Looking back: Newark breweries

I was thinking about the questions I wished I'd asked older people when I was younger. Not about anything really important. Just what beer had been like when they were young.

Then I jumped forward. Maybe I should do that. Answer the questions I would have like to have asked. But about my experiences 40 or 50 years ago. Because things have changed a lot.

The former Warwick & Richardson brewery

Let's go back to my childhood.

When my family moved to Newark in the early 1960s, the town boasted two decent-sized regional breweries: Warwick & Richardson and Holes. As well as several substantial maltings. Both breweries owned 200 or so tied houses. Including almost all the pubs in town. We'll be gt5ting back to that later.

In 1962, John Smith bought Warwick & Richardson. After brewing ceased in 1966, the pubs were rebranded as Barnsley, another brewery owned by John Smith. Holes was snapped up by Courage in 1967. But the cataclysmic event was in 1970, when Courage took over John Smith. Leaving Courage owning 30 of the 35 pubs in Newark. And all four of the pubs in Balderton, the village bordering Newark where we lived.

When I started visiting pubs around 1972, most of the pubs in town were supplied by the former Holes brewery. But a couple were still supplied by Barnsley: the King William IV and the Wing Tavern. The latter being the only pub in town with handpumps. Well, working ones. It served one cask beer, the magnificent Barnsley Bitter.

The only other pubs selling cask were the four Home Ales pubs: Newcastle Arms, the Ram Hotel, the Clinton Hotel and the Cardinal's Hat. Though the last named was in the middle of a post-war council estate and, because of the weird street pattern, quite difficult to find. All of their pubs served cask Bitter and Mil through electric pumps.

If you've been paying attention you'll have noticed that I've only got to 34 pubs. The 35th was a former Steward & Patteson pub, the Olde White Hart. Which was in the hands of Watney. Meaning the town had no free houses whatsoever. Every pub was tied.

The vast majority of pubs sold bright Holes beer. That is, rough-filtered, but not pasteurised and served through electric pumps, without extra CO2 pressure. The result was a halfway house between cask and keg. Poorly handled cask beer was often hard to distinguish from bright beer. The confusion being increased by most cask being served through electric pumps.

The Courage beers served in most pubs were AK, the main Bitter of Holes, and Mild. I'm sure the Mild had a name, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was. A couple of former Warwick's houses sole IPA, which had been the flagship Bitter of Warwick & Richardson.

Other than Skol, then the main Lager of Courage, and Tavern, their premium keg beer, only seven draught beer were available: Courage AK, Mild and IPA; Home Bitter, Mild and whatever their Lager was; Barnsley Bitter. Oh, and whatever shit was on offer in the Watneys pub. Probably Red Barrel. I don't know for sure because I never went in the Olde White Hart. Still never have been.

Not exactly spoilt for choice.Newark was one of many local monopolies, of varying sizes, which were found around the country. Usually where one of the Big Six had bought up all the local breweries. The situation was totally different in many of the towns around Newark.

Nottingham, for example, was dominated by the three local breweries: Home Ales, Shipstone and Hardy & Hanson. The owned the lion's share of pubs in the city. And 99% of then sold cask beer. Though only a handful of pubs retained beer engines. The vast majority of beer was served by metered electric dispense.

I've looked for an image of a typical electric pump, but can't find one. These things used to be so common, but I suppose have totally disappeared. If you have an image, please let me know.

I'll be continuing these reminiscences until, well, I get bored or my memories run out. Which probably won't be long, as I can recall so little.

Wrong Hall

You may remember me posting about Balderton Hall, home of one of the Warwick family. One of the directors of Warwicks & Richardsons brewery in Newark.

I sort of assumed it must have been the only large house I could remember in Balderton. But after a bit more digging in the web I realised that there were two halls in Balderton. The Old Hall in the centre of the old village:

Interestingly, there was a malthouse right behind it according to this map from just before WW I:

Mr. Warwick, however, lived at Balderton Hall or Balderton New Hall. This was a little outside the village. On the site that I knew only as the mental hospital. I didn't realise that it had been a posh house before becoming a hospital.

