º. Drum Treble Gold looks like a Keg Bitter to me. Drum was often used in names to signify keg and, at 22d a pint for a 1037º beer, it was pretty pricey. Another distinguishing feature of keg was poor value for money.

Now those Stouts. Sweet Stouts, to be more precise. I have a disproportionate number of analyses of Sweet Stout from the 1950's. Logically when you think what my main source for them is: Whitbread. Mackeson was their most important product at the time and they clearly kept a very close eye on the competition.

Atkinson's two Stouts both have firaly decenyt gravities. To put them into context, Guinness Extra Stout was 1047.4 in 1952. Though, with 84% attenuation, it was much drier. The Birmingham Stout mostly have atteniuation in the low 60's. Not as bad as Scottish Stout, but still pretty low.

I've not a great deal to say about Atkinson's Brown Ale, except that it looks like the bottled Mild type. And that the attenuation is very low at just 55%. It's the lowest for any Brown Ale of 1959 that I have details of. Most are 65-75% attenuated.

Atkinsons beers
Year	Beer	Style	Price	size	package	Acidity	FG	OG	colour	ABV	App. Atten-uation
1949	Mild Ale	Mild	1/1d	pint	draught	0.07	1004.8	1034.6	2.5 + 40	3.88	86.13%
1952	Semi Sweet Stout	Stout	1/-	half	bottled	0.06	1016.1	1046	1 R + 16 B	3.87	65.00%
1952	Punch Stout	Stout	1/-	half	bottled	0.05	1017.3	1045.3	1 R + 11 B	3.61	61.81%
1953	Punch Stout	Stout	1/-	half	bottled	0.05	1020.5	1047.6	1 + 18	3.49	56.93%
1956	Double Punch Stout	Stout	1/3.5d	half	bottled	0.05	1018.9	1051.8	500	4.25	63.51%
1959	Brown Ale	Brown Ale	13d	half	bottled	0.04	1016.5	1037	95	2.64	55.41%
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002

Dare beers
Year	Beer	Style	Price	size	package	Acidity	FG	OG	colour	ABV	App. Atten-uation
1935	Ale	Mild	6d	pint	draught	0.05	1013.7	1047		4.32	70.85%
1949	Mild Ale	Mild	1/1d	pint	draught	0.08	1006.9	1034.6	4.5 + 40	3.60	80.06%
1935	Bitter	Pale Ale	7d	pint	draught	0.06	1010.2	1051		5.32	80.00%
1947	Bitter	Pale Ale	1/2d	half	bottled	0.06	1006.7	1038.6	13 brown	4.15	82.64%
1961	Drum Treble Gold	Pale Ale	22d	pint	draught	0.04	1007.7	1037	10	3.66	79.19%
1957	Sugar Sweet Stout	Stout	1/4d	half	bottled	0.04	1014.4	1038.1	250	3.06	62.20%
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

London Mild Ales in 1949
Brewer	Beer	Style	Price	size	package	Acidity	FG	OG	colour	ABV	App. Atten-uation
Barclay Perkins	X	Mild	13d	pint	draught			1030.5	128
Charrington	MA	Mild	1/-	pint	draught	0.05	1010.3	1029.4	21 + 40	2.47	64.97%
Courage	MA	Mild	1/-	pint	draught	0.05	1008.2	1028.3	14 + 40	2.60	71.02%
Mann Crossman	Mild Ale	Mild	1/1d	pint	draught	0.06	1007.1	1031.3	14 + 40	3.14	77.32%
Meux	XX	Mild	1/-	pint	draught	0.06	1005.7	1028.3	29 + 40	2.93	79.86%
Taylor Walker	MA	Mild	12d	pint	draught	0.05	1010.5	1029.2	9 + 40	2.42	64.04%
Truman	MA	Mild	12d	pint	draught	0.06	1005.8	1029.7	12 + 40	3.10	80.47%
Watney	X	Mild	12d	pint	draught			1028.8	88
Wenlock	MA	Mild	1/-	pint	draught	0.06	1012.3	1031	13 + 30	2.41	60.32%
Whitbread	Best Ale	Mild	1/1d	pint	draught	0.05	1009	1032.5	15 + 40	3.04	72.31%
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002
Truman Gravity Book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/C/252

Most of the information about the history of the various breweries is taken from "The Brewing Industry: A Guide to Historical Records", edited by L. M. Richmond and Alison Turton, 1990, page 236; and "A Century of British Brewers plus" by Norman Barber, pages 142 and 143.

Captured Tank to Get a Drink

You've doubtless already guessed that we're in WW II again. And once again with a bottle of Lager in our hands.

The headline exaggerates somewhat. They didn't capture a tank and they didn't know there was beer to be had.

"Captured Tank to Get a Drink
Rifleman "Ginger" Johnson, K.R.R.C., was born at Aldershot — if not with silver spoon in his mouth, then with a bugle in his cradle.

The army — to him it means the regular army — claimed "Ginger" for its own when he was toddling to an army school.

There are hundreds like him in the Western Desert, and scores of his kind died in the early actions. The sand blows over their white crosses beside the long road to Benghazi and beyond.

"Ginger" was in town last night. Town means Cairo. It was his first break with the desert for three months. He talked of Tobruk, the Omars, and the Tamars, which recall to those who know these "blasted heaths" a comradeship forged in fear and courage.

"Talking of bottles" said "Ginger," "in June, four of us were sitting near the Bir Hachcim track when my mate says - "What couldn't I do with a bottle of beer now ?"

"Suddenly he gets up, and, pointing the south, shouted — "Here comes a draw - straight from Berlin."

