Drinking Keg

I spent most of last weekend drinking keg. A terrible admission, I know. I drank a couple of bottles, but mostly pints of luvverly keg.

None of this "craft" keg shit. I wouldn't go within a million miles of that filth. No, I was drinking proper, traditional Keg Bitter. The sort of stuff your grandfather might have drunk back in the 1960's. Pedigree, Old Speckled Hen and John Smiths Extra Smooth. There was Tetley's on offer, too, but I refuse to drink that since the closure of the Leeds brewery.

I was surprised how easily the stuff went down. Two or three pints an hour, no problem. From dawn till dusk, almost. And without getting that drunk, because, let's face it, the stuff isn't that strong. Not like that horrible modern keg that's stuffed with alcohol and other nastiness. No, with traditional Keg Bitter you need a double whisky with every other round if you want to have any impact on your ability to stand and speak. Either at the same time or separately.

Perhaps you're wondering why I spent a weekend on keg. Where is a better question. A place full of pubs, but with only keg beer: Gibraltar.

All this talk of Keg Bitter is making me thirsty. Thirsty for some cool, refreshing numbers. I just happen to have an apposite set. mostly courtesy of Whitbread's wonderful Gravity Book.

I suppose I should discuss the numbers a bit. All the beers are generally similar: OG 1037-1040º, attenuation averaging 80%. They're slightly above the average gravity for all beer brewed in the UK (1037º) but incredibly over-priced for their strength. The one outlier - 1972 Greene King King Keg - is the only one that's a reasonable price.

For example, the Courage Keg Bitters of 1957 and 1961 were 1041-1042º and cost 22-24d and 20-22d. In 1960, Alton IPA from the same company had an OG of  1050º and cost just 16d.

In 1960, Flower's Bitter was 19d a pint, while their Keg Bitter (of about the same strength) the year before and the year after was 22d and 24d respectively. Greene King's King Keg of 1968 cost the same as Abbot Ale which was almost 10 gravity points stronger.

Why did people drink Keg Bitter? Because it was fasionable.

Over-priced, trendy, processed beer - surely that could never become popular again?

The Keg Bitter in Gibraltar was a pretty reasonable 3 quid a pint.

