Excise duty

After 1880, the way of calculating exvise duty on beer wad an odd one. It was charged per "standard barrel" rather than by the actual volume of liquid.

This text explains it:

"From 1880 to 1933 the unit of charge was the "standard barrel," viz., 36 gallons at the standard specific gravity, which was 1057 deg. until 1889 and 1055 deg. thereafter. In 1923 the duty was reduced by a rebate of 20s. (or less on beer of very low gravity) per "bulk barrel," viz., 36 gallons whatever the gravity. This method was adopted in order to facilitate a uniform reduction in the retail prices of practically all beer, and the rebate was continued concurrently with subsequent increases in the charge."
Brewers' Journal 1940, page 49 (published January 17th, 1940).

But in the early 1930s, there was a subtle change to the system.

"In 1933 the duty was reduced and remodelled. Before the Budget of that year the Excise duty was £6 14s. per standard barrel minus the rebate referred to. This was altered to £1 4s. per barrel of a specific gravity up to and including 1027 deg., plus a further 2s. for every degree of gravity over 1027 deg. Thus the unit of charge was shifted from the standard barrel to the bulk barrel, and the charge was made to vary with the gravity of the latter. The reduction was calculated to be sufficient, in most cases, to permit of a fall in retail prices of 1d. per pint and to leave a margin to cover a rise in gravity."
Brewers' Journal 1940, page 49 (published January 17th, 1940).

This new system was a huge disincentive to brewing anything under 1027º. Because whether your beer had an OG of 1010º or 1027º, you still paid £1 4s. per barrel. Sure enough, I don't think I've come across a single beer with an OG below 1027º after 1933. While in WW I, there were beers as weak as 1010º.

"The Customs duty on imported beer exceeds the Excise duty by 1s. 3d. per bulk barrel, of which 5d. is to countervail the cost, to the home brewer of the licence duty and the Excise restrictions to which he is subject, and l0d. to countervail the Customs duty on imported hops. On imports of non-Empire beer, which consists largely of lager beer, there is also a surtax of £1 per bulk barrel imposed in 1936 as a measure of protection to the British lager beer industry."
Brewers' Journal 1940, page 49 (published January 17th, 1940).

I'd seen an extra tax on imported beer suggested for the purpose of helping Lager brewing in the UK. But I hadn't realised that it had been implemented. As mentioned in the article, UK beer imports, other than those from Ireland, were almost exclusively in the form of Lager.

And finally, a little mention for Black Beer, that weird and obscure stuff:

"On black beer, which is a special high gravity product, exceeding 1200 deg., in the nature of a syrup, the duties and rebates have remained unaltered since 1923. There have been no imports for many years, and the home production is small, having been 378 bulk barrels in 1938-39, equivalent to 1,668 standard barrels."
Brewers' Journal 1940, page 49 (published January 17th, 1940).

With only 378 bulk barrels produced, it was just about extinct.

Prominent Firms - Courage & Co.

Time for another word from the Brewers' Society sponsors. At least that's how it reads. It's not exactly a critical review of Courage.

Though they had never been in the first division of Porter brewers in the 18th century, Courage had been a specialist in Black Beer production. They were unusual in the early part of the 20th century in only brewing Mild, Porter and Stout in their London headquarters. Even Truman, which owned a brewery in Burton, produced some Pale Ale in London.

When Courage wanted to get into Pale Ale brewing rather than look to Burton, they bought a brewery in the small town of Alton, Hampshire. Why? Because the  water there was similar in composition to that of Burton.

"COURAGE & CO.
Another house which was once a “black beer” brewery, producing the dark coloured liquor for which London has a long standing reputation, but which now is as well known for its ales as for porter and stout, is that of Messrs. Courage and Co. Their London brewery, near the southern end of the Tower Bridge, occupies a situation to which several advantages are attached. It stands right on the banks of the Thames, and enjoys, in consequence, the fresh air which blows in from the river, as well as the convenience and economy of getting its supplies of malt, coal, etc., brought by water, the barges being able to come alongside Messrs. Courage's brewery, and to judge from an old print, in which this bouse and its gardens are shown as the resort of a large and fashionable company, the liquor of the locality must have enjoyed high repute.

Thorough Methods.
Be that as it may, the productions of the present brewery are admittedly of the finest quality. As illustrating the thorough study which Messrs. Courage make their business, it may be mentioned that a few years ago they took over a country brewery expressly to make pale ale, the water of the vicinity having been found specially suitable for the purpose. This Alton ale is considered equal to the famous Burton brews. Particular attention, too, is paid to the treatment of all the beer in stock; a set of instructions printed on enamelled tin is nailed up in each cellar for the guidance of the cellarmen in regard the temperature end other matters. By such means the proper condition of the various beers, the bulk of which reaches the public through the licensed houses, though a certain quantity is bottled, is ensured, a highly important point. Among the black been, the Imperial stout may be mentioned for its excellence. The sign "Courage and Co.” is, indeed, one of those which stand for wholesome, well-brewed liquor of whatever kind or grade.

An interesting feature the brewery is the well, which is sunk to a great depth, the water being blown up, so to speak, by tne use compressed air pumps. Some structural alterations have been recently carried out; the firm has its own architect, part of whose function is to carry out improvements in the buildings from time to time. But it is not surprising to learn that for the nonce a check has been put on enterprise of this kind. It has been urged that the Licensing Bill, if it becomes law, is bound create a serious amount of unemployment; here is an instance — and it is not solitary one — where it has already had that effect."
London Evening Standard - Tuesday 20 October 1908, page 9.

Interesting that Courage was still principally selling its beer in draught form, while rivals Barclay Perkins and Whitbread were already heavily involved in the bottled beer trade. I wonder why that was? It might have been on account of the type of beers they brewed in London. Other than Imperial Stout, they weren't really the types of beer that were common in bottled form.

Most of what was brewed at Horsleydown was either Mild, standard-strength Porter or Burton Ale. All three of which were mostly draught-only. The range was pretty small, consisting of just five beers:

Courage Horsleydown beers in 1914
Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
X	Mild	1054.6	1019.4	4.65	64.47%	4.96	1.05
XX	Strong Ale	1079.2	1033.2	6.08	58.04%	9.90	3.07
Porter	Porter	1051.2	1018.3	4.36	64.32%	7.20	1.51
Double Stout	Stout	1078.9	1033.2	6.05	57.89%	7.20	2.33
Imperial	Stout	1094.2	1038.8	7.33	58.82%	7.20	2.78
Source:
Courage brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number ACC/2305/08/247.

The Porter and Stouts were parti-gyled with each other while X and XX were brewed single-gyle.

Berliner Weisse in the UK

Just for a change, here’s stuff about Berliner Weisse, o Berlin White Beer as it’s so sweetly  called in English.

This is a fun one, especially as it makes mention of the flavour:

“MORE FROTH THAN BEER.
Berlin white beer, one beverages grouped for Customs purposes, is remarkable for its frothiness. In Germany it is served huge glasses in the shape of a  champagne glass, but almost ten times the size. In fact, the rim of a Berliner bier glass will eclipse any ordinary face. The beer, which has a deep froth when poured out, has a peculiar tartness, not exactly acid like lemonade, but more the tomato. White beer most popular in summer time, though it is drunk, of course, all the year round.”
Yorkshire Evening Post - Thursday 13 May 1909, page 4.

Sour more like a tomato than lemonade. What on earth does that mean?  The did serve it in enormous glasses before WW I. Literally bigger than your head. Almost the size of a fish tank.

This is what they mean by grouped for customs purposes:

“Under the Customs Act of 1881 the duty payable on every 36 gallons of mum, spruce, or black beer is £1 6s., where the worts were before fermentation of a specific gravity not exceeding 1,215 degrees, and £1 10s. 6d. where the specific gravity exceeded 1,215 degrees. To remove some doubts on the subject, this enactment is now extended to Berlin white beer and other preparations, whether fermented not fermented, of a character similar to mum, spruce, or black beer.”
Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser - Tuesday 16 August 1887, page 6.

I’m scratching my head as to why Berliner Weisse was lumped together with Mumme. That’s a stretch even for a Horst Dornbusch. They’re about as dissimilar as you can imagine. Mumme black, treacly and incredibly sweet, Berliner Weisse light, dry and sour. You can see by the gravity mentioned that the rules were really aimed at Mumme.

That’s a very high rate of duty – the tax on a standard barrel of domestically brewed beer was 6s 3d. 312d compared to 75d. Though if you take the gravity into account it’s not so crazy. On a beer with an OG of 1210 that works out to 81.7d per standard barrel. But for a low-gravity beer like Berliner Weisse, the tax is crazily high. Assuming a gravity of 1036º, that works out to 476.7d per standard barrel.

