Let's Brew Wednesday - 1939 Maclay PA 5d

At the start of the war, Maclay brewed a very typical range of beers for a Scottish brewery: three strengths of Pale Ale and a Strong Ale. All of which were parti-gyled together in various combinations. Weakest of the bunch was PA 5d.

Scottish brewers seemed to have a thing about naming beers by price. At least those of Maclay, at least in 1939, related to something real. PA 5d really was the retail price per pint of this beer. While for Drybrough’s equivalent beer, 54/-, the price didn’t relate to anything still in effect. 54/- and 60/- – which did refer to the wholesale price of a hogshead in 1914 – were just names by the 1920s.

It terms of gravity, PA 5d looks very much like a post-war 60/-, though with a heavier rate of hopping. However, it’s still more lightly hopped than even a Mild would have been in London.

Very few of the ingredients used to brew this beer were Scottish. Only three of the ten quarters of malt used to brew it were local. The rest being made up of a combination of Californian and Australian. There are no malts other than the base, which was pretty typical in Scotland. The rest of the grist consists of flaked maize and No. 2 invert sugar.

It’s no surprise that none of the hops are Scottish. 80% are English, the rest Styrian. I’ve no idea how fresh they were, as there’s no indication of the year of harvest in the brewing record.

1939 Maclay PA 5d
pale malt	5.25 lb	77.78%
flaked maize	0.50 lb	7.41%
No. 2 invert sugar	1.00 lb	14.81%
Styrian Goldings 90 min	0.50 oz
Fuggles 60 min	0.75 oz
Goldings 30 min	0.75 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.25 oz
OG	1032
FG	1010
ABV	2.91
Apparent attenuation	68.75%
IBU	28
SRM	6
Mash at	149º F
After underlet	158º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	60º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

Burton Ale before WW II (part two)

The first table I published a few days ago looked rather threadbare. Blame Truman, who mostly only bothered to record the OG, but not the FG. However, by turning to brewing records we can find rather more information. For example, the hopping rate, which is of particular interest.

The Truman’s entry is a bit of a guess. I’m pretty sure that they brewed their Burton Ale in Burton, not at Brick Lane. And there’s only one Burton-brewed beer that seems to fit the bill XXX. It has the same OG as the entry from the Truman Gravity Book in the table above and, though it was often parti-gyled with Mild, it’s stronger than any 1930s Mild I’ve come across.

Before WW I, it was pretty standard for London brewers to produce multiple Burton Ales, often called KK and KKK. With KK being the standard draught Burton and KKK a stronger version. This tradition of stronger Burton Ales lived on between the wars, with three of the breweries represented in the table making one.

Both Barclay’s KKKK and Fuller OBE (Old Burton Extra) were exclusively draught beers, which is surprising given their strength. Few beers over 6% ABV were sold on draught at the time. OBE was famous for catching out unwary drinkers, who mistook it for a standard-strength Burton. Both were produced in modest quantities and KKKK was only available in the winter.

I’m not sure how Courage KKK was packaged but, given that it was brewed in batches of a couple of hundred barrels, it wouldn’t surprise me if some was sold on draught. The only one of the above beers that I know for certain was bottled was Barclay’s KK (bottling). This was an exclusively bottled beer, as the name suggests, which was marketed as Southwarke Olde Ale.

The hopping rate was pretty high, except for the Truman beer. Though that’s as much because of where they were brewed as because of the style. All London beers tended to be quite heavily hopped, even Mild Ales.

Unfortunately, Whitbread, Truman and Fullers didn’t record dry hopping in their brewing records. But I would be very surprised if they didn’t dry hop their Burton Ales. It goes along with the style. The 11 ozs. in Courage KKK is extremely heavy. Implying that it was perhaps aged before sale.

