Warwick & Richardson beers 1939 - 1963

Here, as promised, is a look at the beers if Newark's other major brewery in the 20th century, Warwick & Richardson.

Just as with Holes, it covers disappointingly few different beers. Just three this time. Though there is at least one draught beer, Crystal Bitter.

Let's start with that. From the name, it sounds like a keg Bitter. It's certainly not their standard draught Bitter, because that was IPA. (IPA was still being brewed when I worked at the Castle Brewery, but only in small amounts. Only one pub in Newark, the Vine, still sold it. Odd that the Vine should as that was a former Holes pub. In all the other Courage pubs in Newark AK, a former Holes beer, was the standard Bitter.) And it also appears in the middle of a large set of analyses for keg Bitter. Many of them proudly including the word "keg" in their name.

Warwick & Richardson beers 1939 - 1963
Year	Beer	Style	Price	size	package	Acidity	FG	OG	colour	ABV	App. Atten-uation
1939	Milk Stout	Stout			bottled	0.06	1021.2	1052.4	1 + 16	4.02	59.54%
1952	Milk Maid Stout	Stout	1/2d	half	bottled	0.05	1021.7	1040.7	1R + 12B	2.44	46.68%
1953	Milk Maid Stout	Stout	1/2d	half	bottled	0.04	1022.2	1040.5	1 + 13	2.35	45.19%
1959	Milk Maid Stout	Stout	15d	half	bottled		1018.6	1039.6	250	2.70	53.03%
1961	Crystal Bitter	Pale Ale	18d	pint	draught	0.06	1009.1	1038	20	3.61	76.05%
1963	Tankard Light	Pale Ale	12d	half	bottled	0.04	1006.8	1033.6	23	3.35	79.76%
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity Book document LMA/4453/D/02/001 held at the London Metropolitan Archives
Whitbread Gravity Book document LMA/4453/D/02/002 held at the London Metropolitan Archives

At 1038º, it's quite possible that Crystal Bitter was a kegged version of IPA. That's about the right gravity for a brewery's standard Bitter. 1s 6d a pint - how good value was that? If we take a look at other keg Bitters of the day, that should give us some idea. Handily, I've got a good set from the Whitbread Gravity Book. Forty seven in all.