Did anyone really import it into Britain? It would have been enormously expensive. That’s more than 1d per pint tax, at a time when Mild only cost 2d per pint. The tax on a standard-strength Mild of 1055º was just a farthing (0.25d).

It was still being taxed at a ludicrously high rate between the wars:

“DUTIES ON BEER.

Customs—
	Existing Duties.	Proposed Duties.
	£ s. d.	£ s. d.
Mum, spruce, black beer or Berlin white beer, of specific gravity (subject to the existing rebate £5 per 36 gallons not exceeding 1,215 degrees per 36 gallons	20 2 0	20 14 0
Exceeding 1,215deg. per 36 gallons	23 11 0	24 5 0
Other sorts of specific gravity of 1,055deg. per gallons (and proportion for any difference in gravity. Subject to the existing additional duty of 10d. per 36 gallons 1,055deg. consequential on the hop duty and to the existing rebate of £1 per bulk barrel).	5 0 6	5 3 6
Excise Beer-
Beer of a specific gravity of 1,055deg. per 36 gallons (and in proportion for any difference in gravity) (subject to the existing rebate per bulk barrel).	5 0 0	5 3 0

It is proposed that the increase in beer duty shall take effect from April 15.”
Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer - Tuesday 15 April 1930, page 14.

I wonder when these provisions ended? My bet is after WW II.

Still lots more about Berliner Weisse to come.

Mum again

There are some odd features of British legislation. Especially the way some items are specifically mentioned by name long after they had disappeared from the real world. Did nothing except confuse the hell out of everyone. Mum is a good example.

"MUM.
Many of our readers must have wondered when reading Customs and Excise Regulations, what was the meaning of the word "Mum" in the sentence "Mum, spruce or black beer, Berlin White Beer," etc. In May last, when the House was debating the Finance Bill (Committee stage), Captain Waterhouse, in order to obtain information on this point, moved to delete the word "Mum," not, as he explained, because he objected to it, but because he wanted an explanation of the entire phrase in which  it occurred. Mr. Pethick-Lawrence replied, "At the present time there is no beer being imported under the description 'Mum,' but there has been, in the past, a special kind of German beer called 'Mum,' which came into this country, and was of the same category as the black beer manufactured in this country. The form of beer which is covered by this description is not a beverage in the ordinary sense, but is of the same character as beer, and is used partly as a medicine. It has been for many years included under the Beer Duty, and it is not the intention of the Government to change the practice adopted all this time. The reason why the word 'Mum' is continued is because, though actually at the present time no 'Mum' is being imported, we have to be prepared in case it should be imported, in which case, if the amendment were carried, it would be very unfair to British producers, and would be the exact reverse of a protective duty." Further information as to "Mum" was supplied by Mr. Leif Jones, the well-known temperance advocate, who stated that the word was at least as old as the 14th century, and that it appears in some Statutes as far back as 1594. It was, he said, an old-fashioned remedy of the 17th and 18th centuries, and was imported from Brunswick. The concise Oxford dictionary describes it as a kind of beer originally brewed in Brunswick, its name being derived from the German "mumme," while Thorpe's dictionary of Applied Chemistry describes it as a kind of fat ale (sic) brewed from wheat and bitter herbs. Chamber's Encyclopaedia, on the other hand, says it is a kind of beer made from wheat malt, to which some brewers add oat and bean meal. Those who would like to pursue the matter further will find information on this question in " Notes and Queries" for November, 1881, page 376."
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 36, Issue 4, July-August 1930, page 325.

It's quite weird that parliament continued to pass legislation with words no-one understood the meaning of.

I wonder when Mum was last imported into Britain? Must have been sometime in the 19th century. I'm not sure they were really making Mum in Germany any more by then.

Even weirder that they should be getting information about Mum from a temperance campaigner.

