Mitchell & Butler Strong Ale and Stout 1926 – 1954

More M & B. I forgot to mention that these are all beers that were brewed at Cape Hill which, in the 1980's, was the largest producer of cask beer in the world. Long gone now, of course, having closed in 2002. Though the name Mitchell & Butler lives on as a pub chain.

Stout. There's loads of rubbish been written about British Stouts after WW I. Mostly about them all being sweet. M & B's Stouts show how wrong that generalisation is. In the 1920's and 1930's, with attenuation over 80%, M & B's Stouts would have been drier than Guinness. The attenuation fell a bit after WW II, but was still mostly hovering close to 80%.

There's limited data, but it looks to me like we've an example of style splitting with Nourishing Stout and Extra Stout. The date where Extra Stout appears is important, 1932. That's in the chaotic period of an unwise jump in beer tax between 1931 and 1933. It was a disaster all round. Brewers dropped gravities to keep the retail price the same and the tax collected fell.

What some breweries did, when they perceived a demand for a beer at the old strength, was to introduce a "new" product, that was basically the old beer, just with a new name. Barclay Perkins did this with their Mild, introducing XX Ale at the same strength as X Ale had been before the gravity drop. Extra Stout looks like one of these beers. Look how the gravity of Nourishing Stout fell from 1048º to 1043º and Extra Stout appears at 1049º.

I'm astonished to see that M& B's two Stouts not only survived the war, but remained at pretty much the same gravities. I'm struggling to think of any other beer - export versions excepted - where that's true.

That Amba is a funny one: a pale Old Ale. Old Ale was popular in the West Midlands before WW II - still is to some extent. But it's usually a dark beer. Always, really. It would be great to know more about the beer's history.

And blow me if there isn't another beer that's the same gravity either side of WW II, Strong Ale. (I've just thought of another example. Seeing that 1106 OG has reminded me: Barclay's Russian Stout. That managed to navigate both World Wars with no drop in gravity.) It's a pretty powerful beer, with a decent attenuation for such a high gravity

You're probably thinking (hoping?) that this series is over now. It isn't, there's more M & B to come.

Mitchell & Butler Strong Ale and Stout 1926 – 1954
Year	Beer	Style	Price	size	package	Acidity	FG	OG	colour	ABV	App. Atten-uation
1926	Nourishing Stout	Stout	8d	pint	bottled			1048.7
1929	Nourishing Stout	Stout	8.5d	pint	bottled	0.07	1006.3	1048.4		5.5	86.98%
1931	Nourishing Stout	Stout	9d	pint	bottled		1005	1046.1		5.4	89.15%
1932	Nourishing Stout	Stout	9d	pint	bottled	0.06	1006.7	1043		4.7	84.42%
1932	Extra Stout	Stout	8d	pint	bottled	0.06	1006.8	1049		5.5	86.12%
1951	Nourishing Stout	Stout	1/5d	pint	bottled	0.04	1007.4	1042.8	1 + 10	4.6	82.71%
1951	Extra Stout	Stout	10.5d	half	bottled	0.04	1009	1048	1 + 9	5.1	81.25%
1951	Nourishing Stout	Stout	1/6d	pint	bottled	0.07	1007.3	1042.1	1 + 12	4.5	82.66%
1953	Nourishing Stout	Stout	10d	half	bottled	0.06	1006.5	1039.2	1 + 11	4.3	83.42%
1953	Extra Stout	Stout	1/-	half	bottled	0.05	1008.2	1049	1 + 11	5.3	83.27%
1953	Extra Stout	Stout	1/-	half	bottled	0.05	1009.8	1046.2	21 B	4.7	78.79%
1954	Extra Stout	Stout	1/-	half	bottled	0.05	1011.2	1049	1 + 14	4.9	77.14%
1962	Extra Nourishing Stout	Stout	13d	half	bottled	0.05	1012.2	1037.1	275	3.1	67.12%
1960	Export Lager	Lager	16d	half	bottled	0.02	1010	1039.7	7.5	3.7	74.81%
1958	Amba Pale Old Ale	Old Ale	15d	nip	bottled	0.04	1012.4	1056.3	18	5.5	77.98%
1932	Strong Ale	Strong Ale	10d	half	bottled	0.12	1023.9	1108		11.1	77.87%
1935	Strong Ale	Strong Ale	9d	half	bottled	0.11	1022.7	1109		11.4	79.17%
1953	Strong Ale	Strong Ale	2/4d	half	bottled	0.19	1026.5	1106	6 + 40	10.5	75.00%
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002