Draught Bass Pale Ale 1869 - 1993

I'm back with Draught Bass. This time looking at what it was like for more than a century.

Fortunately, I have plenty analyses of the beer. Thanks to its enormous popularity in the past. At the end of the 19th century, Bass in Burton was one of the largest breweries in the world. And Pale Ale was one of its main products. One of the classic IPAs, though Bass themselves never called it that. For them, it was simply Pale Ale.

We're only looking here at the draught version. Which was principally sold in the UK. With exports mostly in the form of the bottled version. Bass, along with Guinness, was one of the few beers which was sold in the tied houses of other brewers. And, unlike Guinness, it wasn't only in bottled form. The draught version appearing in some "foreign" tied houses.

Before WW I, Draught Bass had the classic Burton Pale Ale gravity of around 1065º. With a very high degree of attenuation leaving it getting on for 7% ABV. Why was the rate of attenuation so high? Because it was a Stock Pale Ale with a long secondary Brettanomyces fermentation.

After WW I, the gravity fell to around 1055º. Which is totally predictable. 1055º being the strongest draught beer got during the interwar period, Falling in with the gravity bands of the last set of price controls in the aftermath of WW I. It was the typical gravity of beers retailing for 8d per pint, which, as you can see, was the case here..

During WW II, the gravity held up surprisingly well, still being 1048 and over 5% ABV in 1944. During the 1950s, it stabilised at around 1045º. Where it remained, other than briefly rising to 1050º in 1965.

I'm quite surprised how much the colour jumped around. And how pale the colour sometimes was. 20 and below is definitely on the pale side for a Bitter. 

Draught Bass Pale Ale 1869 - 1993
Year	Price per pint (d)	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	Acidity	colour
1869		1065.9	1010.2	7.33	84.50%	0.17
1869	4	1067.0	1013.2	6.81	80.31%	0.28
1901		1064.0	1013.4	6.48	78.03%	0.144
1927		1055.5
1932		1054.7	1012	5.56	78.06%	0.05
1937	8	1055.0
1940	9	1051.6
1943	14	1047.6	1008.9	5.04	81.30%	0.08	26
1944	16	1048.1	1008.2	5.20	82.95%	0.12	21
1950	18	1049.7					23
1951	19	1049.9	1008.8	5.36	82.36%	0.07	26
1952	19	1046.4					24
1953	19	1044.7					26
1954	19	1046	1008.7	4.86	81.09%	0.04	20
1957	21	1044.6	1005.4	5.12	87.89%	0.04	21
1960	21	1044	1009.8	4.45	77.73%	0.04	19
1965		1050.5	1009.4	5.36	81.39%	0.04	16
1977		1044
1982		1044
1989		1044	1010.1	4.40	77.05%
1993		1043	1009.2	4.40	78.60%		19
Sources:
British Medical Journal August 28th 1869, page 245
Wahl & Henius, pages 823-830
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001.
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.
Truman Gravity Book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/C/252.
Good Beer Guide 1978
Good Beer Guide1983
Good Beer Guide 1990
1993 Real Ale Drinker's Almanac

 

What is Guinness Extra Stout?

A look at the history of an iconic beer - Guinness Extra Stout.

 

Largest Lager breweries worldwide in 1890

Even towards the end of the 19th century, the largest Lager breweries were still quite modestly-sized compared to the big producers in the UK.

The biggest two producers, both in the USA, made only about three -quarters of a million hectolitres. Which was only around a third of what Guinness was churning out each year. And the largest on continental Europe, Spaten, wasn’t even making half a million hectolitres.

It’s a demonstration of how far industrialisation of brewing had gone in the UK compared to the rest of the world. The process had started way back in the middle of the 18th century with the big Porter brewers.

Note that two of the original London Porter brewers, Barclay Perkins and Truman, remained amongst the largest breweries in the world. With Barclays still double the size of Spaten.

