London vs provincial beer in the 1930's: Bitter

In the second part of this series we'll be taking a look at Bitter brewed inside and outside London.

Despite several London brewers (Truman and Mann, among other) owning breweries in Burton, there was a considerable amount of Pale Ale brewed in London. It made up a big chunk of the beer brewed at Whitbread's Chiswell Street brewery. While Courage brewed none in London, bringing it in from a plant they owned in Alton, Hampshire.

First it's the turn of London Bitters. I'd say that there were two types 8d and 7d Pale Ales. Nos. 12 and 14 are the former, the others the latter. Which leaves a rather muddied picture, especially as the number of samples is small.

Composition of London Beers
					Calories per pint.
	Total Solids per cent.	Absolute Alcohol (by weight) per cent.	Ratio of Total Solids to Alcohol (T.S.=1).	ABV	Solid Matter.	Alcohol.	Total.
Bitters and Pale Ales.
No. 10	4.37	3.88	1:0.88	4.93	102	154	250
No. 11	3.44	3.79	1:1.10	4.81	80	151	231
No. 12	4.64	4.36	1:0.93	5.54	108	173	281
No. 13	2.81	3.38	1:1.20	4.29	65	134	199
No. 14	3.63	4.21	1:1.15	5.35	85	167	252
Average	3.78	3.92	1:1.03	4.98	88	156	245
Source:
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 38, Issue 1, January-February 1932, pages 84 - 88.

Note the very low figure for residual solids. These beers are all pretty well attenuated.

Now for country Bitters, which are even more diverse:

Composition of Country Beers
					Calories per pint.
	Total Solids per cent.	Absolute Alcohol (by weight) per cent.	Ratio of Total Solids to Alcohol (T.S.=1).	ABV	Solid Matter.	Alcohol.	Total.
Bitters and Pale Ales.
No. 50	5.23	4.54	1:0.86	5.77	122	180	302
No. 51	4.63	4.66	1:1.00	5.92	108	185	293
No. 52	2.45	2.97	1:1.21	3.77	57	118	175
No. 53	3.98	3.76	1:0.94	4.78	93	149	242
No. 54	4.02	4.40	1:1.09	5.59	94	175	269
No. 55	4.45	4.08	1:0.91	5.18	104	162	266
No. 50	3.04	4.05	1:1.33	5.14	71	121	192
No. 57	5.63	3.16	1:0.58	4.01	131	125	256
No. 58	0.87	3.27	1:0.47	4.15	160	130	290
No. 59	4.37	3.13	1:0.71	3.98	102	124	226
No. 60	4.15	3.56	1:0.85	4.52	97	141	238
No. 61	6.19	3.70	1:0.59	4.70	144	147	291
No. 62	4.34	3.08	1:0.70	3.91	101	122	223
No. 63	4.88	3.46	1:0.70	4.39	114	137	251
No. 64	5.23	4.24	1:0.81	5.38	122	168	290
No. 65	4.05	3.83	1:0.94	4.86	94	152	246
No. 66	2.23	2.40	1:1.07	3.05	52	95	147
No. 67	2.58	2.78	1:1.07	3.53	60	110	170
No. 68	3.11	3.18	1:1.00	4.04	72	120	198
No. 69	4.00	3.65	1:0.91	4.64	93	145	238
No. 70	4.69	4.23	1:0.90	5.37	109	168	277
Average	4.29	3.62	1:0.84	4.60	100	142	242
Source:
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 38, Issue 1, January-February 1932, pages 84 - 88.

That's quite a spread of ABV's, from 3.05% to 5.92%. Anything under 4% ABV was pretty weak for a Bitter in the early 1930's.

Once again, the London beers are stronger, but in this case it's the country beers which have more residual sugars. The two balance out, leaving the calorific value of London and Country Pale Ales nearly identical.

Now a direct comparison of the averages:

					Calories per pint.
	Total Solids per cent.	Absolute Alcohol (by weight) per cent.	Ratio of Total Solids to Alcohol (T.S.=1).	ABV	Solid Matter.	Alcohol.	Total.
London	3.78	3.92	1:1.03	4.98	88	156	245
Country	4.29	3.62	1:0.84	4.60	100	142	242
% difference	11.89%	-8.29%	-0.31%	-8.29%	12.00%	-9.86%	-1.24%

I'm not really seeing a pattern yet. Other than London beers containing more alcohol.