Saturday 16 March 2013

Imperial Stout and Imperial Mild

There's so much to be learned from old newspapers. Even from small, seemingly dull articles. Like the one below.

"THE BEER TRADE.—The following- circular was sent round to the customers of the great London beer brewers on Monday:- "We beg to inform you, that from and after the 10th day of October, our prices will be as follows, viz.—Porter, 33s. per barrel; Stout 43s.; Double Stout, 53s.; Imperial Stout, 63s.; Ale, X, 48s.; Ditto, XX, 58s.; Ditto, XXX 68s.; Ditto, Imperial, 80s." This is a reduction of 12s. per barrel upon each beverage It is remarkable that the great beer brewers are now for the first time about to brew ale. "
Cambridge Chronicle and Journal - Friday 08 October 1830, page 4.

There's just so much juicy meat packed into that thin sandwich. Let's start chewing our way through it.

First, there's an early mention of Imperial Stout. And, as this was a letter sent to London publicans, it's clear that the Imperial Stout in question is not an export beer. No, it's clearly just the strongest Stout in the brewery's range.

What's slightly more surprising is to see the strongest Mild also called "Imperial". Especially I've been calling XXXX Ale "Imperial Mild" for a while now. I thought I was just making it up. Once again history has proved there's almost nothing that's genuinely new. I should have expected it, really.

The year is very important. 1830 was the year the Beer Act came into force. It effectively lowered the tax on beer, which is how come the breweries could knock 12 shillings off the price of a barrel.

Another measure in the Act was the introduction of a new class of pub called a beer house. These were directly licensed by the excise, not local magistrates and, as long as a few basic criteria were filled, the licenses were automatically issued. Unsurprisingly it led to huge wave of new pub openings.

These new pubs were the reason that the "beer brewers" - that is, Porter brewers - started brewing Ale. The new beer houses created a surge in demand for Ale. Up until this point Porter brewers had only tied their pubs for Porter and Stout, letting publicans buy their Ale from whomever they pleased. That all changed after the Beer Act.

The prices are worth closer inspection, too. Especially those of the Ales. The classic price for X Ale in the second half of the 19th century was 36 shillings a barrel. The same as Porter. Here it's almost 50% more expensive. Something which reflected the difference in strength between Porter and X Ale at the time.

You can probably guess what's coming next. Because obviously, it being London brewers and London beers under discussion, I've plenty of details of them. And not just from one of the large London Beer breweries, but from two. And from exactly the right period, the early 1830's.


Whitbread Ales
Date Year Beer Style OG FG ABV App. Atten-uation price per barrel pence per gravity point
5th Dec 1836 X Mild 1077.0 1029.4 6.30 61.87% 48 7.48
15th Mar 1837 XX Mild 1091.4 1035.5 7.40 61.21% 58 7.61
11th Nov 1836 XXX Mild 1102.8 1036.0 8.83 64.96% 68 7.94
23rd Dec 1836 XXXX Mild 1114.7 1039.3 9.97 65.70% 80 8.37
Source:
Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/01/001

Whitbread Porter and Stout
Date Year Beer Style OG FG ABV App. Atten-uation price per barrel pence per gravity point
21st May 1836 K Porter 1060.7 1017.7 5.68 70.78% 33 6.53
3rd Aug 1836 P Porter 1064.3 1017.7 6.16 72.41% 33 6.16
26th Aug 1836 S Stout 1073.4 1024.4 6.49 66.79% 43 7.03
16th Aug 1836 DS Stout 1082.5 1027.1 7.33 67.11% 53 7.70
Source:
Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/09/030

Truman Ales
Date Year Beer Style OG FG ABV App. Atten-uation price per barrel pence per gravity point
3rd Dec 1831 X Ale Mild 1072.3 1021.6 6.71 70.11% 48 7.97
18th Jul 1835 XX Ale Mild 1092.5 1027.7 8.57 70.06% 58 7.52
25th Jul 1835 XXX Ale Mild 1106.6 1034.9 9.49 67.27% 68 7.65
27th Feb 1832 XXXX Ale Mild 1113.6 80 8.45
Sources:
Truman brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers B/THB/C/115 and B/THB/C/119

Truman Porter and Stout
Date Year Beer Style OG FG ABV App. Atten-uation price per barrel pence per gravity point
12th Jul 1830 Runner Porter 1060.0 1013.9 6.10 76.91% 33 6.60
17th Nov 1835 Keeping Porter 1062.9 1016.1 6.19 74.45% 33 6.30
9th Feb 1831 Stout Stout 1068.5 1017.2 6.79 74.92% 43 7.54
7th Apr 1831 Double Stout Stout 1076.7 1019.4 7.59 74.73% 53 8.29
18th Nov 1835 Imperial Stout Stout 1098.9 1021.6 10.22 78.15% 63 7.64
Sources:
Truman brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers B/THB/C/031 and B/THB/C/036

What you can see is that X Ale was indeed a good bit stronger than Porter. Not only that, it was also stronger than Single Stout. Now that is weird. Even the Double Stout was barely any stronger than the X Ale from the same brewery.

That would all change during the course of the century. By 1900 London Porter and X Ale were both about the same gravity, 1055º. Stouts, on the other hand stayed at around the same strength or even got slightly stronger.

What happened to Imperial Mild? XXXX Ale had disappeared, at least in London, by about 1850. But you still have a chance to try it. At least if you live in New England. Pretty Things have brewed their 1832 XXXX Mild again. Get it while you can.

1 comment:

Gary Gillman said...

Interesting to compare Truman's ales to Whitbread's. Starting from similar OGs, Truman's attenuation rate is higher for each class of ale, resulting in stronger, less sweet beer at the same price. I think a lot of the reputation for the heady strong "soporific" ales for which in the later century lager was viewed as panacea can be seen right here in the formidable strength of these London ales (Whitbread's and Truman's). The pub goers must have been topers in those days, that or they simply drank less than modern pub customers.

I would think too, if Imperial Stout meant the best type of stout sold in England, there was yet a higher class that was exported, or perhaps the same class under another description. I think Martyn has written about this aspect as well.

Gary