Largest Lager breweries year ending April 30, 1890
brewery	location	hl
Anheuser-Busch	St. Louis	746,552
Pabst Brewing Company	Milwaukee	725,255
Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company	Milwaukee	499,418
George Ehret	New York	363,237
Spatenbrauerei	Munich	466,752
Lowen	Munich	430,288
Anton Dreher	Vienna	417,918
St. Marx Brauerei	Vienna	275,974
Source:
The Abbeville press and banner, (Abbeville, S.C.), 19 Nov. 1890.

Largest breweries in the UK in 1884
brewery	location	hl
Guinness	Dublin	2,127,570
Bass	Burton	1,636,592
Allsopp	Burton	1,391,104
Barclay	London	900,126
Watney	London	736,467
Truman	London	736,467
Source:
Document ACC/2305/8/246 part of the Courage archive held at the London Metropolitan Archive.

 

 

 

 

 

Scottish & Newcastle beers in 1996 again

Robbie Pickering mentioned in the comments of the last post about whether Double Century Ale was just being brewed for export. Well, the document does mention where beers were destined for. It makes for interesting reading. 

I was quite surprised by how many beers were being exported or used as ships stores. For example, McEwans Scotch Ale.

Processed at Park Stores for Export or Ship Stores as McEwans Scotch Ale.

Sheet Filtered for kegs, bottles and cans.
Holyrood and Fountain beer specifications held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/8/1.

Oddly enough, one beer which doesn't seem to have been exported was McEwans Export

Holyrood Brews kegged at Park Stores. Canned also at Park Stores for British Rail & general trade (10 oz. cans).

Distribution: Tankers ex HMV Room to

Contract Bottlers
Belfast - Rough for processing & bottling as Monk Export (1/2 pint dumps).

London (Bates) - Sheet filtered for bottling (LS 1/2 pints) as McEwans Export or Monk Export.
Holyrood and Fountain beer specifications held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/8/1.

While McEwans Strong Ale seems to have been exclusively for export.

Processed at Park Stores. Bottled &, canned at Park Stores for Export and Ship Stores as McEwans Strong Ale, the export trade being to Jamaica, Canada and general export.
Holyrood and Fountain beer specifications held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/8/1.

Pretty sure this is the beer currently sold in the UK as McEwans Champion. Back in the early 1980s, McEwans Strong Ale was brewed at the Guinness brewery in Jamaica. When that closed, it must have been brewed in Scotland and exported.

Another beer that seems to have been exclusively for McEwans Milk Stout

Processed at Park Stores. Bottled at Park Stores for export mainly to Jamaica as McEwans Milk Stout.

Bottled also for general export trade as McEwans Extra Stout. 
Holyrood and Fountain beer specifications held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/8/1. 

 I can't remember ever seeing that in Jamaica. A shame, as it looks like an interesting beer.

Whitbread's bottled beers in 1934

Time to look at the bottled beers in Whitbread’s 1934 price list. Which includes, in addition to the four beers brewed in their Chiswell Street brewery, several produced elsewhere. Which is handy, as it gives a better idea of the beers actually available in a London pub.

The four Chiswell Street beers are the first in list. There appear to be four beers: London Stout, Oatmeal Stout, India Pale Ale and Double Brown. Though the two Stouts were, in reality, identical.

The two Forest beers came from the Forest Gate Hill brewery, which Whitbread bought in 1924. One of their main reasons for purchasing the brewery was to get hold of modern, sediment-free bottling technology. Whitbread having stuck with bottle-conditioning until after WW I.

Based on the price, I’m guessing that the two Forest beers were around 1040º. Hang on. I have an analysis from 1934. It gives the OG as 1039º. So, my guess was pretty close.

Pioneer Ale and Stout were brands of the Lovibond brewery. Not sure why Whitbread were selling them, as I can’t find any connection between the two breweries. I know from analyses in the Whitbread Gravity Book that both beers were around 1030º. 

As already mentioned, Mackeson Milk Stout was being sold at a premium. Based on its gravity in the mid-1050ºs , it falls in the 9d per pint class. But it was sold for 10d per pint.

Something similar is happening with Guinness Extra Stout and Bass Pale Ale. Both of those also had gravities in the mid-1050ºs, but also retailed at 10d per pint. Which was a 1d per pint premium over the expected price. 

Both Bass and Guinness were widely available in other brewers’ tied houses. Usually being bottled by the other brewery, too. The premium charged reflects the renown of the two beers.

In addition to the above prices, a deposit was charged on the bottles of 1d per half pint, 2d per pint and 3d per flagon.  Which, especially in the case of cheaper beers, was a considerable percentage of the total price paid. 

Whitbread's bottled beers in 1934
	Per doz. Botts		Per doz. Half-botts	crates of four flagons
	Wholesale	Retail	Wholesale	Wholesale	Retail
London Stout	6/1d	8/-	—	3/10d	5/-
do. ("Special Whitbread")	—	—	3/6d	—	—
Oatmeal Stout	6/1d	8/-	—	3/10d	5/-
India Pale Ale	5/4d	7/-	—	3/4d	4/4d
do. ("Small Whitbread")	—	—	3/1d	—	—
Double Brown	7/-	9/-	4/-	4/5d	5/8d
(A fine strong ale)
FOREST ALE AND STOUT
Oatmeal Stout	5/4d	7/-	3/1d	3/4d	4/4d
Brown Ale	5/4d	7/-	3/1d	3/4d	4/4d
PIONEER ALE AND STOUT
Family Stout	4/6d	6/-	—	2/10d	3/8d
Family Ale	4/6d	6/-	—	2/10d	3/8d
MACKESON'S MILK STOUT
Milk Stout	7/8d	10/-	4/2d	4/10d	6/-
Bass	8/8d	10/-	5/-
Guinness	8/8d	10/-	5/-
Bass Barley Wine in nips
Source:
A 1934 Whitbread price list.

 

 

The long journey home

Dolores is on tea duty again before I awake.

“I suppose you won’t want any tea this morning.”

“What makes you think that?”

“Because of the car journey.”

“What?”

“And pissing yourself.”

“Oh, I’m not worried about that. Give me a cup of tea.”

“That’s not what you said on Friday.”

“I’ve been to sleep since then. As my Mun used to say.”

“What does that mean?”

“No idea. It’s just a general get out.”

“Get out of what?”

“Any responsibility.”

“Perfect for you.”

There’s nothing like a cup of tea in the morning. Worth risking a trouser embarrassment. 

You can guess what I have for breakfast. Don’t judge me. I am briefly tempted by the Nürnberger. But stick with just bacon and scrambled egg.

“You should go easy on the bacon, Ronald.”

“But a br…

“I know. A breakfast isn’t a breakfast without a large portion of heart disease.”

“That’s not what I was going to say.”

“Just what you were doing.”

“I’ll get some fruit in a minute.”

“That won’t make up for ten rashers of bacon.”

“It’s only seven rashers. And they’re tiny.”

“Right.”

“It’s OK, then?”

“I said, right.”

“That doesn’t sound like a: right, it’s OK. More like a: right, you believe that if you want.”

“Right.”

“You’re not making things any clearer.”

“Right.”

After we’re done eating, Lars Marius Garshol comes and sits by me. I’ve only seen him briefly so far this weekend. It’s good to have a chance for a proper talk.

We have a fascinating discussion about systems of taxation and how they influence the brewing industry and beer. So fascinating that Dolores goes upstairs to pack before we’re done.

I really appreciate conversations like this. There aren’t many people I can have serious discussions with about some topics.  One fewer since Martyn Cornell died. I have to grab every chance I get.

Just before checkout time I drag myself away from Lars and join Dolores upstairs.

I’d hoped our luggage would be later on the way back, after selling lots of books. All the beer I’ve been given put paid to that hope. Not that I’m complaining. About the beer, I mean. I’m obviously not overjoyed at the weight.

We leave Romrod around 11:30. Christoph seems to have a similar luggage experience to us. The beer that he brought and served being replaced by beer he’s been given.

As we zoom along the autobahn, me and Christoph chat about the conference and beer in general.

It’s getting on for 15:00 when we’re dropped off at Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof. About four hours before our train is due. We dump our bags in the left luggage and head towards town.

