Burton-brewed Pale Ale on the eve of WW II

The spiritual home of Pale Ale was a law until itself. Not weird, given its reputation for the style. Here beers close in strength to classic 19th-century versions continued to be brewed. Though draught versions didn’t drift above 1055º. Blame those pesky WW I price controls for the gravity cap on draught beers.

The stronger examples in the table, those with an OG around 1055º could also be classed as IPA.

Though just as elsewhere, Burton-brewed Pale Ales came in a variety of strengths. Ones in the Burton classic style were typical 8d per pint beers, with gravities around 1055º. The bottled versions were the same strength and were some of the most widely available beers. As with Guinness, they were often sold in other breweries’ tied houses. Which might explain the high price. Beers of that strength wouldn’t usually cost more than 10d per pint.

At the Burton plant of London brewer Truman, three Pale Ales were brewed. Or maybe just two, really. Because Pale 1 and Pale 1 B (the B standing for “Bottling”) look identical.

Pale 1 is clearly an 8d per pint beer and Pale 2 a 7d per pint beer. To confuse matters, Truman also brewed a 6d Pale Ale, XLK, in their Brick Lane brewery.

Pale 2 was brewed in a slightly weird way. It was parti-gyled with Pale 1 at a gravity 1044.9º. It was then blended post-fermentation with some Pale 1 to raise the effective gravity to 1047.4º. Truman started doing weird stuff like this towards the end of WW I. Blending their parti-gyles both pre- and post-fermentation.

The hopping is surprisingly modest for Burton. At under 7 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt, the rate is lower than Barclay Perkins X Ale (7 lbs per quarter) and Whitbread X Ale (7.75 lbs).

Burton Pale Ale 1932 - 1937
Year	Brewer	Beer	Price per pint (d)	package	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation
1932	Bass	Pale Ale		draught	1054.7	1012	5.56	78.06%
1933	Bass	Pale Ale	13.5	bottled	1055.8	1012.2	5.68	78.14%
1935	Bass	Pale Ale	7	bottled	1037	1007.8	3.79	78.92%
1933	Worthington	Pale Ale	14	bottled	1055.4	1011.6	5.71	79.06%
1936	Worthington	Pale Ale	7	draught	1046.9
1937	Worthington	Pale Ale	8	draught	1054.3
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001.
Truman Gravity Book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/C/252.

Truman Burton Pale Ales in 1939
Date	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
28th Apr	Pale2	Pale Ale	1047.4	1009.7	4.98	79.53%	6.75	1.22
1st May	Pale1	Pale Ale	1053.5	1013.3	5.31	75.13%	6.75	1.37
28th Apr	Pale1 B	Pale Ale	1053.5	1013.6	5.28	74.61%	6.75	1.37
Source:
Truman brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/C/339.