Because with cask beers, there's no problem. They've been documented by the Good Beer Guide since the 1970's. But only cask and bottle-conditioned beers. Which leaves all other forms of bottled beer and keg beer pretty much undocumented. Bit of a bummer for someone like me who's interested in every form of beer. At least from an academic point of view.
So I was delighted when Bailey (of Boak & Bailey) passed on some scans of a 1986 What's Brewing article about bottled beer. One that had lots of lovely gravities included.
It doesn't look that short a list, until you realise that for some styles, for example Stout, it's pretty much complete. Buy which I mean it includes most of the Stouts then brewed in Britain. Apart from Guinness and Courage Russian Stout. I have details for those two elsewhere.
Unfortunately, there weren't any Light Ales listed, which is a bit annoying. It's a style I'd like to trace through to its current virtual extinction. I can't think of many that are still brewed. Courage Light Ale is and maybe Harvey's still make one. How many others are there still?
Brown Ale is another former bottled favourite on its last legs. Well, apart from Newcastle Brown. Even Whitbread's Forest Brown has now gone. I'd be surprised if there were still half a dozen of the weaker type of Brown Ale still knocking around.
Strong Ales and strong Pale Ales were probably the bottled types doing best in the 1980's. Again, my division of them into Strong Ale, Old Ale and Barley Wine is pretty arbitrary. I could just as easily have classified them all simply as Strong Ale.
Bottled beers in the 1980's | ||||
Year | Brewer | Beer | Style | OG |
1986 | Sam Smith | Golden Strong | Barley Wine | 1100 |
1981 | Lorimer | Barley Wine | Barley Wine | 1074 |
1986 | Adnams | Tally Ho | Barley Wine | 1075 |
1986 | Young | Old Nick | Barley Wine | 1084 |
1986 | Whitbread | Forest Brown | Brown Ale | 1032 |
1986 | Mann | Brown Ale | Brown Ale | 1034 |
1986 | Bass (Runcorn) | M & B Sam Brown | Brown Ale | 1035 |
1986 | Home Ales | Home Brewed | Brown Ale | 1036 |
1986 | Hardy & Hanson | Special Brown | Brown Ale | 1036 |
1986 | Scottish & Newcastle | Newcastle Brown Ale | Brown Ale | 1045 |
1986 | Vaux | Double Maxim | Brown Ale | 1044 |
1986 | Sam Smith | Strong Brown Ale | Brown Ale | 1045 |
1986 | Adnam | Fisherman Brown | Brown Ale | 1042 |
1986 | Northern Clubs | Federation Strong Brown Ale | Brown Ale | 1047 |
1986 | Home Ales | Robin Hood IPA | IPA | 1045 |
1986 | King & Barnes | Old XXXX | Old Ale | 1046 |
1986 | Banks | Imperial Old Ale | Old Ale | 1096 |
1986 | Robinson | Old Tom | Old Ale | 1080 |
1986 | Gale | Prize Old Ale | Old Ale | 1095 |
1986 | Greene King | Strong Suffolk | Old Ale | 1056 |
1986 | Greene King | 5X | Old Ale | 1106 |
1986 | Young | Ramrod | Pale Ale | 1046 |
1986 | Shepherd Neame | Abbey | Pale Ale | 1045 |
1986 | Ridley | Old Bob | Pale Ale | 1050 |
1986 | Courage | Bulldog Pale Ale | Pale Ale | 1068 |
1986 | Adnam | Broadside | Pale Ale | 1068 |
1986 | Eldridge Pope | Royal Oak | Pale Ale | 1048 |
1986 | Gale | Strong Pale Ale | Pale Ale | 1062 |
1986 | Wadworth | Old Timer | Pale Ale | 1051 |
1986 | Timothy Taylor | Landlord | Pale Ale | 1044 |
1986 | Young | Strong Export | Pale Ale | 1062 |
1986 | Sam Smith | Taddy Porter | Porter | 1051 |
1986 | Whitbread | Mackeson | Stout | 1042 |
1986 | Sam Smith | Nourishing Sweet Stout | Stout | 1042 |
1986 | Sam Smith | Strong Stout | Stout | 1050 |