"He was right, too, for lurching our way was a Mark IV. and a truck. We had an A.T. rifle and couple of dozen sticky bombs. And with what cover there was in the scrub waited for the balloon to go up.

Tank Flared Up.

"The Mark IV. halted, puzzled, then wandered around. The Boche truck stopped and three blokes got out with rifles. We watched 'em for a while and also my mate, who was creeping forward with the bombs. I opened on the truck and hit him with the A.T. rifle first round.

"The tank came towards us. Then George — him with the bombs — darts in and hits it square with a couple. She flares up and a couple of Jerries get out and start to run. They get about five yards and call it a day.

"Meanwhile we had worked round to the truck and found ten bottles of lager. Jerry must have seen us opening a bottle for they came in with their hands up."
Evening Telegraph - Tuesday 25 August 1942, page 8.

Had I been in the Western Desert, I guess I'd have felt like a beer 100% of the time. What with all that sun, sand and constant danger of having your head blown off. Though I would have preferred something other than warm Lager. A nice Dark Mild would have gone down better in the heat.

Having heard tales all my life of how relatively gentlemanly the combat in the desert was, I was shocked to discover that both sides regularly executed prisoners. No-one to guard them and no alternative, other than letting them go. I wonder what happened to the Germans captured in this incident?

Beers from Mitchell & Butler's other breweries

In the discussion on one of my posts about Mitchell & Butler, someone mentioned Springfield Bitter. It seemed silly not to publish what I have about that beer.

I had a soft spot for Springfield Bitter, which was a lovely beer when in good condition. I can remember serving it at Ally Pally one year and was amazed at how good a head it formed served by gravity. Nice clean flavour, too.

Springfield was brewed at the former William Butler brewery in Wolverhampton. William Butler started brewing in the 1840's and built a new brewery at Springfield in 1874. The company was bought by M & B in 1960 and closed in 1991. M & B merged with Bass in 1961.

Drinking in and around Birmingham in the 1970's, I can remember Springfield being irritatingly difficult to find. Especially as the beer sold in M & B pubs instead, Brew XI, was much inferior, despite being stronger. Pretty crap, if I'm being honest. And, inevitably, Bass Charrington eventually closed the brewery.

Highgate has a particularly weird history. Bought by M & B in 1939, it was slated for almost immediate closure, but was saved by WW II. Under  wartime rules, each brewery was allocated raw materials, based on their output before war started. By keeping Highgate open, M & B got more raw materials. Bizarrely, it not only survived the war but all the other M & B breweries, including the company's home base of Cape Hill. Bass flogged the brewery off and it continued for a while as an independent company, before going through a series of ownerships. I'm not sure if it's still open or not. I hope it is.

In the 1970's and 1980's Highgate was famous for only brewing Mild. The only such brewery in the world. Though, as you can see from the table, at a certain point a Bitter and Old Ale were also brewed.

Highgate Mild was another excellent beer that M & B seemed to want to hide. I'm not sure I ever found it in the wild around Brum. The only times I can recall drinking it were at beer festivals and in the White Horse in Parsons Green.

As a special bonus, I've included some beers from William Butler from before the takeover. The Bitter Ale is, I assume, the forerunner of Springfield Bitter.

Beers from Mitchell & Butler's other breweries
Year	Brewer	Beer	Style	package	FG	OG	ABV	App. Atten-uation
1977	Mitchell & Butler (Walsall)	Highgate Mild	Mild	draught		1034
1979	Mitchell & Butler (Walsall)	Highgate Mild	Mild	draught		1034
1981	Mitchell & Butler (Walsall)	Highgate Mild	Mild	draught		1036
1983	Mitchell & Butler (Walsall)	Highgate Mild	Mild	draught		1036
1986	Mitchell & Butler (Walsall)	Highgate Mild	Mild	draught		1036
1989	Mitchell & Butler (Walsall)	Highgate Mild	Mild	draught	1011.3	1036	3.20	68.61%
1983	Mitchell & Butler (Walsall)	Highgate Best	Pale Ale	draught		1036
1983	Mitchell & Butler (Walsall)	Highgate Old	Old Ale	draught		1055
1977	Mitchell & Butler (Wolverhampton)	Springfield Bitter	Pale Ale	draught		1035.9
1979	Mitchell & Butler (Wolverhampton)	Springfield Bitter	Pale Ale	draught		1035.9
1981	Mitchell & Butler (Wolverhampton)	Springfield Bitter	Pale Ale	draught		1037
1983	Mitchell & Butler (Wolverhampton)	Springfield Bitter	Pale Ale	draught		1037
1986	Mitchell & Butler (Wolverhampton)	Springfield Bitter	Pale Ale	draught		1036
1989	Mitchell & Butler (Wolverhampton)	Springfield Bitter	Pale Ale	draught	1009	1036	3.50	75.00%
Sources:
Good Beer Guide 1978, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1987, 1990.

William Butler beers
Year	Beer	Style	Price	size	package	Acidity	FG	OG	colour	ABV	App. Atten-uation
1930	Amber Ale	Amber Ale	6d	pint	bottled	0.06	1013.4	1036.3		2.96	63.09%
1930	Bitter Ale	Pale Ale	7.5d	pint	bottled	0.06	1010.2	1049.9		5.17	79.56%
1959	Black Satin Sweet Stout	Stout	14.5d	halfpint	bottled		1016.6	1042.2	300	3.30	60.66%
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

Most of the information about the history of the various M & B breweries is taken from "The Brewing Industry: A Guide to Historical Records", edited by L. M. Richmond and Alison Turton, 1990, page 236.