Working man does not like Lager Beer

How untrue that statement would be today. Back when it was said - the late 1940's - things were a bit different. No, that's not right. Things were very different.

"WORKING MAN" DOES NOT LIKE LAGER BEER!
MR. O. J. GARDENER manager of Taylor Walker's, Ltd., is not disturbed at lhe Government's decision to import unlimited quantities of beer from the Continent. "Lager beer," he says, "is not very popular commodity, and British brewed beer can hold her own against any foreign brews. They can't import much because it won't sell. The working man won't look it."

Mr. Gardener said that his depot sells en on average about one quarter of barrel of lager to 150 barrels of ordinary draught beer.

A representative of Gray and Son, Brewers, Springfield Road, said "We are not worried the least. We still produce plenty of beer."

The Brewers Society intend to make representations to Parliament, protesting that the scheme would place British brewers at a disadvantage as foreign lagers would almost certainly be of greater gravity."
Essex Newsman - Friday 07 March 1947, page 1.

A quarter barrel of Lager to 150 of Ale means, for Taylor Walker at least, Lager was just 0.17% of sales. Next to nothing.

Brewers were worried because they were restrictions on the strength of beer they were allowed to brew. But their fear of stronger beer foreign beer was not realised. Mainly because a maximum gravity was imposed. At 1036º, it was about the same as the average for beer brewed in the UK.