Here's an Edwardian map of this Hall (the road on the bottom left is the old A1):

Most popular posts

Inspired by Boak & Bailey's look at the stats for their blog, I decided to do the same. Not for this year, but all time.

I was surprised to note that four of the most popular were published this year, inlcuding the second most popular of all time. Even weirder, numbers 9 and 10 were posted on the same day in October this year.

post title	date	views
Beer in North Korea	21 Dec 2011	4270
A day with Carlsberg (part one)	3 Sep 2017	3733
A tale of two bars	22 Mar 2012	3225
Grätzer - it's official	5 Mar 2013	3034
A day with Carlsberg (part two)	4 Sep 2017	3027
Let's Brew Wednesday - 1850 Truman Double Stout	23 Dec 2015	2410
When was Brettanomyces discovererd?	29 Jun 2013	2089
Why I don't read beer magazines	30 Jan 2013	2038
I'm number two	7 Oct 2017	1864
German Dunkles in 2014	7 Oct 2017	1791

This is probably as retrospective as I'll be getting as the end of the year approaches. Most my head is already in next year, planning various trips and wondering about which books I should publish. I'm already assembling a list in my head for the latter.

I've several partially complete manuscripts. Which to finish off first? Victory! Vol. II is on the cards. But that could change. I'm also planning new, expanded editions of some existing books.

At the beginning of March the Historic Lager Festival will finally go ahead. I've been trying to get this off the ground for a couple of years.

Lots of collaboration brews planned. And a new dream: getting a range of Warwicks beers on the bar of a former warwicks pub. How difficult could that be? After all, I did get Watney's Red Barrel brewed this year. (And very nice it was, too.)

There's so much to look forward to. Why look back?

Newark Malt kilns Ablaze

There’s usually only one reason malt kilns make it into newspapers: when they burn down.

Newark used to full of maltsters, both large and small. Look on old OS maps and there are malt kilns all over time, often just sandwiched between houses. I’m not sure I’d want to have a malt kiln in my back garden. Way too dangerous.

“NEWARK MALT KILNS ABLAZE
FIVE FIRE BRIGADES.
The whole of Newark was brilliantly illuminated a huge fire which broke out Tuesday night at the malt kilns of Messrs. Gilstrap Earp & Co., Ltd., in Northgate. The flames could be seen six miles away, and the glare was visible at Mansfield, eighteen miles away, Grantham, and other places miles from Newark. Many people from Nottingham, Grantham, Lincoln, and other places in the district helped to swell the crowd of thousands who watched the firemen’s efforts to check the flames.

An employee of the Firm, when passing the kilns shortly before seven o’clock, saw smoke coming through the roof. With another man, he entered the building and tried to put out the flames, but they were beaten back the fumes of burning malt. The whole of the building soon became involved, and the local Fire Brigade was faced With a formidable task, the Church of St. Leonard, across the street, the adjoining foundry of Messrs. Bradley, and the brewery of Messrs. Warwick & Richardson being in imminent danger. Help was sent by the Mansfield, Lincoln, and Carlton Brigades.

The fire started in what known as the Farnham Kiln, and police and firemen stood on the roof of another similar building, the Northgate Kiln, as  well as on roofs of neighbouring houses, to direct streams of water into the flames. The combined jets from the Brigades and from the equipment at the kilns were kept playing on the fire, but the blaze remained unchecked, and spread to the rear of the building. To add to the difficulties, burning and smouldering malt poured through the windows and

The Collapsing Floors
formed blazing heaps in their paths. Where the fire originated was gutted in a short time, and efforts were concentrated in an endeavour to prevent the outbreak from spreading to the Northgate Kiln.

The gutted, kiln. capacity of 120 quarters, and was lull malt, is valued roughly at £10,000, without the contents.

