Draught Bitter in 1960

Table time again. The words are still rationed, owing to me having spoken too much last weekend. I don’t have an infinite supply of these things, you know.

Having obtained some fresh, juicy numbers, courtesy of Boak and Bailey, I thought I’d do something with them. As 1960 marks the end of the period I’m currently focussing on, it seems a good excuse to take a look at the state of British beer then.

Boak and Bailey’s data came from a Which? Report into beer from 1960. It’s hard to imagine how much in the dark drinkers were about the strength of the beer back then. Brewers were very secretive about how strong their beer was. With good reason. Their reflex reaction to tax increases  had long been to cut gravities. By not telling their customers about gravities, they hoped they might not notice their beer was getting weaker.

This report and the occasional newspaper article were the only times beer strengths were ever detailed. I know kicking CAMRA is a modern sport, but it was they who dragged beer gravities out into the open. In the late 1970’s, as brewers wouldn’t say how strong their beers were, CAMRA had them analysed themselves. And published the results in the Good Beer Guide. Once the information was out in the open, some brewers started to publish their gravities. Eventually legislation obliged them to include it on beer labels.

But back in the dark days of 1970, the only way to get an idea of the strength of a beer was its name and price. Though those indicators weren’t 100% reliable. There are plenty of examples of Best Bitter in the tables below that aren’t very best. They range from 1032º to 1048º. As average gravity was around 1037º at this time, I would expect a Best Bitter to be stronger than that.

You’ll notice that several beers appear in both tables. I’m reassured that the prices mostly match, as do the gravities to within a few percentage points.

The bitterness number which appears in the Which? Table is something called “Index of Hop Bitter”. Not sure exactly what that is, but it doesn’t look far off an IBU number to me. Perhaps a touch lower. It amuses me that one of the beers with the highest bitterness is From William Younger, a Scottish brewery. Weren’t they supposed to use almost no hops in Scotland?

There’s a huge variation in value for money, as indicated by the final column, which gives the price in pennies of 1% ABV.  I’m pleased to see that the winner of this particular race, by a whisker, is Carlisle State Management. A nationalised brewery. And it’s reassuring to see that by far the worst value for money is a keg beer, Flowers Bitter. You’ll note that the average price per % ABV is very similar for both tables, 4.21d and 4.22d.

That’s me done. I’ll leave you with the lovely tables.

Draught Bitter in 1960
Brewer	Beer	Price per pint d	OG	FG	ABV	atten-uation	bitterness	price per % ABV
Ansells	Bitter	17	1045.3	1010.7	4.50	76.38%	31	3.78
Worthington	"E"	18	1041.8	1006.5	4.60	84.45%	28	3.91
Bass	Red Triangle	18	1043.1	1008.5	4.50	80.28%	34	4.00
Carlisle State Management	Bitter	14	1038.2	1008.2	3.90	78.53%	28	3.59
Charrington	India Pale Ale	19	1044.9	1013.25	4.10	70.49%	37	4.63
Courage & Barclay	Bitter	17	1040.3	1010.25	3.90	74.57%	40	4.36
Flowers	Keg Bitter	22	1039.1	1012.8	3.40	67.26%	33	6.47
Fremlins	Best Bitter	21	1044.7	1009.3	4.60	79.19%	34	4.56
Friary Meux	Bitter	13	1034.9	1007.2	3.60	79.37%	28	3.61
Georges	Bitter	13	1030.9	1004.75	3.40	84.63%	24	3.82
Greenall Whitley	Bitter	14	1034.4	1005.95	3.70	82.70%	40	3.78
Greene King	Bitter	15	1037.0	1006.25	4.00	83.11%	33	3.75
Hammond United	Best Bitter	16	1035.5	1004.05	4.10	88.59%	20	3.90
Ind Coope	Bitter (BB)	15	1037.7	1008.4	3.80	77.72%	36	3.94
John Smiths	Best Bitter	16	1036.8	1010.55	3.40	71.33%	40	4.71
Tennant	Best Bitter	16	1038.3	1006.05	4.20	84.20%	30	3.81
Tennant	Queen's Ale	18	1041.7	1008.6	4.30	79.38%	35	4.18
Thwaites	Bitter	16	1035.8	1006.6	3.80	81.56%	32	4.21
Truman	Bitter	16	1037.6	1007.6	3.90	79.79%	30	4.10
Ushers	Bitter	13	1031.9	1008.75	3.00	72.57%	25	4.33
Vaux	Best Bitter	15	1034.8	1005.6	3.80	83.91%	22	3.95
Watney	Special Bitter	19	1043.1	1014.5	3.70	66.36%	33	5.14
Whitbread	Bitter	17	1037.4	1009.65	3.60	74.20%	35	4.72
Wilson	Bitter	15	1036.1	1006.1	3.90	83.10%	35	3.84
Younger, Wm.	Bitter	18	1043.9	1010.8	4.30	75.40%	40	4.19
Average		16.44	1038.6	1008.4	3.92	78.36%	32.12	4.21
Source:
Which Beer Report, 1960, pages 171 - 173.

