Between the wars draught London Stout

What happened to London Stout after WW I? Well, it got quite a bit weaker. As you would expect.

London was unusual in that Stout remained a standard draught beer throughout the interwar period. Most brewers decided to make their draught Stout an 8d per pint beer. Though a few plumped for a 7d beer and some made both a 7d and an 8d one. The last was a dangerous practice. From the gravity books I can see that some unscrupulous landlords were either watering their Stout or selling the 7d version for 8d.

The beers fit very neatly into the gravity bands defines in the last set of WW I price controls. Where an 8d beer was 0ver 1054º and 7d 1046º-1053º. It's incredible how these definitions of strength/price remained in place right through until WW II.

For a style of beer which was intended to be full-bodied, the average rate of attenuation is pretty decent, being around 72% for both types.

Next we'll be looking at a few of these Stouts in greater detail. Won't that be fun? 

Between the wars draught London Stout
Year	Brewer	Price per pint (d)	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation
1928	Courage	7	1048	1014	4.41	70.83%
1928	Hoare	7	1046.6	1013.6	4.28	70.82%
1931	Taylor Walker	7	1049	1013	4.67	73.47%
1926	Truman	7	1046.3
1928	Wenlock	7	1042.9	1011.8	4.03	72.49%
	Average		1046.6	1013.1	4.35	71.90%
1928	Barclay Perkins	8	1054.9	1017.2	4.89	68.67%
1926	Cannon	8	1057.9
1930	Charrington	8	1055.2
1929	Hoare	8	1056.2	1018	4.95	67.97%
1926	Huggins	8	1055.5
1927	Mann Crossman	8	1056.6
1931	Meux	8	1051	1014.7	4.71	71.18%
1931	Taylor Walker	8	1055.3	1015.9	5.11	71.25%
1929	Truman	8	1058	1011.3	6.09	80.52%
1929	Watney	8	1055.9	1014.5	5.38	74.06%
1926	Whitbread	8	1058.7
1931	Wenlock	8	1046.6	1012.3	4.45	73.61%
	Average		1055.2	1014.8	5.08	72.23%
Sources:
Truman Gravity Book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/C/252.
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001.