Burton Ale before WW II (part two)
Year	Brewer	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	dry hops (oz / barrel)
1939	Whitbread	33	1061	1020	5.42	67.21%	8.49	2.15
1936	Barclay Perkins	KK (Trade)	1055.7	1017	5.12	69.50%	7.90	1.84	3.00
1936	Barclay Perkins	KKKK	1078.5	1027	6.81	65.60%	10.99	3.62	4.00
1936	Barclay Perkins	KK (bottling)	1068.6	1022	6.17	67.95%	10.54	2.92	8.00
1939	Truman (Burton)	XXX	1048.2	1007.8	5.35	83.91%	5.76	1.07
1937	Courage	KKK	1072.6	1026.9	6.05	62.98%	7.34	2.35	11.37
1937	Courage	XXX	1053.7	1016.1	4.98	70.10%	7.34	1.74	0.00
1939	Fullers	BO	1055.4	1014.1	5.46	74.50%	7.16	1.62
1939	Fullers	OBE	1069.3	1020.2	6.50	70.83%	7.16	2.02
Sources:
Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/01/107.
Barclay Perkins brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers ACC/2305/01/620 and ACC/2305/01/621.
Truman brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/C/339.
Courage brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number ACC/2305/08/263.
Fullers brewing records held at the brewery.

Draught Burton Ale before WW II

In the years before WW II Burton Ale remained a standard draught beer in London pubs. Usually, like draught Stout, it was an 8d per pint beer, which implied an OG of 1050-1055º.

The Burtons produced by the different London breweries were all generally similar: 5-5.5% ABV, dark brown in colour and reasonably well hopped. Though, as you can see in the table, some breweries produced a slightly weaker beer that retailed for 7d per pint.

Whitbread’s version, called 33 after the tax reduction in 1933 it was brewed to celebrate, was slightly stronger and darker than was the norm, clocking in at over 1060º and with a colour of 100. 80 to 100 was a more typical colour, which is around 20-25 SRM, if you want to go all modern.

It’s not a surprise that London Burtons were all generally similar in character as they were competing in the same market. And, while London Stouts did make it to other parts of the UK, Burton Ales seem to have only been available in the capital.

Draught Burton Ale before WW II
Year	Brewer	Beer	Price per pint	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour
1936	Barclay Perkins	KK		1056	1013	5.60	76.79%	90
1936	Barclay Perkins	KKKK		1078.5	1027	6.68	65.60%	100
1939	Barclay Perkins	Strong Ale	9	1055.2
1939	Courage	Strong Ale	8	1054.4
1939	Mann Crossman	Strong Ale	8	1050.9
1939	Meux	Strong Ale	7	1047.5
1939	Taylor Walker	Strong Ale	8	1053.7
1939	Watney	Strong Ale	7	1050.3
1939	Truman	Strong Ale	7	1048.9
1939	Wenlock	Strong Ale	8	1053.4
1939	Whitbread	33	8	1061	1020	5.31	67.21%	110
Sources:
Truman Gravity Book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/C/252.
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001.

Ownership of UK pubs 1990 - 2017

The 2018 edition of the BBPA Statistical Handbook dropped onto my doormat yesterday. A nice late Chirstmas present. It's one of my favourite books, unencumbered as it is by much in the way of text.

Flicking through its pages, my eyes were drawn to one table on pubs. And their ownership. The numbers tell an intriguing tale of the fall and rise of brewery pub ownership..

In my early drinking days, the vast majority of pubs were brewery owned. And the few that weren't were really free either, having some sort of loan tie. The Beer Orders changed that and the large breweries offloaded their pub estates, mostly to pub companies.

Pub companies existed before Beer Orders. Sometimes, like Heavitree, they were breweries that had stopped brewing, but helf onto their pubs. But none operated on the scale of the large pub companies which had estates numbering thousands of pubs.

Between 1990 and 2003 there was a huge shift in ownership from breweries to pub companies, leaving the latter owning more than 50% of the total. But after 2003, the picture became very different. Independently-owned pubs, which had a fairly constant 30% share for 15 years, began gaining at the expense of pubcos.

The growth of indepently-owned pubs was spectacular after 2010, almost reaching 50%. Breweries also increased their share, though not by as much. I'm not sure if the 1,900 pubs Heineken acquired from its purchase of Punch in 2017 are included in the figures. I suspect they are.