At 11.30 p.m. the fire was still burning fiercely, and the Northgate block was imminent danger, the connecting corridor of wood and being alight. The fire had also spread to Messrs. Bradley’s foundry.

The Chief Constable of Newark (Mr. J. McConnach), who was directing the fire fighting operations, had a narrow escape from serious injury when a roof collapsed while he was endeavouring to recover part of a hose which had become ignited through a burning mass of malt bursting through the lower windows of the kiln.

By midnight the fire was under control, and Messrs. Bradley’s foundry and the Northgate kiln block had been saved. Odd flickers of flame, however, necessitated the firemen remaining on the spot during the night. About sixty firemen had been engaged, each of the visiting Brigades bringing ten men. The Works’ Brigade of Messrs. Warwick & Richardson also did excellent volunteer work.”
Grantham Journal - Saturday 05 April 1930, page 8.

Gilstrap Earp & Co. was one of Newark’s big maltsters. I regularly come across malt described as “Gilstrap” in brewing records. That London brewers were using Gilstrap malt is a sign of its quality and the size of the company.

Both Gilstrap and Earp were mayors of Newark. Earp had also been a brewer as well as a maltster. The secondary school I attended was on a street named in his honour. I had absolutely no idea at the time of the brewing connection.

It must have been a pretty ginormous fire if it could be seen from Lincoln, Mansfield and Grantham. All of them are a good distance from Newark. There obviously wasn’t a great deal in the way of entertainment back then if thousands flocked to Newark just to see a fire.

Like many larger breweries, Warwicks had their own fire brigade. A wise precaution, especially if there were malt kilns nearby.

Warwicks & Richardsons AK

Now here was a surprise. Newark was famous for AK. Except it was Holes AK, Not Warwicks.

So I was pretty surprised to find this advert:

Shipley Times and Express - Saturday 01 April 1893, page 1.

It’s left me wondering a few things. When did Warwick stop brewing AK? And why? Was the brand becoming too associated with their rival?

Where they were advertising is odd, too. Shipley is in West Yorkshire, outside the area where I thought Warwicks traded. Which I thought was pretty exclusively the East Midlands. Those six gallon casks they’re advertising are non-standard, too.

A shilling a gallon is the standard price for a Light Bitter like AK. It would have had an OG 1045-1050º.

Mr. Warwick dies

My interest in Newark brewing has bee rekindled since I got my hands of  a Warwicks & Richardsons brewing record.

There was good money to be earned in the brewing trade. If you were one of the owners. W.D Warwick, as chairman and presumably large shareholder in Warwicks & Richardson, certainly seems to have had a bob or two.

"Mr. W. D. Warwick's Will.—Mr. William Deeping Warwick, of Balderton Hall, Newark, chairman of Messrs. Warwicks and Richardsons, Limited, the Newark Brewery, of Messrs. Morris's Rutland Brewery Company, Limited, and of Messrs. McGeorge and Heppenstalls, Limited, wine and spirit merchants, of Newark, who died 30th May last, aged sixty-nine years, left estate of the grots value of £83,153 8s. 8d., of which the net personalty has been sworn at £32,462 15s. 1d. Probate of his will, dated 7th June, 1905, with two codicils, has been granted to  his widow, Mrs. Emily Sarah Warwick, his son, Mr. William Arthur Warwick, both of Balderton Hall, and Mr. Charles John Huskinson, solicitor, of Newark. The testator left £500, his personal effects, and consumable stores, horses, carriages, live and dead stock, and his smaller effects at Balderton Hall, to his wife Mrs. Emily Sarah Warwick, absolutely, together with the use for life of Balderton Hall and the balance of his household effects, and an annuity of £1,500. He left £205 and 200 ordinary shares in Warwicks and Richardons, Limited, to his son William Arthur Warwick, an annuity of £250 to each of his children Henry Branston Warwick, Emily Clara Greenwood, and Gladys Mary Beaumont, and £105 to Mr Chas. John Huskinson. He directed that the residue of his property should accumulate during the life to his wife, and on her decease left 800 shares in Warwicks aud Richardsons, Limited, to his son William Arthur Warwick, 500 such shares and £5,000 upon trust for his son Branston Warwick, £7,500 upon trust for each of his daughters Emily Clara Greenwood and Gladys Mary Beaumont, and their respective issue, and the residue of his property to his said two sons in equal shares, giving them successively the option of the purchase of Balderton Hall, and those effects there not left to his wife for £12,000."
Grantham Journal - Saturday 26 July 1913, page 2.

