Barclay Perkins Lagers 1925 - 1934 (part one)

Here are the first results of my last archive harvesting trip to London. Lots of lovely details of Barclay's Lager.

First let's take a look at the types of Lager Barclay Perkins brewed. In the 1920's, they brewed just two: Export and Dark.  Both had pretty respectable gravities for the period. Between 1925 and 1930 the average OG of beer brewed in Britain was about 1043º*). Dark and Export, at 1057 and 1050 respectively, were both well above the average.

A third Lager, romantically called Draught, appeared in 1932. That they could justify brewing a draught beer as well as bottled ones is an indication of the success of Barclay's Lager. As is the increase in the batch size of Dark and Export from 1932 onwards. In the case of dark, from 65 to 105 barrels, for Export from 125 to 200 barrels. It's worth pointing out that far more Export was brewed than Dark. Its batches weren't just larger, there were more of them. Draught Lager was weaker and closer to average gravity.

I've included tables of foreign Lagers for comparison purposes. A bit of compare and contrast never goes amiss.

It's easiest to find a comparable beer with Barclay's Dark. I'm pretty sure Münchener was the style they were aiming for. The Barclay's beer has an OG at the top end of the German examples. The FG is pretty similar to the German beers, as is the attenuation of around 65%. Barclay's Dark seems to match the specifications of the Munich style quite well.

Barclay's Export also looks similar to its German equivalent, this time from Dortmund. Though this time it's at the bottom end of the German range in terms of OG. The FG's match up pretty well, too, roughly between 1010º and 1014º. The attenuation is also pretty similar at 75-80%.

This is where it gets tricky as I'm not sure what style Draught is aiming for. If I hadn't seen the hopping rate, I might have said Pilsener.  But it's not very well hopped, falling between Dark and Export in terms of hops per quarter. It seems to match best with a German Lagerbier or a Danish Lager, though I'm not sure that I'd want to read too much into that.

The hopping rate is quite modest for all the Lagers. In 1924/25, these were Barclay's hopping rates:

beer	lbs hops/qtr
X Ale	6
XLK (Ordinary Bitter)	7.5
PA	9
KK	9
KKK	14
Export Brown Stout	14
Russian Stout	16
Source:
Barclay Perkins brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number ACC/2305/01/611

You can see that the most highly hopped Lager, Export, only had the same level of hopping the least highly hopped top-fermenting beer.

The boil times are short compared to those of Barclay's other beers. Their Pale Ales and Milds were boiled for 2.25 and 2 hours. Their Porter, Stouts and K Ales were all boiled for more than 2 hours.

Unsurprisingly, the fermentations were much cooler than for their top-fermenting beers, which were pitched at 60-63º F and rose to 70-73º F. The logs from the 1920's indicate that they used Carlsberg yeast harvested from earlier brews. Later logs just say which previous gyle the yeast had been harvested from. It may well still have been Carlsberg yeast. I wonder if they were also culturing it, as was common in larger continental breweries.

Next time we'll be looking at grists and mashing techniques. Lots more surprises there.