What will the future hold? My guess is that the pubcos share will continue to fall and that of breweries increase. Like the Big Six, the pubcos will soon be a thing of the past. At least the unbranded ones. I can't see Wetherspoon disappearing anytime soon.

Ownership of UK pubs 1990 - 2017
Year	Brewers		Pub companies		Independent		Total
	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
1990	43,500	68.50%	0	0.00%	20,000	31.50%	63,500
1991	29,500	47.43%	12,700	20.42%	20,000	32.15%	62,200
1992	25,700	41.72%	15,900	25.81%	20,000	32.47%	61,600
1993	26,200	42.95%	14,800	24.26%	20,000	32.79%	61,000
1994	26,000	42.83%	14,700	24.22%	20,000	32.95%	60,700
1995	22,200	36.39%	18,800	30.82%	20,000	32.79%	61,000
1996	22,300	36.68%	18,500	30.43%	20,000	32.89%	60,800
1997	21,900	36.14%	18,900	31.19%	19,800	32.67%	60,600
1998	19,700	32.30%	21,700	35.57%	19,600	32.13%	61,000
1999	20,400	33.17%	21,700	35.28%	19,400	31.54%	61,500
2000	11,200	18.42%	30,400	50.00%	19,200	31.58%	60,800
2001	10,100	16.64%	31,600	52.06%	19,000	31.30%	60,700
2002	9,800	16.31%	31,500	52.41%	18,800	31.28%	60,100
2003	8,300	13.97%	32,500	54.71%	18,600	31.31%	59,400
2004	8,900	15.08%	31,700	53.73%	18,400	31.19%	59,000
2005	9,400	16.04%	31,000	52.90%	18,200	31.06%	58,600
2006	9,400	16.15%	30,400	52.23%	18,400	31.62%	58,200
2007	9,400	16.35%	30,000	52.17%	18,100	31.48%	57,500
2008	9,100	15.99%	28,900	50.79%	18,900	33.22%	56,900
2009	8,900	15.92%	28,400	50.81%	18,600	33.27%	55,900
2010	8,700	15.70%	24,200	43.68%	22,500	40.61%	55,400
2011	8,500	15.54%	22,800	41.68%	23,400	42.78%	54,700
2012	9,300	17.29%	19,800	36.80%	24,700	45.91%	53,800
2013	9,300	17.71%	19,000	36.19%	24,200	46.10%	52,500
2014	9,800	18.88%	17,500	33.72%	24,600	47.40%	51,900
2015	9,400	18.50%	16,900	33.27%	24,500	48.23%	50,800
2016	9,400	18.69%	16,900	33.60%	24,000	47.71%	50,300
2017	11,000	22.75%	14,700	30.40%	22,650	46.85%	48,350
Source:
BBPS Statistical Handbook 2018, page 68.

Let's Brew - 1939 Fullers P

I got all excited when I spotted a beer called P in Fullers brewing records from the 1950s. Wow, they’d been brewing a Porter that late. Making them probably the last London brewer to produce one. However, all was not what it appeared.

P had indeed been Fullers draught Porter. But at some point between the wars it was transformed into a bottled beer called Nourishing Stout, retaining the brew house name P.

P turns up in the earliest Fullers records I’ve photographed, from 1887, when its OG was 1053.5º. By 1914, that was down to 1048.6º.  Obviously, WW I knocked that down further.

The grist is only a little more complicated than Fullers other beers. In addition to pale malt and flaked maize, there’s also black malt and a tiny amount of oats. The latter is presumably so they could sell some as Oatmeal Stout.

No. 4 invert is my substitution for something called Special Dark. I’ve not much clue about what that might be like, other than dark in colour. No. 4 was made for Stouts so seems like a good substitution guess.

Fullers didn’t bother listing hop varieties or growing region, so all I know is that they were English and from the 1938 harvest. I’ve guessed Fuggles. It’s pretty heavily hopped, giving a surprisingly high 39 (calculated) IBUs.

