Brown Ale after WW II

Nother book excerpt for your delectation. Something I only wrote a few hours ago.

Only revived around 1900, Brown Ale became wildly popular in the middle of the century. It was one of the beers that boosted the popularity of bottled beer, especially in pubs.

Yet it varied immensely in nature. The distinction is often made between Northern and Southern Brown Ales. But it was more complex than that. Really what’s really meant is standard-strength and strong Brown Ales. I’d prefer to classify them and Single Brown Ale and Double Brown Ale. Because there are plenty of examples of weak versions being brewed in the North and strong ones in the South.

Brown Ale doesn’t appear at all in the brewing records of many breweries. For the simple reason that it wasn’t brewed as a distinct beer, but was just a bottled version of Dark Mild. With perhaps some tweaking in the primings.

The stronger type of Brown Ale was brewed as its own beer. Though the most famous – Newcastle Brown Ale – was a blend of two beers. One of the best Southern examples of a stronger Brown Ale, Whitbread Double Brown was sadly discontinued in the mid-1950s.

The importance of Brown Ale in the London market is highlighted by just how many analyses there are of it in the Whitbread Gravity Book.

London Brown Ale under 1038º 1946 - 1952
Year	Brewer	Beer	Price per pint d	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour
1946	Barclay Perkins	Doctor Brown Ale	13.5	1034.1	1011.3	2.95	66.86%	105
1952	Barclay Perkins	Doctor Brown Ale	19	1034	1010.5	3.04	69.12%	98
1947	Beasley	Brown Ale	12	1030	1007.7	2.89	74.33%	83
1947	Charrington	Brown Ale	15	1027.7	1012	2.02	56.68%	91
1952	Charrington	Brown Ale	9d	1031.1	1008.5	2.93	72.67%	120
1950	Courage	Brown Ale	15	1029.7	1007.6	2.86	74.41%	83
1952	Courage	Nut Brown Ale	19	1032.4	1008.2	3.14	74.69%	87
1946	Hammerton	Nut Brown Ale	24	1026.5	1003.8	2.95	85.66%	79
1950	Hammerton	Nut Brown Ale	17	1029.8	1006.9	2.97	76.85%	83
1950	Ind Coope	Nut Brown Ale		1029	1009.5	2.52	67.24%	75
1952	Ind Coope	Nut Brown Ale	19	1030.9	1011.7	2.48	62.14%	83
1946	Mann Crossman	Brown Ale	14	1034.4	1008.8	3.32	74.42%	84
1950	Mann Crossman	Brown Ale	18	1035.8	1013.3	2.91	62.85%	98
1952	Meux	Nut Brown Ale	19	1029.8	1009.1	2.68	69.46%	106
1948	South London Brewer Co.	SLB Brown Ale	16	1028	1011.1	2.18	60.36%	83
1946	Taylor Walker	Nut Brown Ale	17	1030.1	1007.6	2.92	74.75%	83
1952	Taylor Walker	Nut Brown Ale	19	1032.6	1011.7	2.70	64.11%	83
1946	Truman	Trubrown	12.5	1033.2	1011.8	2.76	64.46%	105
1951	Truman	Trubrown	19	1035.4	1012.8	2.92	63.84%	105
1946	Watney	Brown Ale	12	1029.6	1008.5	2.73	71.28%	87
1952	Watney	Brown Ale	18	1032	1010.8	2.74	66.25%	105
1950	Wenlock	Nut Brown Ale	15	1030.7	1012.5	2.35	59.28%	87
1952	Wenlock	Nut Brown Ale	19	1032.5	1012.5	2.58	61.54%	83
1947	Whitbread	Forest Brown	12	1028.9	1006.5	2.91	77.51%	83
1952	Whitbread	Forest Brown	21	1032.6	1012.1	2.65	62.88%	95
	Average		16.7	1031.2	1009.9	2.76	68.55%	91.0
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.

A combination of low gravity and poor attenuation leaves only a couple over 3% ABV. The strongest is the granddaddy of all Brown Ales, Manns. Though it’s quite a bit weaker than pre-war, when it had an OG in the low 1040ºs and was almost 4% ABV.

There was a slight increase in gravity at the beginning of the 1950s. Where I have two analyses for the same brewery, you can see that the gravity of the later one is a point or two higher.

There seems to be a similar trend as amongst Mild Ales, where the London examples are darker and less well-attenuated than those from elsewhere.