Barclay Perkins Lagers 1925 - 1934
Date	Year	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	boil time (hours)	Pitch temp	max. fermen-tation temp	length of fermen-tation (days)	colour
16th Apr	1925	Dark	Dunkles	1057.6	1020.1	4.96	65.10%	4.64	1.29	1.5	48.5º		14	88
4th Feb	1926	Dark	Dunkles	1057.4	1019.0	5.08	66.90%	4.64	1.26	1.5	48º		12	84
12th May	1927	Dark	Dunkles	1057.5	1020.2	4.93	64.87%	4.64	1.26	1.5	48º		15	80
6th Jan	1928	Dark	Dunkles	1057.2	1020.7	4.83	63.81%	4.64	1.24	1.5	48º		15	80
13th Jan	1928	Dark	Dunkles	1057.3	1020.4	4.88	64.40%	4.64	1.23	1.5	48º		15	84
7th Aug	1930	Dark	Dunkles	1057.3	1019.4	5.01	66.14%	4.64	1.25	1.5	48º		15	88
15th Aug	1930	Dark	Dunkles	1057.3	1020.2	4.91	64.75%	4.64	1.27	1.5	48º		15	88
7th Aug	1931	Dark	Dunkles	1057.4	1019.7	4.99	65.68%	4.68	1.18	1.13	48º		15	84
11th Jul	1932	Dark	Dunkles	1057.3	1021.0	4.80	63.35%	4.68	1.22	1.33	51º		12	84
12th Sep	1932	Dark	Dunkles	1057.3	1021.3	4.76	62.83%	4.68	1.24	1.33	48º		15	86
24th Jul	1933	Dark	Dunkles	1057.5	1016.7	5.40	70.96%	4.68	1.18	1.5	48.5º		16	84
9th Apr	1934	Dark	Dunkles	1057.5	1020.8	4.86	63.83%	4.68	1.27	2.17	46º	52.5º	11	88
28th May	1934	Dark	Dunkles	1057.5	1020.8	4.86	63.83%	4.68	1.19	1.5	46º	53º	12	80
9th Sep	1935	Dark	Dunkles	1057.6	1019.0	5.11	67.05%	4.68	1.15	1.5	46º	55.5º	15	86
7th Jul	1932	Draught	Lager	1043.5	1013.6	3.96	68.74%	5.49	1.01	1.08	48º		15	11.5
19th Jul	1932	Draught	Lager	1043.4	1013.2	4.00	69.59%	5.49	0.97	1.67	49.5º		15	12
10th Jul	1933	Draught	Lager	1043.4	1010.4	4.37	76.04%	5.47	0.94	2	48.5º		12	12
14th Mar	1934	Draught	Lager	1043.4	1011.1	4.27	74.42%	5.47	0.99	2	45º	52.5º	13	13
4th May	1934	Draught	Lager	1043.2	1011.7	4.17	72.92%	5.47	0.99	2	45.5º	53º	11	11
7th Sep	1935	Draught	Lager	1043.5	1010.1	4.41	76.69%	5.47	0.95	2	46º	56º	13	11
1st Apr	1925	Export	Export	1050.5	1014.1	4.82	72.08%	6.54	1.31	1.5	48º		15	14
3rd Feb	1926	Export	Export	1050.6	1015.4	4.66	69.57%	6.00	1.20	1.5	48º		15	13
16th May	1927	Export	Export	1050.7	1013.8	4.88	72.78%	6.00	1.24	1.5	48º		15	12
11th Jan	1928	Export	Export	1050.2	1014.6	4.71	70.92%	6.00	1.26	1.5	48º		15	10
22nd Jul	1930	Export	Export	1050.2	1012.1	5.04	75.90%	6.00	1.21	1.5	47.5º		13	12
13th Aug	1930	Export	Export	1050.3	1012.3	5.03	75.55%	6.00	1.22	1.5	48º		15	10
5th Aug	1931	Export	Export	1050.4	1010.7	5.25	78.77%	6.00	1.16	1	48º		15	11
12th Jul	1933	Export	Export	1049.4	1009.5	5.28	80.77%	6.00	1.19	2	48º		13	10.5
21st Mar	1934	Export	Export	1049.5	1011.6	5.01	76.57%	6.00	1.14	2	46º	52.5º	14	9.5
2nd May	1934	Export	Export	1049.4	1011.1	5.07	77.53%	6.00	1.11	2	46º	52º	10	10
Sources:
Barclay Perkins brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers ACC/2305/1/638, ACC/2305/1/640 and ACC/2305/1/641.

Foreign Lagers 1930 - 1935
Year	Brewer	country	Beer	Style	OG	FG	colour	ABV	App. Atten-uation
1930	average of 4 samples	Germany	Dunkles Münchener	Dunkles	1055.2	1018.6	3.5	4.69	65.15%
1930	strongest sample	Germany	Dunkles Münchener	Dunkles	1056.9	1020.4	3.9	4.72	62.92%
1930	weakest sample	Germany	Dunkles Münchener	Dunkles	1053.6	1016.4	3	4.82	68.27%
1935	Löwenbräu, Munich	Germany	Dark Lager	Dunkles	1055.0	1020.8		4.42	62.18%
1930	average of 14 samples	Germany	Export Dortmunder	Export	1054.0	1012.2	0.73	5.39	76.44%
1930	strongest sample	Germany	Export Dortmunder	Export	1057.2	1014.3	0.84	5.58	73.85%
1930	weakest sample	Germany	Export Dortmunder	Export	1051.2	1009.4	0.66	5.08	80.88%
1930	average of 15 samples	Germany	Lagerbier	Helles	1048.2	1011.0	0.72	4.78	76.25%
1930	strongest sample	Germany	Lagerbier	Helles	1050.5	1012.2	0.78	4.99	74.96%
1930	weakest sample	Germany	Lagerbier	Helles	1045.4	1006.5	0.59	5.10	85.07%
1932	Beck	Germany	Bier	Lager	1051.0	1009.6	6.5	5.40	81.18%
1934	Tuborg	Denmark	Lager	Lager	1044.7	1013.4		4.05	70.02%
1934	Wiibroes Bryggeri	Denmark	Lager	Lager	1043.0	1012.4		3.97	71.16%
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001.
"Van Brouwerij tot Bierglas" by F. Kurris, Doetinchem, 1948, pages 26-27

