Did I mention my plan? My plan of attack at the archives last week. Top of the list was looking at all the Whitbread logs between 1900 and 1940 I hadn't yet photographed.The reason was simple. The handy little weekly, monthly and annual summary at the back of Whitbread logs. Which is broken down by beer type. A couple of snaps and the annual production of every beer is captured. I've been extracting the information most of this week.
Why is this of interest? The waxing and waning of styles as a fickle public keeps finding new favourites fascinates me. The first step to understanding the process is acquiring data. So I can see how and when changes happened. Working out the why will likely be more of a challenge.
Time for a table. Though there's so much information, you're going to have to make do with just a partial table. I'll kick off with the run up to WW I:
You're busy, I know. Let me do some of the interpretation for you. I've a little time on my hands.
Seeing Mild already in decline wasn't quite what I had expected. Both in absolute and percentage terms Whitbread's output of Mild fell between 1902 and 1914. It declined from almost 43% of production to a bit over 30%.
The quantities of Stock Ale being brewed were minimal. And dcelining to boot, droppping from 2% to 1.33% of output.
The big winner was IPA, a bottled beer. It's share of output just about trebled, rising from 4.6% to 12.7%. This accounted for the increase in relative imporatnce of Pale Ales asa a group. Production of PA and 2PA actually fell.
Most unexpected was the rise in Porter and Stout production, from 35% to over 42%. My guess would have been for it to have fallen. If the performance of the category was not expected, that of Porter was truly gob-smacking. Its share rose from 11% to 13.7%.
There's lots more of this come.
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5 comments:
What are the C, CS, and LS?
Bill,
C = Country (Porter)
CS = Country Stout
LS = London Stout
Ron, what were the alcohol contents of the different porters and stouts, do you have that from the source in question?
Gary
Gary, the answer is a bit long for here. I'll make it into a post.
Okay great thanks. It is a fascination to me that there were so many versions of porter still available then, and albeit cut down a few years later as you explained.
I wonder what was the market for each type? That is a different aspect - more social history really - but I wonder how it actually worked. "Chas no give me the one that is slightly stronger, that way I won't need to order another", is that it worked perahps? Was it taste related (the stronger were stocked perhaps)? Did the gentry drink one and the people another with its own sub-sets for preferences? There seems so little in beer history that can explain this.
Gary
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