Northern and Scottish Mild Ale 1950 – 1954

We’re moving further north for our next peek at Mild Ale from the early 1950’s.

I wish I had more analyses. Especially for northern breweries. As that would enable me to spot patterns much better. Though I suspect it might be confusing. Because, unlike London where all Mild was dark, northern breweries had a habit of brewing two Milds, one pale and one dark. At least ones in Yorkshire and Lancashire did.

You can see the practice a little in the table. Through Lees. They had a pale Ordinary Mild and a dark Best Mild. Which in itself is a bit unusual. They were usually the other way around, the stronger Mild being the paler one. No idea why that was different at Lees.

It’s a shame that I don’t have the FG for most examples. Because for those where I do, it’s exceptionally high, leaving a couple of beer over 4% ABV. I’m looking at Vaux in particular. Speaking of Vaux, I can remember their Mild. It was a pretty rare beer in its final days, the Northeast not being a great mild-drinking area. And, unlike the one in the table, was very dark as I recall.

Mild wasn’t very common by this period in Scotland. My suspicion is that these samples were taken south of the border. Probably in London, as they were performed by Truman. Younger had pubs selling their beer in the capital, both free houses and tied houses. These would have needed to have a Mild Ale to satisfy the demands of English drinkers. Which would explain why all the samples are dark in colour.

Northern and Scottish Mild Ale 1950 - 1954
Year	Brewer	Beer	Price per pint d	Acidity	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour
1950	Lees	K			1031.0
1950	Lees	Best Mild			1035.0
1951	Groves & Whitnall	Mild Ale	14	0.04	1030.6	1004.1	3.45	86.60%	50
1951	Lees	K			1031.0				28
1951	Mitchell	Mild Ale	15	0.05	1037.2	1004.8	4.22	87.10%	60
1951	Vaux	Mild Ale	15	0.04	1035.6	1002.9	4.27	91.85%	24.5
1951	Wilsons	Mild Ale	14	0.06	1034.8	1005.3	3.84	84.77%	50
1952	Hull Brewery	Mild Ale	16	0.05	1032.1	1005.6	3.44	82.55%	85
1952	Lees	Bot. B			1035.0				35
1952	Lees	K			1031.0				34
1952	Lees	Best Mild			1034.0				100
1952	Tetley	X	13		1031.3				58
1953	Lees	Mild			1030.0
1953	Lees	Bot. B			1035.0
1953	Lees	Best Mild			1033.0				100
1953	Tetley	X	13		1031.4				58
1954	Lees	Bot. B			1035.0				35
1954	Lees	K			1031.0				35
1954	Lees	Best Mild			1035.0				100
	Average		14.3	0.05	1033.1	1004.5	3.8	86.6%	56.8
1951	Wm. Younger	X	13		1030.0				72
1952	Wm. Younger	X	14		1031.2				80
1952	Wm. Younger	X	14		1033.5				92
1953	Wm. Younger	X	14		1033.3				82
	Average		13.8		1032.0				81.5
Sources:
Lees brewing records held at the brewery.
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

Where next? The southeast, I think.

Let's Brew - 1933 William Younger No. 3

You’ve probably noticed that I have a bit of a thing about Younger’s No. 3. Probably because it was a beer I quite liked.

I drank it regularly at a couple of places in the 1980’s. The Burley Liberal Club in Leeds. And the pub just around the corner from my office on Gloucester Place in London. In my head, I was thinking strong Dark Mild. Which wasn’t totally far off the mark.

It was a nice alternative to Younger’s IPA. At the time it had an OG of 1043º, ever so slightly higher than the IPA’s 1042.2º. A few pints at lunchtime set me up nicely for an afternoon snooze back at work. By the time I’d woken up it would be time to return to the pub for a few more pints before heading home.

You’ve probably noticed that the beer below is pretty pale. It always seems to have come in a variety of shades, though dark was most popular after WW I. The colour presumably coming from caramel added at racking time. Feel free to colour this up any way you like.