* Brewers' Almanack 1928, p. 110.

Danish Lager around WW II

A couple of random newspaper items vaguely of the topic of Danish beer around the war years. Just a few odd bits I didn't really know what to do with.

This is odd. Auctioning a bottle of royal beer for the benefit of the Anglo-Soviet Unity Committee:

"ANGLO-SOVIET UNITY COMMITTEE, BURGH OF BUCKHAVEN AND METHIL. Offers for BOTTLE of CARLSBERG LAGER specially brewed in Copenhagen, Sept. 26 1932, in honour of visit of Prince of Wales, kindly presented to our fund Mr A. E. Leighton, East Dock Tavern, Methil. Sealed offers to be sent to Mr JOHN BRENNAN. 196 Den Walk. Buckhaven, not later than SAT. May 16, 1942."
Dundee Courier - Wednesday 06 May 1942, page 1.

Aned here's a slightly strange message of thanks:

"Denmark Tribute
GRACIOUS expression of Denmark's gratitude to Britain and her Allies for its liberation has been received by Messrs. A. S. Bartholomew Ltd., of High-street, Cheltenham.

From the Tuborg Breweries at Loebenhauen, Denmark, comes this telegram: "With deep gratitude and admiration the achievements of Great Britain and her Allies we in relieved Denmark are happy now to be able to express to you our sincere congratulations and best wishes."

Before the war Messrs. Bartholomew imported from the Danish Brewery, Tuborg Lager, but all connection with the firm was severed when the Germans occupied Denmark in 1940."
Gloucestershire Echo - Wednesday 30 May 1945, page 3.

And finally an advert heralding the rearrival of foreign Lager in Britain:

Taunton Courier, and Western Advertiser - Saturday 15 May 1948, page 3.

Beer drinking in the 1930's

We're dipping one final time into Sydney Nevile's highly informative article on beer in the 1930's.

Starting with a point I've often made: that beer was shaped in the political and economic forces with which it coexisted. The enormous increase in the taxation of beer during WW I and the interwar period affected not just the beer itself but the attitudes of drinkers to it:

"The combined result of the constructive policy of the trade, the relatively high price of beer and the altered and improved standard of manners, customs and ideas of the masses of the people, has led to regard being paid by the consumer more to quality and flavour than to strength and volume. The alcoholic strength of beer, which remained practically unaltered from 1885 to 1914 at roughly an average of 5 per cent., and which was reduced owing to restrictions during the critical period of the war to something between 2-3 per cent., gradually rose when the restrictions were removed, and now stands at an average in the neighbourhood of 4 per cent., at which point so for as can be seen it will remain more or less constant in the absence of any material change in the rate of duty or other conditions. The great bulk of industrial beer consumed by the masses is now probably in the neighbourhood of 3 per cent, to 3.5 per cent, of alcohol content, whilst stouts and what may be termed "luxury" beers range up to 5 per cent."
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 42, Issue 6, November-December 1936, page 521.

Beer had gone from being a cheap everyday item to something rather more expensive. Paying more, consumers also expected to get more for their money in terms of quality. It's a logical enough demand.

His prediction that average beer strength would remain around 4% turned out not to be true. Though, in Nevile's defence, there were material changes in the conditions. A little fracas called WW II.

