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Barclay Perkins Bookstore

Lille (part three)

We're in search of food. Which is often the case. I've this terrible eating habit. I eat every single day. Without fail.

The best thing about having Dolores  as a travelling companion is that it reduces the planning and preparation work I have to do. Less work for me is always a good thing. She's very much the organised type. She's taken out a guide book to Lille from the library. It has some handy hints. Including where the estaminets are.

An estaminet is a type of traditional boozer found in this region. They've a reputation for a cosy old-fashioned atmosphere, good local food and lots of beer.

"Do you fancy eating in an estaminet, Ronald?"

"You can twist my arm."

There are a few estaminets clustered around Avenue du Peuple Belge. Getting there from the citadel is a piece of piss - just follow the Rue Négrier. Which we do. It's an unusual street, with some old houses so large that they're small palaces. That's the sort of thing you sometimes see in France. It's a sign of how loaded they were a couple of centuries back.

I was surprised by the look of Avenue du Peuple Belge on the map. It seems far too wide for a street in the old part of town. A hint was given by the change in the street name ro Rue du Pont Neuf (New Bridge Street). Sure enough, it became a bridge crossing over Avenue du Peuple Belge. Obviously it was some sort of filled in waterway.

I tried looking up the history of it on the web. But all I could find out was that Avenue du Peuple Belge had a problem with the nuisance caused by street prostitution in 2011.

The guide book marked our destination estaminet, Le Petit Barbue d'Anvers, as being of the corner of Pont Neuf and Avenue du Peuple Belge. Annoyingly, it didn't give a precise street address. We weren't even sure which of the two streets it was on. After a while of fruitlessly wandering around, we gave up and headed for Rue de Gand which is home to two estaminets.

We had more luck here. I'd had enough of walking and we rushed into the first estaminet we passed, L'Estaminet 't Rijsel. Now there's an odd name, mixing French and Dutch. Risel being the Dutch name for Lille. It's everything I've hoped for.

I've been in a few pubs over the years. And I can recognise the difference between old junk bought in a job lot and thrown around apparently randomly and a pub where suff has been just hung on walls an put on shelves over decades. This is the real deal. I spend a stupid amount of time looking at this crap.

It's only noon, but it's about half full. Everyone is speaking French, which is another good sign. We get ourselves half litres while we work out what we want to eat. Ch'ti Blonde for Dolores, their Tripel for me. I always opt fore the option with more alcoholic goodness. Here are our beers:

The menu is a school exercsie book. Pretty funky. The food, once again, is pure Belgian. I go for a Carbonade Famande, which is a type of beer casserole. It's rather nice.

As I'm nibbling at my food, something strikes me. Every single customer is drinking beer. And not the same beer, but all sorts of different ones. That wouldn't be so surprising if they were 20-something hipsters, but they aren't. Most are older than me.

Almost forgot. They also have hops hanging from the ceiling:

On the way back to our hotel, I drag Dolores into a giant FNAC. She's had enough walking for today and sits down while I go off and rummage through the books. Almost immediately, I find this: "Le Guide des Brasseurs et Bieres de France" by Robert Dutin. What a handy book. It lists all the breweries in France, which now number a surprising 590.Last time I counted - maybe 5 years ago - there were about half that.

I also pick up a book about WW I.Nice to get a French perspective on the conflict. I've already got one in German.

When I'm all booked up, we go back to our hotel for a rest. I need it. God knows how far we've walked today.







L'Estaminet 't Rijsel
25 Rue de Gand,
59800 Lille.
Tel: +33 3 20 15 01 59
http://www.ruedesrestos.com/restaurateurs/rijsel/



Fnac
20, rue Saint-Nicolas,
59000 Lille.
http://www.fnac.com/Lille/Fnac-Lille/cl93/w-4

League table of London Pale Ales in the 1920's

I may have processed the final individual Pale Ale, but I'm not quite done. A review of results is in order.

