Whitbread beers in 1960 – the one that got away

The internet is a wonderful thing. No sooner had I published my post about Whitbread’s beers in 1960 than a brewing log for Ex PA appeared in my email inbox.

Courtesy of Peter Symons, author of the excellent Bronzed Brews, a book on historic Australian beers. He has a collection of brewing records to rival mine. And fortunately hadn’t overlooked Ex PA as I had.

It’s easy to miss stuff. Especially when you rattle through brewing records at the speed I do. I only ever had limited time at the London Metropolitan Archives – 3 or 4 hours at most. I’d have 4 or 5 minutes to photograph each Whitbread brewing book. Often I’d be taking snaps so quickly, that the limiting factor was how quickly my camera reset for the next photo.

It’s not much fun. No that’s not true, it’s no fun at all. I’d usually end a session with an aching back and hands black with filth. I learned early on to always dress in black for archive visits. Otherwise I’d look like I’d just finished a shift down the pit. (My Dad really did go down the pit. Just the once. He liked it so much he joined the navy.)

The beer I’d missed was the Pale Ale Whitbread brewed for the Belgian market. A market so important that they owned two bottling stores in the country. The beer itself is not far off a pre-WW I PA. In 1914, Whitbread PA had an OG of 1061º, just a little higher than EX PA. The second-class Whitbread Pale Ale, 2PA, was weaker than this beer at 1053º.

As a general rule, beers for export markets, particularly Belgium, tended to remain at pre-WW I strengths, even in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Which I suppose is where my assumption, when younger, that export beers were always stronger than domestic versions. That wasn’t true in the 19th century.

Well that’s been a bit rambly. I need to stop now because the Sunday dinner veg are just about done. I’ll leave you with the updated table:

Whitbread beers in 1960 (and 1962)
Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	Pitch temp	colour
Best Ale	Mild	1030.6	1010.0	2.73	67.32%	5.67	0.70	64º	110
ES	Stout	1055.9	1015.5	5.34	72.27%	5.96	1.36	64º	300
FB	Brown Ale	1033.8	1008.5	3.35	74.85%	5.45	0.73	64º	110
KKKK	Strong Ale	1051.8	1016.0	4.74	69.11%	7.50	1.56	62º	135
MS	Stout	1041.9	1012.0	3.96	71.36%	5.96	1.03	64º	250
Mackeson	Stout	1046.4	1019.2	3.51	58.62%				300
PA	Pale Ale	1039.2	1013.0	3.47	66.84%	5.68	0.90	62º	23
Ex PA	Pale Ale	1056.8	1018.4	5.08	67.61%	8.89	2.08	62º	23
WOS	Stout	1038.5	1011.5	3.57	70.13%	8.68	1.38	64º	225
WPA	Pale Ale	1035.5	1008.0	3.64	77.46%	8.63	1.25	64º	20
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.
Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives document number LMA/4453/D/01/127.
Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives document number LMA/4453/D/01/130.
Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives document number LMA/4453/D/09/136.