The "industrial beer" he talks of is surely Mild Ale. Was it really 3 to 3.5% ABV? That's lower than the post-W II average of about 3.7% ABV. You can probably guess what's coming now. A look at the Mild Ales on offer in 1935 - 1936 and their strengths. It's at times like these that I'm glad that I could be arsed to transcribe the Whitbread and Truman Gravity Books. I've more than enough data to check Nevile's assertion:

Mild Ales in 1935 - 1936
Year	Brewer	Beer	Price	Acidity	FG	OG	ABV	App. Atten-uation
1936	Barclay Perkins	Ale 4d	4d		1007	1029.1	2.87	75.95%
1935	Charrington	Ale	4d			1031.5
1935	Fuller, Smith & Turner	LA	4d	0.07	1007.9	1032.8	3.23	75.91%
1936	Greene King	Ale	4d			1028.9
1935	Ind Coope	Ale	4d			1028.8
1935	Kidd	Ale	4d			1032.2
1935	Leney & Co	X	4d	0.06	1006	1028	2.85	78.57%
1935	Mann Crossman	Brandon's LA	4d	0.04	1004.4	1031	3.46	85.81%
1935	Meux	Ale	4d			1028.3
1935	Truman	Ale	4d			1030.02
1936	Wells & Winch	Ale	4d			1031.8
1935	Whitbread	Ale	4d			1027.05
	average					1029.96	3.10
1935	Barclay Perkins	X	5d	0.07	1011	1037	3.37	70.27%
1936	Cannon Brewery	X	5d	0.06	1015.1	1034.9	2.55	56.73%
1935	Charrington	X	5d	0.05	1012.3	1037	3.19	66.76%
1935	Charrington	X	5d	0.06	1012.4	1037	3.18	66.49%
1935	Courage	X	5d	0.06	1011	1035	3.11	68.57%
1936	Courage	X	5d			1037.01
1936	Ind Coope	X	5d			1035.19
1936	Mann Crossman	X	5d	0.08	1009.6	1044.8	4.58	78.57%
1936	Meux	X	5d	0.07	1006.2	1035.4	3.80	82.49%
1935	Shepherd Neame	X	5d			1039.9
1935	Taylor Walker	X	5d	0.05	1014	1035	2.71	60.00%
1936	Truman	X	5d	0.07	1009.4	1037	3.58	74.59%
1935	Watney	X	5d	0.06	1011.8	1036	3.13	67.22%
1935	Watney	X	5d	0.05	1011.5	1036	3.17	68.06%
1935	Wenlock	X	5d			1035.9
1936	Wenlock	X	5d			1036.02
1936	Wenlock	X	5d			1036.69
1935	Whitbread	X	5d			1038.04
	average					1036.88	3.31
1936	Barclay Perkins	XX	6d		1010	1043	4.29	76.74%
1935	Dare, Birmingham	Ale	6d	0.05	1013.7	1047	4.32	70.85%
	average					1045	4.30
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001.
Barclay Perkins brewing log held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number ACC/2305/01/621.
Truman Gravity Book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/C/252

It's dead handy that the gravity books also give the price per pint, because I've been able to divided the Milds up into three classes:

4d. per pint Ale, the continuation of wartime Government Ale.
5d. per pint Ordinary Mild.
6d. per pint Best Mild.

By far the most common of the three types was 5d. Ordinary Mild. Low-gravity Ales were brewed in quite modest quantities, at least at the brewery's whose brewing records I've seen. Nevile is spot on in saying most was between 3 and 3.5% ABV. The average for 5d. Mild is 3.31% ABV.

However, Mild at this strength was a relatively recent phenomenon. Before 1931, Ordinary Mild had cost 6d. per pint and had a gravity of 1040-1045º. Then there was the disastrous increase in the tax on beer in 1931. Rather than increase the price to 7d., brewers cut the gravity to 1035-1037º so they could continue to retail it at 6d. When the tax returned to its old level in 1933, brewers didn't increase the gravity back to its old level but instead cut the price to 5d.

This is a point that I'd never considered: serving beer in places it never had been before:

"Whilst the average bulk consumption of beer per head has been largely reduced, the consumption has been spread over a wider class of the community. Beer is consumed by classes of people who in old days would have regarded wine or spirits as their customary drink. The service of beer, for instance, at balls and after theatres is now almost universal."
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 42, Issue 6, November-December 1936, page 521.