I'll warn you now: it's going to be table overload. I can't help playing around with the numbers and presenting them in different ways. I think we can learn much from them, especially the overall numbers for each type of beer.

The good news is that the majority of average scores per brewery were positive. The two negative average score - for Cannon and Charrington - were only very slightly below zero. I'm not sure how significant it is that both are Ordinary Bitters.

This first table demonstrates one point very clearly: that the beers of each type were very similar in their specifications across the different breweries. The Best Bitters in particular have virtually identical gravities. I think this is partly as a result of the price/gravity controls which were in place in the years after WW I. And also just commercial reality. Because so much of the price was solely the tax, there was little room for flexibility. Tax made up about 40% of the retail price in the 1920s.

Let's start with the league table based on average score. Once again, Whitbread are the champions:

League table of 1920s London Pale Ales by score
Brewery	FG	OG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	score
Whitbread	1011.3	1046.0	4.51	75.55%	2.25
Truman	1008.0	1047.5	5.14	83.09%	1.62
City of London	1008.7	1045.5	4.79	80.82%	1.00
Huggins	1008.7	1046.0	4.86	81.10%	0.36
Meux	1007.4	1044.8	4.87	83.36%	0.33
Barclay Perkins	1008.7	1045.6	4.81	80.88%	0.25
Wenlock	1006.9	1044.5	4.90	84.56%	0.09
Hoare	1012.1	1046.3	4.44	73.83%	0.00
Lion Brewery	1010.7	1046.5	4.65	77.05%	0.00
Cannon	1009.0	1045.2	4.72	80.06%	-0.09
Charrington	1008.7	1048.2	5.14	81.91%	-0.09
Average 8d	1009.1	1046.0	4.80	80.20%	0.52
Watney	1011.4	1053.8	5.54	78.90%	2.21
Courage	1012.0	1053.8	5.46	77.93%	1.25
Mann	1008.3	1053.4	5.88	84.44%	0.07
Benskin	1010.1	1053.6	5.68	81.23%	0.00
Average 9d	1010.4	1053.7	5.64	80.63%	0.88
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001

I'm struck by the high degree of attenuation. For both Ordinary and Best Bitter it's over 80%.
Overall the standard is pretty high, at least in terms of score. Let's see how they do for clarity:

League table of 1920s London Pale Ales by clarity
Brewery	No. examples	no. bright	% bright	no. good flavour	% good flavour
Truman	13	11	84.62%	12	92.31%
Whitbread	4	3	75.00%	4	100.00%
Watney	14	9	64.29%	14	100.00%
Wenlock	11	7	63.64%	6	54.55%
Cannon	11	6	54.55%	6	54.55%
Huggins	11	6	54.55%	7	63.64%
Barclay Perkins	12	6	50.00%	7	58.33%
Courage	12	6	50.00%	8	66.67%
Hoare	10	5	50.00%	4	40.00%
Lion Brewery	10	5	50.00%	6	60.00%
Meux	12	5	41.67%	9	75.00%
City of London	13	5	38.46%	10	76.92%
Mann	14	5	35.71%	7	50.00%
Benskin	9	3	33.33%	4	44.44%
Charrington	11	3	27.27%	5	45.45%
Average	167	85	50.90%	109	65.27%
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001

Just ever so slightly over half being fully bright is poor. Only Whitbread and Truman scored really well on this point. And as for Charrington - pathetic. Barely a quarter of their samples were clear. You can see that there's not a direct relationship between clarity and flavour quality. City of London is a good example. Not much more than a third clear, but three-quarters with a good flavour. Whoever would have thought I'd be able to check something like this almost 100 years later?

