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.