Last year Whitbread Pale Ale was relaunched in the UK, brewed by the highly regarded Windsor & Eton. Let’s not worry too much about whether it’s an IPA, Pale Ale, or Light Ale. Just rejoice at the return of Whitbread’s iconic hind logo.
Scottish and English brewing records from over a century ago reveal a surprising number of low-ABV hoppy beers that look a lot like today’s trendy Session IPAs.
It’s clear that Guinness, although popular, was far from dominant in the British Stout market. And there were many Stouts not just as dry as Guinness, but far drier.
Whitbread created one of the most useful documents for anyone interested in the history of British beer: their Gravity Book. In it, they documented thousands of samples of competitors’ beers, from the early 1920s to the late 1960s.