Tuesday 17 September 2019

Whitbread Mild 1939 - 1945

Whitbread’s standard strength Mild, X, changed it’s name early in 1940 from X to XX. Odd, as, while you would expect XX to be stronger than X, the name change was also accompanied by a cut in gravity.

At the outbreak of war, Whitbread a weaker Mild called LA, with a gravity of 1028.3º. It was discontinued in 1940, probably because of the small volumes being produced. In 1939, they brewed just 5,747 barrels of LA. To put that into context, 232,453 barrels of X Ale were produced that same year.*

As with Barclay Perkins Mild, the gravity reductions to Whitbread’s Mild mostly occurred in the first half of the war. From 1942 onwards, it remained relatively stable at around 1028º. Which is very similar to where Barclay Perkins X ended up.

Whitbread’s Mild was typical of those brewed in London in being quite heavily hopped. 8 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt is a very reasonable rate and similar to the level of hopping found in may provincial Bitters. The hopping rate was reduced by about 25% in 1941 on government orders. But at around 6lbs per quarter of malt, the degree of hopping was still very respectable.

The base malt was mostly a mix of pale malt and mild malt, though occasionally it was 100% of just one.  The only coloured grain employed was crystal malt, the percentage of which declined steadily throughout the war. By its end, only about half as much was being used as in 1939.

As a brewery which pre-war had brewed from just malt and sugar, wartime government insistence on the use of unmalted grains caused more recipe changes than elsewhere. Adjunct brewers mostly just swapped flaked maize for flaked barley.

Whitbread used a variety of different adjuncts, including some unusual ones like barley meal and flaked rye. By the end of the war, they had settled down on the use of flaked barley. The proportion of unmalted grains increased over the later war years reaching almost 17% by 1945.

The sugar columns are a little misleading. The three where there’s no No. 3 listed almost certainly did contain it. Simply the brewing records for that period didn’t note the type of sugar being used. It was almost certainly No. 3, though. The rest of the “other sugar” is Hay’s M, a type of caramel.

The total amount of sugar used was about halved between 1939 and 1942, but returned to around its pre-war level in 1945.


Whitbread Mild 1939 - 1945
Date Year OG FG ABV App. Atten-uation lbs hops/ qtr hops lb/brl boil time (hours) Pitch temp colour
25th Sep 1939 1033.6 1010 3.12 70.24% 8.27 1.1 1.25 1 65º 17 + 40
23rd Apr 1940 1033.6 1009 3.25 73.21% 8.12 1.14 1.25 1.25 65º 16 + 40
31st Jul 1940 1031.5 1008.5 3.04 73.02% 8.42 1.09 1.25 1 65º 16 + 40
20th Nov 1940 1031.1 1010 2.79 67.85% 8.42 1.07 1.17 0.75 66º 16 + 40
31st Jan 1941 1030 1009 2.78 70.00% 8.1 1 2.17 1.5 65º 16 + 40
10th Oct 1941 1031.2 1009 2.94 71.15% 6.38 0.76 1.25 1.25 65º 14 + 40
30th Jan 1942 1029.1 1007.5 2.86 74.23% 5.84 0.75 1 1 65º 18 + 40
30th May 1942 1028.4 1007 2.83 75.35% 6.19 0.75 1 1 65º 16 + 40
5th Apr 1943 1027.8 1008 2.62 71.22% 6.07 0.76 1 1.25 65º 15 + 40
2nd Sep 1943 1028.2 1008 2.67 71.63% 6.07 0.73 1 0.83 65º 14 + 40
7th Apr 1944 1028.3 1007.5 2.75 73.50% 5.79 0.69 1 0.75 65º 14 + 40
11th Dec 1944 1028.4 1008.5 2.63 70.07% 5.91 0.72 1 1 65º 14 + 40
5th Apr 1945 1028.4 1008.5 2.63 70.07% 5.67 0.71 1 0.75 65º 15 + 40
24th Aug 1945 1028.1 1010 2.39 64.41% 5.67 0.71 1 0.75 65º 13 + 40
Source:
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/107, LMA/4453/D/01/108, LMA/4453/D/01/109, LMA/4453/D/01/110, LMA/4453/D/01/111, LMA/4453/D/01/112, and LMA/4453/D/01/113.


Whitbread Mild grists 1939 - 1945
Date Year OG pale malt crystal malt mild malt PA malt wheat malt
25th Sep 1939 1033.6 75.73% 13.59%
23rd Apr 1940 1033.6 24.30% 13.08% 54.21% 1.87%
31st Jul 1940 1031.5 77.54% 13.57% 1.94%
20th Nov 1940 1031.1 81.42% 11.63%
31st Jan 1941 1030.0 20.17% 12.10% 58.49% 2.02%
10th Oct 1941 1031.2 65.39% 11.98% 4.99% 4.99% 2.00%
30th Jan 1942 1029.1 12.02% 68.11% 2.00%
30th May 1942 1028.4 46.32% 12.63% 16.84% 2.11%
5th Apr 1943 1027.8 9.28% 10.31% 55.67%
2nd Sep 1943 1028.2 46.39% 10.31% 18.56%
7th Apr 1944 1028.3 10.45% 71.08%
11th Dec 1944 1028.4 7.42% 73.14%
5th Apr 1945 1028.4 7.39% 62.32%
24th Aug 1945 1028.1 36.97% 7.39% 25.35%
Source:
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/107, LMA/4453/D/01/108, LMA/4453/D/01/109, LMA/4453/D/01/110, LMA/4453/D/01/111, LMA/4453/D/01/112, and LMA/4453/D/01/113.


Whitbread Mild sugars and adjuncts 1939 - 1945
Date Year OG no. 3 sugar other sugar flaked barley barley meal flaked rye flaked oat
25th Sep 1939 1033.6 9.06% 1.62%
23rd Apr 1940 1033.6 4.98% 1.56%
31st Jul 1940 1031.5 5.17% 1.78%
20th Nov 1940 1031.1 6.95%
31st Jan 1941 1030.0 7.23%
10th Oct 1941 1031.2 5.66% 4.99%
30th Jan 1942 1029.1 4.01% 1.84% 12.02%
30th May 1942 1028.4 5.61% 1.75% 8.42% 1.05% 5.26%
5th Apr 1943 1027.8 5.50% 1.72% 17.53%
2nd Sep 1943 1028.2 5.50% 1.72% 17.53%
7th Apr 1944 1028.3 4.18% 1.74% 12.54%
11th Dec 1944 1028.4 2.83% 1.77% 14.84%
5th Apr 1945 1028.4 9.86% 3.52% 16.90%
24th Aug 1945 1028.1 9.86% 3.52% 16.90%
Source:
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/107, LMA/4453/D/01/108, LMA/4453/D/01/109, LMA/4453/D/01/110, LMA/4453/D/01/111, LMA/4453/D/01/112, and LMA/4453/D/01/113.



* Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/01/107.

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