Thursday 21 July 2016

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.

4 comments:

Willie said...

You've missed off Highgate Mild (Walsall), Bank's (Wolverhampton) plus all the other Black Country milds

Ron Pattinson said...

Willie,

I haven't missed them. I just don't have anlyses for them.

Willie said...

Ron, that's a shame.

Am I correct that these would have included a good percentage of invert sugar or maltose syrup which would have assisted with the attenuation.

Ron Pattinson said...

Willie,

pretty much every beer contained 10-15% invert sugar.