Bottled IPA in the 1950’s

Still can’t be arsed to take on draught Mild. Too much like hard work. So I’ve gone for a relatively easy option: IPA.

Though I know IPA is quite popular in some quarters. Also a thing known as English-style IPA, which has little in common with many of the beers we’ll see.

Talking of styles, I’ve split this bunch into three groups. Not a totally arbitrary exercise this time. I’ve chosen as a dividing line the spot where there was a big gap in gravities: 1036.6 to 1043.1; 1053.5 to 1058.7. Leaving us with weak IPAs: 1030 to 1036.6; mid-strength IPAs: 1043.1 to 1053.5; and strong IPAs: 1058.7 to 1063.7. It seems like they form these groups quite naturally.

You can see how much fun this is going to be. Because two of the three groups are totally unlike the “official” English IPA, which has a gravity range of 1050 to 1075. What’s particularly amusing are the Bass examples. The fit the guidelines pretty well, but were marketed as Pale Ale, not IPA.

It’s clear that IPA was a vague term, that meant different things to different brewers. The range of gravities is enormous, from 1030 to 1063.7. Do they form a single style? Are some of them mislabelled? Did anyone back in the 1950’s give a toss about any of that? I think not.

To anyone who says: “That isn’t an IPA. It’s a Bitter or a Pale Ale.” My reply is, don’t you think it’s a bit arrogant to impose your definition of IPA on a brewer in the past? And drinkers. If they were happy to call it IPA, who are we to call them deluded?

I knew this was a good topic. Lots of opportunity for ranting. Not done much of that of late. Mellowed or worn out? You decide.

Call me a traditionalist, but let’s start with the weakest first. The least IPA-ey, you could say.

Bottled weak IPA in the 1950's
Year	Brewer	Beer	Price per pint (d)	Acidity	OG	FG	ABV	App. Attenua- tion	colour
1958	Bernard	IPA (Bottling)			1030	1010	2.59	66.67%
1955	Wm. Younger	IPA	19	0.04	1030.2	1006.9	3.02	77.15%	22
1956	Barclay Perkins	IPA	20	0.04	1030.5	1007.3	3.01	76.07%	19
1958	Bernard	IPA	25	0.04	1030.6	1008.9	2.71	70.92%	50
1954	Barclay Perkins	IPA	19	0.05	1031.2	1007.5	3.07	75.96%	19
1959	Usher	IPA	20	0.03	1032.3	1008.4	2.99	73.99%	18
1955	Vaux & Co	IPA	18	0.05	1032.9	1008.2	3.20	75.08%	30
1959	Greene King	IPA	20	0.04	1033.3	1010	3.02	69.97%	25
1956	Whitbread	PA	22	0.05	1033.5	1005.8	3.60	82.69%	20
1954	Whitbread	Pale Ale	21	0.05	1034	1005.2	3.75	84.71%	22
1955	Whitbread	Pale Ale	22		1034.5
1959	Whitbread	Pale Ale	24		1034.7	1007.8	3.49	77.52%	18
1959	Whitbread	Pale Ale	24	0.04	1034.7	1008.4	3.41	75.79%	19
1956	Hope & Anchor Brewery, Sheffield	IPA	24	0.04	1036.6	1008	3.71	78.14%	18
	Average		21.4	0.04	1032.8	1007.9	3.20	75.74%	23.3
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.
T & J Bernard's brewing records held at the Scottish Brewing Archive

You’ve probably spotted something there: the Whitbread beer is called Pale Ale. But in their brewing records it’s called IPA. Up until 1958, when the name changes to WPA. So you can ignore the 1959 examples if you like. But it was the same beer.

What’s weird is that the analyses come from the Whitbread Gravity Book. And they called it a Pale Ale, even though they must have been able to read the label of the beer they were sampling. The answer probably is that they didn’t really differentiate between Pale Ale, IPA, Bitter and Light Ale. They were all flavours of Pale Ale for them.

You can see the eccentric relationship between Scottish brewing and colour. Edinburgh brewery Bernard’s IPA is way darker than any of the others.

The football is on so I don’t want to waste much time. You can read can’t you? Average attenuation, quite pale colour, not that strong.

Mid-strength:

Bottled mid-strength IPA in the 1950's
Year	Brewer	Beer	Price per pint (d)	Acidity	OG	FG	ABV	App. Attenua- tion	colour
1955	Hansons	IPA	22	0.04	1043.1	1007.8	4.60	81.90%	19
1955	Eldridge Pope	IPA	29	0.05	1044.1	1012.8	4.06	70.98%	20
1955	Flowers	IPA	28	0.05	1045.9	1009.7	4.71	78.87%	25
1957	McEwan	Export IPA	32.5	0.05	1046.4	1010.7	4.64	76.94%	22
1954	McEwan	India Pale Ale		0.05	1048.6	1008.2	5.27	83.13%	24
1954	Courage	John Courage IPA	28	0.05	1050.4	1011.2	5.10	77.78%	20
1959	Courage	IPA	32	0.05	1050.7	1010.8	5.19	78.70%	23
1959	Bass	Pale Ale	32	0.02	1050.7	1010.7	5.21	78.90%	17
1959	Worthington	India Pale Ale	32	0.02	1051.6	1011.5	5.22	77.71%	18
1956	Bass	Pale Ale (Blue Triangle)	34	0.04	1051.9	1012.4	5.14	76.11%	21
1956	Bass	Pale Ale (Red Triangle)	34	0.05	1053.5	1004.1	6.48	92.34%	20
	Average		29.1	0.04	1048.8	1010.0	5.06	79.39%	20.8
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.

Now I’m getting less certain of my classifications. Just noticed that the top four are versions of the Bass/Worthington strong IPA’s. They clearly dropped the gravities in the second half of the Sixties.

Odd that this set is paler than the last. But let’s keep moving along . . .

The strong set:

Bottled strong IPA in the 1950's
Year	Brewer	Beer	Price	Acidity	OG	FG	ABV	App. Attenua- tion	colour
1953	Bass	Blue Label PA	24	0.08	1058.7	1013.8	5.85	76.49%	18.5
1953	Bass	Pale Ale (Blue Triangle purchased in Belgium)		0.04	1060.8	1010.5	6.58	82.73%	21
1953	Worthington	India Pale Ale		0.04	1061.1	1013.5	6.21	77.91%	27
1955	Bass	Pale Ale (Red Triangle)		0.04	1063.2	1009.6	7.02	84.81%	19
1955	Worthington	India Pale Ale (Green Shield)		0.05	1063.3	1009.4	7.06	85.15%	18
1955	Bass	Pale Ale (Blue Triangle)		0.07	1063.5	1003.1	7.96	95.12%	19
1955	Worthington	India Pale Ale (White Shield)		0.05	1063.7	1002.9	8.02	95.45%	18
	Average		24.0	0.05	1062.0	1009.0	6.96	85.38%	20.1
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.

This is really a single beer. Blue Triangle was the pasteurised version of bottled-conditioned Red Triangle. And Green Shield was the processed version of White Shield. Just differently packaged and processed versions of one beer.

This lot is way the most highly attenuated. As you would expect of genuine Burton Pale Ales. Also the palest. Ponder on that while I watch the footy.