Tuesday 5 November 2013

Whitbread Strong Ales 1946 - 1973

I've told you many times what a deeply lazy person I am. Here's proof. I've chosen to do the simplest of Whitbread's other styles first. The Strong Ales, because there are only a handful of examples.

Here's a funny thing. in the 1940's and 1950's Burton was one of the standard draught beers in London pubs. Whitbread was a very London brewery. But unless I've missed them in the logs, Whitbread didn't brew one for much of that period. Let me just check something . . .

Just taken a look at what I could find in my table of beer details from various Gravity Books. Sure enough, there are examples of Whitbread's KKKK from years where I didn't find any in the brewing records. There are two explanations: either I missed them in the brewing records or they were brewed somewhere other than Chiswell Street. My guess is that I missed them. I think it's fair to say that KKKK was probably brewed until at least 1960.

We're looking at two different beers: draught Burton (XXXX and KKKK) and a bottled Strong Ale Final Selection (FSA). Sometime around 1950 Whitbread bumped up the gravity of XXXX and changed its name to KKKK. Strange that. It should really be KK. Though they weren't the only London brewer to call their Burton. Mann and Watney did, too.


Whitbread Strong Ales 1946 - 1973
Date Year Beer OG FG ABV App. Atten-uation lbs hops/ qtr hops lb/brl boil time (hours) boil time (hours) Pitch temp length of fermentation (days) colour
25th Jan 1946 XXXX 1043.3 1008.5 4.60 80.37% 5.75 1.07 1 1 62º 6 15 + 40
1st Feb 1946 XXXX 1043.3 1010.0 4.41 76.91% 5.75 1.08 1 1.25 62º 7 21 + 40
14th Nov 1958 KKKK 1050.5 1011.5 5.16 77.23% 7.75 1.68 1 1.5 62º 7 125
4th Feb 1959 KKKK 1051.9 1014.5 4.95 72.06% 7.50 1.56 1 0.75 62º 6 130
2nd Mar 1960 KKKK 1051.8 1016.0 4.74 69.11% 7.50 1.56 1 1.25 62º 7 135
30th Jul 1968 FSA 1079.6 1012.4 8.89 84.42% 6.88 2.35 1.25 58º 8 105
6th Aug 1968 FSA 1079.6 1013.4 8.76 83.17% 6.74 2.22 1.75 58º 8 100
3rd Jun 1970 FSA 1079.1 1009.7 9.18 87.74% 4.81 1.67 1 1.5 64º 8 110
20th May 1970 FSA 1079.8 1009.8 9.26 87.72% 4.78 1.69 2.75 64º 8 115
24th Jun 1970 FSA 1079.8 1007.8 9.53 90.23% 4.78 1.66 3 64º 8 110
15th Dec 1971 FSA 1079.8 1011.0 9.10 86.22% 4.48 1.55 2.25 64º 8 115
12th Jul 1972 FSA 1079.8 1011.3 9.06 85.84% 4.44 1.50 2 2 64º 8 115
27th Jun 1973 FSA 1079.6 1011.8 8.97 85.18% 4.69 1.58 2 2 64º 8 110
Sources:
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/113, LMA/4453/D/01/126, LMA/4453/D/01/127, LMA/4453/D/01/137, LMA/4453/D/09/140 and LMA/4453/D/09/141.

Whitbread Strong Ales 1948 - 1954
Year Beer Price size package Acidity FG OG colour ABV App. Atte-nuation
1948 Strong Ale pint bottled 1012 1045.5 4.35 73.63%
1949 Strong Ale 20d pint draught 1046.67 104
1951 KKKK 1/11d pint draught 1053.5
1951 KKKK 1/11d pint draught 1053.5
1951 KKKK 1/11d pint draught 1053.5
1953 Strong Ale 23d pint draught 1052.06 104
1954 KKKK 1/11d pint draught 0.06 1011.9 1051.2 15 R + 40 B 5.11 76.76%
Sources:
Thomas Usher Gravity Book document TU/6/11
Truman Gravity Book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/C/252
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002

