Sadly, there aren't many from my neck of the woods, the East Midlands. Though I did drink most of these beers. Many when visiting my Mum's family in Birmingham.
The average score is pretty good at 9.3. The three poorest scoring beers - Brew XI, Worthington Best Bitter and Ansells Bitter - were all from Big Six breweries. Brew XI was renowned for being bland crap. Ansells Bitter wasn't great, either. But they weren't what most people were drinking in Birmingham. Mild was far more popular. It wasn't unusual for Ansells pubs to have cask Mild and keg Bitter. I don't blame anione for sticking to the Mild. It was a way better drink than the Bitter.
Despite the hype, I never cared for Ruddles County. Far too sweet and cloying for my taste. Batemans XXXB was much more to my liking. A beer which was parti-gyled with their standard Bitter.
You'll note that Pedigree appears twice. That's because both the journalists who sampled the beers tried it in different pubs and gave it different scores.
The average gravity and ABV are the highest we've seen, coming out at over 1040º and 4% ABV. As a result of a couple of the strongest Bitters that were analysed.
The average price is also higher. I would say as a result of the strong beers. But I don't have the prices for most of those. I'm surprised that Holdens and Simpkiss were so expensive. I thought that beer was cheap in the Black Country. The value for money score, at 1.19, is the worst we've seen so far. Slightly worse than the 1.20 of Scotland.
The rate of attenuation is again around 80%. I'm surprised at how consistent this is. As well as how high it is.
| Midlands Bitters in 1978 | ||||||||||
| Brewer | Beer | Price | º gravity per p | % ABV per p | OG | FG | ABV | App. Atten-uation | score | Flavour |
| Ruddles | County | 1048.9 | 1014.6 | 4.45 | 70.14% | 10 | Good, strong, powerful beer with hoppy flavour. | |||
| Bateman | XXXB | 34 | 1.41 | 0.15 | 1047.8 | 1009.25 | 5.02 | 80.65% | 9 | Strong, heavily malted. |
| Marston | Pedigree | 1042.7 | 1007.5 | 4.58 | 82.44% | 9 | Full bodied nutty flavour. Nice. | |||
| Marston | Pedigree | 1042.2 | 1007.8 | 4.48 | 81.52% | 12 | A well flavoured smooth bitter. Superb. | |||
| Everards | Tiger | 40 | 1.00 | 0.11 | 1040 | 1007.4 | 4.24 | 81.50% | 10 | Clean, strong, hoppy bitter. |
| Bass | Worthington E | 1039.4 | 1008 | 4.08 | 79.70% | 9 | Full flavoured. Nice. | |||
| Holden | Bitter | 34 | 1.13 | 0.12 | 1038.4 | 1007.3 | 4.04 | 80.99% | 11 | A nice clean tasty satisfying brew. |
| Mitchell & Butler | Brew XI | 29 | 1.31 | 0.15 | 1038.1 | 1004.8 | 4.34 | 87.40% | 6 | A fizzy drink with little flavour. |
| Bass | Worthington Best Bitter | 27 | 1.37 | 0.14 | 1036.9 | 1006.9 | 3.90 | 81.30% | 8 | Pleasant but on the "thin" side. |
| Simpkiss | Bitter | 35 | 1.03 | 0.12 | 1036.2 | 1005 | 4.06 | 86.19% | 11 | This pale bitter has a clear "light bite." |
| Ansell | Bitter | 34 | 1.06 | 0.10 | 1035.9 | 1008.7 | 3.53 | 75.77% | 7 | Bland, sweetish beer. |
| Average | 33.3 | 1.19 | 0.13 | 1040.6 | 1007.9 | 4.25 | 80.69% | 9.3 | ||
| Source: | ||||||||||
| Sunday Mirror - Sunday 17 September 1978, pages 22 - 23. | ||||||||||
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5 comments:
Did Banks's not brew a bitter then? When I was a student in Stoke in the early nineties, the most common beers you saw in the pubs there were cask Marston's Pedigree and Bass and keg Worthington Bitter - the Banks's pub we sometimes drank in only sold their mild on cask I think.
Matt,
yes they brewed a Bitter. It just wasn't that popular.
It's odd, but I was drinking in the West Midlands in 1980-84 and can't recall seeing much Mild. It was mostly Brew XI and Ansell's Bitter in the town pubs, occasionally M&B Springfield Bitter, and Davenports (Davvies) when meeting friends at the White Lion in central Brum. Maybe it's just that, as an ale drinker, I blanked out the Mild taps back then!
Good to see Simpkiss Bitter listed there by the Daily Mirror in 1978. THAT was the year I first tasted it, at a beer festival at university. I have brewe up my own Simpkiss Bitter several times using the grist details given in Ron Howarth´s Beer Brewing Database. Banks´s Bitter BACK THEN was lovely!
It is interesting how the west midlands remained a stronghold of mild by the time you started drinking. What is the market share of Milds in the west midlands these days.
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