Let's Brew - 1946 Barclay Perkins London Stout

Tracing the trajectory of Stout over a couple of centuries is so much fun. Where it goes from meaning any strong beer, to specifically a strong Porter to simply a black beer of any strength. This beer is about Stout’s lowest ever ebb in London.

Interestingly, the prices seem to have fallen since 1944, with London Stout – now simply called as Stout on the price list – costing just 7d per half pint, down 0.5d from 1944.  LS operated as Barclay’s base level bottled Stout. Unlike Best Stout, there was no draught version. Though, at this strength, a draught version would have effectively have been a Porter.

But let’s start rejoicing just yet. The OG has fallen, yet again. Before the addition of primings it was a mere 1029.4º. Weaker than the Table Beer version of Porter had a century before. It’s an indication of the serious fall in beer strengths in the first half of the 20th century.

The grist remains much as it has been for the last few years. With brown, amber and crystal malt, plus roast barley as the coloured grains. There had been a change in the base grain, which was swapped from mild malt to SA malt. For which I’ve substituted mild malt.

The hops were all very local: Mid-Kent Fuggles from the 1945 harvest, Mid-Kent Goldings from 1944 and East Kent Goldings from 1945.

1946 Barclay Perkins London Stout
mild malt	4.00 lb	52.22%
brown malt	0.75 lb	9.79%
amber malt	0.33 lb	4.31%
crystal malt 60 L	0.50 lb	6.53%
roast barley	1.00 lb	13.05%
No. 3 invert sugar	0.75 lb	9.79%
caramel 1000 SRM	0.33 lb	4.31%
Fuggles 90 mins	0.75 oz
Fuggles 60 mins	0.50 oz
Goldings 30 mins	0.50 oz
OG	1032.75
FG	1010
ABV	3.01
Apparent attenuation	69.47%
IBU	25
SRM	38
Mash at	144º F
After underlet	148º F
Sparge at	165º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	60.5º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1099 Whitbread ale