Thursday 16 May 2019

UK-brewed Lager before WW II

Barclay Perkins made a few trial attempts at Lager brewing during WW I. It obviously opened their eyes its possibilities, as they started building a Lager brewery right after war’s end. It started brewing in 1921.

But Lager remained a tiny market, dominated by a handful of specialist producers. In 1936 a parliamentary debate revealed that a mere six breweries produced Lager in Britain. The total output of all six was just 114,000 barrels in 1935 . That’s out of a total of 20,864,814 barrels, making Lager just 0.55% of UK beer production.

The six breweries were: Arrol, Tennent, Barclay Perkins, the Red Tower Lager Brewery in Manchester, the Wrexham Lager Brewery and Jeffrey of Edinburgh. Three of six were located in Scotland.

Brewer Location Date started
Arrol Alloa 1921
Tennent Glasgow 1885
Barclay Perkins London 1921
Red Tower Lager Brewery Manchester 1920’s
Wrexham Lager Brewery Wrexham 1883
Jeffrey Edinburgh 1902

Newspaper advertisements of the period reveal that several Lagers - Graham’s, Barclay’s, Tennent’s and Wrexham - were available nationally, at a time when few beers were sold outside their own region.

Unlike the Lager that started its march to domination in the 1960s, those of the 1930s were mostly above-average strength. Though there were exceptions, such as Barclay’s Draught Lager.

Allsopp’s Lager was produced at Arrol in Alloa. They had installed a fancy American-built Lager plant in their Burton brewery in 1899. Their Lager wasn’t a great success and, after Allsopp went into receivership in 1913, the plant was moved to Alloa.

UK-brewed Lager before WW II
Year Brewer Beer Style OG FG ABV App. Atten-uation colour
1932 Allsopp Lager Lager 1041 1009.4 4.10 77.07%
1932 Allsopp Lager Lager 1045 1010 4.55 77.78%
1937 Allsopp Lager Lager 1045.2 1011.8 4.33 73.89%
1933 Arrol Graham's Golden Lager Lager 1044.5 1010.5 4.42 76.40%
1932 Barclay Perkins Lager Lager 1051 1011 5.21 78.43% 12.5
1934 Barclay Perkins Draught Lager 1032.2 1013.0 2.54 59.63%
1935 Barclay Perkins Draught Lager 1043.5 1011.0 4.30 74.71%
1936 Barclay Perkins Lager (Dark) Lager 1058 1017.6 5.24 69.66%
1936 Barclay Perkins Lager (Light) Lager 1045.7 1010.1 4.63 77.90%
1932 Jeffrey Pilsener Pils 1052 1007.8 5.77 85.00% 9
1936 Jeffrey Lager Lager 1046.4 1013.1 4.32 71.77%
1933 McEwan Pilsener Pils 1044 1010 4.42 77.27% 8
1934 McEwan Pilsener Pils 1049.6 1009.6 5.21 80.65%
1933 Red Tower Lager Beer Lager 1049.7 1011.4 4.98 77.06% 12.5
1934 Red Tower Lager Lager 1051 1011 5.21 78.43%
1932 Tennent Light Beer Lager 1049 1007.4 5.43 84.90% 6.5
1931 Tennent Lager Beer Lager 1043.1 1009.3 4.39 78.42% 8
1937 Tennent Pilsener Pils 1051.2 1010.8 5.26 78.91%
1934 Wrexham Pilsener Pils 1052 1010.7 5.38 79.42%
Sources:
Thomas Usher Gravity Book document TU/6/11 held at the Scottish Brewing Archive.
Younger, Wm. & Co Gravity Book document WY/6/1/1/19 held at the Scottish Brewing Archive.
Barclay Perkins brewing records.
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001.

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