The first thing I wanted to know was: where was Balderton Hall. If it was worth £12,000 it must have been a substantial property. One of the reasons I'm wondering is that I grew up in Balderton and I'm trying to think of a house of that size in the village. There is one I can think of, just past the church on Main Street. This:

And it's called "Old Hall". My guess is that this is it. It's way larger than any other house in Balderton. Fancy that. I never knew one of the Warwicks lived close to where I grew up. I wonder when the last Warwick moved out?

William Arthur Warwick was obvously W. D. Warwick's dedicated heir. I wonder if he was company chairman, too?

Warwicks & Richardsons beers in 1910

I’m so happy to have finally got my hands on a Newark brewing record. Especially as it’s from my favourite period: just before WW I.

And also because it matches up nicely with a Warwicks & Richardsons price list I have from 1906. It’s not a complete match, as I haven’t been able to find XXXX, B or Porter. On the other hand, there are a couple of beers that are in the brewing record, but not in the price list: HA (presumably Harvest Ale), XXX B and HB. 

I’ve been rethinking my ideas on Edwardian Mild. It’s clear that, outside London, X Ale and XX Ale were often below 1050º. Warwicks XXXX Ale, which I haven’t found in the brewing record, probably had an OG in the low 1060s. That I haven’t found it implies that it wasn’t brewed very often.

Though XXX Ale, which is around the strength of a London X Ale, was the commonest of the Warwicks Milds. Looking at the price list, I would have guessed that the four Mild Ales were parti-gyled in various combinations. But this wasn’t the case. Mostly they were brewed single-gyle, as were the Pale Ales.

Warwicks & Richardsons beers in 1910
Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	boil time (hours)		Pitch temp	max. fermen-tation temp
HA	Mild	1036.6	1013.0	3.11	64.39%	3.85	0.56	2	1.5	61.5º F	69º F
X	Mild	1043.8	1013.9	3.96	68.35%	4.98	0.86	2	1.5	61.5º F	69.5º F
XX	Mild	1048.5	1014.7	4.47	69.71%	4.95	0.95	2	1.5	61.5º F	70º F
XXX	Mild	1055.4	1016.3	5.17	70.50%	4.95	1.07	1.5		60º F	70º F
LBB	Pale Ale	1042.7	1012.5	3.99	70.78%	3.68	0.62	2	1.5	62º F	70º F
TA	Pale Ale	1050.1	1015.5	4.58	69.06%	5.82	1.00	2	1.5	62.5º F	69.5º F
BB	Pale Ale	1052.6	1015.8	4.87	70.00%	6.58	1.38	2	1.5	62º F	70º F
XXX B	Pale Ale	1049.9	1015.5	4.54	68.89%	6.58	1.31	2	1.5	62º F	70º F
IPA	IPA	1059.8	1018.0	5.53	69.91%	7.40	1.84	2	1.5	61º F	70º F
A	Strong Ale	1067.9	1022.4	6.01	66.94%	4.93	1.36	2	1.5	60º F	70º F
HB	Strong Ale	1062.9	1019.9	5.68	68.28%	4.00	1.00	2	1.5	60º F	70º F
SS	Stout	1053.7	1022.2	4.18	58.76%	4.83	1.12	2	1.5	60.5º F	70º F
DS	Stout	1069.3	1028.0	5.46	59.60%	4.80	1.46	2	1.5	63º F	70º F
Source:
Warwicks & Richardsons brewing record held at the Nottinghamshire Archives, document number DD/NM/8/4/1.

