Maclays beers during WW II (part four)

Too much detail. That's how I'd sum up my blog. This is a perfect example. The way I've picked apart Maclay's wartime beers in a tediously nit-picking way. The good news is that I've almost finished with Maclay's beers in WW II. The bad news is that I've their brewing records running right through until the 1990's. Plenty more scope for putting things under the microscope.

Having looked at Maclays beers in isolation, it's now time to conextualise them by making a comparison with London beers. Where to start? The beer specifications seem as good a place as any. To be fair, I've only compared beers of roughly the same gravity. Which means that I've only one, Whitbread PA, to compare with Maclay's Export.

The war gradually forced down ordinary Bitter gravities to the low 1030's. MAclay's PA 6d, Whitbread IPA and Barclay Perkins IPA are good examples. This and draught Mild were what most punters drank. "Where's Maclay's Mild?" I hear you ask. That's a very good question. I think I might have the answer. But I'm saving that for later. It's more appropriate to consider when we get to the postwar period.

First, here's how PA 6d shaped up to Barclay Perkins IPA. (Just in case you still need warning, don't think of 1840's India or 21st-century USA when you look at these IPA's. They're a completely different type of IPA, namely the low-gravity southeastern style. An ancient and venerable branch of the IPA family tree.)

Maclay PA 6d vs Barclay Perkins IPA
Date	Year	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	Pitch temp	max. fermen-tation temp	length of fermen-tation (days)
average	Maclay	PA 6d	1032	1012.8	2.54	60.03%	3.83	0.53	60	67.4	7.4
19th Jan 1943	Barclay Perkins	IPA	1031.5	1006.0	3.37	80.95%	4.41	0.54	60.5	70	8
difference			-0.5	-6.8	0.83	20.9%	0.57	0.01	0.5	2.6	0.6
Sources:
Maclay brewing record, document number M/6/1/1/13 held at the Scottish Brewing Archive.
Barclay Perkins brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives document numbers ACC/2305/01/625 and ACC/2305/01/626.

I admit to being shocked at how similar these two beers are. The only real difference is the much lower FG of Barclay Perkin IPA, along with the knock-on effect of lower ABV and attenuation. The hopping rate, fermentation temperatures and length of fermentation are all very similar.

Maclay PA 6d vs Whitbread IPA
	Brewer	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	Pitch temp	max. fermen-tation temp	length of fermen-tation (days)
average	Maclay	PA 6d	1032	1012.8	2.54	60.03%	3.83	0.53	60	67.4	7.4
average	Whitbread	IPA	1031.4	1006.0	3.36	80.87%	8.69	1.14	64		6
difference			-0.6	-6.8	0.82	20.8%	4.86	0.61	4.0		-1.4
Sources:
Maclay brewing record, document number M/6/1/1/13 held at the Scottish Brewing Archive.
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/110 and LMA/4453/D/01/111.

Moving on to Whitbread IPA, the story is very different. There's a similar gap in the FG, ABV and attenuation. But in this case there's a big divergence in the hopping. Whitbread IPA has more than twice as many hops per barrel, a very respectable (for a beer of this gravity) 1.14 lbs per barrel. It's worth noting that Whitbread's IPA is also twice as heavily hopped as Barclay Perkins IPA. Take this as a demonstration of the varying approaches to IPA in Britain, even within the same town. There must have been an enormous difference in the bitterness levels between these two IPA's.

Maclay Export vs Whitbread PA
	Brewer	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	Pitch temp	max. fermen-tation temp	length of fermen-tation (days)
Average	Maclay	Export	1040.2	1015.4	3.28	61.68%	3.81	0.66	60	68.5	7.2
average	Whitbread	PA	1039.1	1010.3	3.82	73.79%	6.08	1.01	64		8.5
difference			-1.1	-5.1	0.54	12.1%	2.27	0.34	4.0		1.3
Sources:
Maclay brewing record, document number M/6/1/1/13 held at the Scottish Brewing Archive.
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/110 and LMA/4453/D/01/111.

Now it's time for Maclay's Export. Which I'm comparing to a single London beer, Whitbread PA. This time the gap between the FG's is smaller - 5 rather than 7 points - but it still leaves a considerable difference in the ABV and attenuation. Whitbread's beer is again more heavily hopped, this time by about 50%. You should note that their much weaker IPA had around 10% more hops per barrel than their PA. (How does that fit in with styles straightjackets? The IPA is correctly hoppier than the PA, but its strength is lower. Does that make the PA underhopped or the IPA understrength? Neither. These are real effing beers, not some geek's fantasy.)

There's only one conclusion I can come to: Maclay's beers had a lower level of attenuation than London ones. Oh, one more, actually. London brewers weren't very consistent when it came to IPA. But I knew that already.

Next time we'll take a look at how Maclay's recipes compared with those of Whitbread and Barclay Perkins. Then we can advance to the 1950's. One of my favourite decades. It is where I come from, after all.