Adnams beers in 1913

As a country brewery, Adnams gives us a good impression of what was happening outside the UK’s great metropoli.

With just seven beers, Adnams range was quite small. But well spread across different styles, there being two Mild Ales, two Pale Ales, two Stouts and one Old Ale.

The Mild Ales are, compared to the big cities, piss weak. X Ale looks very much like a post-WW II Mild, with its gravity just a shade over 1030º. Putting that into context, a London X Ale of the time was around 1050º. It must have been quite a shock for country folk visiting London

The two Pale Ales fall nicely into the Ordinary and Best Bitter slots. And, unlike the Mild Ales, are close in gravity to the equivalent London beers. Though the rate of hopping is much lower. Whitbread’s Pale Ales of the time received between 9 and 12 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt. Compared with just 6.5 lbs at Adnams.

Not quite sure why they brewed two Stouts at such similar gravities. Even the stronger of the two is well short of being Double Stout strength. It’s not even strong enough to really count as a Stout at all and has a gravity barely higher than a London Porter.

Named beers were very rare before WW I. Especially one that had been around as long as Tally Ho. Which had been brewed since at least 1879.

Both the Milds and Bitters show a high degree of attenuation. Only Tally Ho is below 70% apparent. But doubtless that would have increased during the long secondary fermentation that I’m sure it underwent before consumption. 

Adnams beers in 1913
Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	dry hops (oz / barrel)
X	Mild Ale	1033.0	1005.5	3.64	83.33%	3.73	0.54
XX	Mild Ale	1039.0	1007.0	4.23	82.05%	3.83	0.65
BLB	Pale Ale	1044.0	1007.0	4.89	84.09%	6.44	1.22	7.06
PA	Pale Ale	1056.0	1010.0	6.09	82.14%	6.53	1.54	7.56
BS	Stout	1055.0	1014.0	5.42	74.55%	4.19	1.08
DS	Stout	1060.0	1014.0	6.09	76.67%	4.91	1.34
Tally Ho	Old Ale	1081.0	1025.0	7.41	69.14%	6.21	2.25	10.50
Source:
Adnams brewing record Book 1 held at the brewery.