Friday 27 November 2015

Strong Ale in 1960

I’m starting to realise just how many series of posts I’ve left hanging, uncompleted. Time for some tidying up.

Only two posts away from the, er, finishing post on this one. Quickly rattle through this and I’m almost done. Almost.

The Which? report didn’t include a huge number of Strong Ales. Just five in total. But do you know the weird thing? I’ve brewing records for three of them: the two Younger’s beers and Final Selection. Though not for this exact year.

The one beer in the set that I’ve drunk, the legendary No. 3, is shockingly poor value. Especially if you compare it to Younger’s other Strong Ale. No. 1 (King of Ales) is just 2d more a pint, but around 50% stronger. I know which one I’d have been drinking.

Actually, that wasn’t quite right when I said No. 3 was the only one I’d drunk. Pretty Things brewed a very tasty version of Younger’s No. 1 based on the 1949 recipe. Really very nice. It was amusing too read geeks saying it was a typical Scotch Ale when the recipe bore no resemblance to the style guidelines. Not a single person spotted the secret ingredient: lactose.

I’m surprised at the relatively low level of bitterness. Especially in Final Selection as I know that it contained more the 2lbs of hops per barrel. Double the amount in King of Ales and triple the amount in No. 3.

Once again, I didn’t have enough examples from 1960 in my collection so have also used ones from 1959 and 1961. I hope you don’t mind.

As you can see, they’re all over the place in terms of strength. From the sublime Royal Toby to the ridiculous Hancock’s Strong Ale. Clearly Strong Ale was a pretty vague concept and being strong wasn’t an essential requirement.

Colour is also hugely variable, from the shade of a pale Bitter (Treble Gold) to near-black (King & Barnes Strong Ale). With most of the colours between those two extremes also represented. Though the average of just over 80 is about the shade I would expect a Strong Ale to be – dark brown.

Mansfield’s Golden Drop is spectacularly poor value – around a third more expensive than the average. While Stroud’s Charter Brew manages to be almost as cheap as Treble Gold, the only draught beer in the set. The very high degree of attenuation helps.

Strong Ale in 1960
Brewer Beer Price per pint d OG FG ABV App. Atten-uation Index of Hop Bitter price per % ABV
John Smiths Magnet Old Ale 28 1070.2 1021.7 6.30 69.09% 43 4.45
Younger, Wm. Younger's King of Ales  32 1065.9 1019 6.10 71.17% 25 5.25
Thwaites Old Dan 35 1074.6 1016.5 7.60 77.88% 30 4.61
Whitbread Final Selection Extra Strong Ale 36 1077.7 1013.7 8.40 82.37% 34 4.28
Younger, Wm. Younger's No. 3 Scotch Ale 30 1046.2 1013.05 4.30 71.75% 25 6.98
Average
32.2 1066.9 1016.8 6.54 74.45% 31.4 5.11
Source:
Which Beer Report, 1960, pages 171 - 173.

Strong Ale 1959 - 1961
Date Beer Price per pint d OG FG ABV App. Attenu-ation colour price per % ABV
Adnams Fisherman Strong Ale 28.5 1044.3 1014.3 3.88 67.72% 115 7.34
Bentleys Old Timothy 45 1074.5 1015.1 7.43 79.73% 65 6.06
Charrington Royal Toby 1077.8 1018.9 7.70 75.71% 45
Eldridge Pope Dorset Special Ale 1076.1 1019.9 7.33 73.85% 90
John Groves Stingo 1062.4 1009.5 6.93 84.78% 125
King & Barnes Golding Ale 1070.4 1017.1 6.95 75.71% 50
King & Barnes Strong Ale 1044 1011.8 4.18 73.18% 130
Lees Strong Ale 1070.0
Mansfield Brewery Golden Drop 54 1055.4 1014.9 5.06 73.10% 80 10.67
Meux Treble Gold (draught) 20 1042.7 1010.4 4.19 75.64% 21 4.77
Peter Walker Merrie England Strong Ale 51 1073.8 1023.2 6.32 68.56% 75 8.06
Ramsdens ??? Strong Ale 40 1064.8 1018.1 6.07 72.07% 70 6.59
Strong Strong 'un 1040.3 1010.2 3.91 74.69% 100
Stroud Brewery Co Charter Brew 37 1058.5 1006.3 6.85 89.23% 65 5.40
Whitakers Ramtam Strong Ale 54 1070.6 1024.8 5.93 64.87% 70 9.10
Whitakers Strong Shire Ale 24 1042.2 1017 3.25 59.72% 70 7.38
Greene King Suffolk Ale 51 1056.8 1015.7 5.14 72.36% 70 9.93
Hancock, Cardiff Strong Ale 1030
Lees Strong Ale 1070.0
St. Austell Brewery Smugglers Ale 45 1068 1019.6 6.05 71.18% 100 7.44
Watney Burton Ale 32 1053.6 1019.7 4.38 63.25% 125 7.31
Lees Strong Ale 1076.0
Offilers, Derby Derby Strong 34 1045.4 1013.6 3.98 70.04% 75 8.55
Average 39.7 1059.5 1015.8 5.55 72.92% 81.1 7.58
Source:
“Cardiff Pubs and Breweries” by Brian Glover, 2005. pages 97-101
Lees brewing records
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.


We’ll be finishing with Lagers in the final instalment.

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