1939 Fullers P
pale malt	6.00 lb	68.73%
black malt	0.67 lb	7.67%
flaked maize	0.67 lb	7.67%
flaked oats	0.06 lb	0.69%
No. 4 invert sugar	1.00 lb	11.45%
caramel 2000 SRM	0.33 lb	3.78%
Fuggles 120 mins	1.50 oz
Fuggles 30 mins	1.50 oz
OG	1038.5
FG	1014
ABV	3.24
Apparent attenuation	63.64%
IBU	39
SRM	44
Mash at	147º F
After underlet	150º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	62º F
Yeast	WLP002 English Ale

Fullers grists in 1946

Time to look at the ingredients Fullers were using in 1946, just after the war's end.

Little had changed since pre-war in terms of the grains Fullers employed. Other than Porter, which contained black malt, all their beers contained nothing other than base pale malt. The origin of the barley used to make that malt had changed. Gone were the Californian and Cape, replaced by more English malt. Not really surprising, as importing barley had been problematic and UK barley production had massively increased during the war. From 17,840,000 cwt. in 1939 to 42,160,000 cwt. in 1945. 

A change in adjunct, from flaked maize to flaked barley, was out of the brewery’s control. Driven by two factors: the unavailability of maize, which needed to be imported, and orders from the government to use flaked barley. Even breweries which had never used adjuncts before, such as Whitbread, were forced to have flaked barley in their grists.

The percentage of the malt in the grists fell a little, from around 80% to 77%. This was replaced by a little more unmalted grain and sugar, but it wasn’t a huge change.

The war had provoked little change in the sugars Fullers used, other than the addition of a new proprietary sugar, PEX. I haven’t the foggiest idea what was. But Fullers must have liked it as they were still using it in 1968.

The hops, as pre-war, remained all English and fairly fresh. In this case, as mixture of ones from the 1945 and 1946 harvests. Though there was also something called “hopulon”, of which 1 lb. was the equivalent of 7 lbs. of hops.

Fullers grists in 1946 (grains)
Date	Beer	Style	OG	pale malt	black malt	flaked barley
3rd Oct	X	Mild	1029.6	77.12%		15.42%
2nd Oct	PA	Pale Ale	1029.5	78.07%		16.26%
22nd Oct	P	Porter	1029.3	58.01%	11.60%	5.80%
25th Nov	BO	Strong Ale	1038.8	75.95%		16.16%
Source:
Fullers brewing records held at the brewery

Fullers grists in 1946 (sugars)
Date	Beer	no. 2 sugar	glucose	PEX	Intense	Sp. Dark	Carameline	London caramel
3rd Oct	X		3.67%	2.20%	1.58%
2nd Oct	PA	2.17%	1.63%	1.63%	0.24%
22nd Oct	P			3.87%		15.47%	2.62%	2.62%
25th Nov	BO		4.31%	2.15%	1.42%
Source:
Fullers brewing records held at the brewery

Excellent Air Raid Shelter

I come across some odd stuff in the newspaper archives. Sometimes seemingly mundane items that say much about how the world has changed.

This one is a simple job advertisement. Nothing very exciting about that. But on closer inspection it tells us more.

Here's the plain text:

"Owing to the greatly increased demand for their bottled beers-

FULLER, SMITH & TURNER LTD,
GRIFFIN BREWERY,
CHISWICK, W. 4.

require additional assistance in their bottling department.

1. Good wages and long service grant.
2. Annual holiday with pay.
3. No Saturday afternoon or Sunday work.
4. Excellent Air Raid Shelter and "Music While You Work."
5. Overalls and footwear provided.

Women over 33 and girls under 17 should apply either for whole or part-time employment as above."
West London Observer - Friday 12 February 1943, page 8.

I can imagine that a good air raid shelter was a big attraction during the war years. My guess is that it was a cellar somewhere in the brewery complex.

But a couple of the other points speak volumes about how the world of work has changed since the 1940s.

"No Saturday afternoon or Sunday work", for example, refers obliquely to the fact that the standard working week included Saturday morning. Though I remember my mum telling me that at one point in the war she was working up to twelve hours a day, seven days a week.

That "Annual holiday with pay" was included as one of the perks reveals that paid holiday wasn't yet obligatory.

