Whitbread Porter and Stout in 1939 (part two)

The grists are in some ways typical, and in others slightly unusual. The classic London Porter grist after 1817 was pale, brown and black malt. In a radical move, Whitbread ditched black malt in favour of chocolate malt in 1925.  Those crazy anarchists. It wasn’t an innovation that other large London brewers copied.

Malt, at close to 90%, made up the majority of the fermentables. Quite a lot. Unlike the oats, which only appeared in token quantities. On the other hand, it was in everything and not just the Oatmeal Stout. That’s parti-gyling for you.

It wasn’t unusual to see some, or even all, mild malt as the base in Porter and Stout. With all that roast, you weren’t likely to be able to make out much of the base malt’s character. Unlike in a Pale Ale, where you’d never see mild malt.

Just two types of sugar appeared in Whitbread’s Black Beers: No. 3 invert and something called Duttson. Based on the percentage, and the style of beer, my guess would be some sort of caramel. Or a proprietary sugar with a large caramel component.

At 12% of the total, there wasn’t a crazy amount of sugar. And it’s clearly being used for specific qualities, rather than just cheap extract. Flavour in the case of No. 3 and colour in the case of Duttson.

Whitbread Porter and Stout malts in 1939
Beer	Style	OG	pale malt	brown malt	choc. Malt	mild malt	oats	total malt
P	Porter	1029.6	59.69%	7.85%	7.85%	10.99%	1.57%	87.96%
LS	Stout	1047.3	59.69%	7.85%	7.85%	10.99%	1.57%	87.96%
LOS	Stout	1047.3	59.69%	7.85%	7.85%	10.99%	1.57%	87.96%
MS	Stout	1051.8	72.22%	7.94%	7.94%	0.00%	0.79%	88.89%
ES	Stout	1055.4	59.69%	7.85%	7.85%	10.99%	1.57%	87.96%
SSS	Stout	1110.3	72.22%	7.94%	7.94%	0.00%	0.79%	88.89%
Source:
Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/09/126.

Whitbread Porter and Stout sugars in 1939
Beer	Style	OG	no. 3 sugar	Duttson	total sugar
P	Porter	1029.6	4.46%	1.95%	6.41%
LS	Stout	1047.3	8.38%	3.66%	12.04%
LOS	Stout	1047.3	8.38%	3.66%	12.04%
MS	Stout	1051.8	8.47%	2.65%	11.11%
ES	Stout	1055.4	8.38%	3.66%	12.04%
SSS	Stout	1110.3	8.47%	2.65%	11.11%
Source:
Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/09/126.