There’s not really much to say about the grist. As with most Younger’s beers in the 20th century. There’s pale malt, loads and loads of grits and that’s it. I have the feeling that all that limited grits to just 40% of the total was maintaining enough malt to convert the starch. They’d probably have happily used 70% grits, if it had been practical. Their beers have the highest levels of adjuncts I’ve seen anywhere.

1933 William Younger No. 3
pale malt	7.50 lb	58.82%
grits	5.25 lb	41.18%
Cluster 90 min	1.25 oz
Fuggles 30 min	1.25 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.25 oz
OG	1055
FG	1015.5
ABV	5.23
Apparent attenuation	71.82%
IBU	39
SRM	4
Mash at	154º F
Sparge at	160º F
Boil time	135 minutes
pitching temp	59º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

East Anglia and Midlands Mild Ale 1950 – 1953

I’m getting to less specific as this series progresses. And why not?

I’m far too many analyses to make a single manageable table. Splitting them up makes sense. And it also highlights regional variations. Isn’t that fun?

Starting with the middle bit of the England. Which I’ve divided into the Midlands and East Anglia. For no particular reason, other than convenience. And I have to draw the lines somewhere. What’s fascinating about these two sets is how different they are. It tells us that Mild had considerable regional variations.

Starting with the colour. All the East Anglian Milds are dark, with the exception of the one from Grays. The average, just over 80, is well in dark brown territory. While the Midlands Milds are, except for Offiler’s, in the twilight zone between pale and dark. Significantly, that’s the only example from the East Midlands. The average of 45.9 is well short of dark brown.

There’s a big difference between the gravities, too. Remove Tollemache from the East Anglian set and the remainders are weaker than every Midlands Mild, except Offiler’s. The average ABV of the Midlands set it 0.75% higher than the East Anglian ones.

Both sets have high rates of attenuation, but it’s particularly high for the Midlands. Note that the FG’s are very similar for the two sets, despite the much higher average OG for the Midlands.

What have we learned? That in the West Midlands they liked their Mild strong but quite pale. While in East Anglia they preferred it weaker and darker.

East Anglia and Midlands Mild Ale 1950 - 1953
Year	Brewer	Beer	Price per pint d	Acidity	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour
1950	Grays	X	11		1029.1				56
1950	Lacons	X	12		1032.7				100
1951	Lacons	Mild Ale	14	0.04	1031.4	1006.9	3.18	78.03%	65
1951	Lacons	X	13		1034.4				88
1951	Morgans	Mild Ale	14	0.04	1032.4	1007.2	3.27	77.78%	65
1951	Ridley	Mild Ale	13	0.06	1030.3	1004.9	3.30	83.83%	70
1951	Tollemache	Mild Ale	14	0.04	1028.7	1005.6	3.00	80.49%	60
1951	Wells & Winch	Mild Ale	14	0.05	1029.3	1008.6	2.68	70.65%	80
1951	Young Crawshay	Mild Ale	14	0.06	1031.2	1003.7	3.58	88.14%	70
1952	Lacons	X	14		1031.9				92
1953	Tollemache	X	16		1037.7				144
	Average		13.5	0.05	1031.7	1006.2	3.17	79.82%	80.9
1950	Ansell	Mild Ale	13	0.04	1034.8	1005.2	3.85	85.06%	50
1950	Bass, Burton	Mild Ale	15	0.07	1041.4	1008	4.34	80.68%	40.1
1950	Mitchell & Butler	Mild Ale	13	0.04	1034.6	1005.4	3.80	84.39%	37
1950	Mitchell & Butler	Mild Ale	17	0.05	1034.5	1003.8	4.00	88.99%	38
1950	Mitchell & Butler	X	15		1038.4				41
1950	Offilers	Mild Ale	13	0.06	1031.2	1004.7	3.45	84.94%	70
1951	Ansell	Mild Ale	15	0.07	1038.3	1005.7	4.25	85.12%	45
	Average		14.4	0.06	1036.2	1005.5	3.95	84.86%	45.9
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

The North and Scotland next.

Large London brewery Best Mild Ale 1950 – 1954

Mild. But not just any Mild. Best Mild.