Presumably before WW I beer was overwhelmingly drunk by the working classes either in pubs or in their homes. Not in more upmarket venues like theatres. Though I bet they did serve Bass in posher places.

Remember the CAMRA line of argument that people only drank Lager because it was pushed like hell by breweries? We may have to reconsider that as it doesn't seem to have worked in the 1930's:

"It is to be noted that whereas over the rest of the world lager beer has ousted top-fermentation beer in popularity. Great Britain seems to be the only country where top-fermentation beer has held its own. Although lager beer has been largely advertised and a great number of brands are on the market and freely offered for sale, the total consumption in this country is still within very small proportions. The climate is frequently credited with the responsibility for this, but it is probable that the great attention given to the selection of materials by British brewers and the steady improvement of technique, both in the brewery and in the public-house, is the fundamental reason for the maintenance of the demand for British top-fermentation beer."
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 42, Issue 6, November-December 1936, page 521.

 I think I'm with Nevile on why Lager didn't take off in the first half of the 20th century. brewers were able to brew top-quality top-fermenting beer. Why should they incur the risk of buying the extra equipment required to brew Lager when there was no need to?

In many European countries top-fermenting beer had been produced in small, old-fashioned breweries. These weren't able, in most cases, to compete with Lager on quality and gradually disappeared. There were a few exceptions, like Düsseldorf and Cologne, where breweries upgraded their brewhouses and adopted some Lager brewing techniques. Their beers are still around today.

Dear Mary Lou

Remember that letter from an RAF recruit training in the US? I've found the corollary - a letter from a GI about life in Britain.

As there is a mention of  beer, so I feel justified in posting it:

"Dear Mary Lou-
Doughboy Joe Doakes gives his honey the lowdown on British girls, politeness, Weather, and beer
Somewhere in Britain.
Dear Mary Lou, —I was getting little tired of walking around being an official secret like all us guys were until F. D. R. announced our arrival.

But now the announcement has heen made you can know, honey, I am stationed somewhere on this island of tea and scones.

I can't tell you much about what we are doing, but yon can take it from me I never worked so hard in life. You don't have to worry about me stepping out on you, babe. The Army keeps me too tired for that.

This is strictly screwball country—but screwball in nice sort of way. In some way, I guess you could call it corny. The way these people over here dote on tradition and the way they wear morning coats and derby hats — they call them bowlers, and the way that when you get a letter they always add "Esq" on to the end of your name.

These things were so different that I and the rest of the guys my company thought the British were putting on a show for us. Now that we're getting used to things we're beginning to see what's been cooking in this country for the past several hundred years, and that tradition stuff isn't so bad.

NO KIDDING!
There are two things Britain is strong on—rain and courtesy. We had a lovely spring at home, but when we first hit this side of the ocean we were making a book that if it rained one more day the whole works would sink. It always rained that extra day!

It's becoming an old joke in our billet that the barrage balloons are the only things that keep these islands from doing a swan dive into the drink.

However, these people are just as saturated with politeness and courtesy as the ground is with water. Even taxi-drivers take time to thank you when you pay them off. No kidding. If this sort of thing is catching, I'll be coming back saying, "Yes, ma'am," all over the joint.

You remember how I hated cabbage and spinnach and such stuff? Well, right now I'm practically a walking brussel sprouts. I've put so many of them away I'm seriously thinking of organising a movement to make post-war peace aims include the eradication of brussels sprouts from the British diet.

Actually we're eating extremely well. We're getting American Army rations, and you don't know how homesick an ordinary tin of grapefruit can make you feel.

We had pork chops for supper the other night. I ate four. So, you see, there's nothing wrong with my appetite. Incidentally, a pork chop outside of an Army camp is a thing of beauty and almost impossible to get.

I WAS in London for a dance the other Saturday night, and, honestto-gosh, they had a swing band that wasn't too schmaltz. The boys actually got out and kicked a couple of times.

I think that in about six months, if the Army continues to import jitterbugs with rifles, we'll have the British gals swinging right on down in the groove. At first they danced a little on the slow side, but now we're getting them pepped up to par.

Don't get the wrong idea, and think I'm walking out on you. I did meet one real nice English gal that I think you would approve of.

She's blonde, and says "rahlly" for really," and she works in a factory making shells. I met her at this dance, and she has the makings of as fancy a little rug-cutter that ever lifted hoof.

