Burton IPA after WW II

The war had minimal impact on bottled Bas Pale Ale. I can’t think of another mass-market beer of which that’s true. Especially as, unlike some strong beers that returned to their pre-war strength in the 1950s, its production was uninterrupted.

Amazingly, the gravity of Bass Pale Ale after WW II was slightly higher than it had been before the war. That’s definitely a real rarity. One thing that remained the same, however, was the high degree of attenuation

A gravity of over 1050º was very unusual in the late 1940s when average OG was in the low 1030ºs. I’m not sure how Bass was able to do that, unless, as in the case of beer zoning, different rules applied to them.

At Worthington something similar was happening after the war, though in this case the gravity increased even more. By the mid-1950s, Worthington IPA had returned to something close to its pre-WW I gravity. The colour is very pale for a Pale Ale of its strength. More usual would have been in the high 20s. Anything below 20 is pretty pale.

White Shield was the bottle-conditioned version of Worthington IPA, Green Shield the filtered and artificially-carbonated version. Eventually White Shield and Bass Red Triangle (the bottle-conditioned version of Bass Pale Ale) became the same beer.

Bass Pale Ale after WW II
Year	Price per pint	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour
1946		1053.8	1011.2	5.55	79.18%	20.5
1946		1054.8	1010.1	5.83	81.57%	20
1946		1051.9	1008.2	5.71	84.20%	18
1948	18.5	1054.2	1009.1	5.89	83.21%	17.5
1948		1053.8	1008.9	5.86	83.46%
1949		1054	1008	6.01	85.19%
1949	28	1054.1	1008.6	5.94	84.10%
1950		1058	1008.3	6.51	85.69%	21
1950	31	1057.1	1007.6	6.48	86.69%	19
1950	37	1056.1	1004.6	6.76	91.80%	19
1948		1047.8	1009.75	4.95	79.58%
Sources:
Truman Gravity Book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/C/252.
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.

Bottled Worthington IPA after WW II
Year	Beer	Price per pint	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour
1947	IPA	22	1053.2	1003.3	6.55	93.80%	20
1948	IPA	24	1054.1	1005.1	6.42	90.57%	20
1948	IPA Export		1053.2	1006.3	6.14	88.16%	19
1951	India Pale Ale	29	1056.7	1007.2	6.48	87.30%	18
1951	India Pale Ale	32	1054.6	1006.1	6.35	88.83%	19
1953	India Pale Ale		1061.1	1013.5	6.21	77.91%	27
1955	India Pale Ale (Green Shield)		1063.3	1009.4	7.06	85.15%	18
1955	India Pale Ale (White Shield)		1063.7	1002.9	8.02	95.45%	18
1959	India Pale Ale	32	1051.6	1011.5	5.22	77.71%	18
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.