Provincial Mild Ale 1946 – 1949

More Mild Ale numbers. And some unexpected ones at that.

I’m so glad that I split the London and provincial Milds. Because the two sets are surprisingly dissimilar. Something I hadn’t spotted previously.

First a word about where the breweries were located. Six were from Birmingham: Ansell, Atkinson, Dare, Davenport, Frederick Smith and Mitchell & Butler. Two from Exeter: City Brewery and St. Annes. Two from Norwich: Morgans and Steward and Patteson. Two from Portsmouth: Brickwood and Portsmouth United. And finally Burtonwood of Warrington.

The Birmingham Milds all have relatively high gravities. Coupled my decent attenuation, it means they’re mostly over 3.5% ABV. Which is very high for the period. If you remember, most of the London Milds were under 3% ABV. I’m not surprised that the Norwich Milds have some of the lowest gravities. Beers from rural areas tended to be weaker, for some reason.

Most interesting of all is the colour. Or rather lack of it. Because there’s only one of this set – Burtonwood – that’s properly dark.  Three examples – City, Brickwood, Portsmouth United and St. Annes are pale. That is, all the ones from Exeter and Portsmouth. The Birmingham beers are all semi-dark, as are those from Norwich.

The real fun comes when you compare the colours of the London and provincial Milds. Only one London example was pale and one semi-dark. All the rest were properly dark. Here’s a comparison of the London and provincial analyses:

London vs. provincial Mild Ale 1946 - 1949
region	Price per pint d	Acidity	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour
London	12.5	0.06	1030.3	1008.6	2.82	71.69%	101.4
Provinces	13.1	0.07	1032.2	1005.2	3.51	83.94%	43.81

Provincial beers were a halfpenny a pint dearer, slightly higher in gravity, considerably higher in ABV and much paler in colour than their London counterparts. The difference is much greater than I would have imagined. Given the higher FG and lower attenuation, my guess is that London Milds were sweeter.

Provincial Mild Ale 1946 - 1949
Year	Brewer	Beer	Price per pint d	Acidity	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour
1946	Lees	K			1028.0
1946	Lees	Bot. B			1030.0
1946	Lees	BM			1033.0
1948	Lees	K			1028.0
1948	Lees	BM			1032.0
1948	Lees	Bot. B			1030.0
1949	Ansell	Mild Ale	13	0.05	1035.4	1007.4	3.64	79.10%	50
1949	Atkinsons	Mild Ale	13	0.07	1034.6	1004.8	3.88	86.13%	50
1949	Brickwoods	Mild Ale	13	0.06	1033.2	1004.8	3.70	85.54%	20.5
1949	Burtonwood	Mild Ale	13	0.06	1027.5	1003.5	3.12	87.27%	80
1949	City Brewery	Mild Ale	13	0.06	1032.6	1006.8	3.35	79.14%	21
1949	Dare	Mild Ale	13	0.08	1034.6	1006.9	3.60	80.06%	58
1949	Davenport	Mild Ale	13	0.07	1032	1007.9	3.12	75.31%	58
1949	Frederick Smith	Mild Ale	13	0.06	1035	1008.6	3.42	75.43%	58
1949	Mitchell & Butler	XX	18	0.05	1034.6	1003.9	4.00	88.73%	35
1949	Morgans	Mild Ale	11	0.08	1027.7	1002.8	3.24	89.89%	50
1949	Portsmouth United	Mild Ale	13	0.08	1029.3	1003.1	3.41	89.42%	19
1949	St. Annes Brewery	Mild Ale	13	0.06	1034.9	1003	4.16	91.40%	20
1949	Steward & Patteson	Mild Ale	11	0.10	1027.7	1004.5	3.01	83.75%	50
	Average		13.08	0.07	1032.2	1005.2	3.51	83.94%	43.8
Sources:
Lees brewing records held at the brewery.
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.

Next we’ll be moving on to the 1950’s.