I suppose you would call most of the British girls plain. They haven't had any silk stockings for a year or so, and lipstick and rouge are as rare as Nazis here. Clothing has been rationed, and the girls buy their clothes for endurance instead of beauty.

No, they don't dress as sharp as you, kid, but they don't do too badly.

WE'RE over here, of course, to kick the hell out of Hitler. We will be doing same soon, I hope. But in the meantime it can't be all work. That's where more of that British courtesy comes in.

The Red Cross has opened clubs pretty well all over the country, and there's practically nothing they won't try to do for you. We get free tickets to shows, and sometimes people call in and have some of us out to dinner.

That's pretty nice, you know, because people over here have almost all their food rationed, and we don't really feel like eating up their stuff.

We weren't quite sure what to expect when we first hit this country. We didn't expect what we got. As matter of fact, half-expected to be forced to sort of fight the British for such things as billets and grub and privileges. After all, we were strangers, and what I've heard of the Limeys, they're just naturally not very friendly, I thought.

You can imagine our surprise when we got off the boat. Those guys not only took care of our duffel bags, but they had a hot meal waiting and bunks made up for us. That's when we first began discovering there isn't much difference between the guy who drove a truck in Britain before the war and the guy who had a similar job in the States.

"BITTER"
I HEARD the other day that we're not going to get even the small amount of American beer s been coming over. That means going to have drink the British stuff. They call it "bitter" for apparently no good reason at all, and it's flat, although they do have a kind of lager that bubbles. I suppose we can get used to anything, and will get used to bitter, but give me a cold can of Pabst or Budweiser every time.

We're getting about a package of American cigarettes a day, thank goodness, because another thing we might have to work at getting used to are the local brands.

It's a funny thing, the British import tobacco grown in Virginia, and put it all in one cigarette practically without any blending. That makes it almost completely an American cigarette.

On the other hand, we take our own tobacco and import others from Turkey and such places, mix it all up, and put out cigarettes which, I think, are a lot better than what the British smoke. But it works out that when we do all our griping about British cigarettes and having to smoke 'em, we are really giving the works to an all-American product.

Worst thing about the smokes over here is the price. They cost two shillings for twenty — that's about forty cents, while our Post Exchange sells Camels and Luckies and Chesterfields for the regular fifteen cents, which is about sevenpence.

We're getting lines out over here, and should start really cooking with gas. I'm planning on having a look soon at Paris and Berlin.

Let me know what you want in the way of a souvenir. I'll bring you back a stuffed Nazi if you want, and we'll stick him up over the fireplace.

Meantime, think about me as often I think of you, and don't go getting yourself hitched up to a desk soldier.
Love,
JOE."       
The Post - Sunday 05 July 1942, page 4.

The absolute philistine, preferring canned Pabst to a decent pint of Bitter. But that gor me thinking: was canned beer really already that common bny 1942? That's pretty quick, as beer cans had first appeared fewer than 10 years previously.

I have to admit to having a few doubts about the authenticity of this letter. The relentless use of hip American phrases seems a little overdone. What do you reckon?

My arse

I'm going to show my arse. Well, not strictly speaking my arse, but the arse of one of my books.

That's what I'm peddling today, a book. The hardback version of "Bitter!". A book that proves the wonderful value of self-publishing the Lulu way.

It's all about what I want. I didn't start collecting my blog posts out of the goodness of my heart. When I realised what a nightmare it was finding stuff I'd posted on the blog, I stared collecting it. Thematically. That's the motivation behind my books. Pure selfishness. A way of finding stuff.

I'm a bit weird with books. I hate turned-down corners or bends. I unconsciously straighten them. Soft covers are so easily damaged. Dust jackets - don't get me started on them. Unless you wrap them in plastic, threat of a tear at any touch.

Hardcover, no dust jacket. That's what I want to own. With my name in extra large letters.

Shit. I have to get off to Keith's. No time to get an image of the book's rear. Apologies about that.

If it's anything like my other intended-just-for-me editions, I'll be the only taker.

Buy it now!. I have to get off.

Draught beer in the 1930's

Good old Sydney Nevile. He also wrote about draught beer in the 1930's. You may find some of what he has to say quite surprising.