Our plan? Not that it’s much of one. Head towards Schuhmacher. Hopefully finding somewhere on the way to have a beer and maybe something to eat.

We don’t get even halfway to Schuhmacher before finding somewhere that looks OK. Barco.

“What do you think, Ronald?”

“They’ve got a Füchschen Alt sign. Let’s go in.”

For a German pub, the beer list is quite long. Six draught beers: Füchschen Alt, Peters Kölsch, Radeberger Pilsner, Mythos Hellenic Lager and Guinness Irish Stout. Not often you see Kölsch in Düsseldorf.

“Ein Alt, Bitte.”

What else would I drink in Düsseldorf? Certainly not Kölsch.

Dolores has a Hefeweizen. No surprise there.

“Do you want to eat? I wouldn’t mind something.” I ask.

“Can do. It seems to be some sort of Greek place.”

“Do you want to share a Schnitzel?”

“That’s not very Greek.”

“It’s what I feel like.”

“What about a souvlaki as well?”

“OK.”

The souvlaki is pretty nice. And only four euros. The Schnitzel is OK. Not huge, but not expensive, either.

“Can you hear the radio?” Dolores asks.

“What about it.” 

“It’s Greek.”

“Is it?”

“Can’t you hear that?”

“No.”

“You’re going deaf.”

“What?”

“Very funny.”

Dolores has been tracking our train on an app. It started in Munich, got delayed a little, then caught up again.

“You never know with DB.” Dolores says. “Something always goes wrong. You’re lucky if your train runs at all.”

She’s had a lot of bad experiences when visiting her sister. Trains that didn’t turn up. Ones that just stopped at the border. Then there were all the delayed trains and missed connections.

“Hopefully, our train will be OK. Like the one out here.”

“That hadn’t travelled hundreds of kilometres in Germany.”

“I hadn’t thought of that.”

That’s got me worried. I fancy sleeping in my own bed tonight. Any bed, come to think of it.

We’re in no rush to leave. As we still have quite a bit of time before our train.

Around 18:00, we roll up at the station. Where we browse the bookshop before we pick up our bags.

Platform 17 should be it. The board by the stairs to the platform lists trains that all should have already left.

“Why are they showing trains that have already left?” I ask.

“Look more closely. They’re all delayed.”

“That’s not a good sign.”

Dolores checks the app. “Our train is still on time. For now.”

“Very reassuring.”

We find seats on the platform. And listen to all the delayed train announcements. Every train seems to be delayed. There are varied excuses. Sorry, reasons.

The train was prepared late. A police action. Unauthorised personnel on the track. A previous train was delayed. A technical problem.

“At least they’re being imaginative.” I remark.

“I’d prefer the trains to be on time.”

“Don’t be so unreasonable.”

Our train comes up on the board as the one after next. And on time. Hooray! Then disappears again.

Dolores checks her app. 

“It says that our train has already left.”

“Pretty sure I didn’t see it.”

“Unless it left from a different platform.”

Cue mild panic.

An announcement informs us that our train is delayed twenty minutes due to a technical problem. Great. How do they know they can fix it in twenty minutes? Answer: they don’t.

The delay keeps increasing.

“If it’s over an hour late we’ll get some of our money back.” Dolores says.

“That’s something. As long as it runs all the way to Amsterdam.”

The train arrives seventy minutes late. And is pretty full. We a bit of messing around, we find seats. Plopping down with some degree of relief.

I prepare myself a “special drink” for the journey. Drinking half of a bottle of cola then filling it up with my hotel whisky.

“Don’t go crazy, Ronald.”

“You know me.”

“Exactly. That’s why I’m saying: don’t go crazy.”

“You have such a distorted opinion of me.”

“Realistic, Ronald, realistic.”

I don’t go crazy. And the trip back is uneventful. If late.

In Amsterdam, it’s raining. Now there’s a surprise. We get a tram straight away. And are soon back home.

Andrew is waiting for us. Without any tea. He’s no Dolores.



Barco
Charlottenstraße 51, 
40210 Düsseldorf.
http://www.barco-lounge.de/ 

 

 

A video, this time with a commentary. Of sorts. 

