Dutch Lager Styles 1870 - 1960 (part seven)

WW I
The war had a devastating effect on Dutch brewing, despite The Netherlands being neutral. The unrestricted German U-Boot campaign that began in 1917 caused havoc with international trade. Dependent on imported barley, Dutch brewers began to run out of raw materials. Despite drastic reductions in the strength of beer*, by 1918 production was down to just half of the pre-war level at 0.72 million hectolitres**.

Dutch breweries by province
	1890	1900	1910	1920	1930
Noord-Brabant	241	214	191	72	65
Gelderland	42	31	27	13	10
Zuid-Holland	35	25	24	14	-
Noord-Holland	22	19	17	12	10
Zeeland	36	33	31	25	25
Utrecht	12	7	7	4	3
Overijssel	10	9	7	3	3
Friesland	2	2	2	2	2
Groningen	20	16	14	1	1
Drenthe	1	1	1	0	0
Limburg	236	216	201	77	66
Total:	657	574	522	223	198
Sources:
Nederlands Etiketten Logboek, 1998

More than half of all Dutch breweries closed: from 522 in 1910 to 223 in 1920. The majority of those that closed were small affairs in Limburg and Nord-Brabant - 243 out of 299. Many had still been top-fermenting which effectively gave a further boost to Lager brewing in Holland.

Amstel slashed their range to just two beers, Pilsener and a dark Lager***.  They also started using rice, maize, tapioca and sugar in addition to malt****.


Interwar years
During the 1920’s the Dutch brewing industry bounced back and by the end of the decade output was up by almost 1 million on the pre-war level. This despite the number of breweries having more than halved between 1910 and 1920 . The biggest fall was in the Southern provinces of Noord-Brabant and Limburg, where there had been a large number of very small breweries.

Dutch beer output 1925 - 1939
year	output (hl)	year	output (hl)
1925	1,944,000	1933	1,609,000
1926	2,033,000	1934	1,512,000
1927	2,058,000	1935	1,373,000
1928	-	1936	1,262,000
1929	2,319,000	1937	1,298,000
1930	2,280,000	1938	1,382,000
1931	2,103,000	1939	1,508,000
1932	1,807,000
Source:
European Statistics 1750-1970 by B. R. Mitchell, 1978.

Once again international developments intervened in the form of the 1929 Wall Street Crash and the worldwide recession that followed. The gains of the 1920’s were more than rolled back and, though the situation improved in the final years of the 1930’s, Dutch beer production was about the same in 1939 as it had been in 1914.

Pils was gradually gaining ground at the expense of other styles, though breweries continued to brew the low-strength Licht (pale)and Donker (dark) Lager as well as the stronger Bayerisch Dark Lager.




* "Amstel, het Verhaal van ons Bier 1870 - Heden" by Peter Zwaal, 2010, pages 59 and 66.
** Bier in Limburg, Sef Derkx, 1990.
*** "Amstel, het Verhaal van ons Bier 1870 - Heden" by Peter Zwaal, 2010, page 59.
**** "Amstel, het Verhaal van ons Bier 1870 - Heden" by Peter Zwaal, 2010, page 66.

1990 Mühlhausen pub guide

Here’s another excerpt from my 1990 guide to Thuringia. It’s a small pub guide to Mühlhausen. Not a great deal of use to anyone, I realise.

There’s a simple reason why I visited Mühlhausen several times. My wife’s sister lived there. And it was home to one of my favourite beers, Turmquell Pilsator. I was lucky enough to get inside one of the town’s two breweries in the DDR period, thanks to my sister-in-law’s husband, who knew someone who worked there.

It was heart breaking to say the inferior Eschwege Pils flood into the town after the wall fell, eventually killing off the town’s breweries. It made no sense to me. Why pay considerably more money for a beer that wasn’t half as good? Turmquell Pilsator is one of the beers I miss the most. I've cried a little every day since it disappeared.



Mühlhausen
30 km north of Eisenach, just 45 terrifying minutes away along a crumbling and treacherous road (it's not a good idea to try navigating it after dark) is the ancient town of Mühlhausen. If you happen to get thirsty on the way, the village of Mihla has three pubs. Mühlhausen is graced with a virtually complete town wall and, of more practical value, two breweries (one of which is built into said wall). Inside the old fortifications, not a lot has changed in the last few centuries. There's a maze of twisting streets and narrow alleyways all lined with half-timbered buildings leaning at disturbing angles. Unfortunately for the inhabitants, but fortunately for us tourists wishing to recapture the atmosphere of the past, most of the houses don't seem to have been modernised since they were built. A few months ago I would have added that they also didn't seem to have been painted since their construction, but, in honour of the recent influx of guests from over the border, a few of the main streets have seen their facades receive a well-needed lick of paint. I'm sure that it's dirty, dingy, generally unkempt appearance is far more in keeping with the spirit of the Middle Ages than are the antiseptically tidied and prettied up towns over the border. The town is also famous for the quality and quantity of its bakers. They produce the typical dark German rye bread in hearteningly traditional manner, without the use of the chemical additives so common in the west.

