Thursday 9 June 2016

Charles Wells beers in 1952

I’ve been on a price list binge recently. I blame the newspaper archive. And the fact that that adverts are about the only place Mild Ale ever gets mentioned.

Today’s is from a brewery that’s still very much around: Charles Wells. This is the price list in question:

Bedfordshire Times and Independent - Friday 13 June 1952, page 8.

You might well ask what the point of publishing this is. It’s quite simple: to show how slimmed down breweries’ product ranges became as a result of WW II. London brewers dropped many of their less popular beers in the early years of the war. That’s what finally did for Porter.

The advert shows about the minimum range a pub could get away with. Draught Mild and Bitter; bottled Pale Ale, Brown Ale, Stout, Strong Ale and Guinness. Not even Bass or Worthington, which were available in lots of pubs, just like Guinness.

I suppose you’d like to know more about these beers. So would I. Wonder if they have any brewing records preserved? Be interesting to take a look at them. Failing that, I do have a few analyses of their beers.

Charles Wells beers 1950 - 1979
Year Beer Style Price per pint d package OG FG ABV App. Atten-uation colour price per gravity point
1950 X Mild 12 draught 1030.4 104 0.3947
1951 Mild Ale Mild 14 draught 1028.6 1005 3.07 82.52% 75 0.4895
1960 Stout Stout 24 bottled 1040.9 1015.3 3.20 62.59% 200 0.5868
1960 Bitter Pale Ale 18 draught 1034.4 1006.6 3.48 80.81% 18 0.5233
1966 Charter Ale Pale Ale 38 bottled 1055.4 1009 5.80 83.75% 27 0.6859
1968 Mild XX Mild 19 draught 1029.8 1003.6 3.27 87.92% 70 0.6376
1968 Nogger (Keg) Pale Ale 28 draught 1040.4 1004 4.55 90.10% 25 0.6931
1968 IPA Bitter IPA 22 draught 1036.3 1003 4.16 91.74% 20 0.6061
1979 Fargo Pale Ale draught 1050
1979 Bombardier Pale Ale draught 1042
1979 IPA or Eagle Bitter IPA draught 1035
Sources:
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
1980 Good Beer Guide
You can see that their IPA didn’t change a great deal between 1950 and 1979, nor their Mild between 1950 and 1968. Though by 1979 their Mild no longer existed in cask form.

For comparison purposes, here’s Guinness from the same period:

Guinness Extra Stout 1951 - 1960
Year Beer Style Price per pint d package OG FG ABV App. Atten-uation colour price per gravity point
1951 Extra Stout Stout 30 bottled 1049.1 1007.5 5.43 84.73% 1 + 8 0.611
1951 Extra Stout Stout 31 bottled 1047.7 1008.1 5.16 83.02% 1 + 8.5 0.6499
1952 Extra Stout Stout 28 bottled 1047.4 1007.5 5.20 84.18% 1 + 8 0.5907
1953 Extra Stout Stout 31 bottled 1047.4 1008.7 5.04 81.65% 1 + 11 0.654
1953 Extra Stout Stout 36 bottled 1046.3 1002.8 5.70 93.95% 1 + 8 0.7775
1960 Extra Stout Stout 29 Bottled 1046.0 1007.7 5.00 83.37% 0.6304
1960 Extra Stout Stout 36 Canned 1046.1 1007 5.10 84.82% 0.7809
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.
Which Beer Report, 1960, pages 171 - 173.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Was it common to see 90% and higher attenuation in UK beers back then? Seeing some of those numbers surprised me.

Ron Pattinson said...

onymous,

it depends. Attenuation was all over the shop. From 40% to 95%.