UK sales of packaged beer by strength and type

More lovely numbers today. Again about beer sales by type. But this time of packaged beer (bottled and canned) rather than draught.

I would have included some older numbers as well. Except in the older figures the types were defined differently. Which is a bit irritating.

Let's look at Bitter first. Which is now split into four classes. I assume that the first three remain the same:

Class I <= 1034º
Class II 1035º - 1039º
Class III >= 1040º

I'm guessing that class IV was >=1050º.

Just as with draught beer, since 1990 there's been a noticeable shift from Ordinary Bitter to Best Bitter. With the latter taking the lead in 2011. The strongest class Starts out with minimal sales in 1990, dropping to nothing in 2011. Not really sure what the pooint of the category is when there's nothing in it for half the years.

The Stout figures are fascinating. Kicking off with a very reasonable 7% in 1971. But falling to not much over 1% in the early 2000s, before rising again in the 2010s. There is a simple explanation for the collapse: Guinness.

That 7% figure will have been mostly bottled Guinness. Which was available in every pub. At a time when draught Guinness wasn't very common. The rise of draught Guinness will have really eaten into bottled Guinness sales. Hence the dramatic drop. That doesn't explain recovery in the 2020s, though.

In Lager there's also a shift from standard to premium strength. With the latter taking the lead in 2000. Ending in 2024 with sales almost treble those of Cooking Lager. While the super-strong Lagers of class IV show a steady decline from not very much to fuck all.

In the last few years there's been growth on low- and non-alcoholic beer. And, in 2024, it caught up with bottled Stout. Considering how much it's been pushed and how many brands there are out there, its market share isn't that impressive.

I wonder where all the trendy craft IPAs and Pale Ales fit into these figures. I'm guessing that they're lumped in with Bitter.

UK sales of packaged beer by strength and type
Year	Bitter		Strong ale & barley wine	Stout	Lager			No/low alc beer	Total packaged
					standard	premium
1971	16.1		0.6	7.0	2.8			-	26.5
1980	9.7		0.5	3.2	5.4	2.3		-	21.2
	Bitter I + II	Bitter III	Bitter IV		Lager I + II	Lager III	Lager IV
1990	5.5	2.4	0.2	1.7	9.9	7.9		0.8	28.4
2000	3.9	2.2	0.1	1.4	13.3	15.3	1.4	0.2	37.7
2001	3.7	2.3	0.1	1.4	13.8	16.7	1.3	0.2	39.4
2002	3.4	2.3	0.1	1.3	14.3	18.6	1.3	0.2	41.4
2003	3.3	2.3	0.1	1.4	14.9	19.5	1.3	0.2	42.9
2004	3.2	2.2	0.1	1.4	15.6	20.0	1.3	0.2	44.0
2005	3.1	2.3	0.1	1.3	16.6	20.1	1.2	0.2	44.8
2006	3.0	2.4	0.1	1.4	17.5	20.8	1.1	0.2	46.3
2007	3.2	2.4	0.1	1.4	18.8	20.5	1.0	0.2	47.6
2008	3.2	2.6	0.1	1.4	19.8	21.7	1.0	0.2	49.8
2009	3.2	2.8	0.1	1.5	19.6	21.9	0.7	0.2	50.1
2010	3.0	3.0	0.1	1.6	20.1	23.1	0.8	0.2	51.8
2011	2.9	3.1	0.0	1.5	19.5	24.0	0.8	0.3	52.2
2012	2.8	3.4	0.0	1.6	19.1	24.3	0.8	0.2	52.3
2013	2.9	3.7	0.0	1.6	20.1	24.4	0.8	0.2	53.6
2014	2.7	4.0	0.0	1.4	20.2	24.9	0.6	0.3	54.2
2015	2.6	4.5	0.0	1.7	19.2	26.0	0.5	0.3	55.0
2016	2.5	4.9	0.0	1.7	18.2	27.2	0.4	0.4	55.3
2017	2.3	4.9	0.0	1.7	18.1	28.8	0.4	0.5	56.6
2018	2.1	4.9	0.0	1.6	17.6	30.8	0.4	0.7	58.1
2019	1.9	4.7	0.0	1.5	16.5	33.1	0.4	0.9	58.9
2020	2.5	6.4	0.0	2.4	22.9	43.8	0.4	1.1	79.6
2021	2.2	5.9	0.0	2.3	19.2	41.0	0.4	1.3	72.3
2022	1.7	5.0	0.0	1.9	14.8	36.9	0.3	1.4	62.0
2023	1.5	4.8	0.0	2.1	14.0	37.3	0.3	1.6	61.5
2024	1.6	4.5	0.0	2.1	13.1	37.6	0.3	2.1	61.4
Source:
The Brewers' Society Statistical Handbook 2025, page 16.