Sometimes I really wish I’d lived in the 1950’s. Hang on a minute. I did. Sometimes I really wish I’s been an adult during the 1950’s. Especially when I see strong Milds like this. In London they seem to have flowered briefly, then disappeared forever. Which is a shame. Maybe if some of the stronger versions had hung around Mild itself would have fared better.

All these stronger are Milds are from large breweries. I don’t know if that’s just the vagaries of my sample, which is pretty small in size. Or if it was generally the bigger boys that bothered with more than one cask Mild. Because that’s one thing all these beers have in common: they had a weedier younger brother with an OG of around 1030º. No brewery produced just a strong Mild.

Taylor Walker were unusual in having particularly strong branding for their Best Mild, Mainline. A beer which they pushed quite a bit. And, unusually for a Mild, was found in both draught and bottled form. Main Line Special in the table is the bottled version, which you can see was considerably stronger than its draught counterpart.

The gravity averages 7 points higher than for Ordinary Mild, while the ABV is more than 0.5% higher. Watney’s Best comes in at over 4.5% ABV, which would have been a very reasonable strength for a Best Bitter in the early 1950’s.

Once again, they’re pretty dark beers. Not quite as dark on average as the Ordinary Milds from large breweries, but darker than the ones from small brewers. The lesson? Londoners liked their Mild dark.

Large London brewery Best Mild Ale 1950 - 1954
Year	Brewer	Beer	Price per pint d	Acidity	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour
1950	Charrington	Best Mild Ale	14	0.05	1037.4	1010.4	3.50	72.19%	105
1950	Ind Coope	Mild Ale	15	0.05	1039.2	1009.6	3.84	75.51%	75
1951	Ind Coope	XXX	14		1034.76
1951	Taylor Walker	Mainline	15	0.08	1035.2	1007.6	3.58	78.41%	100
1951	Watney	Best	20	0.07	1043.1	1008	4.57	81.44%	110
1952	Ind Coope	X	13		1036.69				102
1954	Ind Coope	Strong Mild Ale	19	0.05	1043.5	1010.7	4.26	75.40%	110
1954	Taylor Walker	Mainline	15	0.04	1036.5	1014.5	2.84	60.27%	95
1954	Taylor Walker	Main Line Special	27	0.05	1044.5	1017.5	3.48	60.67%	125
	Average		16.89	0.06	1039.0	1011.2	3.72	71.99%	102.8
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

Provincial Mild next.

Let's Brew Wednesdy - 1933 William Younger XX

Hope you’re not getting bored of the Scottish recipes. Because there are loads more to come.

Yes, it’s coming along nicely. Scotland! vol. II, I mean. The results of my poll were quite confusing. 250 recipes came top with a third of the votes. So I’ve decided to go for 300, the only option that received no votes. That’s just the way I am. A contrary bastard.

Mild seems to have just melted away in Scotland after WW I. Replaced by 60/- Pale Ale, which may have been coloured up to look like Dark Mild. Though William Younger do seem to have stuck with brewing Mild longer than most.

Bizarrely – especially as Younger wasn’t much into the technique, in contrast to every other brewery in Scotland – this was parti-gyled with Expt, a strong Pale Ale. Though they were hopped separately, only sharing pre-boil worts.

You’ve probably noticed how dull Younger’s recipes were. Most don’t stretch any further than pale malt and grits. Lots and lots of luvverly grits. They must have had quite a grits silo, the quantities they used. And a big cooker, given the percentage of grits in every recipe.

Grits aside, this has a similar profile to an English Ordinary Mild in terms of ABV and bitterness levels. Not in terms of colour. Though, it being a Scottish beer, they probably coloured to every imaginable shade of brown.
bold

1933 William Younger XX
pale malt	4.75 lb	55.88%
grits	3.75 lb	44.12%
Cluster 90 min	0.75 oz
Fuggles 30 min	0.75 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.50 oz
OG	1037
FG	1011
ABV	3.44
Apparent attenuation	70.27%
IBU	27
SRM	3
Mash at	156º F
Sparge at	160º F
Boil time	165 minutes
pitching temp	61º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

Small London brewery Ordinary Mild Ale 1950 – 1953

Numbers. I look on them as friends. Much more reliable friends that people. You know where you are with numbers. A five doesn’t turn into a four behind your back. Though a six may turn out to be nine.

