Shepherd Neame beers in 1971

I’d been struggling quite a bit with some of the Shepherd Neame beers. Trying to work out what the hell they were.

I spent quite a while trying to find a price list in the newspaper archive. No luck. A partial answer finally came when I scoured Frank Baillie’s “The Beer Drinker’s Companion”. Which has a pretty complete list of most brewers’ beers.

The one that really had me stumped was SXX. Which I couldn’t decide if it was a Strong Ale, Pale Ale or Old Ale. I now know it was called “Old English Stock Ale”. Though that doesn’t really make the style much clearer. But I’m pretty sure now it was a Pale Ale.

There’s still some confusion, though, when I try to map these beers onto those in the 1978 Good Beer Guide. Which lists Bitter at 1036º, Best Bitter at 1039º and Stock Ale at 1038º. So where does that leave BB? I’m guessing that it was the Light Mild mentioned by Frank Baillie.

Leaving aside what the brewery marketed these beers as. Let’s look at what they were like.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the number of Brown Ales I’ve found in brewing records. Often, they are invisible shadow beers. Conjured up from Dark Mild at bottling time. OK, the one here was parti-gyled with Mild, but it was its own distinct brew. And a particularly watery one at quite a few degrees below 1030º. This is one of the better-attenuated examples. Many had FGs of 1008º or 1009º.

The Mild is at least over 3% ABV. Not exactly rocket fuel, but at least vaguely intoxicating. A low hopping rate of just 3 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt was employed. If you flick back to Boddington or forward to Whitbread, you’ll see that hopped at 4.5 lbs to 5 lbs per quarter.

The Pale Ale analogue of Brown Ale, Light Ale, is also below 1030º and 3% ABV. Though with a slightly hopping rate of 4 lbs per quarter of malt.

Obviously, there was a lot of parti-gyling going on with the Pale Ales. Abbey Ale, Bishop’s Finger, Old English Stock Ale and Light Ale were brewed together in various combinations. Though the hopping rate was higher when Abbey Ale was involved.

Bishop’s Finger, despite being billed as a Strong Ale, is really just a very strong Bitter. Nothing wrong with that. It and Abbey Ale were only available in bottled form. Though there does appear to have been a keg version of the latter.

There was a second Pale Ale parti-gyle of BB and PA. Separate, presumably, because the hopping rate was higher.

The weirdest parti-gyle was for the Stout. Which, in a brew with Mild and Brown Ale, was given its own copper with different sugars. In a slightly obscure process.

Overall, the rate of attenuation isn’t great. The beers I chose were mostly the best-attenuated examples. Many were under 70%. And an average of all the beers I’ve photographed came out just barely over 70%. 

Shepherd Neame beers in 1971
Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
Brown Ale	Brown Ale	1026.3	1005.5	2.75	79.10%	3.07	0.35
Mild	Mild	1031.3	1007	3.21	77.64%	3.07	0.41
Light Ale	Pale Ale	1029.4	1008	2.83	72.75%	4.12	0.52
Bitter	Pale Ale	1030.2	1007.5	3.00	75.16%	5.73	0.71
Best Bitter	Pale Ale	1036.3	1008.5	3.68	76.58%	5.98	0.89
Abbey Ale	Pale Ale	1044.3	1014	4.01	68.41%	5.59	1.05
Old English Stock Ale	Pale Ale	1039.3	1009	4.01	77.12%	4.21	0.69
Bishop's Finger	Strong Ale	1052.6	1017	4.71	67.70%	4.52	1.12
Stout	Stout	1032.1	1011.5	2.73	64.21%	1.33	0.18
Source:
Shepherd Neame brewing book held at the brewery, document number H-5O5.