Saturday 11 October 2014

Final results by brewery (part two)

I know. I'm still dragging you along. But I'm determined we'll all make the finishing line, even if I do scrape all the skin off your back.

Five more breweries today, hopefully not quite as dodgy as the last set.

First is Hoare, another of the Porter breweries that popped to prominence in the 18th century.

Brewery style FG OG ABV App. Atten-uation score rank % bright
Hoare Burton 1017.2 1054.94 4.89 68.70% 0.67 10 22.22%
Hoare Pale Ale 1012.1 1046.3 4.44 73.83% 0.00 11 50.00%
Hoare Porter 1010.4 1034.0 3.06 69.38% -1.56 9
Hoare Stout 1017.9 1054.2 4.70 67.06% 0.10 8
Hoare X 1033.8 1009.8 3.11 71.16% 0.30 8 70.00%
average




-0.10 9.2 47.41%

That's not too bad. Only one negative score, but a pretty dreadful one: -1.56 for their Porter. But, if you remember, lots of the Porters were rubbish, even from breweries whose other beers were good. There are a couple of OK-ish scores for Stout and Mild Ale. Only Burton, with 0.67, gets much of a positive score. Not how that's the style with the worst clarity. One of the big lessons from these analyses is that clarity and quality don't necessarily always walk hand in hand.

Whitbread's choice of breweries seems quite random in some respects. Sure, the big London brewers are there: Courage, Whitbread, Truman, Charrington and Mann. But ones like Huggins and Lion - why pick them? They were neither particularly large nor famous. Especially when larger breweries, like Taylor Walker, were ignored.

Brewery style FG OG ABV App. Atten-uation score rank % bright
Huggins Burton 1012.5 1054.2 5.42 76.88% 0.67 11 44.44%
Huggins Pale Ale 1008.7 1046.0 4.86 81.10% 0.36 6 54.55%
Huggins Stout 1018.5 1062.1 5.67 70.27% 1.09 4
Huggins X 1036.0 1008.1 3.63 77.57% 0.20 9 60.00%
average




0.58 7.5 53.00%

I'll be honest. I'd hadn't heard of Huggins before seeing the Whitbread Gravity Book. Having disappeared in the 1920's didn't help. They're the first brewery with all positive scores. However, there's no Porter, a style which let down many of the other breweries. Best scorer is Stout with 1.09, followed by Burton with 0.67. You can see that the beer that was most often clear, X Ale, got the worst average score. While second-best Burton had the worst score for clarity. With an overall average of 0.58 and no negative averages, Huggins seems a fairly safe bet.

Now owners of that spectacular riverside brewery, Lion.

Brewery style FG OG ABV App. Atten-uation score rank % bright
Lion Burton 1012.6 1053.73 5.35 76.47% 0.78 8 22.22%
Lion Porter 1009.6 1037.7 3.64 74.35% 0.63 4
Lion Pale Ale 1010.7 1046.5 4.65 77.05% 0.00 12 50.00%
Lion X 1040.9 1007.6 4.33 81.37% 0.40 6 50.00%
average




0.45 7.5 40.74%

The lion which used to stand on top of the brewery is all that remains of the structure, sadly. We've another overall positive average, this time of 0.45. Not quite all positive scores as one is zero, but not too bad. Though once again the top-scorer, Burton, is the worst for clarity, with fewer than a quarter of the samples bright.

Mann was one of the rising stars of London brewing at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. Was their popularity merited by the quality of their beer?

Brewery style FG OG ABV App. Atten-uation score rank % bright
Mann Burton 1011.7 1053.86 5.49 78.31% 1.25 3 50.00%
Mann Pale Ale 1008.3 1053.4 5.88 84.44% 0.07 10 35.71%
Mann Porter 1009.2 1038.8 3.83 76.23% -0.25 6
Mann Stout 1012.0 1054.5 5.54 78.05% 0.43 6
Mann X 1041.3 1008.2 4.26 79.96% 1.33 1 66.67%
average




0.57 5.2 50.79%

Partly. They were famous for their Ales amd, sure enough, both their Burton Ale and Mild Ale score well, averaging over 1. Their Pale Ale and Porter let them down which is why the overall average is only 0.57. For once it was the lowest scorer that was the least bright. I'd  be well served by a Manns pub as Burton and Mild would be my drinks of choice.

Finally this time it's Meux, who had only just vacated their horseshoe brewery at the corner of Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Street.

Brewery style FG OG ABV App. Atten-uation score rank % bright
Meux Burton 1009.7 1053.31 5.69 81.69% 1.11 4 44.44%
Meux MA 1028.1 1005.9 2.88 78.93% -0.57 1 57.14%
Meux Pale Ale 1007.4 1044.8 4.87 83.36% 0.33 7 41.67%
Meux Stout 1014.7 1054.9 5.23 73.29% 0.18 7
Meux X 1041.2 1008.2 4.28 80.02% 0 10 54.55%
average




0.21 5.8 49.45%

That's not too bad. only one negative score and that was for watery MA, the low-gravity Mild. Kiddies Mild I think of it as. At under 3% ABV, it was about as alcoholic as Radler. Their Burton came out on top, with an average of 1.11. However this wasn't reflected in its clarity score, which was a poor 44%.

Right. Just one more last push and the slog is over. Let's hope I can find enough about Lager to keep us entertained.

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