Until fairly recently there were only two areas of brewery work open to women: as clerical staff or in the bottling department. The latter mostly gave employment to either women or boys.

Wondering about the weird age restrictions of over 33 or under 17? I was, too. Then I twigged. It's probably because women between those ages were required to do some form of national service, either in auxiliary roles in the military or working the land.

There's one aspect of the advert which does leave me puzzled: "Owing to the greatly increased demand for their bottled beers". Most breweries had to restrict their production of bottled beers due to shortages of bottles and crates.

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1939 Fullers XX

XX was the big brother of X. As parti-gyle pals, the recipes were obviously identical, just more of everything in XX.

There’s a big difference in the hopping rate of London Milds and those brewed elsewhere. For example, Tetley’s Milds contained 3.5-4 lbs of hops per quarter (336 lbs) of malt, Fullers 7.5 lbs. In fact Fullers Milds were more heavily hopped than most provincial Pale Ales. This is reflected in the 37 (calculated) IBUs.

I’m not sure what the final colour of XX was. Based on the ingredients listed in the brewing record, it doesn’t come out that dark. However, I know that some other London brewers darkened their Milds at racking time. Unfortunately, the earliest Whitbread Gravity Book analysis that I have is from 1951. That lists X Ale as around 22 SRM.

1939 Fullers XX
pale malt	7.75 lb	79.86%
flaked maize	1.50 lb	15.46%
glucose	0.33 lb	3.40%
caramel 1000 SRM	0.125 lb	1.29%
Fuggles 90 mins	1.25 oz
Fuggles 30 mins	1.25 oz
OG	1042.5
FG	1010
ABV	4.30
Apparent attenuation	76.47%
IBU	37
SRM	12
Mash at	147º F
After underlet	151º F
Sparge at	168º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	62.5º F
Yeast	WLP002 English Ale

Fullers beers in 1946

The years just after the end of WW II weren’t full of food and fun. To be honest, they were a bit grim, the food situation even managing to worsen. Brewing wasn’t immune.

A quick glance at the table below reveals one change: a big reduction in the number of different beers brewed, down from eight to four. All that’s left is a single beer in each style: a Mild, a Bitter, a Stout and a Burton Ale.

That there’s been a reduction in the gravity of the surviving beers won’t come as a surprise. However, the size of the drop varied considerably. X Ale fared best, with just a 9.5% reduction. While PA saw a gravity fall of over 40%.

It’s significant – and pretty sad – that Fullers only had one beer with a gravity above 1030º in 1946. BO is the only one that was likely to get you very tipsy.

Looking at the situation in 1946. Misses some of what happened ay Fullers during the war. In 1940 a new mid-strength Pale Ale called No. 2 was introduced. With an OG of 1042º it fell about halfway between XK and PA.

Later in the war a new, low-gravity Pale Ale called DA was introduced. This was dropped early in 1946 when the gravity of PA fell below 1030º

Not everything was doom and gloom in post-war Britain. In 1949 Fullers introduced a new, stronger Pale Ale called SPA. Which, presumably, stands for Special Pale Ale. It had the decent gravity of 1043º and was later redubbed London Pride.

Fullers beers in 1946
Date	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
3rd Oct	X	Mild	1029.6	1008.3	2.81	71.88%	4.83	0.59
2nd Oct	PA	Pale Ale	1029.5	1008.3	2.81	71.86%	6.94	0.83
22nd Oct	P	Porter	1029.3	1010.5	2.48	64.08%	5.95	0.81
25th Nov	BO	Strong Ale	1038.8	1010.8	3.70	72.14%	4.77	0.77
Source:
Fullers brewing records held at the brewery

Fullers beers 1939 - 1946
Beer	Style	1939 OG	1946 OG	% fall
X	Mild	1032.7	1029.6	9.58%
PA	Pale Ale	1051.1	1029.5	42.22%
P	Porter	1038.5	1029.3	23.88%
BO	Strong Ale	1055.5	1038.8	30.10%
Source:
Fullers brewing records held at the brewery.