Northern Brown Ale after WW II

The North is probably where Brown Ale was the most diverse. Partly due to the tradition of Strong Brown Ales in the Northeast. For this reason, I’ve split the examples into two tables, one for standard-strength versions, another for strong ones.

Even though these are “standard” Brown Ales, a couple are surprisingly strong, with gravities around 1040º. I’m guessing that these probably aren’t tweaked versions of Mild, as the gravities are just too high. You didn’t really get Mild of that strength in the North.

Some examples are much better value than others. Walker’s Brown Peter is considerably stronger than Duttons Nut Brown – 10º and 1% ABV – yet retailed for the same price. Easy enough for brewers to get away with when there was no indication of a beer’s strength on the label.

There’s quite a range in degrees of attenuation from under 60% to over 80%. Taddy Brown Ale being the poorest attenuated and Brown Peter the best.

Most examples are reasonably dark, though there are a couple in the 40-50 twilight zone between pale and truly dark.

Some Brown Ales from the Northeast of England are in a very different style. Stronger, and at the palest end of the style’s colour spectrum.

Averaging around 1050º and 5% ABV, I assume that Double Maxim was brewed in reaction to Newcastle Brown, a beer brewed by their biggest local rival. As we’ll see later, this type of beer wasn’t just limited to the Northeast of England. Some Scottish breweries produced similar beers.

Standard Northern Brown Ale after WW II
Year	Brewer	Beer	Price per pint (d)	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour
1952	Duttons	Nut Brown Ale	20	1029.9	1005.8	3.13	80.60%	56
1952	Greenhall Whitley	Wilderspool Brown Ale	20	1038.7	1008.5	3.92	78.04%	80
1952	Hammonds United	Brown Jack Ale	18	1029.5	1005.8	3.08	80.34%	105
1952	Hey & Son	White Rose Ale	20	1040.7	1007.9	4.27	80.59%	60
1951	Peter Walker	Brown Peter Ale	20	1039.2	1008.3	4.02	78.83%	90
1952	Peter Walker	Brown Peter Ale	20	1038.6	1006.7	4.15	82.64%	44
1948	Samuel Smith	Taddy Brown Ale	18	1032.5	1013.8	2.41	57.54%	95
1952	Samuel Smith	Taddy Ale	15.5	1034.5	1008.5	3.37	75.36%	90
1948	Tennant Bros.	Brown Ale	18	1031.8	1010.2	2.79	67.92%	68
1952	Tetley	Family Ale	15	1035.5	1009	3.44	74.65%	54
1950	Vaux	Maxim Ale	14	1033.5	1009.7	3.08	71.04%	105
	Average		18.0	1034.9	1008.6	3.42	75.23%	77.0
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.

 

Strong Northern Brown Ale after WW II
Year	Brewer	Beer	Price per pint (d)	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour
1949	Newcastle Breweries	Brown Ale	22	1051.6	1012.2	5.12	76.36%	46
1951	Newcastle Breweries	Brown Ale	22	1052.5	1011.8	5.30	77.52%	44
1950	Vaux	Double Maxim	19	1048.7	1011.2	4.88	77.00%	46
1952	Vaux	Double Maxim	23	1049	1009.8	5.10	80.00%	48
	Average		21.5	1050.5	1011.3	5.10	77.72%	46.0
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.