Charles Wells beers in 1952

I’ve been on a price list binge recently. I blame the newspaper archive. And the fact that that adverts are about the only place Mild Ale ever gets mentioned.

Today’s is from a brewery that’s still very much around: Charles Wells. This is the price list in question:

Bedfordshire Times and Independent - Friday 13 June 1952, page 8.

You might well ask what the point of publishing this is. It’s quite simple: to show how slimmed down breweries’ product ranges became as a result of WW II. London brewers dropped many of their less popular beers in the early years of the war. That’s what finally did for Porter.

The advert shows about the minimum range a pub could get away with. Draught Mild and Bitter; bottled Pale Ale, Brown Ale, Stout, Strong Ale and Guinness. Not even Bass or Worthington, which were available in lots of pubs, just like Guinness.

I suppose you’d like to know more about these beers. So would I. Wonder if they have any brewing records preserved? Be interesting to take a look at them. Failing that, I do have a few analyses of their beers.

Charles Wells beers 1950 - 1979
Year	Beer	Style	Price per pint d	package	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour	price per gravity point
1950	X	Mild	12	draught	1030.4				104	0.3947
1951	Mild Ale	Mild	14	draught	1028.6	1005	3.07	82.52%	75	0.4895
1960	Stout	Stout	24	bottled	1040.9	1015.3	3.20	62.59%	200	0.5868
1960	Bitter	Pale Ale	18	draught	1034.4	1006.6	3.48	80.81%	18	0.5233
1966	Charter Ale	Pale Ale	38	bottled	1055.4	1009	5.80	83.75%	27	0.6859
1968	Mild XX	Mild	19	draught	1029.8	1003.6	3.27	87.92%	70	0.6376
1968	Nogger (Keg)	Pale Ale	28	draught	1040.4	1004	4.55	90.10%	25	0.6931
1968	IPA Bitter	IPA	22	draught	1036.3	1003	4.16	91.74%	20	0.6061
1979	Fargo	Pale Ale		draught	1050
1979	Bombardier	Pale Ale		draught	1042
1979	IPA or Eagle Bitter	IPA		draught	1035
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.
Truman Gravity Book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/C/252
1980 Good Beer Guide

You can see that their IPA didn’t change a great deal between 1950 and 1979, nor their Mild between 1950 and 1968. Though by 1979 their Mild no longer existed in cask form.

For comparison purposes, here’s Guinness from the same period:

Guinness Extra Stout 1951 - 1960
Year	Beer	Style	Price per pint d	package	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour	price per gravity point
1951	Extra Stout	Stout	30	bottled	1049.1	1007.5	5.43	84.73%	1 + 8	0.611
1951	Extra Stout	Stout	31	bottled	1047.7	1008.1	5.16	83.02%	1 + 8.5	0.6499
1952	Extra Stout	Stout	28	bottled	1047.4	1007.5	5.20	84.18%	1 + 8	0.5907
1953	Extra Stout	Stout	31	bottled	1047.4	1008.7	5.04	81.65%	1 + 11	0.654
1953	Extra Stout	Stout	36	bottled	1046.3	1002.8	5.70	93.95%	1 + 8	0.7775
1960	Extra Stout	Stout	29	Bottled	1046.0	1007.7	5.00	83.37%		0.6304
1960	Extra Stout	Stout	36	Canned	1046.1	1007	5.10	84.82%		0.7809
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.
Which Beer Report, 1960, pages 171 - 173.