Draught Bitter in 1960
Brewer	Year	Price per pint d	OG	FG	ABV	atten-uation	Colour	price per % ABV
Bass	Bitter	21	1044	1009.8	4.45	77.73%	19	4.72
Beasley	Bitter	15	1034.3	1004.5	3.72	86.88%	35	4.03
Blatch Brewery	Bitter	14	1031.8	1003.9	3.49	87.74%	20	4.01
Burt & Co.	Best Bitter	13	1032.6	1004.5	3.51	86.20%	20	3.70
Charles Wells	Bitter	18	1034.4	1006.6	3.48	80.81%	18	5.18
Charrington	Ordinary Bitter	14	1033.8	1008	3.35	76.33%	18	4.18
Charrington	Best Bitter	19	1044.5	1012.9	4.10	71.01%	24	4.64
Clinch	Bitter	13	1034	1006.1	3.49	82.06%	20	3.73
Courage & Barclay	Directors' Bitter	24	1048.8	1008.4	5.27	82.79%	26	4.56
Courage & Barclay	Bitter	17	1040.4	1009.1	4.07	77.48%	23	4.18
Courage & Barclay	Alton Pale Ale	17	1040.4	1009.4	4.03	76.73%	25	4.22
Dunmow Brewery	Bitter	14	1033.6	1006.6	3.37	80.36%	25	4.15
Flowers	Bitter	19	1040.6	1008.8	3.97	78.33%	24	4.78
Fremlin	XXX Bitter	14	1035.5	1005.7	3.72	83.94%	26	3.76
Friary	Bitter	14	1033.8	1005.2	3.57	84.62%	20	3.92
Friary Meux	Treble Gold	18	1042.3	1008.9	4.18	78.96%	23	4.31
Fullers	London Pride	20	1042.3	1010.5	4.13	75.18%	24	4.85
Fullers	Ordinary Bitter	16	1032.2	1005.3	3.50	83.54%	24	4.58
Garne & Sons	Best Bitter	17	1042.9	1009.5	4.18	77.86%	30	4.07
Garne & Sons	Bitter	13	1031.2	1004.3	3.36	86.22%	21	3.87
Gibbs Mew	Blue Keg Bitter	18	1036	1007.6	3.55	78.89%	25	5.07
Gray's	Bitter	13	1033.6	1006.1	3.44	81.85%	21	3.78
Greene King	Abbot Ale	22	1051.3	1007.9	5.43	84.60%	20	4.06
Greene King	Best Bitter	15	1038.4	1007.4	3.88	80.73%	20	3.87
Greene King	Ordinary Bitter	13	1033.9	1005.7	3.53	83.19%	26	3.69
Harvey's	Bitter	14	1033.8	1006.1	3.46	81.95%	22	4.04
Ind Coope	Double Diamond	19	1040.2	1010	3.92	75.12%	22	4.85
McMullen	Best Bitter	16	1041.1	1010.8	3.79	73.72%	25	4.22
McMullen	Ordinary Bitter	15	1037	1008	3.63	78.38%	22	4.14
Mew Langton	Best Bitter	18	1037	1008.6	3.55	76.76%	19	5.07
Morland	Bitter	14	1035.6	1006.1	3.69	82.87%	18	3.80
Morrell	Best Bitter	15	1035.3	1005.3	3.75	84.99%	23	4.00
Morrell	Light Bitter	12	1030.7	1005	3.21	83.71%	17	3.74
Rayments	Best Bitter	14	1035.7	1006.4	3.66	82.07%	22	3.82
Rayments	Bitter	12	1030.3	1004.1	3.27	86.47%	18	3.66
Ridley	Best Bitter	21	1047	1007.8	4.90	83.40%	22	4.29
Ridley	Ordinary Bitter	14	1034.2	1009.8	3.05	71.35%	19	4.59
Simonds	Best Bitter	19	1042.3	1007.5	4.35	82.27%	17	4.37
Simpson & Co.	Bitter	15	1036.2	1008	3.53	77.90%	24	4.26
Star Brewery	SPA	17	1039.5	1005.8	4.21	85.32%	22	4.04
Star Brewery	Bitter	12	1029.5	1003.3	3.28	88.81%	20	3.66
Tamplin	Bitter	14	1034.3	1006	3.54	82.51%	24	3.96
Tetley	Bitter	16	1037.9	1003.7	4.28	90.24%	20	3.74
Tollemache	Bitter	16	1033.3	1003.4	3.74	89.79%	20	4.28
Truman	Best Burton Bitter	18	1042.7	1009.7	4.29	77.28%	19	4.20
Truman	Ordinary Burton Bitter	16	1037.4	1007.6	3.87	79.68%	20	4.13
Usher	Ordinary Bitter	13	1032.5	1007.3	3.15	77.54%	18	4.13
Usher, Trowbridge	Best Bitter	18	1043.6	1010	4.20	77.06%	21	4.29
Watney	Special Bitter	19	1044.2	1009.6	4.50	78.28%	26	4.22
Wells & Winch	Bitter	16	1036	1010.3	3.21	71.39%	12	4.98
Wenlock	Bitter	16	1035	1008.7	3.41	75.14%	26	4.69
Whitbread	Bitter	17	1038.5	1011	3.56	71.43%	20	4.77
Young & Co	Best Bitter	20	1048.4	1011.5	4.61	76.24%	24	4.34
Young & Co	Ordinary Bitter	15	1037.5	1006.6	3.86	82.40%	19	3.88
Average		16.15	1037.7	1007.4	3.818	80.52%	21.81	4.22
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.