Whitbread Strong Ale grists 1946 - 1973
Date Year Beer OG comments pale malt brown malt choc. Malt crystal malt PA malt no. 1 sugar no. 3 sugar Hay M WSM LP5 flaked barley
25th Jan 1946 XXXX 1043.3 MK and EK hops. Hopulon. 1.58% 1.98% 2.37% 63.72% 16.89% 0.79% 12.66%
1st Feb 1946 XXXX 1043.3 MK and EK hops. Hopulon. 3.17% 66.49% 16.89% 0.79% 12.66%
14th Nov 1958 KKKK 1050.5 MK and EK hops. 0.90% 82.23% 14.46% 2.41%
4th Feb 1959 KKKK 1051.9 MK, EK and Worcester hops. 0.87% 82.85% 13.95% 2.33%
2nd Mar 1960 KKKK 1051.8 MK and Worcester hops. 0.87% 82.85% 13.95% 2.33%
30th Jul 1968 FSA 1079.6 EK hops. 87.86% 3.47% 8.67%
6th Aug 1968 FSA 1079.6 EK hops. 87.80% 3.66% 8.54%
3rd Jun 1970 FSA 1079.1 EK hops. 79.75% 2.80% 17.45%
20th May 1970 FSA 1079.8 EK hops. 80.00% 2.77% 17.23%
24th Jun 1970 FSA 1079.8 EK Goldings and hop extract 80.00% 2.77% 17.23%
15th Dec 1971 FSA 1079.8 EK hops. 70.40% 3.11% 5.38% 21.12%
12th Jul 1972 FSA 1079.8 EK hops. 87.85% 3.07% 9.08%
27th Jun 1973 FSA 1079.6 EK hops. 87.44% 3.26% 9.30%
Sources:
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/113, LMA/4453/D/01/126, LMA/4453/D/01/127, LMA/4453/D/01/137, LMA/4453/D/09/140 and LMA/4453/D/09/141.

Whitbread's KKKK looks like a typical 1950's Burton. A gravity in the low 1050's, dark brown colour and a reasonably high rate of hopping. The attenuation is a little higher than in their Mild leaving a finished beer of around 5% ABV. Which was pretty strong for a draught beer in that period.

Moving on to the grist, that's pretty simple being just pale ale malt, a touch of chocolate malt No. 34 sugar and Hay M. Though you have to wonder what the point is in using less than 1% chocolate malt. Brown malt and crystal malt show up in small quantities in the very first example. The flaked barley in the two examples from 1946 is a hangover from wartime regulations. Brewers were forced to use flaked barley. The idea was that it saved the energy that would need to be used to malt it.

The hops are, as you should be expecting by now, all English. Apart from that hopulon stuff in the 1940's.

Moving on to FSA, it's intriguing to see Whitbread introduce this in the 1960's. Especially one so dark. By that time the fashion had definitely moved to paler strong beers. Also intriguing is the very high degree of attenuation, averaging around 85%. Which is why it's pushing a heady 9% ABV. Note also the much longer boil time than for their other beers - more than two hours. Presumably this was to concentrate the wort. The pitching temperature is high for such a strong beer, but Whitbread seemed to pitch all their beers at the same temperature in those years.

Note that the hopping rate after 1968 falls by about 25%. After that date it only had as many hops per barrel as KKKK, a much weaker beer. If we look at the amount of hops per quarter - a way of taking the gravity of the beer out of the equation - at around 4.75 lbs, it's about 50% less than the 7.5 lbs of KKKK. Look back at the last set of Whitbread Mild. You'll see that had 4.75 lbs of hops per quarter in 1966. Despite being fairly dry, this couldn't have been a very bitter beer.

Though they were using good-quality hops, EK or EK Goldings. They were probably all really EK Goldings, they just didn't always note it down.

FSA had a simple grist: lots of pale malt, a little chocolate malt and sugar. In the beginning No. 1, later proprietary stuff. I assume there was a colour adjustment with caramel. No way it would get a dark brown colour from such a small amount of chocolate malt.

You can see that Whitbread ditched numbered invert sugars after 1970 and moved to using proprietary sugars in all their beers.

One other small point. See how FSA contained to adjuncts. All their other beers at this time, PA excepted, contained some.

3 comments:

Martyn Cornell said...

Andrew Campbell's Book of Beer (1956) doesn't mention Whitbread Burton/KKKK, alas, but says of Final Selection, "first ... called Chairman's Ale", that it was "very slightly sweet, with a refined fklavour, rather carbonated and less full to the palate than the usual run of barley wines and therefore attractive to those who like strong beer but find some types rather cloying."

Oblivious said...

Would I be right in thinking that FSA was the for runner to gold label?

Its interesting that Duvel also turned from a dark beer to a light coloured one in the 1970's.

Ron Pattinson said...

Oblivious,

no, there's no connection between FSA and Gold Label. The two were both brewed at Chiswell Street in the early 1970's.

Gold Label was first brewed in the 1950's by Tennant of Sheffield, who were later taken over by Whitbread.

Speaking of Tennant, someone recently sent me a photo of a log from 1955 of their version. The recipe is quite different from the later Whitbread one.