Ansell's beers

A post by Boak and Bailey got me thinking about Ansell's. Especially their Mild. And I've not done a table of analyses of a random brewery for a while. This post has almost written itself.

I drank a fair bit of Ansell's Mild, back in the 1970's. Mostly when we went to visit my Mum's family in Birmingham. Allied were a funny bunch. In the Midlands and North (Tetley and Ansells) their beers were pretty decent. In Yorkshire most of their pubs sold cask Bitter and Mild.

In Birmingham it was a different matter. It was common to find handpulled Mild and keg Bitter in Ansell's pubs. Which always seemed an odd combination, until you realsied that Mild was still wildly popular in Brum.

The city was a virtual duopoly, with almost all the pubs tied to either Ansell's or Mitchell and Butler. I was never that keen on M & B's beers. Their Mild was bland and their Bitter, Brew XI was sweet and dull. So Ansell's Mild was my preferred drink, when in Birmingham. Obviously, once you went west from the city, the choice dramatically improved. Out in the Black Country with Batham's, Simpkiss and Holden, the Milds were good. Very good. But I digress.

On with Ansell's beers. I'll start with the Mild, for obvious reasons. I'm a bit surprised by the gravity of the 1951 and 1960 examples. They're both above the average strength of all beer for those dates, and 3 or 4 degrees above typical Mild gravities.

As you can see, in the 1970's and 1980's there wasn't a big difference between their Bitter and Mild gravities. Just 1.5º. Their bottled Pale Ale had a decent gravity in the 1950's, in the mid 1040's.

The Stouts are possibly the most revealing beers. Why? because they show that English Stout didn't all turn sweet in the 20th century. The lowest level of attenuation is 68%. Even the 1930's Milk Stouts, which you might expect to be sweet, asre over 70% attenuation. Note also the high gravity. That wasn't unusual before WW II. It's only after the war Milk Stout became a punily weak.

Those 1950's Brown Ales look very much like bottled Mild Ales. Or, at most, tweaked versions of Mild Ale. It would have been nice to have some pre-war examples for comparison purposes.

I'd expected to find more analyses from Ansell in the Whitbread Gravity Book. Considering the size and importance of the brewery, there are rather few. But Whitbread never were that strong in the West Midlands. Maybe that explains it. I've noticed there are lots of analyses of breweries they later took over.

Ansell beers 1931 - 1986
Year	Beer	Style	Price	size	package	Acidity	FG	OG	colour	ABV	App. Atten-uation
1947	MM Ale	Ale	1/4d	pint	bottled	0.06	1007.4	1032.7	42	3.3	77.37%
1952	Nut Brown Ale	Brown Ale	8d	half	bottled	0.05	1005.8	1036.2	2 + 40	4.0	83.98%
1955	Nut Brown	Brown Ale	9.5d	half	bottled	0.05	1004.3	1036	35	4.1	88.06%
1959	Bruno Sweet Brown Ale	Brown Ale	11.5d	half	bottled	0.04	1013.6	1034.4	90	2.7	60.47%
1960	Triple Gold Light Ale	Light Ale	11d	half	bottled	0.02	1008.1	1039.1	24	3.9	79.28%
1935	Ale	Mild	6d	pint	draught	0.06	1009.7	1047		4.9	79.36%
1949	Mild Ale	Mild	1/1d	pint	draught	0.05	1007.4	1035.4	2.5 + 40	3.6	79.10%
1950	Mild Ale	Mild	1/1d	pint	draught	0.04	1005.2	1034.8	40 + 2	3.9	85.06%
1951	Mild Ale	Mild	1/3d	pint	draught	0.07	1005.7	1038.3	45	4.2	85.12%
1960	Mild Ale	Mild	13d	pint	draught			1038
1961	King Pin Mild	Mild	19d	pint	draught	0.04	1006.7	1037.6	45	3.9	82.18%
1962	King Pin Mild	Mild	22d	pint	draught	0.04	1007.4	1035.9	50	3.6	79.39%
1972	Mild	Mild	11p	pint	draught		1010.7	1033.9		3.0	68.44%
1977	Mild	Mild		pint	draught			1035.5
1979	Mild	Mild		pint	draught			1035.5
1981	Mild	Mild		pint	draught			1035.5
1986	Mild	Mild		pint	draught			1035.5
1939	Pale Ale	Pale Ale		pint	draught	0.07	1007.5	1046.4	17.5	5.1	83.84%
1952	Spotlight	Pale Ale	10d	half	bottled	0.07	1006.7	1038.3	19 B	4.1	82.51%
1955	Special Pale Ale	Pale Ale	1/1.5d	half	bottled	0.05	1009	1046.3	18	4.9	80.56%
1959	Pale Ale	Pale Ale	13.5d	half	bottled	0.03	1009.6	1046.1	18	4.6	79.18%
1961	King Pin Bitter	Pale Ale	23d	pint	draught	0.05	1004.4	1044.8	17	5.1	90.18%
1966	Pioneer Bitter	Pale Ale	28d	pint	bottled	0.04	1006.2	1036.6	23	3.8	83.06%
1977	Bitter	Pale Ale		pint	draught			1037
1979	Aston Ale	Pale Ale		pint	draught			1045
1979	Bitter	Pale Ale		pint	draught			1037
1981	Bitter	Pale Ale		pint	draught			1037
1986	Bitter	Pale Ale		pint	draught			1037
1931	Tonic Stout	Stout	8d	half	bottled	0.08	1010.2	1048.3		5.0	78.88%
1932	Tonic Stout	Stout		pint	bottled	0.08	1010.4	1050		5.2	79.20%
1935	Tonic Stout	Stout	8d	pint	bottled	0.07	1011	1050.5		5.1	78.22%
1935	Milk Stout	Stout	5.5d	half	bottled	0.07	1018.1	1060.7		5.5	70.18%
1937	Milk Stout	Stout	6d	half	bottled	0.05	1018.1	1060.8		5.5	70.23%
1944	Strong Stout	Stout	1/7d	pint	bottled	0.11	1015.5	1053.7	1 + ?	5.0	71.14%
1953	New Forest Stout	Stout	1/2d	half	bottled	0.05	1015	1049.3	1 R + 8 B	4.4	69.57%
1954	New Best Stout	Stout	1/2d	half	bottled	0.05	1015.7	1049.7	1 + 9	4.4	68.41%
1959	Newcrest Stout	Stout	14d	half	bottled		1014	1046	190	4.1	69.57%
1961	Tonic Stout	Stout	12d	pint	bottled	0.05	1012.7	1045.1	210	4.0	71.84%
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
Daily Mirror July 10th 1972, page 15
Good Beer Guide 1978, 1980, 1982 and 1987.