There are some impressive performances in terms of flavour:

League table of 1920s London Pale Ales by % good flavour
Brewery	No. examples	no. bright	% bright	no. good flavour	% good flavour
Whitbread	4	3	75.00%	4	100.00%
Watney	14	9	64.29%	14	100.00%
Truman	13	11	84.62%	12	92.31%
City of London	13	5	38.46%	10	76.92%
Meux	12	5	41.67%	9	75.00%
Courage	12	6	50.00%	8	66.67%
Huggins	11	6	54.55%	7	63.64%
Lion Brewery	10	5	50.00%	6	60.00%
Barclay Perkins	12	6	50.00%	7	58.33%
Wenlock	11	7	63.64%	6	54.55%
Cannon	11	6	54.55%	6	54.55%
Mann	14	5	35.71%	7	50.00%
Charrington	11	3	27.27%	5	45.45%
Benskin	9	3	33.33%	4	44.44%
Hoare	10	5	50.00%	4	40.00%
Average	167	85	50.90%	109	65.27%
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001

Whitbread, Watney and Truman all do very well, the first two with perfect scores, the other pretty close. I must admit surprise at Charrington's piss poor performance. They're a brewery that had a good reputation, yet they're stumbling along at the bottom end of the tables.

Now it's time to compare the statistics of the beer types we've looked at so far. In all, there are almost 500 samples:

Averages per beer type
beer type	No. examples	no. bright	% bright	no. good flavour	% good flavour	average score
Burton Average	138	61	44.20%	92	66.67%	0.72
Mild Average	188	112	59.57%	112	59.57%	0.16
X Average	170	104	61.18%	106	62.35%	0.23
MA Average	18	8	44.44%	6	33.33%	-0.18
PA Average	167	85	50.90%	109	65.27%	0.62
8d PA Average	118	62	52.54%	76	64.41%	0.52
9d PA Average	49	23	46.94%	33	67.35%	0.88
Average	493	258	52.33%	313	63.49%	0.57
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001

Burton Ale comes out on top for score. As long as we lump all the Pale Ales together. Split out Best and Ordinary Bitter and Best Bitter wins. Surprisingly, Burton scores worst for clarity. Elsewhere, Mild is bottom for everything. Splitting out X Ale and MA improves things a bit for the former. Other than for clarity, a general rule seems to be the higher the gravity, the better chance of a good pint.

Finally a ranking by brewery. The number is the position in the relevant league table.

Ranking by brewery
Brewery	Burton	Mild	PA	Total
Whitbread	1	4	1	6
Watney	8	2	2	12
Courage	2	8	4	14
Mann	3	1	10	14
Truman	9	6	3	18
Wenlock	6	3	9	18
Meux	4	11	7	22
Lion	7	7	12	26
Huggins	11	10	6	27
Hoare	10	9	11	30
Cannon	14	5	14	33
City of London	12	17	5	34
Barclay Perkins	13	15	8	36
Charrington	5	16	15	36

You know what's really spooky about that result? The top five - Whitbread, Watney, Courage, Mann and Truman - were, if I remember correctly, the last five large breweries in London. Most of the bottom half are breweries that disappeared before WW II. With the exception of the two relegation positions. I'm very surprised - and disappointed - to see Barclay Perkins and Charrington propping up the table.

It looks as if, in general, the better the quality of your beer, the better your chances of long-term survival. Either that or the larger the brewery, the better the beer quality.

Finally done with Pale Ale. Next it's the turn of Porter.

Lille (part two)

We've already got stuff in for breakfast. Cheese, ham, that sort of thing. Bread, too.

It's an aparthotel and we've a pretty complete kitchen. Not that  we're using it for anything more than brewing tea. The hotel offers breakfast for 10 euros but all the reviews say it's crap. It's the internet so it must be true. That's right, isn't it?

We've a plan for the day. A very simple one. This is a low-key holiday, after all. Wander through town up towards the citadel at the north end of the old town.

The weather is cool and very grey, punctuated by occasional drizzle. Perfect, really. Have I mentioned before my hatred of sunshine. It depresses the hell out of me. Unlike a cheering duvet of low cloud.

On our way through the Grand' Place, we glue on noses on the window of bakery Paul. Alongside a pair of Asin tourists who gaze in fascination at the weird forms and textures. Dolores is tempted by the German-looking rye bread and goes inside. But the queue is too long for her and we continue on our way.