This is the relevant section from the 1930 Finance Act:

2.-(1) In lieu of the duties of customs payable on beer of the descriptions called or similar to mum, spruce or black beer, or Berlin white beer, or other preparations, whether fermented or not fermented, of a similar character imported into the United Kingdom, there shall, as from the fifteenth day of April, nineteen hundred and thirty, be charged, levied, and paid the following duties, that is to say :-
For every thirty-six gallons of beer where the worts thereof are, or were before fermentation, of a specific gravity:	£ s. d.
Not exceeding one thousand two hundred and fifteen degrees	20 14 0
Exceeding one thousand two hundred and fifteen degrees	24 5 0
(2) In lieu of the duty of customs payable on every description of beer other than those specified in the preceding subsection imported into the United Kingdom there shall, as from the fifteenth day of April, nineteen hundred and thirty, be charged, levied, and paid the A.D. 1930 following duty, that is to say:-	£ s. d.
For every thirty-six gallons where the worts thereof were before fermentation of a specific gravity of one thousand and fifty-five degrees	5 3 6

That's a very high rate of duty - a British-brewed beer with a gravity of 1215º would have paid £15 12s duty per 36-gallon barrel.

I'm puzzled as to what possible connection Berlin White Beer (assuming it means Berliner Weisse) could have with Mum. A beer with a gravity of, at most, 1030º. Let me know your thoughts.

Another Younger's advert

but this time from George not William. That's the George Younger who was one of the largest breweries in Alloa,

You'll probably guess why I picked it, despite it not being a masterpiece of the advertiser's art. Advertising was much less dynamic back in the day. Dawber & Co. of Lincoln used the same advert for at least 20 years:

Lincolnshire Chronicle - Friday 14 October 1864, page 4

Lincolnshire Chronicle - Friday 01 February 1884, page 5

A good example there of the rock-solid price stability of the late Victorian period. There's no change in price over a period of 20 years. How much did I pay for beer 20 years ago? Can't remember exactly, but it was much less than I pay now.

Best get this back in focus and back to George Younger and his advert. Here it is:

Motherwell Times - Friday 22 August 1924, page 3.

No, it's not the Pale Ale that drew me to this advert like a pervert to a playground. Oh, no. It's the other product being advertised. I hesitate to call it beer because it was alcohol-free: Black Beer.

There's a funny story behind the Black Beer and other non-alcoholic products of George Younger. One that includes Bass and the local-veto legislation. Robert  Meiklejohn had first brewed in the Candleriggs Brewer, but moved to the larger Grange Brewery on the edge of town around 1852.It was a former distillery that had been converted into a brewery. The Candleriggs Brewery was purchased by George Younger, who greatly expanded it.*

Trouble started after Charles Maitland became senior partner at Meiklejohn in the late 1850's. His family crest being the Bass Rock, he changed the brewery's name to Bass Crest. You can guess what happened next. Bass were notoriously litigious in protection of their trademark. In the 50 years following 1862, Bass instigated a number of actions against Meiklejohn with regard to their trademarks. The matter was only finally brought to a close when Bass bought Meiklejohn in 1918.**

Obviously Bass had no real interest in the brewery and soon sold it on. To George Younger, in 1919. Why did Younger want another brewery in Alloa? To operate delicensed brewery of non-alcoholic beers.This is all connected with the Local Veto Act, which allowed votes on the partial or total removal of licenses from a district.*** Canny Younger's were making sure they could still sell products in areas that had become delicensed. See how the advert stresses "no licence required".

As well as Black Beer, there were also Pony Brand Temperance Stouts. The beers did contain small amounts of alcohol, being brewed from very low gravities. The Black Beer had an OG of about 1014º.  The Grange brewery continued to brew non-alcoholic beers until 1941, when it closed and became a store.****

Funny thing is, their Sweetheart Stout was barely any stronger in the 1950's. I've plenty of examples that were only about 1.5% ABV. Maybe they got their idea for from their Temperance Stout. I've just realised that I've no need to say "about" with regard to the OG of Black Beer. Because I've an analysis of it from 1922. Plus a couple of other things. Take a look:

George Younger watery beers
Year	Beer	Style	FG	OG	ABV	App. Attenuation
1922	Black Beer	Black Beer	1004	1011	0.90	63.64%
1933	Lemon shandy	Shandy	1006	1014	1.03	57.14%
1933	Sparkling Table Beer	Pale Ale	1007.5	1021	1.74	64.29%
Source:
Thomas Usher Gravity Book document TU/6/11 held at the Scottish Brewing Archive

Not sure if all of those came from the Grange Brewery. I am sure that none of them would get you pissed.




* "Alloa Ale", by Charles McMaster, 1985, page 51.
** "Alloa Ale", by Charles McMaster, 1985, page 52 - 55.
*** "Alloa Ale", by Charles McMaster, 1985, page 55.
**** "Alloa Ale", by Charles McMaster, 1985, page 55.