I’ve a few other types of beer to plough through. Unless I get distracted.

Colbitzer beers

Here’s another DDR brewery and its beers. This is so much fun. A way of using all those DDR labels I recently picked up.

Colbitz is in Sachsen-Anhalt, about 10 km North of Magdeburg. The brewery was founded as the Colbitzer Brauerei in 1879 by Friedrich-Christoph Ritter. In 1959 it was partially nationalised and in 1972 fully nationalised. In 1991 it was returned to the family that formerly owned it. The brewery is still active.

There’s a little on their website about the beers brewed in the late 19th-century. I’m pretty sure they’ve got the top- and bottom-fermented beers the wrong way around. It reckons these were top-fermented: helles Lagerbier, Doppelmärzen, Doppelmärzen-Bock and Malzbier. And these bottom-fermented: Weißbier and Braunbier “Puparsch-Knall”.

Jumping forwards more than 100 years, this is their current beer range:

Cannewitzer beers in 2015
Beer	style	OG Plato	ABV
Colbitzer Pils	Pilsner	11.2	4.90%
Colbitzer Bock	Bock	16.8	7.10%
Colbitzer Dunkel	Dunkles	11.25	4.90%
Colbitzer Edel	Helles	11.25	4.90%
Source:
Colbitzer website http://www.colbitzer-heidebrauerei.de

Next are their beers from the DDR period, in the form of labels. Unsurprisingly, Bock and Pilsner are constants:

DDR Beer Styles

I just came across this dead handy document I’d forgotten I had. It’s TGL 7764: the official DDR standard document for beer.

