Bitter 1914 - 1919

Just like for the soldiers in the trenches in 1915, the end of the war is nowhere in sight for you and me. Definitely for me. You may have already dressed in women's clothes and deserted. Can't say I'd blame you.

Today it's time to look at what happened to Bitter during WW I. More specifically, what happened to Whitbread PA. It's going to be very, very specific.

You can never go into too much detail. I hope you can't. Otherwise my book may be a disaster. You're only getting the edited highlights here. I've written more than 100,000 words. So far.

Back to today. Ten different versions of Whitbread PA for you to admire. Not that there's anything that earth-shattering to discover. Lots of pale malt, a few East Kents and Mid Kents and several big dollops of sugar. Except when they seemed to run short of sugar in late 1917. Most old recipes aren't very complicated.



Bitter
Known as PA or Pale Ale withing the brewery, Bitter was, as today, part of the standard pub draught range. The style was increasing in popularity and in London was already beginning to rival Mild. In 1881, PA was just 5% of Whitbread's Ale output. By 1891, it was up to 10%; by 1901 23%; by 1910 23%. However, most of this wasn't the strong PA, but the weaker 2PA and FA, which were around 1050º in 1914.

In 1914 standard PA had a gravity in the range 1055-1060º and was hopped at 1.75 to 2.5 pounds per barrel, 9 to 12 pounds per quarter of malt. The alcohol content was fairly modest for the gravity, as it was usually only 65-70% attenuated, giving it about 5.5% ABV.

Of all the major styles, Bitter suffered least from wartime gravity cuts. It wouldn't fare so well in WW II.

The table below shows the changes in Whitbread PA during the war years.


The most obvious change is the big cut in gravity from 1917 onwards. By May 1917 it had dropped from 1061 to 1045 - a decline of 26%. Yet, because the degree of attenuation increased dramatically - from 66% to 85% - there was little change in the beer's ABV. That only fell from 5.3% to 5.1%. Which is fine if all you're after is the alcohol. These changes must have had a big impact on the character of the beer. As the hopping rate also increased from 10 to 12 pounds per quarter, the 1917 version must have been significantly more bitter, as well as being much thiner, than the pre-war beer.

The short space of time in which these changes took place must have made them very obvious to drinkers. They couldn't have failed to notice their pint was very different. The brewers themselves struggled with the constant recipe changes. Many of the logs have notes saying something didn't turn out quite right with the beer, such as the gravity being too high or it being too bitter.

In the early years of the war, Whitbread brewed a second PA called 2PA. This was weaker than standard PA, 1053º in 1914, though it was party-gyled with it. Before the war 2PA had outsold PA by more than 5 to 1. It was discontinued in 1916 when the gravity of PA dropped to about the same level as pre-war 2PA. They seem to have upped the production of PA to make up for the loss of 2PA.

PA was the only beer Whitbread brewed more of in 1919 than they had in 1914. Before the war, Whitbread's production of PA had been just about 1% of their total output. In 1919 it was 9% of what they brewed, around 40,000 barrels.

However, unlike Mild, Bitter never became so weak as to not really be an alcoholic drink. Even the weakest versions of Whitbread PA were over 3.5% ABV. Though they didn't realise it at the time, drinkers had been given a brief preview of what Bitter was to become after WW II.

Gravities increased again after 1919 and by the early 1920's were in the low 1050's, or 8-10º lower than in 1914. Whitbread PA had a gravity of 1046º in 1923, 25% lower than its 1914 gravity of 1061º.