Sunday 26 May 2013

Hop usage in WW II

I can't help checking things, when I have the information available. There's something from yesterday's post that I just had to check.

I'll remind you, in case you've forgotten already:

"Consumption of hops by brewers was cut in June, 1941, under instructions of the Ministry of Food, by 20% of the rate used per standard barrel."
1955 Brewers' Almanack, page 64.

I've enough WW II brewing records to be able to check this easily enough.Through the medium of Whitbread and Barclay Perkins.

Let's start with Whitbread. There's something you wouldn't expect. Taking into account its lower gravity, their Mild was more heavily hopped than their Bitter. Now isn't that weird? Even after the hopping rate had been knocked down by 26%, the Mild was still more heavily hopped than the Bitter.

It looks to me as if Whitbread has reduced its overall hop usage by 20%, but not evenly across all their beers.  In 1939, Whitbread brewed 232,453 barrels of Mild and 51,643 barrels of Bitter. That's a ratio of more than four to one. If you take into account the different quantity of each brewed, the reduction comes out to almost bang on 20%. As this table demonstrates:


beer barrels hops lb/brl lbs hops used total hops used PA and XX % decrease in hops used
PA 50,740 1.11 56,321
XX 232,453 0.98 227,804 284,125
PA 50,740 1 50,740
XX 232,453 0.76 176,664 227,404 19.96%
Sources:
Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/107 and LMA/4453/D/01/108

Now let's turn our attention to Barclay Perkins. I'll be honest. I can make no sense out of their numbers. For four of their beers - A, BS, LS and X - the hopping rate increased. Only IPA and KK and the rate decreased. As their biggest seller, X Ale, had its rate go up by almost 30%, I can see no way it could have been compensated for by a big drop in another beer. I have no explanation for this.


Whitbread hopping rates
Date Year Beer Style OG FG ABV App. Atten-uation lbs hops/ qtr hops lb/brl hops lb. standard barrel % decrease lb/standard brl
6th Feb 1941 PA Pale Ale 1042.9 1015.0 3.69 65.03% 6.54 1.11 1.43
11th Oct 1941 PA Pale Ale 1042.5 1011.5 4.10 72.94% 5.62 1.00 1.29 9.76%
1st Feb 1941 XX Mild 1029.7 1008.5 2.80 71.38% 8.10 0.98 1.82
10th Oct 1941 XX Mild 1031.2 1009.0 2.94 71.15% 6.38 0.76 1.34 26.26%
Source:
Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives document number LMA/4453/D/01/108

Barclay Perkins hopping rates
Date Year Beer Style OG FG ABV App. Atten-uation lbs hops/ qtr hops lb/brl hops lb. standard barrel % decrease lb/ standard brl
11th Apr 1941 A Mild 1028.7 1008.0 2.74 72.12% 5.00 0.56 1.08
13th Jul 1942 A Mild 1027.3 1007.0 2.69 74.36% 5.62 0.67 1.34 -24.09%
4th Jun 1941 BS Stout 1044.7 1015.0 3.92 66.41% 6.00 1.04 1.28
25th Jun 1942 BS Stout 1041.4 1015.0 3.49 63.77% 6.40 1.26 1.68 -30.86%
1st May 1941 IPA (bottling) IPA 1036.9 1007.5 3.89 79.69% 6.00 1.00 1.49
7th May 1942 IPA (bottling) IPA 1031.3 1007.0 3.21 77.64% 5.61 0.74 1.31 12.23%
17th Apr 1941 KK (trade) Strong Ale 1051.4 1015.0 4.81 70.80% 7.50 2.07 2.22
11th May 1942 KK (trade) Strong Ale 1043.3 1012.0 4.14 72.29% 6.76 1.22 1.55 29.81%
8th Apr 1941 LS Stout 1040.5 1015.0 3.37 62.97% 6.00 0.97 1.32
13th May 1942 LS Stout 1033.5 1012.0 2.84 64.18% 6.00 0.88 1.45 -9.70%
10th Apr 1941 X Mild 1031.8 1007.0 3.28 77.96% 5.00 0.63 1.09
11th Jul 1942 X Mild 1028.7 1007.5 2.80 73.87% 5.60 0.73 1.39 -28.05%
Source:
Barclay Perkins brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives document number ACC/2305/1/624.


No comments: