Friday 18 November 2022

Mid-19th century London Stout grists

I'm sure you're been wondering: what happened to Stout grists later in the 19th century? I couldn't possibly disappoint you.

One of the things that struck me about beer history when I first really dug into it  With my special history spade. How dynamic it was. What was 19th-century Stout like? Lots of things. It depends an awful lot on when.

I'd assumed far less change over time. I imagined Victorian Mild was just like modern Dark Mild, except quite a bit stronger. How wrong I was. Which I realised after a couple of visits to the archives. 19th-century Mild was a different beast altogether. 

I'd been fooled by post-war British beer. Not realising that was one of the least dynamic periods in the last 300 years.

No surprise, then, that 30-odd years on from the introduction of black malt, London Stout grists had evolved further. Not much change in the pale and brown malt content. But the proportion of black malt has trebled.

Mid-19th century London Stout grists
Year Brewer Beer pale malt brown malt black malt amber malt
1850 Truman M Keeping Stout 78.64% 18.76% 2.61%  
1850 Truman Running Stout 89.54% 7.26% 3.20%  
1850 Truman Export Stout 76.75% 20.34% 2.91%  
1850 Truman Double Stout 83.11% 14.68% 2.20%  
1850 Truman Imperial 79.25% 18.53% 2.22%  
1850 Whitbread KS 75.49% 21.13% 3.38%  
1850 Whitbread S 75.49% 21.13% 3.38%  
1850 Whitbread SSS 75.49% 21.13% 3.38%  
1849 Barclay Perkins FSt 78.17% 18.48% 3.36%  
1849 Barclay Perkins BSt BI 64.26% 23.95% 2.81% 8.98%
1850 Barclay Perkins BSt Expt  64.30% 23.95% 2.77% 8.98%
1850 Barclay Perkins IBSt 62.58% 25.55% 2.86% 9.02%
  Average   75.25% 19.57% 2.92% 2.25%

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