1961 Keg Bitters
Year	Brewer	Beer	Price (pence)	size	package	Acidity	FG	OG	colour	ABV	App. Atten-uation
1961	Howcrofts	Silver Keg	14	pint	draught	0.04	1006.9	1037.3	20	3.80	81.50%
1961	John Smith	Golden Keg Ale	14	pint	draught	0.04	1009	1039.1	19	3.76	76.98%
1961	West Country Breweries	Star Bright Keg	16	pint	draught	0.04	1004.6	1029.8	22	3.15	84.56%
1961	Gibbs Mew	Blue Keg	18	pint	draught	0.17	1002.8	1034.7	24	3.99	91.93%
1961	Greene King	Pressure Bitter	18	pint	draught	0.11	1006.7	1034.6	25	3.49	80.64%
1961	Groves & Whitnall	Red Rose Keg Bitter	18	pint	draught	0.10	1003.1	1037.6	18	4.31	91.76%
1961	Rhymney	Silver Drum	18	pint	draught	0.04	1007.1	1035.1	17	3.50	79.77%
1961	Threllfalls	Keg Bitter	18	pint	draught	0.04	1004.9	1038.5	17	4.20	87.27%
1961	Dryborough	Keg	19	pint	draught	0.08	1006.8	1037.6	10	3.85	81.91%
1961	Walkers	Goblet Pale Ale	19	pint	draught	0.11	1006.4	1037.9	17	3.94	83.11%
1961	Birkenhead Brewery	Keg Gold	20	pint	draught	0.11	1006.5	1043.1	23	4.57	84.92%
1961	Evan Evans Bevan	Crown Bitter	20	pint	draught	0.05	1004	1036.7	20	4.09	89.10%
1961	Everards, Leicester	Golden Bitter	20	pint	draught	0.05	1003.7	1037.6	14	4.24	90.16%
1961	Newcastle Breweries	Exhibition Cannister	20	pint	draught	0.05	1005.3	1044.2	18	4.86	88.01%
1961	Rhymney	Hobby Horse	20	pint	draught	0.04	1007.3	1036.4	13	3.64	79.95%
1961	St. Austell	Extra	20	pint	draught	0.07	1005.6	1039.9	25	4.29	85.96%
1961	Vaux	Keg Beer	20	pint	draught	0.08	1002.2	1034.8	14	4.07	93.68%
1961	Brickwoods	Sunshine Keg Bitter	21	pint	draught	0.07	1008.4	1035	28	3.33	76.00%
1961	Devenish	High Life	21	pint	draught	0.05	1007.1	1038.9	24	3.98	81.75%
1961	Ind Coope	Red Hand	21	pint	draught	0.13	1011	1036.7	18	3.33	70.03%
1961	Matthew & Co.	Buffalo Ale	21	pint	draught	0.06	1013.7	1044.6	27	3.86	69.28%
1961	Tennant Bros.	Keg Bitter	21	pint	draught	0.05	1005	1036.8	15	3.97	86.41%
1961	Truman	Keg Bitter	21	pint	draught	0.06	1006.2	1039	16	4.27	84.10%
1961	Wadworth	Golden Keg	21	pint	draught	0.11	1005.6	1035.1	23	3.69	84.05%
1961	Courage, Barclay	Keg Bitter	22	pint	draught	0.06	1003.3	1041.2	19	4.95	91.99%
1961	Dares	Drum Treble Gold	22	pint	draught	0.04	1007.7	1037	10	3.66	79.19%
1961	Friary	Drum Treble Gold	22	pint	draught	0.05	1006	1041.5	26	4.44	85.54%
1961	Gibbs Mew	Red Keg	22	pint	draught	0.11	1003.7	1040.4	21	4.59	90.84%
1961	Home Brewery	5 Star	22	pint	draught	0.05	1007.7	1047.5	18	4.97	83.79%
1961	West Country Breweries	Double Gloucester Keg	22	pint	draught	0.06	1004.6	1037.9	25	4.16	87.86%
1961	Ansell	King Pin Bitter	23	pint	draught	0.05	1004.4	1044.8	17	5.05	90.18%
1961	Mitchell & Butler	Anker	23	pint	draught	0.04	1010.9	1043.4	16	4.06	74.88%
1961	Starkey, Knight & Ford	Star Keg	23	pint	draught	0.07	1008	1042.3	27	4.29	81.09%
1961	Watney	Red Barrel	23	pint	draught	0.08	1006.6	1038.6	26	4.16	82.90%
1961	Arkells	King Keg	24	pint	draught	0.04	1007.2	1040.5	20	4.16	82.22%
1961	Flowers	Keg	24	pint	draught	0.04	1012.5	1039.3	27	3.35	68.19%
1961	Fremlin	Keg	24	pint	draught	0.04	1005.8	1040.4	23	4.33	85.64%
1961	Gibbs Mew	Anchor Keg	24	pint	draught	0.06	1004.4	1040.6	24	4.52	89.16%
1961	Hancock	Barley Brite	24	pint	draught	0.10	1006.7	1038.5	17	3.97	82.60%
1961	Lacon	Keg Bitter	24	pint	draught	0.06	1007.1	1040.1	17	4.12	82.29%
1961	Norman & Pring	Tan Bitter	24	pint	draught	0.04	1005.2	1038.4	18	4.15	86.46%
1961	Southams	Pressure PA	24	pint	draught	0.16	1007.1	1045.8	17	4.84	84.50%
1961	Strongs	Barley Corn Bitter	24	pint	draught	0.04	1006.3	1037.6	23	3.91	83.24%
1961	Tomson & Wotton	Bitter	24	pint	draught	0.11	1004.1	1037.7	20	4.20	89.12%
1961	Whitbread	Tankard Bitter	24	pint	draught	0.05	1011	1038.6	18	3.58	71.50%
1961	Tollemache	Tolly Keg	26	pint	draught	0.05	1006.9	1038.1	26	3.90	81.89%
	Average		21.15			0.07	1006.46	1038.94	20.04	4.08	83.43%
1961	Warwick & Richardson	Crystal Bitter	18	pint	draught	0.06	1009.1	1038	20	3.61	76.05%
Source:
Whitbread Gravity Book document LMA/4453/D/02/002 held at the London Metropolitan Archives

1s 6d, or 18d, is definitely at the low end, price-wise. The average of those 47 is just over 21d. Some of the more expensive examples, like Whitbread Tankard, were the same strength but considerably more expensive at 2s, or 24d, per pint. That's a third more. The equivalent cask Bitters from these breweries were several pence cheaper per pint. Just as today, keg was shit value compared to cask. It makes you wonder why anyone has ever drunk the stuff.

You can see that that Crystal Bitter is very close to being average in terms of gravity and colour. It's just attenuated a bit less than most other keg Bitters.

Of course Whitbread Tankard is probably the reason for all the other analyses. It looks like they're checking out beers competing with it. Much the same as they obsessively analysed Milk Stouts.

Which moves us nicely along to Milk Maid Stout. As I'm sure I've already mentioned, my Mum's preferred beer. She was dead pissed off when they stopped brewing it. You can see how the ABV dropped right down after WW II, under the combined weight of a fall in both gravity and rate of attenuation. Just as well my Mum wasn't drinking for the buzz. You can see what terrible value for money it was. Under 3% ABV, yet a pint would cost you more than two shillings.

And finally we come to another beer called Tankard. I'm surprised Whitbread didn't have that name tied up. Or, that if it was already in use, they didn't pick another name for their keg Bitter. I know from labels that there was a second beer, Tankard Dark. As Tankard Light is obviously a Light Ale, I don't think it's a huge leap of faith to assume that Tankard Dark was a Brown Ale.

There are two more Newark breweries whose beers I have details of. Any guesses who they are?