The biggest shock is that brewers were already trying to move away from cask conditioning.

"So far as draught beer is concerned, filtration has been adopted to a considerable extent, but is not practised so widely as in the case of bottled beer. Many brewers chill and filter their draught beers and send them out ready for consumption in the licensed house, but probably the greater proportion of brewers find that by paying great attention to the whole of the brewing and the fining and treatment of the beer in the publican's cellar, an article is produced which satisfies the public equally well or better than the filtered article."
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 42, Issue 6, November-December 1936, page 522.

At least Nevile does admit that, if well handled, cask beer could be superior to filtered beer. What's described doesn't sound like it goes as far as being full keg beer, but more like bright beer. I drank a fair bit of bright beer served by electric dispense in the 1970's and it was a good second best to cask. And definitely way superior to keg.

Wooden casks weren't hugely popular with brewers. They were heavy, expensive to maintain and, if improperly cleaned, could taint beer. But in the 1930's there wasn't an obvious replacement to hand. The ultimate solution was to replace wooden casks with metal ones, but that process didn't start until after WW II. In the early 1970's, when I started drinking, there were still plenty of wooden barrels knocking around. Even national brewers sometimes still used them.

"Whilst much progress has been made in many directions, there are still serious problems connected with the distribution of beer through licensed houses to the public which await solution. Nothing has yet been found to take the place of the wooden cask. Deficiencies have been to some extent ameliorated by various methods of lining and by improved methods of cask washing; but there are few brewers who would not gladly adopt another package if a satisfactory one could be found.

The reduction in the bulk output of beer has naturally led to a reduction in the size of the casks employed. The old puncheons (2 barrels) and butts (3 barrels) have disappeared and even hogsheads are far fewer than in pre-war days. The average size of the casks employed throughout the country is probably well under 36 gallons, and the custom has grown up of delivering the beer far more frequently than was the case in old days."
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 42, Issue 6, November-December 1936, page 522.

How much time I've spent researching the tricky question of lining casks. Before WW I it seems to have been very rare to line casks, in contrast to continental Europe where it was standard practice to line casks with pitch. British brewers were reluctant to follow suit because of the taint the pitch gave to the beer inside it. After WW I, some brewers did line their casks, but preferred materials other than pitch, such as paraffin.

If you have ever seen what a beast a wooden hogshead is, you'll be as amazed as me that larger casks were delivered to pubs before WW I. How much must a wooden butt have weighed? How on earth did draymen manoeuvre something so large and heavy into a pub cellar? But I was a little surprised that the average cask size in the 1930's was smaller than a barrel. I would have expected that to be the standard size before WW II. Of course now the majority of cask beer is delivered in 9-gallon firkins. A few breweries - Holt's, for example - continued to use hogsheads throughout the 20th century. They may even still use them.

There was a way of doing away with casks altogether, by using cellar tanks.

"In order to avoid the difficulties inherent in the wooden cask, a substantial number of brewers have adopted for a portion of their trade the principle of delivering filtered beer in tank wagons into tanks in the licensed house. This has met with a considerable amount of success, but for one reason or another does not appear at the present time to be making further progress."
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 42, Issue 6, November-December 1936, page 522

I'm not so sure that a "substantial number of brewers" used cellar tanks in the 1930's. I can think of only one that I know: the Hull Brewery. They used ceramic cellar tanks up until at least the 1970's. There was a big debate in CAMRA as to whether this beer counted as cask or not. Initially (and incorrectly, in my opinion) CAMRA did classify it as cask, but later changed their mind.

"Apart from the filtered beer delivered to licensed houses, the practice of fining the beer in the cellar of the retailer has diminished and though in London the practice still is maintained to a considerable extent, by far the greater part of the beer supplied is fined in the brewery before delivery to the customer. The character of the finings themselves has also been greatly improved, the old form of finings made with acid beer having given way to those prepared under strictly hygienic conditions."
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 42, Issue 6, November-December 1936, page 522.

Brewers switched to fining beer before dispatch around the time of WW I. They found that it was cheaper and more reliable than delivering finings with the beer and leaving it to the publican. Using sour beer to dissolve the isinglass forms a pretty obvious risk for infecting the cask being fined. As with filtered tank beer, this seems to have been a way of making beer more idiot-proof for publicans.