I notice that there are several Paul bakeries in town. They seem to be the local equivalent of Greggs*. But ever so slightly more upmarket. Just ever so slightly.

Talking of upmarket, we wander past several dead posh shops on our way through town. Here's a selection of them:

But the further we get towards the back end of town, the more houses like this we come across:

In need of some external work, I'd say.

It's about here where we need to consult a map. We're all disorientated by the crazy street pattern.

"Which way is north, Ronald?"

"We should be able to navigate from the sun."

"Very funny."

My legs are aching by the time we get up to the citadel. It's further than we anticipated.

"Look at the bright side. All this walking should have burned off breakfast." I'm the optimistic type.

You may have noticed from a previous post that I have a thing about WW I memorials. I've found some crackers in small Franconian towns and villages. But I've never come across one like this before. Probably because it's unique:

See what it is? A meomoral to carrier pigeons. Appropriately enough, a pair of the birds are perched atop it.

I can see from the map that the citadel is a typical 17th-century fortification. Low, star-shaped earthworks faced in brick. Dolores is expecting something more visible. It's quite difficult to see any of it for the trees until you get pretty close.

The gullies between the bastions aren't somewhere you'd want to be if the defenders had taken a dislike to you. All sorts of horrible crossfire possibilities.

Louis XIV had this and a series of other forts built across this region after it had been captured by France in the second half of the 17th century. The thing is huge - the circumference is more than 2 kilometres - and is an idication of how important Lille was for the French.

Once we've dodged the zoo we spot the entrance and head for it. Irritatingly, cars keep coming out. Bit strange, that. Once through the first gate, we realise why: this is still an active milatary base. We can get no closer and have to content ourselves with long-distance photos.

It's 11:30. Time to find somewhere for lunch.



* In a British city you're never out of sight of a Greggs. Sometimes you can see two or three.




Boulangerie Paul-Vieille Bourse
8 Rue de Paris
59800 Lille
France
http://www.paul.fr/

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Barclay Perkins Bookstore

Whitbread Pale Ale quality 1922

We're finally there. After months of slog across the tundra we've finally arrived at Novosibirsk. Before you know it we'll be in Vladivostok.

Fittingly enough, the last in the list is the brewery responsible for it all, Whitbread. For whose obsessive observation of their rivals' beers I'm eternally grateful. It's given me so much priceless data.

So far Whitbread has been doing pretty well. Did they deliberately seek out pubs where they knew the beer quality was good? Who knows. For that matter, why were they analysing their own beers at all? Were they checking up on their landlords? If that were the case, you'd expect hundreds of samples and that's not the case.

Let's summarise their results so far. Whitbread's Mild came fourth from seventeen with and average score of 0.67. While their Burton Ale came top of fourteen with an average score of 1.33. But there's one huge caveat. There were only three samples of each. Far fewer than for all the other breweries.

On with this beer. It's a 8d/7d Ordinary Bitter and is scarily bang on the average specs of this type. Having access to Whitbread's brewing records, I know a fair bit about it. The recipe is pretty simple: pale malt, PA malt, No. 1 invert sugar, Kent and Oregon hops. Note the lack of crystal malt.

Also worth noting is that Whitbread, unlike many of their London rivals, didn't brew a Best Bitter. This was their strongest Pale Ale. They did have a weaker (1036) bottled beer called IPA, but only one draught Bitter. In fact, their beer range was noticeably narrower than Barclay Perkins'.

Whitbread Pale Ale quality 1922
Year	Beer	FG	OG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	Appearance	Flavour	score	Price
1922	PA	1010.6	1046.1	4.61	77.01%	v. grey	good	2	8d
1922	PA	1012.3	1046.3	4.41	73.43%	bright	v. good	3	8d
1922	PA	1012.3	1045.8	4.35	73.14%	bright	fair	1	8d
1922	PA	1009.8	1045.8	4.68	78.60%	bright	v good	3	8d
Average		1011.3	1046.0	4.51	75.55%			2.25
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001

Whitbread have scored pretty well again, albeit with a dangerous small sample size. Three of four were bright and all had a positive flavour score. See how once again there's no correlation between quality and clarity. A very cloudy beer got a good score. The average score of 2.25 puts them top of the eleven Ordinary Bitters. And also top of the fifteen Bitters of both types, Ordinary and Best.

