League table of London Stouts in the 1920's

Almost time for a final look back at the overall results. But first it's the final style league table.

As a stronger style - it was usually the strongest draught beer in a pub - you'd expect Stout to score reasonably well. At least better than its sibling Porter, for which only five of the eleven breweries could muster a positive average score.

London seems to have been out of step with the rest of Britain in terms of styles. By the 1920's draught Porter had pretty much disappeared elsewhere and draught Stout was following a similar path to extinction. But in London it was still going strong through WW II and into the 1960's. Why was that? Probably simply because they were styles with their origins in the capital.

The vast majority of the Stouts analysed were of the 9d (8d after 1923) per pint type. The price implied a gravity in the low 1050's, which is where most of these beers are. Wenlock and Courage were the odd men out with a weaker 8d (7d after 1923) per pint Stout. They fared quite differently, though.  Wenlock's was one of the weakest, but scored surprisingly well. While Courage's was crap.

In the Mann and Meux samples, a few of the cheaper Stouts seem to be mixed in, but which were sold for the higher price. I would have been easy enough for a dodgy landlord to pass off a weaker Stout as a more expensive one, if the punters weren't paying too much attention. Some Charrington landlords went one better, passing off Porter as Stout, an old WW I trick. Gravities under 1040º are a dead giveaway.

I think it's time to look at that league table:

League table of 1920s London Stouts by score
Brewery	FG	OG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	score
Whitbread	1014.8	1055.3	5.27	73.32%	2.00
Wenlock	1016.1	1045.7	3.83	64.56%	1.36
Watney	1013.4	1054.9	5.40	75.55%	1.13
Huggins	1018.5	1062.1	5.67	70.27%	1.09
Truman	1017.6	1053.5	4.66	67.20%	1.00
Mann	1012.0	1054.5	5.54	78.05%	0.43
Meux	1014.7	1054.9	5.23	73.29%	0.18
Hoare	1017.9	1054.2	4.70	67.06%	0.10
Cannon	1014.9	1049.5	4.49	70.05%	0
Charrington 9d only	1013.3	1052.5	5.10	74.70%	-1.00
Charrington	1012.9	1049.7	4.78	73.73%	-1.09
Barclay Perkins	1014.6	1055.4	5.31	73.72%	-1.21
Courage	1011.6	1046.3	4.51	74.98%	-1.67
all Stout	1014.8	1053.8	5.06	72.35%	0.29
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001

There are a couple of points of interest there. And a least one depressing one.

Only two of the traditional Porter breweries manage a top five finish: Whitbread and Truman. Oddly, the top three all have names beginning with a "W". And the bottom five all begin with  a "B" or a "C". The table is almost in reverse alphabetical order. At least eight breweries managed an average positive score, with one averaging zero and three negative scores.

The top five all did pretty well. Any average over 1 is good. Whitbread came out especially well, but the sample size - three - was very small. Once again, Watney is in the top three. They really do seem to have been one of the top breweries for quality before the war. Where (and when) did it all go wrong?

Charrington, Barclay Perkins and Courage are all dreadful. It saddens me to see how crap Barclay Perkins beer was. No wonder their sales fell off so much in the 1920's. As this table shows:

Barclay Perkins output 1920 - 1929
year	barrels
1920	464,033
1921	393,045
1922	348,576
1923	293,728
1924	303,676
1925	329,464
1926	317,628
1927	306,682
1928	306,300
1929	300,569
Source:
Document ACC/2305/1/711/1 in the London Metropolitan Archives

Time for one final league table. This time ranked by the percentage with good flavour:

League table of 1920s London Stouts by good flavour
Brewery	No. examples	no. good flavour	% good flavour	score
Whitbread	3	3	100.00%	2.00
Huggins	11	9	81.82%	1.09
Wenlock	11	9	81.82%	1.36
Watney	16	13	81.25%	1.13
Truman	4	3	75.00%	1.00
Mann	14	9	64.29%	0.43
Hoare	10	6	60.00%	0.10
Meux	11	6	54.55%	0.18
Cannon	2	1	50.00%	0.00
Barclay Perkins	14	3	21.43%	-1.21
Charrington	11	2	18.18%	-1.09
Courage	3	0	0.00%	-1.67
Total	110	64	58.18%
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001

Not that different from the other league table.

Just a few steps left now in our journey. I'll be finishing with a roundup of all the styles and a final definitive league table. I can't wait.