London Stock Pale Ale 1880 - 1899

The oldest type of these Pale Ales (I’m not including the lightly-hopped beers of the same name brewed in the 18th century), they were universally Stock Ales. That is, Ales which were aged for up to 12 months or more. With gravities similar to those of Burton Pale Ales.

As you can see in the table, that gravity was around 1060º. Which wasn’t particularly strong by the standards of the day. Averaging over 13 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt, the hopping is very robust. As you would expect of a beer which would need to survive a long period of ageing.

Talking of ageing, that would have included a secondary Brettanomyces fermentation. Which would have greatly increased the degree of attenuation to 85% or more. Boosting the ABV to more like 7%.

These were expensive beers, using top-quality ingredients and taking a long time to produce. Hence, they sold in very modest quantities. For example, in 1881, Whitbread brewed a mere 9,088 barrels of PA, out of a total of 465,423 barrels.

London Stock Pale Ale 1880 - 1899
Year	Brewer	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
1886	Barclay Perkins	PA	1058.0	1013.0	5.95	77.55%	12.00	2.95
1892	Barclay Perkins	PA	1063.0	1021.1	5.55	66.58%	12.46	3.03
1887	Fullers	IPA	1060.9	1016.6	5.86	72.73%	12.38	3.45
1897	Fullers	IPA	1057.6	1015.2	5.61	73.56%	13.43	3.20
1882	Whitbread	PA	1062.6	1015.8	6.19	74.78%	15.34	4.59
1885	Whitbread	PA	1060.4	1015.0	6.01	75.23%	15.02	4.44
1890	Whitbread	PA	1060.1	1013.0	6.23	78.37%	11.69	3.25
1895	Whitbread	PA	1059.3	1015.0	5.86	74.70%	12.00	3.15
	Average		1060.2	1015.6	5.91	74.19%	13.04	3.51
Sources:
Barclay Perkins brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers ACC/2305/1/584 and ACC/2305/1/588.
Fullers brewing records held at the brewery.
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/047, LMA/4453/D/01/051, LMA/4453/D/01/056, LMA/4453/D/01/061.