I'll definitely be seeking out Whitbread houses on my next long weekend in 1920s London.

Lille

You probably think I do nothing but jet around the world. That's not quite true. Admittedly, I do get about a bit. Last weekend it was Lille. Just me and Dolores. Hooray. No bloody kids hanging onto our ankles, dragging us back, slowing us down, making life not worth living.

Not such a long journey, this time. Just to the top corner of France, to Lille. We were prompted to visit the city by the introduction of a new direct Thalys service from Amsterdam. It only takes 2.5 hours, which isn't bad for a journey of 300 km.

The journey was as comfortable as it was short. We went first class. We usually do when taking the Thalys. There just isn't enough room for people with legs as long as ours in second. We'd got a fairly good deal on the ticket plus you get free food and drink. Oh yes, and you can drop by the First Class Lounge at Amsterdam Centraal for a for drink before setting off.

We were staying in the frankly hideous shopping centre next to Lille Flandres station. Convenient if ugly. Our room was pretty nice, even if it did have a view mostly of ducting. Once our gear was dumped, we nipped out to the ginourmous Carrefour in the shopping centre (I told you it was convenient) to stock up on food and drink.

Next on the agenda was a meal. Being honest, consuming lots of nice food and drink was about our only plan. It was already after 8 pm and we needed to get a move on. This being France, I wasn't too concerned about finding somewhere to eat. Or about finding somewhere decent.

After a bit of random wandering around the centre we settled on a random restaurant. It looked pretty popular, which is always a good sign. Looking at the menu posted outside, we saw there was a three-course fixed menu for €11.80.

"The robbing bastards." was my comment.

Being of an extravagant nature, I opted for the more expensive local menu at an eye-watering €23. (Bit cheeky having food twice the price of Dolores's.) In Lille local basically means Belgian when it comes to food. Waterzooi and that sort of thing. I'm quite happy to put up with that. The majority of our fellow diners seemed to have opted for the classic mussels and chips.

We sat outside on a covered terrace. After a while we noticed something strange. There were ashtrays on the tables. No-one seemed to be smoking, but the ashtrays were there. after a while someone did light up. It felt weird. I realise I'm virtually never in the presence of people smoking any more. It just looks wrong. Surprisingly few fags were smoked considering the crowd.

There's another way Lille resembles Belgium: the range of beers available. This not particularly beer-orientated restaurant offered plenty of different beers. Can't remember exactly how many or which ones. I wasn't taking notes. Look, I was on a pleasant break with Dolores. I may be a selfish twat, but not quite enough of one to start obsessively scribbling down the name of every beer on the menu at such a moment.

Ah, the joys of computerised bills! I can see now I had two Jenlain Ambrée and Dolores a Chti Blonde.

She wasn't very keen on mine. It was OK. In a half-litrey sort of way. I can remember a time when Jenlain was about as good as French beer got. They've come a long way in the last 30 years. But more of that next time.

The cheese croquettes I plumped for as a starter weren't quite as I expected, with some sort of small fruit at their centre. They'd never do that in Holland. I won't bore you with a detailed account of our food. I've kept you from your work long enough. Get back toiling before your boss creeps up behind you.

More to follow. I may even mage to crack a few jokes. Though don't count on it.

€52.10. That was the bill. Like I said earlier, the robbing bastards.





Brasserie La Chicorée
15 Place Rihour,
59000 Lille.
Tel: +33 3 20 54 81 52
http://chicoree.restaurantsdelille.com/nos-boissons.html

The origins of Oatmeal Stout

I've been nosing around a bit more into the origin of Oatmeal Stout. Getting my snout stuck in the loose ground to sniff for truffles.

