The decline in Stout brewing at Truman 1924 - 1940

There are still many documents I've photographed but never processed. Like a certain handy Truman document about costs.

Why so handy? Because it covers the 1920's and 1930's operations at Brick Lane. I've none of the Truman London brewing records for this period and it provides a glimpse of their beers, ingredients and brewing practices. It's indirect evidence, but better than nothing.

But that's not what I'm serving you up today. It's one of the other statistics the book contains: output of Brick Lane broken down by Ale and Stout. It's a poignant demonstration of the decline in the importance of Porter and Stout after WW I. Remember that this is a brewery that up until the 1830's only brewed Porter and Stout.

The percentage of output that was Porter or Stout, a tiny increase in 1928 excepted, fell every year between 1924 and 1940. It dropped from 30% to less than 10% between 1924 and 1940. In volume terms, Stout output more than halved. By 1940, it was a marginal product.

If you factor in Truman's other brewery in Burton, where no Stout was brewed, it would look even more marginal. There are some figures about that in the document, but I can't be arse to transcribe those just now. It's Sunday afternoon, I've just had my dinner and the dishwasher needs unloading

Here's the table.

Truman Brick Lane brewery output 1924 - 1940
	Ale		Stout		Total
	barrels	%	barrels	%	barrels
1924	188,026	70.91%	77,134.5	29.09%	265,160.5
1925	217,775	71.56%	86,531	28.44%	304,306
1926	224,057	72.39%	85,475	27.61%	309,532
1927	231,040	73.91%	81,574	26.09%	312,613.5
1928	232,685	73.26%	84,910	26.74%	317,595
1929	227,432	74.45%	78,060.5	25.55%	305,492
1930	258,659	77.14%	76,666	22.86%	335,325
1931	256,063.5	79.43%	66,306	20.57%	322,369
1932	274,183	83.11%	55,732.5	16.89%	329,915.5
1933	240,208	84.58%	43,804	15.42%	284,011.5
1934	280,984	85.87%	46,241	14.13%	327,225
1935	300,169	86.77%	45,775	13.23%	345,943.5
1936	319,721.5	88.05%	43,383.5	11.95%	363,105
1937	324,352	88.69%	41,358	11.31%	365,710
1938	342,062	89.80%	38,868	10.20%	380,930
1939	344,291	90.69%	35,342	9.31%	379,633
1940	344,475.5	91.17%	33,373.5	8.83%	377,849
Source:
Document B/THB/C/256c held at the London Metropolitan Archives

More to come from this neglected document.