Keg Bitter 1957 - 1972
Year	Brewer	Beer	Price	size	package	Acidity	FG	OG	colour	ABV	App. Atten-uation
1961	Arkells	King Keg	24d	pint	draught	0.04	1007.2	1040.5	20	4.16	82.22%
1967	Bass, Burton	Bass Keg	28d	pint	draught	0.04	1007	1038	23	4.03	81.58%
1961	Birkenhead Brewery	Keg Gold	20d	pint	draught	0.11	1006.5	1043.1	23	4.57	84.92%
1966	Campbell, Hope & King	Crown Keg			bottled	0.04	1010.9	1036.2	16	3.16	69.89%
1968	Charles Wells	Nogger (Keg)	28d	pint	draught	0.06	1004	1040.4	25	4.55	90.10%
1966	Charrington	Toby Keg	27d	pint	draught	0.03	1008	1038.2	25	3.92	79.06%
1966	Courage	Tavern Keg	26d	pint	draught	0.05	1007.3	1038	22	3.99	80.79%
1966	Courage	Tavern Keg	28d	pint	draught	0.04	1009.1	1038	24	3.75	76.05%
1957	Courage & Barclay	Keg Bitter	22d to 24d	pint	draught	0.06	1006.6	1042.8	22	4.72	84.58%
1967	Courage & Barclay	Tavern Keg	28d	pint	draught	0.03	1007.8	1038.3	27	3.96	79.63%
1961	Courage, Barclay	Keg Bitter	20d to 22d	pint	draught	0.06	1003.3	1041.2	19	4.95	91.99%
1961	Dryborough	Keg	19d	pint	draught	0.08	1006.8	1037.6	10	3.85	81.91%
1959	Flowers	Keg Bitter	22d	pint	draught	0.04	1010.7	1039	23	3.54	72.56%
1961	Flowers	Keg	24d	pint	draught	0.04	1012.5	1039.3	27	3.35	68.19%
1961	Fremlin	Keg	24d	pint	draught	0.04	1005.8	1040.4	23	4.33	85.64%
1960	Gibbs Mew	Blue Keg Bitter	18d	pint	draught	0.05	1007.6	1036	25	3.55	78.89%
1961	Gibbs Mew	Anchor Keg	21d to 24d	pint	draught	0.06	1004.4	1040.6	24	4.52	89.16%
1961	Gibbs Mew	Red Keg	22d	pint	draught	0.11	1003.7	1040.4	21	4.59	90.84%
1968	Greene King	King Keg	28d	pint	draught	0.02	1006.8	1038.4	20	3.95	82.29%
1972	Greene King	King Keg	14p	pint	draught		1008.5	1037		3.20	77.03%
1968	Hall & Woodhouse	Keg Bitter	25d	pint	draught	0.04	1007	1035.1	22	3.51	80.06%
1967	Harvey's (Lewes)	Keg	26d	pint	draught	0.05	1009.2	1038	24	3.60	75.79%
1961	John Smith	Golden Keg Ale	22d to 24d	pint	draught	0.04	1009	1039.1	19	3.76	76.98%
1964	John Smith	Golden Keg	24d	pint	draught	0.05	1009.4	1039.1	23	3.71	75.96%
1961	Lacon	Keg Bitter	24d	pint	draught	0.06	1007.1	1040.1	17	4.12	82.29%
1960	Marston	Burton Keg	21d	pint	bottled	0.05	1006.8	1036	20	3.65	81.11%
1968	Mew Langton	Island Keg	27d	pint	draught	0.05	1006.6	1037.6	19	3.87	82.45%
1968	Ridley	Keg	27d	pint	draught	0.04	1005.7	1034.3	24	3.57	83.38%
1967	Scottish Brewers	Tartan Keg	29d	pint	draught	0.03	1008.8	1036.9	25	3.51	76.15%
1967	Shepherd Neame	Top Hat Keg	28d	pint	draught	0.04	1006.7	1038.4	19	3.96	82.55%
1959	Simonds	Keg Bitter	22d	pint	draught	0.04	1007.3	1037.4	19	3.76	80.48%
1961	Starkey, Knight & Ford	Star Keg	23d	pint	draught	0.07	1008	1042.3	27	4.29	81.09%
1968	Strongs	Barley Corn Keg	27d	pint	draught	0.08	1007.8	1037.4	45	3.70	79.14%
1961	Tennant Bros.	Keg Bitter	21d	pint	draught	0.05	1005	1036.8	15	3.97	86.41%
1961	Threllfalls	Keg Bitter	17d to 18d	pint	draught	0.04	1004.9	1038.5	17	4.20	87.27%
1961	Tollemache	Tolly Keg	24d to 26d	pint	draught	0.05	1006.9	1038.1	26	3.90	81.89%
1967	Tollemache	Keg	27d	pint	draught	0.04	1010.8	1034.6	33	2.97	68.79%
1959	Truman	Keg Bitter	22d	pint	draught	0.04	1008.8	1040.5	22	4.12	78.27%
1961	Truman	Keg Bitter	21d	pint	draught	0.06	1006.2	1039	16	4.27	84.10%
1966	Truman	Keg Bitter	28d	pint	draught	0.24	1006.4	1038.6	21	4.19	83.42%
1968	Truman	Keg Bitter	27d	pint	draught	0.05	1004.6	1039.9	21	4.61	88.47%
1961	Vaux	Keg Beer	20d	pint	draught	0.08	1002.2	1034.8	14	4.07	93.68%
1957	Watney	Keg Bitter	24d to 26d	pint	draught	0.06	1007.6	1039.4	23	4.14	80.71%
1961	Yates's Castle Brewery, Ardwick	Keg	20d	pint	draught	0.05	1006.8	1037.8	16	3.88	82.01%
1959	Younger, Wm. & Co	Keg Bitter	19d	pint	draught	0.04	1007.8	1043.7	55	4.68	82.15%
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002
Daily Mirror July 10th 1972, page 15