Sure enough, I've found something new. I'd thought Maclay had been the first to come up with the idea of adding oats to Stout. It looks like perhaps they weren't. This is the first mention I can find of Oatmeal Stout:

"THE ARGYLE AND SPIRIT STORE CO.,
ANLABY ROAD, HULL
(Opposite Argyle-street).

THE A.W. and S.S. Co. being Importers and Large Purchasers, with cash advantages, are in position to offer their customers exceptional value.

WINES.
PORT   }
SHERRY } 1/-, 1/3, 1/6, 1/9, 2/-, 2/6, 3/-, 3/6
CLARET }             and upwards
BURGUNDY, 2/-, 2/6, 3/-, 3/6, and upwards
CHAMPAGNE, 2/8, 3/6, 4/3, 6/-. Do.
HOCK, 2/-, 2/6, 3/-, 3/6, Do

SPIRITS
(Thoroughly Matured by Age).
WHISKEY (Irish or Scotch), 2/8, 3/-, 3/4, 3/6, 4/-
FRENCH BRANDY, 4/-, 4/6, 5/-, 6/-, 7/-.
RUM, 2/8, 3/-, 4/3.
NICHOLSON'S GIN, 2/-, 2/4.

ROSE'S FAMOUS OATMEAL STOUT.
Jacobs' Pilsener Lager Beer.
Bass's Ale in Cask and Bottle, at Brewery Price."
Hull Daily Mail - Monday 18 January 1892, page 4.

An Oatmeal Stout wouldn't have been possible just over a decade previously. Because as we know, unmalted grains weren't allowed before 1880. An Oat Malt Stout would have been possible, but I can find no evidence of anyone having brewed one.

This later advert tells us a little more about the product, confirming it was made with oatmeal rather than oat malt:

"OATMEAL STOUT (Rose’s) most nourishing and strengthening, strongly recommended for Invalids. See medical opinions. Brewed from Oatmeal, Malt, and Hops only, 2s 3d per dozen. The trade supplied in Cask or Bottle. J. Wallace A Co., 35 George Street.
Aberdeen Journal - Saturday 27 January 1894, page 2."

Who was Rose? This tells us a little more about them:

"BREWER'S PATENT CASE.
LOCAL FIRM OPPOSES CASE.
The application of Mr A. Fraser, brewer, of Alloa, Lanarkshire, Scotland, for a patent for oatmalt or oatmeal stout, was opposed by Messrs Rose and Wilson, brewers, of Grimsby and Hull, on the ground of its having been previously patented by them, was heard at the Royal Patent Office Courts, London, on Wednesday, the 16th of October. Mr Douglas appeared for the applicant, and Mr Goodeve, patent barrister (instructed by John E. Walsh, patent agent, Halifax, Leeds, and Hull) for the opponents. The Comptroller-General gave his decision yesterday as follows:- That Messrs Fraser's claim for malted oats is anticipated by Messrs Rose and Wilson's prior patent, consequently that claim must be struck out; and the other claim for a combination of materials with malted oats, only allowed conditionally that a special reference is made to Messrs Rose and Wilson's patent, who are the first patentees and users of malted oats for brewing purposes."
Hull Daily Mail - Friday 01 November 1895, page 4.

Now isn't that confusing? Rose and Wilson had earlier taken a patent for both Oatmalt and Oatmeal Stout, but only used oatmeal. Given that, I can't see why Mr. Fraser (presumably of Maclay) could have been granted any sort of patent. But that is exactly what happened. A patent they robustly (but ultimately vainly) tried to uphold.

I still feel that I don't have the full story. But I'm getting there.

Wenlock Pale Ale quality 1922 - 1925

We're nearly done. Only Whitbread to go after this. Oh, and Porter and Stout, obviously. Should keep me going well into 2015.

