It’s a bit of a small set. Shouldn’t take too long.
I’m not totally sure Flowers belong here. It’s before their merger with J.W. Green, so I know the beer didn’t come from Luton. It’s probably from Stratford-upon-Avon, which I suppose really counts as the West Midlands.
Which immediately highlights something surprising: how strong the remaining Southwestern Milds are, averaging almost 4% ABV. I’d have expected the opposite. Especially remembering St. Austell and Devenish beers from the 1970’s which were pretty weak. Though you paid a price. Literally. Rather than 13d or 14d a pint, these were 17d or 18d. Other than the Starkey, Knight & Ford beer which looks excellent value.
You’ll note that the real Southwestern beers are quite pale and fairly highly, but not ridiculously so, attenuated. Odd thing is, I remember Plymouth Heavy, which is what Plymouth Breweries Mild was called when I drank it. I recall it being very dark. And very nice. It was a real shame when Courage closed the brewery and it disappeared.
It’s hard to draw many conclusions based on just two beer. So I don’t really know what to say about the Welsh Milds. Other than that I would have expected them to be darker.
| Southwestern and Welsh Mild Ale 1950 - 1951 | |||||||||
| Year | Brewer | Beer | Price per pint d | Acidity | OG | FG | ABV | App. Atten-uation | colour |
| 1950 | Plymouth Breweries | Mild Ale | 17 | 0.10 | 1038.1 | 1006.9 | 4.06 | 81.89% | 43 |
| 1950 | Starkey, Knight & Ford | Mild Ale | 14 | 0.08 | 1037.8 | 1008.5 | 3.80 | 77.51% | 50 |
| 1951 | Flowers | Mild Ale | 15 | 0.07 | 1030.7 | 1003.9 | 3.49 | 87.30% | 120 |
| 1951 | Plymouth Breweries | Mild Ale | 18 | 0.07 | 1040.3 | 1009.5 | 4.00 | 76.43% | 42 |
| Average | 16 | 0.08 | 1036.7 | 1007.2 | 3.84 | 80.78% | 63.8 | ||
| 1950 | Clubs Brewery Ltd | Mild Ale | 13 | 0.05 | 1030 | 1007.5 | 2.92 | 75.00% | 55 |
| 1951 | Brains | Mild Ale | 15 | 0.11 | 1033.9 | 1004.3 | 3.85 | 87.32% | 85 |
| Average | 14 | 0.08 | 1032.0 | 1005.9 | 3.39 | 81.16% | 70 | ||
| Source: | |||||||||
| Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002. | |||||||||
Late 1950’s Milds next.
I drank a lot of Brains dark mild from late seventies to 1990s. The pumps at that time advertised the gravity as 1037. It's still available (also available as a bottled drink) but I stopped drinking it because the taste changed and I didn't enjoy it any more. It also got easier to find more variety of good real ales. The colour is very black, nearly stout colour. It used to be pretty bitter for a dark mild.
ReplyDeleteThe most interesting aspect of Brains was the variety of bottled beers they used to have, which were all excellent. I'd very much like to drink their extra stout and brown ale once more.