It's not the most captivating set of beers I've ever seen. A couple of Milds and the rest Keg Bitters. I guess that's what they were brewing in Bass's Burton brewery back then. Well sort of.
Splitting apart Bass and Worthington at this point is tricky. I don't really know how the two Milds were branded. They could well have been sold under the Worthington name. The two breweries had merged between the wars and, especially in the post-war period, had a habit of selling the same beer under both brands, just with a different name. White Shield and Bass Red Triangle, for example.
It looks to me as if the same was going on with Bass Keg and Worthington E. The gravities are suspiciously similar.
The 1950 Mild Ale is exceptionally strong for that date. It looks more like a pre-war Best Mild. The colour, interestingly, is semi-dark. Which was still quite a common colour for Mild just after the war.
Maybe it was different in Stoffordshire, but I can't recall ever coming across a Burton-brewed Mild from Bass back in the 1970s and 1980s. Draught Bass and White Shield were common in Bass Charrington pubs all over the country, but Mild tended to be sourced from a more local brewery. In Yorkshire that meant XXXX Mild from Tadcaster. In the West Midlands, M & B Mild from Birmingham.
Worthington beers next. Should I be in an arsing moood.
| Other Bass draught beers after WW II | ||||||||
| Year | Beer | Style | Price per pint | OG | FG | ABV | App. Atten-uation | colour |
| 1950 | Mild Ale | Mild | 15 | 1041.4 | 1008 | 4.34 | 80.68% | 40 |
| 1977 | Light Mild | Mild | 1033.1 | |||||
| 1960 | Worthington "E" | Pale Ale | 18 | 1041.8 | 1006.5 | 4.60 | 84.45% | |
| 1967 | Bass Keg | Pale Ale | 28 | 1038 | 1007 | 4.03 | 81.58% | 23 |
| 1972 | Worthington E | Pale Ale | 16 | 1037.8 | 1007.1 | 4.00 | 81.22% | |
| 1977 | Worthington Best Bitter | Pale Ale | 1036 | |||||
| 1977 | Joules Bitter | Pale Ale | 1035 | |||||
| Sources: | ||||||||
| Which Beer Report, 1960, pages 171 - 173. | ||||||||
| Daily Mirror July 10th 1972, page 15 | ||||||||
| Good Beer Guide 1978 | ||||||||
| Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002. | ||||||||
The pub where I regularly drink Draught Bass, the Unicorn in Manchester city centre, had until a few years ago a keg font for Bass XXXX Mild, although I can't remember anyone ever ordering it.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIkley Rob,
ReplyDeleteI'm talking about the Mild in Bass pubs. Obviously you wouldn't have seen Websters or Tetleys in a Bass pub.
Ron,
ReplyDeleteThanks!
Mike