The Strong Ales look weaker than in London. A London KK was around 1075º and a KKK 1085º at this date. Even the stronger (and missing from the log) B would only have been around 1073º.

SS, Single Stout, is only about the strength of  a London Porter. While DS, Double Stout, is well short of the 1080º gravity of Whitbread’s Double Stout in 1910. 

The Pale Ales are the one set that are similar to London strength. Whitbread’s four Pale Ales in 1910 ranged from 1048º to 1063º. Though their IPA was one of the weaker examples at just 1049º Whitbread’s strongest Pale Ale was simply called PA.

Warwicks & Richardsons beers and prices in 1910
Beer	Style	OG	price per barrel	price per gravity point
HA	Mild	1036.6
X	Mild	1043.8	36	0.823
XX	Mild	1048.5	42	0.866
XXX	Mild	1055.4	48	0.866
LBB	Pale Ale	1042.7	36	0.844
TA	Pale Ale	1050.1	42	0.838
BB	Pale Ale	1052.6	48	0.912
XXX B	Pale Ale	1049.9
IPA	IPA	1059.8	54	0.903
A	Strong Ale	1067.9	60	0.884
HB	Strong Ale	1062.9
SS	Stout	1053.7	42	0.782
DS	Stout	1069.3	48	0.693
Sources:
Warwicks & Richardsons brewing record held at the Nottinghamshire Archives, document number DD/NM/8/4/1.
Lincolnshire Chronicle - Tuesday 25 December 1906, page 1.

Inversion

I was so excited at finally getting my hands on some Newark brewing records that I initially missed something.

There's a section in the Warwicks brewing records that I've never seen before, titled "Inversion". It might sound a bit odd, but once I'd spotted it, I immediately understtod what it was. They were inverting sugar themselves:

The example above is from a Mild Ale and the suagr in question was something called "Glebe".

This next one is from a brew of Double Stout and in this case the sugar was "Trinidad".

The name Trinidad implies that this was cane sugar. I'm not sure why some beers used one type of sugar and others a different one. Especially as both were being inverted.

Obviously, you need the acid to invert the sugar, so that's no surprise. I'm not so sure why the chalk is there.

The Double Stout inversion, despite using only about 25% less sugar, had far less water: 8 barrles as opposed to 18 barrels. Which would have produced a thicker, higher gravity invert. Would it also produce a darker invert? Everything else looks the same: the time, quantity of acid and quantity of chalk.

I've read in brewing text books about brewers making their own invert. But that's a good bit earlier than this. With commercially-made invert sugars readily available, it seems odd that Warwicks were still making it themselves in 1910. Seems like a lot of extra trouble.

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1910 Warwicks IPA

Here’s a beer with which I have a very personal connection. And not just because it’s from my hometown.

Warwicks & Richardsons was one of the two large breweries in Newark-on-Trent, the other being Holes. The latter being the first place I worked. And one of the beers I filled into kegs in 1975 was the last Warwicks beer still being brewed: IPA. IPA was Warwicks standard Bitter, the equivalent Holes beer being AK.

Until a few weeks ago I though no brewing records from Newark breweries had survived. Happily, I was wrong. They’ve a few documents from both Holes and Warwicks archived in Nottingham.

British brewers have been pretty inconsistent in their use of the designations Pale Ale and IPA. Much to the annoyance of modern style Nazis. But this really does look like a classic Burton IPA, at least in terms of gravity. The hopping isn’t quite as crazy.

As you would expect from a beer intended to be pretty pale in colour, there are no coloured malts in the grist and a high percentage of non-malt fermentables. It’s one of the ironies of pre-WW I brewing that often the most expensive beers, high-class Pale Ales, contained the smallest percentage of malt. Sugar and flaked maize were used to keep the body and colour as light as possible.