One of the useful bits of information is something on beers styles. A little table documenting the characteristics of each type of beer. It’s rather longer than the table in Kunze and includes some styles I never came across. Things like Lagerbier Dunkel, Lagerbier Spezial and Dunkel.

It doesn’t include ABV, so I’ve calculated it from the OG and rate of attenuation. I’ve used the middle of the gravity range and either the middle of the attenuation range or the minimum value. What it shows is quite a narrow range of ABVs, with the vast majority of styles between 3.5 and 5%.

I’d been wondering about Doppel-Karamelbier. It always specifies Vollbier on the label, but I was fairly certain it was low ABV. The fact no rate of attenuation is specified implies to me that it’s very low. And that it’s one of those weird German styles with a normal OG, but minimal amount of alcohol. Consulting Kunze*, I see that it had an ABC of 0.63% to 1.5%. So hardly fermented at all.

Another odd feature is the number of Pilsner styles: four in total. I’m not sure why Deutsches Pilsator and Deutsches Pilsner Spezial get separate entries as their specifications seem identical. As do Lagerbier Hell and Lagerbier Spezial, Lagerbier Dunkel and Lagerbier Dunkel Spezial.

It’s handy that there’s an indication of bitterness, though I’m not sure how that relates to IBUs. It does indicate the relative bitterness of the types, at least.

You'll notice that every DDR label has TGL 7764 on it somewhere.

Here you go:

DDR beer styles 1987 - 1990
Type	OG Plato	ABV	App. Atten-uation	CO2 Content	Isohumulon Content	EBC colour
	%	%	%	% min.	Mg/l
Dunkel (Einfachbier)	5.7 - 6.2	1.84	55 - 65	0.35	3 - 11	min 79
Alkoholfreies Bier	6.5 - 7.0		10 - 15	0.42	22 - 28	max 12
Weissbier	7.0 - 8.0	2.90	min 75	0.60	nothing specified	9 - 15
Extra	8.5 - 9.0	3.41	min 75	0.45	22 - 34	max 12
Hell	9.5 - 10.0	3.82	min 75	0.40	16 - 26	max 14
Edel-Bräu Hell	10.5 - 11.0	4.23	min 75	0.42	16 - 28	max 14
Dunkel (Vollbier)	10.0 - 10.5	4.02	min 75	0.40	16 - 26	min 79
Doppel-Karamelbier	11.7 - 12.2	0.63 - 1.5	nothing specified	0.42	3 - 10	min 93
Schwarzbier	11.7 - 12.2	4.12	60 - 70	0.42	20 - 34	min 160
Deutsches Pilsner	10.5 - 11.0	4.23	min 75	0.40	22 - 34	max 12
Diabetiker-Pils	10.0 - 10.5			0.42	22 - 34	max 13
Lagerbier Hell	11.5 - 12.0	4.65	min 75	0.42	20 - 34	max 31
Lagerbier Dunkel	11.5 - 12.0	4.65	min 75	0.42	14 - 26	min 40
Lagerbier Spezial	11.5 - 12.0	4.65	min 75	0.42	20 - 34	max 31
Lagerbier Dunkel Spezial	11.5 - 12.0	4.65	min 75	0.42	14 - 26	min 40
Deutsches Pilsator	11.5 - 12.0	4.83	min 78	0.42	26 - 39	max 12
Deutsches Pilsner Spezial	11.5 - 12.0	4.83	min 78	0.42	26 - 39	max 12
Spitzenbier	12.0 - 12.5	4.86	min 73	0.45	28 - 40	max 18
Märzen	13.5 - 14.0	5.13	min 70	0.42	20 - 34	max 110
Weißer Bock oder Bockbier Hell	15.0 - 15.5	5.86	68 - 75	0.40	14 - 26	21 - 43
Dunkler Bock oder Bockbier Dunkel	15.0 - 15.5	5.62	65 - 72	0.40	10 - 25	min 83
Deutscher Porter	17.5 - 18.0	6.10	min 64	0.42	35 - 50	min 160
Source:
TGL 7764

* "Technologie für Brauer und Mälzer" by Wolfgang Kunze, 1975, page 422.