Sunday 7 February 2010

Brewing with oats (1943) part four

More on oats. Is anyone still listening? I thought not. Maybe a few of you are still looking at the nice labels. Can you detect a theme in my choices?


"Progress with Oats
It is satisfactory to note that the figures for the month of July disclose that for all practical purposes the target figure for the use of oats had been attained within six months of the date when the undertaking to do so was given on behalf of the industry. To determine the exact figures is a matter of some little difficulty, since one has to calculate whether brewers as a whole have used 10% less barley than they had been using hitherto for the quantity of beer brewed. In normal times the quantity of oats used in brewing was almost negligible, and was probably almost entirely limited to oatmeal stout. Indeed, until the Ministry of Food made known their desire that oats should be used to conserve barley supplies, the purchase of oats for brewing had for some time been prohibited. Since the appeal was made to brewers early in the year the figures of the use of oats have been steadily mounting once the initial experimental period had been passed. The requirement was wisely made somewhat elastic, because it was obvious that to lay down a hard and fast rule that any given percentage of oats must be used in every brew would lead to serious difficulties in some cases. Brewers were further given a free hand as to the form in which they should utilise this material, whether as malted oats, oat flakes, ground oats and so on. This has enabled such difficulties as inadequate mash tun capacity to be met in the best way possible. It is hoped that the figures for the month of August, when available, will show that the figure of 10% has been well achieved, and in the meantime the hope may be expressed that all breweries will continue to do their share towards maintaining this position so long as it is necessary in the national interest."
"The Brewing Trade Review 1943" pages 305-306. (Published in October 1943)


Malted oats? Hang on, didn't one of the other articles say malting oats wasn't allowed because it was a waste of malting labour? They must have changed their minds.

5 comments:

Rob Sterowski said...

Theme? The labels are all orangey-brown. Is that it?

Mike said...

Yorkshire.

Mike said...

Strong Ales, not Yorkshire since Burton Ale bottled by Watneys in London is certainly not in Yorkshire.

Rob Sterowski said...

Maxim wasn't a strong ale, I don't think.

I've got it. The theme is The Ruling Classes. Dandy - clothing as worn by idle coupon-clippers; Imperial - adjective of colonialism; Maxim - a weapon used in the bourgeoisie's war; Watneys Red Barrel - a chemical weapon used against the workers; Wakefield - hellhole of proletarian misery; Old Warrior - more war; Oakwell has some sort of coat of arms, i.e. associated with the aristocracy; Domino Ale - domination over the means of production; Happy Man - victim of hegemonic ideological false consciousness.

Ron Pattinson said...

All good guesses. And all sort of right. I did wander a little off theme at times. West Yorkshire breweries. I just couldn't resist that machine gun label.