Barclay Perkins Lagers 1940 - 1942

You didn't think I was going to let you off with just two posts about Barclay Perkins Lagers did you? I'm happy to report that we've still a way to go.

This time we're looking at Barclay's Lagers in the first half of the war. I would have done the whole war, but I haven't photographed the one covering the second half yet. It's as simple as that.

Barclay Perkins Lagers 1940 - 1942
Date	Year	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	boil time (hours)	Pitch temp	max. fermentation temp	length of fermentation (days)	colour
9th Oct	1940	Dark	Dunkles	1055.5	1015.6	5.28	71.89%	4.68	1.12	1.5	48.5º	58º	14	82
20th Oct	1941	Dark	Dunkles	1055.5	1017.0	5.09	69.37%	3.77	0.91	1.5	46º	56º	13	80
18th Feb	1942	Dark	Dunkles	1048.5	1015.4	4.38	68.25%	3.77	0.79	1.5	45.5º	56º	14	96
9th Aug	1940	Draught	Lager	1041.4	1009.2	4.26	77.78%	5.32	0.87	2	49º	58.5º	13	13
18th Oct	1940	Draught	Lager	1041.2	1009.1	4.25	77.91%	5.50	0.92	2	49º	58º	12	13
16th Jul	1941	Draught	Lager	1040.0	1010.8	3.86	73.00%	4.03	0.65	2	45º	56º	14	11
9th Feb	1942	Draught	Lager	1035.5	1008.2	3.61	76.90%	4.03	0.54	2	45.5º	56º	15	10.5
21st Aug	1942	Draught	Lager	1035.6	1009.5	3.45	73.31%	4.42	0.65	1.75	48.5º	59º	12	11.5
17th Jun	1942	Draught	Lager	1035.5	1008.4	3.59	76.34%	4.42	0.63	1.75	45.5º	55.5º	13	13
5th Aug	1940	Export	Export	1047.4	1010.2	4.92	78.48%	6.00	1.08	2	48.5º	57º	13	10.5
9th Sep	1940	Export	Export	1047.3	1010.7	4.84	77.38%	6.00	1.08	2	º	º	19	10
19th Jul	1941	Export	Export	1047.5	1015.2	4.27	68.00%	4.62	0.87	2	47.5º	56º	13	8.5
11th Feb	1942	Export	Export	1042.0	1009.1	4.35	78.33%	4.62	0.81	2	46º	55.5º	14	10
26th Aug	1942	Export	Export	1042.5	1009.2	4.41	78.35%	4.81	0.82	2	41.5º	60º	10	11
12th Aug	1940	Sparkling Beer	Lager	1045.5	1009.1	4.82	80.00%	5.00	0.92	1.5	48º	59º	12	35
14th Jul	1941	Sparkling Beer	Lager	1045.0	1012.3	4.33	72.67%	3.79	0.70	1.5	46º	56º	13	34
7th Aug	1941	Sparkling Beer	Lager	1045.0	1010.3	4.59	77.11%	3.79	0.70	1.5	45.5º	56º	14	29
31st Jul	1942	Sparkling Beer	Lager	1040.5	1009.2	4.14	77.28%	4.00	0.70	1.5	48.5º	56.5º	14	34
Source:
Barclay Perkins brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number ACC/2305/1/643.

You'll see in the table that Barclays had introduced a fourth Lager to their portfolio: Sparkling Beer. It's a bit of a puzzle to me. What style is it? The colour is a little darker than their PA (Best Bitter) and XLK (Ordinary Bitter) which were both 26. And its a little lighter than the amber version of X (Mild) and XX (Best Mild), which were both 42. In Lager terms, I guess it's in the range of a Vienna. Though I doubt that's what it claimed to be.

One of the few things I do know, is that it was an early canned beer. Whether or not that the only format it was packaged in, I'm not sure. However, the absence of it in Barclay's pub price lists suggests that it was purely and export beer.

Talking of which, I've handily got a price list from 1942. Which means I can check up on something dear to all CAMRA members' hearts: how good value for money was Lager in comparison to the top-fermenting beers? Or rather, how poor value for money was it? Turns out not to have been such poor value as I expected.

The first table is of bottled beer:

Barclay Perkins bottled beer prices in 1942
	OG	price per dozen small bottles retail (shillings)	pence per gravity point
BS	1041.4	8.5	2.46
IPA	1031.3	7	2.68
Light Lager	1042.5	10.5	2.96
Dark Lager	1048.5	11.5	2.85
Sources:
Barclay Perkins brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers ACC/2305/01/621, ACC/2305/01/623, ACC/2305/01/624, ACC/2305/01/521/1 and ACC/2305/1/643.

BS was 15% cheaper per gravity point than Dark Lager and 20% cheaper than Light Lager. IPA was 5% cheaper than Dark and 10% cheaper than Light. That's not too bad. But wait until you see the draught beers:

Barclay Perkins draught beer prices in 1942
	OG	Wholesale price per gallon (shillings)	pence per gravity point
A	1027.3	5.17	2.27
X	1028.6	5.67	2.38
XX	1031.4	6.89	2.63
KK	1043.3	8.56	2.37
Export	1042.5	8.50	2.40
Home Light	1035.5	7.42	2.51
Dark	1048.5	9.25	2.29
Sources:
Barclay Perkins brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers ACC/2305/01/621, ACC/2305/01/623, ACC/2305/01/624, ACC/2305/01/521/1 and ACC/2305/1/643.

Now that is a surprise. Only the A, the weakest Mild, cost less per gravity point than Dark. But there is a caveat. The price list gives the public bar price per pint of the top-fermenting beers but not of the Lagers. It looks as if they didn't have a recommended price. So for the draught beers the comparisons are made on the wholesale price. Presumably landlords had the freedom to boost their profit margin on draught Lager by charging what they fwelt like for it. Or maybe it just wasn't sold in public bars. Lager was still quite posh, so that is a possibility.

Getting back to the beers themselves, you can see that the hopping rate per quarter declined along with the gravity. The per quarter rate eliminates gravity from the equation, so this was a real fall in hopping, not one just keeping pace with the fall in gravity.

Interestingly, the gravities of Barclay's Lagers fell less, in percentage terms, than those of most top-fermenting beers:

Barclay Perkins fall in gravities 1939 - 1942
Beer	Style	pre-war	summer 1942	% change
Dark	Dunkles	1057.6	1048.5	15.80%
Draught	Lager	1043.5	1035.5	18.39%
Export	Export	1049.4	1040.5	18.02%
IPA (bottling)	IPA	1043.9	1031.3	28.75%
XX	Mild	1042.5	1031.4	26.14%
X	Mild	1034.9	1028.6	17.96%
A	Mild	1030.8	1027.3	11.36%
KK (trade)	Strong Ale	1055.8	1043.3	22.40%
BS	Stout	1051.5	1041.4	19.61%
LS	Stout	1046.6	1033.5	28.11%
Source:
Barclay Perkins brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers ACC/2305/01/621, ACC/2305/01/623, ACC/2305/01/624 and ACC/2305/1/643.

Only A, a wishy-washy Mild with not much to go any further gravity-wise, fell less.

One other point before I finish about fermentation temperatures. In the 1930's, the maximum temperature hit during fermentation was mostly around 53º F, with 56º F the highest. By 1942, it had risen to 56-58º F and the highest was 60º F. I would assume this was connected with the cost of keeping the wort refrigerated. It can't have been a voluntary decision, because after the war fermentation temperatures dropped back to their pre-war level.

Wondering if the brewing techniques and recipes changed? We'll be looking at that next time.