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.