Time for a random newspaper article related to the Wenlock Brewery:

"The personal estate of Mr. Richard Alfred Glover, of Helinghyrst, Croydon, Chairman of the Wenlock Brewery Company (Limited), has been valued at £89,733 5s. 11d., and the gross value of the whole of the estate is estimated at £96,641 18s. The executors of his will, which bears date March 16, 1898, are his sons Frank Ernest Glover, of Chiswell-street, auctioneer, Henry Graham Glover, of Grove Park, Secretary to the Wenlock Brewery Company, and Edward Cecil Moore, of Crosby-square, accountant, to the last-named of whom the Testator bequeathed £100 ; to his sister-in-law, Emma Tummons, a life annuity of £50; to his wife, Mrs. Louisa Glover, £300, his household effects, the use and enjoyment of Helinghyrst, and a life annuity of £1,200 ; to his son Alfred Kynaston Glover, £5,000 in 2nd Mortgage Debentures of Glover and Sons (Limited) ; to his son Henry Graham Glover, 1,000 Ordinary Shares of Glover and Sons (Limited) ; to his son Leslie Richard Glover, 496 Ordinary Shares in Glover and Sons (Limited) ; to his son Sydney Herbert, £400 and an annuity during the lifetime of Mrs. Glover of £200 ; to his daughter Ruth Emily, an annuity during the lifetime of Mrs. Glover of £200, and in trust for his said daughter and her children 500 Ordinary Shares in the Wenlock Brewery Company ; and to his daughter Agnes Maud an annuity of £200 during the lifetime of her mother, and in trust for his said daughter and her children 500 Ordinary Shares in the Wenlock Brewery Company (Limited). The late Mr. Glover left his residuary estate in trust in equal shares for his four sons, Frank Ernest, Henry Graham, Leslie Richard, and Sydney Herbert, and he ordered that if one of his daughters whom he named should marry a gentleman whom he named, she should forfeit all interest under his will."
Morning Post - Friday 23 December 1898, page 3.

90,000 quid was a lot of money back then. It seems Glover had done well from the brewing trade. Other than showing what a good career move brewing was, about the only point of interest is the oblique reference to a named daughter and named gentleman. Clearly one of his daughters had a boyfriend Glover had taken a dislike to.

Wenlock's Mild came an impressive third from seventeen, with an average score of 1.17. Their Burton Ale came exactly halfway down the table, seventh from fourteen with an average score of 1. Not bad at all, overall.

This is an 8d/7d Ordinary Bitter. The gravity is below average for such beers but a higher than usual degree of attenuation leaves it with an ABV slightly above the norm.

Let's see how their Pale Ale scores:

Wenlock Pale Ale quality 1922 - 1925
Year	Beer	FG	OG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	Appearance	Flavour	score	Price
1922	PA	1006	1043	4.83	86.05%	bright	fair	1	8d
1922	PA	1006.5	1043	4.76	84.88%	bright	rather poor	-1	8d
1922	PA	1007	1044	4.82	84.09%	bright	good	2	8d
1922	PA	1006.2	1045.2	5.09	86.28%	bright	good	2	8d
1923	PA	1006.7	1044.4	4.92	84.91%	bright	bitter ? Yeast	-2	8d
1923	PA	1007.2	1043.7	4.76	83.52%	not quite bright	fair	1	8d
1923	PA	1006	1046	5.22	86.96%	bright	hard	-2	8d
1923	PA	1007.2	1047.2	5.22	84.75%	brilliant	good	2	8d
1923	PA	1008.4	1043.9	4.62	80.87%	not bright	sour	-3	7d
1923	PA	1007.6	1043.1	4.62	82.37%	fairly bright	poor	-1	7d
1925	PA	1006.6	1045.6	5.09	85.53%	not bright	v fair	2	7d
Average		1006.9	1044.5	4.90	84.56%			0.09
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001

Oh dear. That's not great, is it? Seven out of eleven - or about two-thirds - were clear, which is something. Though three of the bright ones got bad scores for flavour. Only six of the eleven got positive scores for flavour giving an average score of 0.09. Or about a small a positive score as you could get.

My Wenlock advice? Stick to Mild.