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.