Tuesday 21 July 2015

John Smiths beers 1960 - 1967

This is a totally unscheduled post. Something that sort of created itself out of a Facebook conversation.

It started when someone posted this John Smiths price list from 1971:


I remembered that I had a wealth of analyses of John Smiths beers from the Whitbread Gravity Book.

John Smiths beers 1960 - 1967
Year Beer Style Price size package OG FG ABV App. Atten-uation colour
1960 Pale Ale (sold in Belgium) Pale Ale bottled 1055.5 1013.7 5.22 75.32% 17
1961 Golden Keg Ale Pale Ale 22d to 24d pint draught 1039.1 1009 3.76 76.98% 19
1964 Double Brown Brown Ale 24d pint bottled 1047.3 1016.7 3.82 64.69% 80
1964 Milk Maid Stout Stout 16.5d half pint bottled 1042.2 1022.2 2.50 47.39% 325
1964 Golden Keg Pale Ale 24d pint draught 1039.1 1009.4 3.71 75.96% 23
1964 Draught Magnet Pale Ale 20d pint draught 1043 1007.4 4.45 82.79% 35
1964 Bitter Pale Ale 18d pint draught 1038.3 1007.6 3.84 80.16% 23
1964 Mild Ale Mild 15d pint draught 1030.9 1008.5 2.80 72.49% 30
1964 Magnet Pale Ale Pale Ale 14.5d half pint bottled 1043.5 1007.2 4.54 83.45% 16
1964 Light Ale Light Ale 10.5d half pint bottled 1031.9 1009.6 2.79 69.91% 29
1965 Pale Ale (sold in Belgium) Pale Ale bottled 1056.1 1011.8 5.54 78.97% 13
1967 Magnet Pale Ale Pale Ale 24d pint draught 1043.5 1008.7 4.35 80.00% 33
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001.

There's a personal connection with one of these beers. Milk Maid Stout was a Warwick & Richardson brand. And the beer my Mum used to drink. The label appers prominently on the cover of  The Home Brewer's Guide to Vintage Beer.


There's not a huge difference between the prices in the two lists. Take Golden, for example. 24d = 10p, meaning it had gone up 4p between 1964 and 1971. But that would soon change. The early 1970's were a time of high inflation.

That's it. Just a pile of random crap. Oh, except one last thing. Golden and Bitter were probably the same beer. Note how much worse value the keg beer is.




No comments: