It's a random set of Worthington bottled beers. Mostly, they're typical beers from the period, things like Brown Ale and Light Ale. Though the gravities of those two in the 1940s and 1950s is quite high for the styles. Most were barely opver 1030ยบ.
Less typical are a cou0ple of the Stouts. It specifically mentions in the Whitbread Gravity Book that the Export Stout was naturally conditioned. Which definitely wasn't standard practice.I suspect that the Imperial Stout was also bottle-conditioned as it was sold under the White Shield brand.
It's surprising how much the OG of E varied in the 1960s. I wonder why that was? Probably it was being brewed at different breweries. It was one of Bass Charrington's main brands, after all. There's also quite a variation in colour, from 19 to 27. That's enough to notice.
| Bottled Worthington beers after WW II | ||||||||
| Year | Beer | Style | Price per pint | OG | FG | ABV | App. Atten-uation | colour |
| 1955 | Nut Brown Ale | Brown Ale | 22 | 1036 | 1008.6 | 3.56 | 76.11% | 80 |
| 1967 | Nut Brown Ale | Brown Ale | 32 | 1033.2 | 1011.3 | 2.83 | 65.96% | 125 |
| 1946 | Dinner Ale | Light Ale | 15 | 1037.1 | 1006.7 | 3.95 | 81.94% | 20 |
| 1947 | Dinner Ale | Light Ale | 15 | 1033.8 | 1007.1 | 3.47 | 78.99% | 19 |
| 1947 | Dinner Ale | Light Ale | 15 | 1035.6 | 1005.1 | 3.97 | 85.67% | 19.5 |
| 1947 | Dinner Ale | Light Ale | 21 | 1038.4 | 1008.1 | 3.94 | 78.91% | 20.5 |
| 1948 | Dinner Ale | Light Ale | 16 | 1037.8 | 1009.4 | 3.68 | 75.13% | 19.5 |
| 1948 | Dinner Ale | Light Ale | 17 | 1035.7 | 1006.1 | 3.85 | 82.91% | 20.5 |
| 1950 | Dinner Ale | Light Ale | 16 | 1034.6 | 1004.8 | 3.88 | 86.13% | 21 |
| 1955 | Dinner Ale | Light Ale | 18 | 1036.1 | 1007.8 | 3.68 | 78.39% | 20 |
| 1967 | Light Ale | Light Ale | 16 | 1031 | 1006.5 | 3.18 | 79.03% | 25 |
| 1967 | M | Mild | 20 | 1033.5 | 1004.1 | 3.83 | 87.76% | 23 |
| 1955 | Special Mild Ale | Mild | 19 | 1036.9 | 1007.9 | 3.77 | 78.59% | 85 |
| 1967 | BB | Pale Ale | 21 | 1036.6 | 1005.6 | 4.04 | 84.70% | 19.5 |
| 1961 | Cannister | Pale Ale | 26 | 1043.7 | 1005.3 | 5.01 | 87.87% | 19 |
| 1961 | E | Pale Ale | 24 | 1040.7 | 1003.5 | 4.86 | 91.40% | 20 |
| 1966 | E | Pale Ale | 26 | 1037.9 | 1007.6 | 3.94 | 79.95% | 27 |
| 1966 | E | Pale Ale | 28 | 1037.8 | 1006.8 | 4.03 | 82.01% | 21 |
| 1967 | E | Pale Ale | 28 | 1038 | 1007.8 | 3.92 | 79.47% | 23 |
| 1967 | E | Pale Ale | 25 | 1041.3 | 1008.7 | 4.24 | 78.93% | 19.5 |
| 1967 | E | Pale Ale | 26 | 1041.4 | 1007.2 | 4.45 | 82.61% | 21 |
| 1957 | PA | Pale Ale | 21 | 1043.5 | 1004.6 | 5.08 | 89.43% | 20 |
| 1948 | Export Stout | Stout | 1064.3 | 1019.4 | 5.83 | 69.83% | ||
| 1955 | Imperial Stout | Stout | 1078.2 | 1017.3 | 7.97 | 77.88% | 325 | |
| 1953 | XX Stout | Stout | 24 | 1040 | 1012 | 3.63 | 70.00% | 275 |
| 1956 | XX Stout | Stout | 28 | 1036.7 | 1013.8 | 2.96 | 62.40% | 300 |
| Sources: | ||||||||
| Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002. | ||||||||
Very very strange that a company the size of Bass wouldn’t have much closer control over the OG of E, especially as variations would make a substantial difference to the amount of duty they were paying.
ReplyDeleteRon,
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that there was a much publicised rise in gravity of Bass / E from 39 to 44 at about this time.
I don't remember any noticeable impact at all.....
Mike
That would appear to make sense – going from the numbers in the table, it dropped from 1040 to 1038 between 1960 and 1966, customers noticed and at some point in 1967 they whacked it up again? Do you have any more numbers from 1967 to confirm or refute this, Ron?
ReplyDeleteBarm,
ReplyDeleteI don't have any later analyses, unfortunately.