No. 2 invert is my guess. In the record in just specifies it as “Glebe”. It could also be something like No. 1 invert. I just don’t know.

The hops were a mixture of Oregon and English. I don’t know the variety of the English hops. Goldings is just a guess. You could also opt for some, or all, Fuggles. What is noticeable is the totally crazy level of dry hopping. In the original there were 396 lbs of copper hops and 207 lbs of dry hops. That’s a completely insane ratio.

Given the very high level of dry hopping, it wouldn’t surprise me if IPA was still being brewed as a Stock Ale and aged for months before sale.

1910 Warwicks IPA
pale malt	8.25 lb	64.71%
flaked maize	3.00 lb	23.53%
No. 2 invert sugar	1.50 lb	11.76%
Cluster 120 mins	1.25 oz
Goldings 60 mins	1.00 oz
Goldings 30 mins	1.00 oz
Goldings dry hops	2.00 oz
OG	1060
FG	1018
ABV	5.56
Apparent attenuation	70.00%
IBU	48
SRM	8
Mash at	153º F
Sparge at	165º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	61º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire Ale

Dreams coming true

When I first saw this Warwicks & Richardsons price list, I was sure of one thing. I'd never know exactly what all these beers were like. Becasue none of their brewing records had survived. Or so I believed.

Edd Mather recently put me right on that front. That there are some records from the two big Newark breweries, Holes and Warwicks & Richardsons, in Nottingham.

My schoolfirend Henry - who lives in Nottinghamshire - duly trailed over to take some snaps. Including ones of their 1910 brewing book. Just four years after the advert.

I've not completely sucked out all the goodness from the snaps, but I've spotted most of the beers in the ad. A would have confused the hell out of me without knowing for sure that it was a Strong Ale. It would have been my guess, despite it making no sense. A would usually designate a low-gravity beer.

I'm so excited about this. Especially as Henry has a brewery, Cat Asylum. We can bring Warwicks IPA back to Newark. How cool would that be.

Lots more about Warwicks & Richardsons beers to come.

Newark Ales in 1906

I'm returning briefly to my Newark-on-Trent theme. Why? Because I can and I feel like it.

Really it's just because I bumped my nose into a Warwick & Richardson's advert from 1906. Warwick & Richardson was one of the two big breweries in Newark still operating when my family moved to the town in the early 1960's. It was bought by John Smiths in 1962 and closed in 1966. After which their pubs were supplied with beer from the Barnsley Brewery. Most of the brewery still stands on North Gate. It's an attractive late Victorian job, so I'm glad they didn't just bulldoze it.

I remember the Cock Inn in Balderton going from Warwicks to Barnsley to Courage livery. Then changing its name to Chesters. Does at last sell cask now, which it didn't when I lived in Baldo. Still wonder what Warwicks beer tasted like. My dad must have drunk it, as I know my mother did (Milkmaid Stout). And she only usually drank in pubs. Other than Chrismas and weddings.

Here's the price list:

Lincolnshire Chronicle - Tuesday 25 December 1906, page 1.

As you can see, they had a range of 16 draught beers, which is pretty impressive.. Though my guess is that there were only really three or four parti-gyles. The bottled beers look like versions of the draught beers:

Trent Stout = P
Double Srout = SS
Extra Stout = DS
Mild Ale = XXX
Trent Ale = LBB
IPA = IPA

How does the range compare with that of breweries elsewhere? Let's take a look, shall we?