1986 | Hardy & Hanson | Blackamoor Stout | Stout | 1044 |
1986 | Timothy Taylor | Black Bess | Stout | 1043 |
1986 | Morrell | Malt Stout | Stout | 1042 |
1986 | Shipstone | Ship Stout | Stout | 1042 |
1986 | Courage | Velvet | Stout | 1041 |
1986 | Watney | Cream Label | Stout | 1038 |
1986 | Younger | Sweet Stout | Stout | 1032 |
1986 | Tennent | Sweetheart Stout | Stout | 1035 |
1986 | Randall (Guernsey) | Bobby Stout | Stout | 1046 |
1986 | Guernsey Brewery | Milk Stout | Stout | 1042 |
1986 | Ann Street Brewery | Mary Ann Stout | Stout | 1038 |
1986 | Belhaven | Sweet Stout | Stout | 1033 |
1986 | Brain | Extra Stout | Stout | 1043 |
1986 | Gale | Nourishing Stout | Stout | 1034 |
1986 | Greenall Whitley | Red Rose | Stout | 1040 |
1986 | Hardy & Hanson | Blackamoor Stout | Stout | 1044 |
1986 | Harvey | Sussex Sweet Stout | Stout | 1032 |
1986 | Holt | Brown Stout | Stout | 1040 |
1986 | Home Ales | Stout | Stout | 1037 |
1986 | King & Barnes | JK | Stout | 1033 |
1986 | Lees | Archer Stout | Stout | 1042 |
1986 | Morrell | Malt Stout | Stout | 1042 |
1986 | Palmer | Extra Stout | Stout | 1032 |
1986 | Sam Smith | Sweet Stout | Stout | 1042 |
1986 | Timothy Taylor | Black Bess | Stout | 1044 |
1986 | Sam Smith | Nourishing Stout | Stout | 1050 |
1986 | Sam Smith | Oatmeal Stout | Stout | 1051 |
1986 | Sam Smith | Imperial Stout | Stout | 1073 |
1981 | Elgood | Malt Stout | Stout | 1031 |
1981 | Greene King | Farm Stout | Stout | 1035 |
1981 | Robinson | Unicorn Stout | Stout | 1038 |
1981 | Devenish | S. West Stout | Stout | 1040 |
1981 | Marston | Mello Stout | Stout | 1043 |
1986 | Greene King | St. Edmund Ale | Strong Ale | 1060 |
1986 | St. Austell | Smuggler's Ale | Strong Ale | 1070 |
1986 | St. Austell | Prince's Ale | Strong Ale | 1100 |
1986 | Davenport | Top Brew de Luxe | Strong Ale | 1074 |
1986 | Davenport | Top Brew Original | Strong Ale | 1071 |
1986 | Morrell | College Ale | Strong Ale | 1073 |
1986 | Lees | Moonraker | Strong Ale | 1074 |
1986 | Holt | Sixex | Strong Ale | 1064 |
1986 | Higson | Stingo | Strong Ale | 1078 |
1986 | Harvey | Elizabethan Ale | Strong Ale | 1090 |
1986 | Harvey | Christmas Ale | Strong Ale | 1090 |
1986 | Eldridge Pope | Hardy Ale | Strong Ale | 1125 |
1981 | Paine | EG | Strong Ale | 1047 |
1981 | McMullen | Mitre | Strong Ale | 1058 |
1981 | Devenish | Crabber's Nip | Strong Ale | 1066 |
1981 | Greene King | Audit Ale | Strong Ale | 1078 |
1986 | Hoskins & Oldfield | Christmas Noggin | Strong Ale | 1100 |
1986 | Hall & Woodhouse | Stingo | Strong Ale | 1075 |
1986 | Watney | Stingo | Strong Ale | 1076 |
1986 | Broughton | Old Jock | Strong Ale | 1070 |
1986 | Godson | Stock Ale | Strong Ale | 1086 |
Sources: | ||||
GBG 1987 | ||||
What's Brewing November 1986, page 7. |
6 comments:
So green king did make 5x available to general public in bottle format, interesting
We've come across both Young's and Whitbread's Light Ale in the last couple of years. Guess the former is the same as Courage these days, and the latter is... who knows?
Is it the case that 5X was bottled, or did the source article perhaps say something along the lines of "a lighter ale is blended with 1106 5X to make Strong Suffolk" ?
Barm,
5X wasn't sold straight, only after blending.
I asked because it’s in the table, which led Oblivious to assume that it was sold in bottles.
Barm,
I assembled the table from all the OGs listed in the article. There wasn't a table in the article.
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