Brown ale breweries, such as Whitbread, introduced a second weaker and cheaper brown ale that was sometimes just a sweetened version of dark Mild. These beers had an original gravity of around 1.037. After World War II, most breweries stopped producing these stronger brown ales, with the exception of some breweries in the northeast of England. The majority had an OG in the range 1.030–1.035, or around 3% ABV, much like Manns Brown Ale today. North American brown ales trace their heritage to American home brewing adaptations of certain northern English beers, and the English influence on American Colonial Ales. English brown
Beer in England with food and decor to match, Belgian and Bavarian themes being the most common. In 1979, Tim Martin opened the first Wetherspoons pub, in Muswell Hill, north London. This was the basis of a national chain of pubs, (over 900 as of 2016) which were to prove influential on the English beer scene, because of their low prices, large premises, and championing of cask ale. Also in 1979 David Bruce established the first "Firkin" brewpub. The Firkin chain consisted of pubs offering cask ale brewed on the premises, or at another brewpub in the chain. The chain expanded to over