Brown Ale in the 1950s

It's hard to imagine now, but Brown Ale was a really big deal in the 1950's.

As the Mann's advert below states: "Brown Ale is cbecoming more and more popular with Britain's beer drinkers".

Birmingham Daily Gazette - Thursday 11 September 1952, page 5.

Thouigh I'm sure that "no finer malts" stuff is guff. It implies that the colour came from the malt, whuich it almost certainly didn't.

Mann's weren't the only brewery to use the adjective "rich" to describe their Brown Ale:

Coventry Evening Telegraph - Thursday 24 June 1954, page 31.

This is one of the few Brown Ales that have survived:

Shields Daily News - Wednesday 20 April 1955, page 9.

Interesting the way the advert emphasise that it's good value for money. As you can see in the table below, it was more expensive than most other Brown Ales. Though it was much stronger than the average of about 3% ABV.

I've included this advert, just because it's weird:

Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer - Saturday 20 December 1952, page 7.

Here's what 1950's Brown Ale was really like. Actually quite diverse:

Brown Ale 1952 - 1954
Year	Brewer	Beer	Price per pint	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour
1954	Barclay Perkins	Doctor Brown Ale	19	1032.6	1010.6	2.85	67.48%	110
1954	Charrington	Brown Ale	19	1033.1	1009.1	3.11	72.51%	120
1954	Courage	Nut Brown Ale	19	1032.1	1008	3.12	75.08%	110
1953	Duttons	Nut Brown Ale	18	1031	1006.1	3.23	80.32%	52
1954	Gibbs Mew	Moonraker Brown Ale	16	1034.8	1009.5	3.28	72.70%	135
1954	Ind Coope	Nut Brown Ale	19	1030.7	1009.7	2.72	68.40%	80
1956	Mann	Brown Ale	22	1035.5	1013.2	2.88	62.82%	115
1955	Mitchell & Butler	Sam Brown	23	1036.9	1011.2	3.33	69.65%	85
1954	Newcastle Breweries	Brown Ale	26	1048.9	1010	5.06	79.55%	51
1952	Samuel Smith	Taddy Ale	15.5	1034.5	1008.5	3.37	75.36%	90
1952	Shipstone	Nut Brown Ale	15	1033.3	1006.7	3.45	79.88%	60
1952	Simonds	Berry Brown Ale	19	1032	1005.5	3.44	82.81%	60
1952	St. Anne's Well	Brown Ale	19	1034.1	1005.1	3.77	85.04%	100
1952	Steward & Patteson	Brown Ale	23	1032.5	1010.3	2.87	68.31%	67
1952	Tamplin	No.1 Ale	20	1034.1	1009.7	3.16	71.55%	80
1952	Taylor Walker	Nut Brown Ale	19	1032.6	1011.7	2.70	64.11%	80
1952	Tennant Bros.	Brown Ale	20	1032.5	1012.2	2.62	62.46%	100
1952	Tetley	Family Ale	15	1035.5	1009	3.44	74.65%	53
1954	Tollemache	Country Brown Ale	19	1032.5	1011.2	2.75	65.54%	90
1954	Truman	Trubrown	19	1034.7	1011.9	2.95	65.71%	110
1952	Ushers Trowbridge	Brown Ale	17	1033.6	1007.7	3.36	77.08%	80
1953	Ushers Trowbridge	Triple Brown	36	1063.4	1013.6	6.50	78.55%	85
1953	Vale of Neath	???? Brown Ale	30	1070.6	1019.3	6.68	72.66%	34
1952	Vaux	Double Maxim Ale	23	1049	1009.8	5.10	80.00%	48
1954	Watney	Brown Ale	30	1032.8	1010.2	2.92	68.90%	120
1952	Wenlock	Nut Brown Ale	19	1032.5	1012.5	2.58	61.54%	80
1954	Whitbread	Forest Brown	21	1034.8	1012.2	2.92	64.94%	95
1953	Young & Son	Chestnut Brown Ale	26	1055.1	1016.5	5.01	70.05%	250
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001.