First, the Warwick's beers in table form:

Warwick & Richardson beers in 1906
Beer	Style	price per barrel (shillings)	price per gallon (pence)
X	Mild Ale	36	12
XX	Mild Ale	42	14
XXX	Mild Ale	48	16
XXXX	Mild Ale	54	18
LBB	Pale Ale	36	12
TA	Pale Ale	42	14
BB	Pale Ale	48	16
IPA	IPA	54	18
A	Strong Ale	60	20
B	Strong Ale	72	24
P	Porter	36	12
SS	Stout	42	14
DS	Stout	48	16
Sources:
Lincolnshire Chronicle - Tuesday 25 December 1906, page 1.

Now Whitbread's:

Whitbread beers in 1906
Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	hops lb/brl
X	Mild	1055.1	1013.0	5.57	76.42%	1.23
FA	Pale Ale	1049.6	1013.0	4.84	73.78%	2.61
IPA	IPA	1050.1	1013.0	4.91	74.04%	2.63
2PA	Pale Ale	1056.5	1017.0	5.23	69.92%	2.37
PA	Pale Ale	1063.4	1022.0	5.47	65.29%	3.40
KK	Stock Ale	1075.1	1028.0	6.23	62.73%	4.06
2KKK	Stock Ale	1080.2	1033.0	6.24	58.83%	4.33
KKK	Stock Ale	1085.8	1032.0	7.11	62.69%	4.63
P	Porter	1055.2	1013.0	5.58	76.43%	1.55
CS	Stout	1057.9	1017.0	5.41	70.65%	1.38
S	Stout	1074.5	1026.0	6.41	65.08%	2.09
SS	Stout	1085.2	1032.0	7.03	62.43%	3.84
SSS	Stout	1095.1	1038.0	7.56	60.05%	4.29
Sources:
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/071 and LMA/4453/D/09/100.

The biggest difference is in the Mild Ales. Whitbread brewed just one, while Warwick's had a more typical Victorian range of X to XXXX. Whitbread's X Ale, incidentally, sold for 36 shillings a barrel, just like Warwick's. But based on what I've seen at other provincial breweries, the gravity of Warwick's was probably lower.

Both breweries made four Pale Ales. But note the different position of IPA in the Pale Ale hierarchy. At Whitbread it was one of the weakest, at Warwick's the strongest.  As I've said often before, IPA wasn't necessarily stronger than Pale Ale. It varied, depending on the brewery. Ironically, Warwick's IPA ended up being their standard Bitter. I can recall filling the odd keg of it during my time at Holes, though by then only two pubs in Newark still sold it.

The surprising thing about the Black Beers, is that Warwicks still had a draught Porter. It was pretty moribund outside Ireland and London. As the maps here show. Based on the price, Warwick's top Stout was nowhere near as strong as SSS. DS was probably around 1070º

I can't think of owt of any sense about the Strong Ales. Keeping my gob shut as tight as Mum after all those rum punches in the former governor's mansion in Kingston.

I wish I had some real numbers for Warwicks beers. Before I started my crazy crawl through records, I never dreamt so much was out there. Maybe, somewhere, there is more information about their beers. I can still dream.

My favourite ever dream? Being on a Newark pub crawl in 1940. And not waking before I got to taste the Mild.

John Smith acquisitions

John Smith was one of what I call the nearly men. Breweries that expanded rapidly in the 1950’s and 1960’s, but didn’t quite make the Big Six.

Though in a way they did. Because these large brewing groups became important chunks of the eventual winners. When Courage, Barclay & Simonds took them over in 1970, they brought 1,800 pubs with them.  That was around a third of the 6,000 tied houses the whole Courage group owner after the merger.

I have mixed feelings about John Smith. They closed one of the Newark breweries (Warwick & Richardson) and one of my all-time favourites (Barnsley). Then they phased out cask beer in the mid-1970’s. When I lived in a town where they owned 90% of the pubs. I say John Smith owned them and not Courage because they didn’t sell any products from the latter’s breweries.  I virtually never went in any of their Leeds pubs when I lived there. Because they didn’t do cask.