That’s my excuse for bothering you with a load more numbers. Not quite as many as in the last of this series. But enough to tide you through a sunny Tuesday morning. Unfortunately there are quite a few holes in the table. Because many come from the Truman rather than the Whitbread Gravity Book.

To be honest, there’s not much difference with the large brewery Milds. An average OG just over 1030º, about 3% ABV, around 75% attenuation. The only significant difference is the colour, which is a full 20 points lower. Oh, the price. That’s lower, too. About 0.75d.

On a personal not, I drank one of this set: Fuller’s Hock. I believe they still occasionally brew it. A shame it isn’t regularly available as it’s a very pleasant beer, when in good nick.

Wenlock Amber Ale is a bit odd. It’s one of the darkest beers in this set. How can that be amber by anyone’s reckoning?

Small London brewery Ordinary Mild Ale 1950 - 1953
Year	Brewer	Beer	Price per pint d	Acidity	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour
1950	Wenlock	Ale	12	0.05	1030.6	1008.4	2.88	72.55%	100
1951	Wenlock	X	12		1032.83				88
1953	Wenlock	Amber Ale	14	0.05	1031.6	1006.5	3.26	79.43%	100
1950	Beasley	Ale	12		1031.43				56
1953	Beasley	X	13		1031.47				116
1953	Cannon	X	13		1031.84				96
1951	Friary	Mild Ale	14	0.06	1029.9	1004.5	3.30	84.95%	85
1950	Friary Holroyd	X	12		1033.47				82
1951	Fullers	Mild Ale	14	0.04	1031.2	1008.9	2.89	71.47%	90
1950	Hammerton	Ale	12		1030.41				94
1950	Harman's	X	12		1032.07				84
1950	Young & Co	X	12		1033.07				68
1953	Young & Co	X	13		1030.73				60
	Average		12.7	0.05	1031.6	1007.1	3.08	77.10%	86.1
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

Either provincial Milds or London Best Mild next.

Random Dutch beers (part thirty seven)

It's Sunday morning 11:55. Time for the first beer of the day.

"You've seen bits of it? So you did see him picking bits of glass out of his feet."

"Yes."

"John . . . what's his second name? The character in the film."

"You should know, you've seen the whole film."

Lexie's talking to me about Die Hard. Not sure why. Defintely time for a beer. One from an old new brewery, De Leckere. They first started up in the 1990's, I believe. Then seemed to go away for a while. Not sure of the right story, and can't be arsed to look it up.

De Leckere Spring Haver 6.5% ABV
Lexie's gone back upstairs. Time to quickly write a quick Sketch. Pale yellow. Smells perfumy - elderflower, maybe? Maybe not. Perfummy and quite bitter in the mouth, with a lemon-like touch of acidity at the end.  Not bad. Quite like the fact that it's decently bitter, in a tobaccoey sort of way.

"Do you want to try my beer, Dolores?"

"In a minute."

"It's not a horrible one."

"That's OK. Quite nice."

Only a 25cl. bottle. It didn't last long. Time for beer number 2. One from De Naeckte Brouwers (the Naked Brewers) of Amstelveen. Which is where I work. It's the largest Dutch town without a train station. That's how exciting it is.

De Naeckte Brouwers Chinook SHIPA, 7.5% ABV
They've done a series of SHIPA each using a different hop. All the trendy ones, obviously. Not fun things like EKG. It's the colour of Bitter. Oddly savoury in the mouth. And not particularly bitter at all. How odd.

"Do you want to try my beer, Dolores?"

"I'm sitting down now."

"I'll bring it over."

"Ugh. It tastes strange."

"I know. I'm going to save some for Andrew."

Summer sale still on - 20% off my Mega-Book series

apart from Bitter. I get some effing error when I try to update it. So it's still full price.

The other three in the series are 20% off. And I could be arsed with the linky image things today.

Please buy one. Or three. Lexie needs some new shoes. And kecks. Don't let him walk around raggety-arsed.




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