Brown Ale in 1972

A slight change of pace as we look at a bottled beer, rather than the draught beers discussed before.

It's a shame that most of the Mirror articles only covered draught beers. It did make sense, as, at the time, the vast majority of beer was drunk in draught form: around 80%. But it means that I have little information on the bottled beers of the 1970s. As the Good Beer Guide only listed the OG of draught beers. Other than the handful of beers which were still being bottle conditioned.

We're starting with Brown Ale. A style which had been very popular between the wars and in the 1950s, but which had started to fall out of favour by the 1970s. It's not a type of beer I ever considered drinking. Mostly on cost grounds. Now I realise that most of the examples were also barely alcoholic.

The cheaper examples come out at 12p or 14p per pint. More expensive than Mild, which was around 11p. But also weaker. Only five of the Brown Ales are over 3% ABV. And two of those are the very atypical Newcastle Brown and Double Maxim.

Worst value, now here's a surprise, were the London-brewed beers. Which averaged a pathetic 2.7% ABV. Mostly as a result of poor attenuation. In that respect they parallel London Mild Ales. Just even weaker.

The beers from the North and the Midlands generally show a greater degree of attenuation. And average almost 3.5% ABV. Take out the two strong ones, and it comes to ever so slightly above 3% ABV. Still not great, but at least intoxicating. Interesting that those two strong ones were some of the best value, with Double Maxim far out in front.

The Southern beers were even more poorly attenuated than those from London. and averaged a pathetic 2.53% ABV. I wonder if drinkers were aware of just how watery Brown Ale was. I can only imagine that such a revelation would have reduced demand even more.

What next? Maybe Light Ale. A type of beer which is almost totally extinct. 

Brown Ale in 1972
Brewer	Beer	Price per half pint (p)	º gravity per p	% ABV per p	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation
London
Truman	Trubrown	8.5	3.76	0.29	1032	1012.6	2.50	60.62%
Charrington	Toby Brown Ale	8	3.89	0.31	1031.1	1011.7	2.50	62.38%
Young	Brown Ale	8	3.96	0.37	1031.7	1008.6	3.00	73.03%
Mann	Brown Ale	8	4.15	0.31	1033.2	1013.8	2.50	58.43%
Whitbread	Forest Brown Ale	7	4.61	0.40	1032.3	1010.65	2.80	67.03%
Courage	Brown Ale	7	4.81	0.41	1033.7	1011.3	2.90	66.47%
Average		7.8	4.20	0.35	1032.3	1011.4	2.70	64.66%
Midlands and North
Wolverhampton & Dudley	Banks Brown Ale	8	4.16	0.38	1033.3	1010.1	3.00	69.67%
Theakston	Brown Ale	9	3.47	0.32	1031.2	1008.8	2.90	71.79%
Scottish & Newcastle	Newcastle Brown Ale	9.75	4.71	0.46	1045.9	1011.3	4.50	75.49%
Vaux	Double Maxim	8.5	5.16	0.49	1043.9	1011.5	4.20	73.80%
Jennings	Castle Brown Ale	9	3.73	0.38	1033.6	1007.4	3.40	77.98%
Greenall Whitley	Bullseye	8	4.20	0.35	1033.6	1011.9	2.80	64.58%
Average		8.7	4.24	0.40	1036.9	1010.2	3.47	72.22%
South
Greene King	Harvest Brown Ale	7.5	4.36	0.37	1032.7	1011.1	2.80	66.21%
Ind Coope	Brown Ale	7	4.57	0.34	1032	1013.4	2.40	58.13%
Cook	Nutbrown Ale	7	4.70	0.34	1032.9	1014.3	2.40	56.53%
Adnams	Brown Ale	6	4.97	0.42	1029.8	1010.5	2.50	64.93%
Devenish	Bosun Brown Ale	8.75	3.68	0.31	1032.2	1011.3	2.70	64.91%
Hall & Woodhouse	John Brown	8	4.25	0.30	1034	1015.4	2.40	54.71%
Average		7.4	4.42	0.35	1032.3	1012.7	2.53	60.90%
Source:
Daily Mirror - Tuesday 11 July 1972, page 9