 

UK beer sales by type 1971 - 1981 (%)

What a different world the 1970's were. At the start of the decade, draught Bitter and Mild made up around two-thirds of all beer sales. And Lager could only manage 10% of the market across both draught and bottled. By the decade's end, draught Lager was rapidly closing in on Bitter.

The headline is the huge growth in popularity. Notice the big jump in Lager sales in 1975 and 1976. Two years with particularly hot summers. I'm guessing that if I had the numbers broken down by month that a lot of the growth would have occurred during the hotter months. Over the whole period, Lager sales increased by 227%. Which is a fuck load by anyone's standards.

The biggest losers were bottled beers: Brown Ale, down 65%, and Stout, down 57%. Not helped by by the fact that bottled beer sales were down 23%. You can see that once popular beers, such as Light Ale and Brown Ale, were on their way to oblivion. The fall in bottled sales would have been even more dramatic, had their not been 168% increase in Lager sales.

These can't have been very good time for Guinness, as they totally dominated the Stout market. And bottles Stout was one of the biggest losers. Though this may have been distorted by increasing sales of draught Guinness. Unfortunately, this is impossible to see as draught Stout was, for some reason, lumped in with Bitter.

Amongst the draught beers, Mild sales fell 37% and Bitter sales 7%. Not as bad as the decline in bottled beers, but still significant. In the later decades, as Mild vanished into the void, Bitter sales would come under more pressure. As we will see in a later post.

Sales of Strong Ales were tiny. In 1981, just 318,000 hl. Out of a total consumption of 63.6 million hl. 

UK beer sales by type 1971 - 1981 (%)
Type	1971	1972	1973	1974	1975	1976	1977	1978	1979	1980	1981	change 1971-1981
Draught
Mild	17.7	15.9	14.2	13.8	13.3	12.6	12.7	11.9	11.4	11.3	11.2	-36.72%
Bitter & Stout	48.7	48.9	47.6	47.4	46.9	45.9	46.8	45.6	44.7	44.5	45.1	-7.39%
Lager:	7.1	8.6	11.3	12.6	15.6	18.5	19.0	20.6	22.1	23.0	23.2	226.76%
total draught	73.5	73.4	73.1	73.8	75.8	77.0	78.5	78.1	78.2	78.8	79.5	8.16%
Bottled
Light, Pale and Export:	11.5	11.4	11.9	11.7	10.9	9.9	8.9	8.5	8.1	7.5	7.4	-35.65%
Lager:	2.8	3.1	3.5	3.7	4.2	5.1	5.4	6.3	7.0	7.6	7.5	167.86%
Brown:	4.0	3.9	3.7	3.5	2.8	2.4	2.0	1.9	1.8	1.6	1.4	-65.00%
Stout:	7.0	6.8	6.4	5.9	5.0	4.3	3.9	3.7	3.5	3.2	3.0	-57.14%
Strong Ales and Barley Wines	0.6	0.7	0.7	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.5	0.5	0.5	-16.67%
party containers	0.6	0.7	0.7	0.8	0.7	0.7	0.7	0.9	0.9	0.7	0.6	0.00%
Total bottled	26.5	26.6	26.9	26.2	24.2	23.0	21.5	21.9	21.8	21.1	20.4	-23.02%
Source:
The Brewers' Society Statistical Handbook 1980, page 10.
The Brewers' Society Statistical Handbook 1988, page 15.