Tennant’s bottled beers in the late 1950’s

Time to take a look at Tennant’s bottled selection.

I’ve loads more information on these than on the draught beers. See if you can spot what’s unusual about their bottled range:

“Tennant's bottled beers were: Lion Pale Ale - a fine pale ale, Lion Brown Ale - enjoyed by older drinkers, Glucose Stout - a beautiful sweet stout, No.1 Barley Wine - an old fashioned drink and Gold Label Barley Wine — a pale, sparkling barley wine, about which I will elaborate later. Gold Label (together with Lion Pale Ale) had been awarded the 'Prix D'Excellence 1958' in Belgium, which was one of the most important brewing countries in the world at that time. Tennant's proudly displayed the words 'Prix D'Excellence' on street posters advertising the barley wine. However, due to a certain lack of familiarity with the pronunciation of the French language in those days, the drink was perceived, in some circles as a forerunner of viagra, which did no harm at all to its rocketing sales.”
"The Brewer's Tale" by Frank Priestley, 2010, page 11.

They brewed two Barley Wines, which seems slightly excessive. And, most confusingly, both were called No. 1. There was the older beer which named No. 1 Barley Wine and the 1950’s introduction Gold Label No. 1 Sparkling Barley Wine.

Let’s take a look:

Tennant bottled beers 1950 - 1959
Year	Beer	Style	Price per pint d	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour
1954	Gold Label	Barley Wine	60	1101.5	1021	10.60	79.21%	90
1955	Gold Label	Barley Wine	57	1102.4	1021	10.77	79.69%	45
1958	Gold Label	Barley Wine	57	1102.5	1018	10.58	82.54%	35
1955	No. 1 Barley Wine	Barley Wine	57	1097.5	1023	9.84	76.82%	175
1952	Brown Ale	Brown Ale	20	1032.5	1012	2.62	62.46%	100
1955	Lion Brown Ale	Brown Ale	23	1034.9	1011	3.04	67.34%	85
1955	Family Brown Ale	Brown Ale	18	1031.9	1008	3.16	76.49%	50
1955	Light Dinner Ale	Light Ale	18	1030.8	1007	3.10	77.60%	23
1950	Pale Ale	Pale Ale		1039.4	1012	3.52	69.04%	27
1955	Lion Pale Ale	Pale Ale	27	1036.6	1010	3.46	72.95%	23
1958	Pale Ale	Pale Ale	25	1031.4	1008	2.99	76.11%	27
1955	Malt Stout	Stout	24	1036.2	1018	2.41	51.66%	350
1956	Glucose Stout	Stout	26	1040.4	1021	2.49	48.02%	225
1957	Glucose Stout	Stout	26	1038.3	1018	2.57	52.22%	325
1959	Glucose Stout	Stout	25	1039.8	1019	2.70	52.76%	225
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.

Gold Label was an extremely important beer because it was the first pale Barley Wine. But if you look closely you’ll see that it didn’t start out pale. Well, only in comparison with Tennant’s other Barley Wine, which was almost as dark as a Stout. You can see that it got paler as the 1950’s progressed and by 1958 was approached the colour of Bitter. I won’t go into Gold Label in too much depth here because Priestley discusses its production method later in the book. I’ll be writing about that later. But it’s something I’m particularly pleased to have found.

It looks like Tennant discontinued some beers during the 1950’s: LDA (presumably a Light Ale), Malt Stout and Family Brown Ale.

Lion Brown Ale is quite strong compared to most of its rivals. Family Brown Ale has a more typical OG for a 1950’s Brown Ale. Though a low rate of attenuation means that it's only just over 3% ABV, which is less than Family Brown Ale.

Glucose Stout is pretty obviously a Sweet Stout. A very sweet Stout, given its 50% attenuation. The name is a slight hint it might be sweet. I’m still wondering why beers like this were so popular in the 1950’s. I guess they were just imitations of the very successful Mackeson.

My guess is that Lion Pale Ale is a bottled version of either Bitter or Best Bitter, probably the latter. Though it might just have been parti-gyled with the two Bitters. It should be possible to find out, as there are brewing records preserved in the Sheffield City Archives. Feel free to drop by and send me some photos, if you live in Sheffield.