1970s Special Bitter

You can see how far I've got in my book "Keg!". Just about all the way through draught Bitter. I'm cracking on so well, that almost all that's left are the annoying bits I need to research more. 

 Though I did remember that I have all those technical brewing journals from the 1970s. Ones I've never really looked at. Full of rabbit holes, I'm sure.But, what the hell? I' retired. Time is one thing I've loads of. At least for now.

Only one type of Bitter left: Special Bitter. Not as many of these, as by no means every brewery produced one.

A slightly lower degree of attenuation than in the other types of Bitter. Though the high gravities mean that all are above 4% ABV. And Fremlin County Ale manages to just top 5% ABV.

The hopping rate per quarter (336 lbs) of malt, at 5.5 lbs, is the highest, by a shade, of all the Bitter types. No shock, then, that the bitterness levels are also the highest, though only very slightly.

A couple of the beers have very dark colours for the style. Especially Abbey Ale which is darker than some Milds. Though a particularly pale Ben Truman keeps the average colour around the same as for Best Bitter. 

Special Bitter 1969 - 1981
Year	Brewer	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	colour	IBU
1971	Shepherd Neame	Abbey Ale	1044.3	1014.0	4.01	68.41%	5.59	1.05	50	28
1981	Eldridge Pope	Royal Oak	1048.2	1013.9	4.54	71.26%	4.33	0.74	40	20
1969	Truman	Ben Truman	1046.8	1010.0	4.87	78.70%	4.13	0.76	16	18
1969	Fremlin	County Ale	1049.5	1011.5	5.03	76.77%	7.99	1.45	26*	41
	Average		1047.2	1012.3	4.61	73.79%	5.51	1.00	33.0	26.8
Sources:
Shepherd Neame brewing record held at the brewery, Brewing book 1971 H-5O5.
Eldridge Pope brewing record.
Truman brewing record held by Derek Prentice.
Fremlin brewing record held at the Kent Arrchives, document number U3555/2/F/Bx2/1/93.
Note:
Colour and IBU values marked with * were taken from brewery sources rather than calculated.