Whitbread Mild Ale 1945 - 1954

It seems several lifetimes ago that I was last discussing Whitbread's post-WW II beers. Surely time to return to them?

And where better to begin than Mild? At the time, one of Whitbread's biggest sellers. At the start of the period, they brewed just one Mild - XX. This had been introduced in 1940, replacing X Ale. Initially with a gravity of 1031, though by 1942 it was below 1030. A level it remained at until its demise in 1949. For a brief period in 1949, Whitbread brewed two Milds, XX at 1027.7 and B or Best Ale about three points higher.

Between 1950 and 1954, Best Ale was Whitbread's only Mild, then they introduced XXX at 1037.5 What I guess would have been called Best Mild, if their other Milds hadn't already been called Best Ale.

There are a couple of points I'd like to make about the brewing techniques. The boil times a very short, almost certainly a consequence of the war. In 1914, the two coppers used for X Ale were boiled for 1.75 hours. In the 1930's it was 1.25 hours for the first and 1.5 hours for the second. In 1940, it was down to 1.25 hours and 1 hour. By 1944, it was just 1 hour and 0.75 hours. The reasoning was simple: saving fuel.

Whitbread Mild Ale 1945 - 1954
Date	Year	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Attenuation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)	Pitch temp	length of fermentation (days)	colour
31st Dec	1945	XX	1027.8	1009.0	2.49	67.63%	5.77	0.68	1	1	65º	5	15 + 40
19th Oct	1945	XX	1028.2	1008.5	2.61	69.86%	5.77	0.72	1	1.33	65º	6	13 + 40
22nd Jan	1946	XX	1028.3	1009.0	2.55	68.20%	5.77	0.70	1	1	65º	5	14 + 40
29th Jan	1947	XX	1027.7	1005.5	2.94	80.14%	6.28	0.72	1	1	65º	4	14 + 40
21st Jun	1948	XX	1027.7	1006.0	2.87	78.34%	7.03	0.82	1	1	65º	4	11 + 40
22nd Jun	1949	B	1030.5	1007.5	3.04	75.41%	6.33	0.78	1	1	65º	6	16 + 40
20th Oct	1949	Best Ale	1029.1	1010.0	2.53	65.64%	6.73	0.81	1	1.08	65º	8	16 + 40
21st Jun	1949	XX	1027.7	1007.5	2.67	72.92%	7.26	0.83	1	1.25	65º	5	13 + 40
16th May	1950	Best Ale	1032.3	1008.0	3.21	75.23%	7.13	0.89	1	0.75	65º	5	18 + 40
17th Jul	1951	Best Ale	1031.8	1009.0	3.02	71.70%	7.32	0.93		0.75	65º	5	15 + 40
4th Feb	1952	Best Ale	1030.8	1008.0	3.02	74.03%	7.35	0.88	1	0.75	65º	5	16 + 40
28th Jan	1953	Best Ale	1030.6	1008.5	2.92	72.22%	6.66	0.83	1	0.75	65º	8	17 + 40
21st Jan	1954	Best Ale	1031.0	1010.0	2.78	67.74%	5.49	0.71	1	0.75	65º	7	18 + 40
29th Sep	1954	MA	1030.8	1010.5	2.69	65.91%	5.66	0.72	1	1	65º	6	120
29th Sep	1954	XXX	1037.5	1012.0	3.37	68.00%	5.66	0.88	1	1	65º	7	125
Sources:
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/113, LMA/4453/D/01/114, LMA/4453/D/01/116, LMA/4453/D/01/117, LMA/4453/D/01/119, LMA/4453/D/01/120, LMA/4453/D/01/121 and LMA/4453/D/01/122.

The pitching temperature, at 65º F, is pretty high, but more likely just a simple reflection of the very modest gravity of these beers. In general, the stronger the beer, the lower the pitching temperature, presumably because of the greater amount of heat generated by the fermentation of a stronger wort.

Talking of modest gravity, you'd have struggled to get very pissed on just about any of these beers. Only a couple poke their heads above 3% ABV. The weakest, I'd barely count as alcoholic drinks.

Moving on to the ingredients, you can see that there were some odd hops and hop extract or substitute used in the immediate postwar period. Britain was basically broke by the time hostilities ended and the first few years of peace were difficult ones. By the time the 1950's kick in, you can see that there's been a transformation in hop usage, with almost exclusively British hops being used, with the exception of occasionally a few Californian (CF) hops. It's one of the ironies of British brewing that imported hops became much less important after WW I and mostly disappeared in the two or three decades after WW II.

Whitbread Mild Ale 1945 - 1954
Date	Year	Beer	OG	hops	pale malt	crystal malt	MA malt	no. 3 sugar	other sugar - Hay	flaked barley
31st Dec	1945	XX	1027.8	American and MK hops. Hopulon.		7.51%	63.33%	10.02%	1.97%	17.17%
19th Oct	1945	XX	1028.2	Oregon, Old Continentals, and MK hops.		7.51%	63.33%	10.02%	1.97%	17.17%
22nd Jan	1946	XX	1028.3	MK and EK hops. Hopulon.		7.51%	63.33%	10.02%	1.97%	17.17%
29th Jan	1947	XX	1027.7	MK and Jugoslav hops. Hopulon.		8.09%	82.08%	7.71%	2.12%
21st Jun	1948	XX	1027.7	MK and KT hops. Hopulon.	20.79%	7.87%	63.48%	5.99%	1.87%
22nd Jun	1949	B	1030.5	MK hops.		8.22%	84.25%	5.48%	2.05%
20th Oct	1949	Best Ale	1029.1	MK and KT hops.		7.66%	84.31%	5.84%	2.19%
21st Jun	1949	XX	1027.7	MK and KT hops.		7.98%	85.55%	4.56%	1.90%
16th May	1950	Best Ale	1032.3	MK, EK and Worcester hops.		7.29%	86.46%	4.17%	2.08%
17th Jul	1951	Best Ale	1031.8	MK and CF hops.		7.30%	86.61%	4.17%	1.91%
4th Feb	1952	Best Ale	1030.8	KT hops.		7.30%	86.61%	4.17%	1.91%
28th Jan	1953	Best Ale	1030.6	MK hops.		7.41%	85.71%	4.94%	1.94%
21st Jan	1954	Best Ale	1031.0	MK, EK and SX hops.		6.74%	80.31%	11.05%	1.90%
29th Sep	1954	MA	1030.8	MK, EK and KT hops.		6.35%	80.42%	11.29%	1.94%
29th Sep	1954	XXX	1037.5	MK, EK and KT hops.		6.35%	80.42%	11.29%	1.94%
Sources:
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/113, LMA/4453/D/01/114, LMA/4453/D/01/116, LMA/4453/D/01/117, LMA/4453/D/01/119, LMA/4453/D/01/120, LMA/4453/D/01/121 and LMA/4453/D/01/122.

 

The grists aren't the most exciting you'll ever see. Whitbread hadn't used adjuncts before the war and the use of flaked barley was almost certainly dictated by the authorities. After 1946, no adjuncts were used. Though obviously lots of lovely sugar. Which is where most of the dark brown colour came from. As was typical in Milds of this period, there was no malt darker than crystal. I'm not sure why the sugar content fell in the first few years of the 1950's. That aside, the recipe was pretty stable: 7% crystal malt, 80-85% MA (mild ale) malt, 11% No. 3 sugar, 2% Hay sugar. That latter is some sort of proprietary sugar, which was presumably dark.

What should I do next - follow Mild through subsequent decades or look at the other styles for this same period?