This is a fascinating paragraph on the subject of beer dispense:

"Beer Pumps versus Pressors
During the last 50 years the methods of raising beer from the cellar to the bar have received a great deal of attention. Raising beer by air or carbonic acid gas pressure has been freely advocated, and much attention has been applied to different methods and appliances for adopting the system; but so far for some reason or other over a greater part of England the beer pump is still preferred both by the retailer and his customers. There are certain parts of the country, notably in Scotland, where air pressure may be said to be almost general, but when attempts are made to apply it in other districts, sooner or later the retailer puts in a request to return to the old-fashioned pump, which as a matter of fact during recent years has been vastly improved from the point of view of accessibility for cleaning."
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 42, Issue 6, November-December 1936, page 522.

The first attempt at CO2 pressure dispense in Britain that I know of was Worthington, in the first decade of the 20th century. It was a failure because the punters didn't like how the beer tasted. It seems that in the 1930's drinkers were equally resistant to this new method of serving beer. Why were they more receptive in the 1950's and 1960's? Was it more fashionable to be modern after WW II? Of course, there was resistance in the 1960's, too, and that led to the formation of CAMRA in 1971.

I've evidence for some CO2 dispense in the 1930's and 1940's, but that was for Lager. Barclay Perkins price lists from the period include CO2 cylinders for serving their draught Lager.

Oddly, handpumps almost totally disappeared from Scotland, replaced by "tall font" air pressure pumps. These started to fall out of favour for serving cask beer in the 1980's because they were difficult to tell apart from top-pressure pumps.

Barclay Perkins news

I'm just back from a brief trip to London. Obviously I dropped by the London Metropolitan Archives while I was there. Mainly to complete my Whitbread set.

Unfortunately they seem to have forgotten to bring up one of my internet orders. Bugger. And I forgot to order another two through sheer incompetence. So I still don't have the full set. But, because Whitbread's brewing books mostly cover one brewing year (July to June) I do have photos from every single year.

My side project was the Lager logs of Barclay Perkins. Tracing the trajectory of Lager in the UK has become an obsession. And good old Barclay's, with their embracement of Lager in the 1920's, played a much more important role than most now realise.

Just had a quick look at a couple of brewing records from the 1925 and something sprang out: they were using Carlsberg yeast. Repitching from earlier brews, but clearly identified as Carlsberg. Not such a surprise, as their Lager brewer was Danish. Still nice to know.

Lager Lament

While WW II wasn't the happiest time for British beer drinkers, the situation in Germany was much worse.

Beer production ground to a virtual halt after 1943 and even after the end of hostilities the situation didn't improve much. Some of the occupying powers forbad any brewing for the local population. A situation which lasted for years. When brewing did resume, the beer was far below its pre-war strength.

"Lager Lament
BEER stocks are nearly exhausted Bavaria. This is the closest thing to tragedy for a nation whose chief beverage is beer and main belief was "Beer is best — the best is Bavarian."

Military Government clamped down on brewing last autumn, forbidding entirely the use of malt and hops, to ease the food situation by saving 17,000 tons of barley annually, says Christopher Phillips, of Munich.

Since the war Bavarian beer available the civil population was not worthy the name.

With an alleged alcoholic content of 1.5 per cent. in the cities and less in the country, it was closely related to American near-beer of prohibition days.

The satisfaction in consumption was more psychological than stimulating; just a reflection of a pre-war habit.

Bavarians regard beer as food; its former vitamin values confirmed this view. To deny them beer is more bitter than to abolish tea Britain.

British visitors to Munich were amazed to gee children in arms consume beer from their milk bottles in beer balls and restaurants, and more surprised to learn that local doctors endorsed the practice.

Representations by the civic head Munich have failed to raise the ban, and it is difficult to visualise how the respective points view can be reconciled."
Aberdeen Journal - Monday 12 April 1948, page 2.

You can't really call a drink of 1.5% ABV beer. At least not in my book. As the article says, its effect could only be psychological.

I can remember seeing kids who looked no older than 8 or 9 drinking a glass of Pils in Belgium 20 years back. I wonder if that still happens? I don't understand what all the fuss is about. The odd sip of beer isn't going to kill a child. Lexie quite often took fairly big gulps out of my La Chouffe glass when he was a toddler. It hasn't done him any harm.