John Smith had quite a limited geographical spread. If you look at the breweries they bought, all are North of the Trent, except Warwick & Richardson which was on the river’s southern bank. It looks from their acquisitions that they traded in the North of the Midlands, Yorkshire, Lancashire and the Northeast.

I can see why Courage bought them. Until then, Courage was pretty much exclusively southern, with the exception of the pubs that came along with Hole’s of Newark. How ironic is that? The only place they overlapped was Newark, where I grew up. Otherwise, the two tied estates were complementary: Courage in the South, John Smith in the North. In my experience, the two parts of the company operated pretty separately all through the 1970’s.

I’ll finish with a nice table.

John Smith acquisitions
year	brewery	address	tied houses	closed
1919	Fernandes & Co	Wakefield	42	1919
1925	Warwick & Co	Boroughbridge	42
1926	Bentley’s Milnshaw Brewery Co	Accrington	12
1934	Haughton Road Brewery Co	Darlington	41
1941	H Shaw	Dunkinfield	60
1958	Whitworth, Son & Nephew Ltd	Wath upon Derne	165
1961	Barnsley Brewery Co Ltd	Barnsley	250	1976
1961	Yates Castle Brewery Ltd	Manchester	175 pubs in 1896
1962	Warwick & Richardsons Ltd	Newark		1966
Sources:
"The Brewing Industry a Guide to Historical Records” by Lesley Richmond and Alison Turton, 1990, page 303.
A Century of British Breweries plus by Norman Barber, 2005, pages 29, 66, 94. 160, 163 and 172.

I think I’ll continue the Courage theme with a look at the growth of Simonds.

John Smiths beers 1960 - 1967

This is a totally unscheduled post. Something that sort of created itself out of a Facebook conversation.

It started when someone posted this John Smiths price list from 1971:

I remembered that I had a wealth of analyses of John Smiths beers from the Whitbread Gravity Book.

John Smiths beers 1960 - 1967
Year	Beer	Style	Price	size	package	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour
1960	Pale Ale (sold in Belgium)	Pale Ale			bottled	1055.5	1013.7	5.22	75.32%	17
1961	Golden Keg Ale	Pale Ale	22d to 24d	pint	draught	1039.1	1009	3.76	76.98%	19
1964	Double Brown	Brown Ale	24d	pint	bottled	1047.3	1016.7	3.82	64.69%	80
1964	Milk Maid Stout	Stout	16.5d	half pint	bottled	1042.2	1022.2	2.50	47.39%	325
1964	Golden Keg	Pale Ale	24d	pint	draught	1039.1	1009.4	3.71	75.96%	23
1964	Draught Magnet	Pale Ale	20d	pint	draught	1043	1007.4	4.45	82.79%	35
1964	Bitter	Pale Ale	18d	pint	draught	1038.3	1007.6	3.84	80.16%	23
1964	Mild Ale	Mild	15d	pint	draught	1030.9	1008.5	2.80	72.49%	30
1964	Magnet Pale Ale	Pale Ale	14.5d	half pint	bottled	1043.5	1007.2	4.54	83.45%	16
1964	Light Ale	Light Ale	10.5d	half pint	bottled	1031.9	1009.6	2.79	69.91%	29
1965	Pale Ale (sold in Belgium)	Pale Ale			bottled	1056.1	1011.8	5.54	78.97%	13
1967	Magnet Pale Ale	Pale Ale	24d	pint	draught	1043.5	1008.7	4.35	80.00%	33
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001.

There's a personal connection with one of these beers. Milk Maid Stout was a Warwick & Richardson brand. And the beer my Mum used to drink. The label appers prominently on the cover of  The Home Brewer's Guide to Vintage Beer.

There's not a huge difference between the prices in the two lists. Take Golden, for example. 24d = 10p, meaning it had gone up 4p between 1964 and 1971. But that would soon change. The early 1970's were a time of high inflation.

That's it. Just a pile of random crap. Oh, except one last thing. Golden and Bitter were probably the same beer. Note how much worse value the keg beer is.