Inside 1970s Bitter

Let’s take a closer look at what went into these Bitter Beers of the 1970s. But, because I have quite a lot of examples, I’m going to divide them up by strength.

Starting with what I’m going to call Boys Bitter. It’s a term that was only used in the Southwest and referred to a very weak class of Bitter, which often took the place of Mild Ale. Though only one of the examples, Dorchester Bitter is from that part of the country. Most of these beers could easily pass for a Light Mild.

The Maclay beer is their 60/-, something which often masqueraded as Mild. Especially as it was usually coloured dark brown. Despite being called a Pale Ale by the brewery. 6d, incidentally is the retail price per pint. Or, at least, was the retail price in the 1930s.It cost many times that in 1971.

Despite being of a very watery OG, Decent rates of attenuation leave even the weakest around 3% ABV. With Truman’s example managing to squeeze almost 3.5% ABV.

The hopping isn’t exactly what you’d call intense, averaging a fairly modest 5 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt. Which gives an average of just under 20 (calculated) IBU.

A range of colours is present, starting at 21 for the Truman beer, which is about as Pale as Bitters usually got. While the 32 of the Maclay is on the dark end.

Boys Bitter 1969 - 1981
Year	Brewer	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	colour	IBU
1971	Maclay	PA 6d	1030	1008	2.91	73.33%	5.08	0.64	32	23
1971	Shepherd Neame	Best Bitter	1030.2	1008.0	2.94	73.50%	5.98	0.74	24	21
1969	Truman	LK	1030.7	1004.7	3.44	84.68%	5.32	0.63	21	17
1981	Eldridge Pope	Dorchester Bitter	1032.7	1008.9	3.15	72.88%	4.33	0.50	32	16
	Average		1030.9	1007.4	3.11	76.10%	5.18	0.63	27.3	19.3
Sources:
Fremlin brewing record held at the Kent Archives, document number U3555/2/F/Bx2/1/93.
Elgood brewing record held at the brewery.
Maclay brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number M/6/1/1/46.
Shepherd Neame brewing record held at the brewery, Brewing book 1971 H-5O5,
Truman brewing record held by Derek Prentice.
Eldridge Pope brewing record.
Note:
Colour and IBU values marked with * were taken from brewery sources rather than calculated.