On Görmaer StraBe, just inside the wall on the way into town from the railway station, is the Hotel Grune Linde (8 - 24), selling the excellent draught Turmquell Pilsator. This is a pub/restaurant of a slightly higher class, so your table will have a tablecloth, albeit probably not very clean. The single large room is comfortable enough and the tables seem happily immune to the plague of 'bestellt' signs (the current record for these is held by the Lindenhof of Eisenach, which one evening contained eight tables, two customers and six 'reserviert' signs). On the walls, no doubt at the whim of an HO interior decorator, hang some arty and enigmatic prints of trees, totally out of keeping with the nature of the place and its customers, who don't exactly look like the type to knock around in art galleries.

Carrying on down Görmaer Straße, one of the streets recently having undergone a slight face-lift, you'll come to Wilhelm-Pieck-Platz. Pretty well directly opposite where you enter the square is the Mühlhauser Bierbar (16-23:30; Sat, Sun closed), an unassuming old building without much indication of being a pub. Inside its cramped interior, in the wonderful HO 'heritage' style (pine furniture and obviously designed folksy decoration), a variety of DDR beers are available. The selection varies, but you can usually count on Bad Kostritzer Schwarzbier and Wernesgrüner Pils, both bottled (unfortunately so in the case of the latter, which tastes much better in its unpasteurised draught form). This is the only specialist beer bar in the area and, judging by its popularity, you would think that it was the only pub in the area full stop. A word of advice: arrive closer to 16:00 than 23:30. (If you are unable to get in, nip over the road to the modern Stadt Mühlhausen Hotel, which sells Turmquell Pilsator on draught and stays open until midnight.)

You now have a chance to see the centre of town on the way to your next stop - this saves wasting too much valuable time on sightseeing. On leaving the beer bar, walk to the diagonally opposite corner of the square, up Linsenstr. then left along Herrenstr past the Marienkirche. Through the Frauentor, one of the old town gates and an impressive chunk of stonework, you'll find a fairly desolate piece of open ground. To the right of this, on Johannis Straße, is Gaststatte Drei Rosen (10-17; Sat, Sun closed). One glance and the neglected and crumbling plaster of the facade tells you that you're in for a treat and, when you enter, the austerity of the interior is no disappointment. From the rudimentary counter, bare walls and tubular steel furniture of its single square room to the outside toilets (aspiring to Czech standards of filthiness) everything is perfect. It deserves to be preserved in its pristine state as a memorial to the HO minimalist school of pub design. It's to be hoped the changing times won't see such monuments swept away. Your fellow customers are likely to be as straight-forward as the surroundings, but the atmosphere is relaxed and conducive to the quiet enjoyment of a glass or two of the Turmquell Pils which is on offer. A little further along Johannisstr., through another old gate,  is the  Turmquell bottled beer brewery, some of whose workers you might well rub shoulders with in Drei Rosen.

On leaving turn left, left again into Petristeinweg, then right along Petriteich following the town wall around (another chance for a quick spot of sightseeing here) until reaching Ammerstr. Turn left into here and a couple of hundred metres along, easily spotted by its distinctive green colour-scheme, is the strangely-named Ammerscher Bahnhof (10 - 20; Sun, Mon closed). Strangely-named, because not only is there no Ammerscher station in the vicinity, but no station of any description and not even a railway line. Here there's a bit more choice, with Turmquell Pilsator on draught and Gothaer Spezial and Eschweger Pils in bottles. There's a spacious dining area, a small taproom and another small dining room at the back. The higher quality wooden furniture, numerous pot plants and better standard of decoration are dead giveaways that this is a private pub. One wall has a particularly good mural of Muhlhausen, taken from an old engraving. Oddly enough, despite the visible outward signs of comfort, there's a lack of warmth in the surroundings. The grotty and Spartan Drei Rosen is actually a far more welcoming spot in which to enjoy a glass of beer and a quiet conversation. In just the same way that your local public bar is more convivial than a Berni Inn. In many respects, Ammerscher Bahnhof resembles more a W. German pub and I suppose that the cooler atmosphere goes along with that. They also use handled mugs instead of the usual straight glasses, a suspicious practice if I ever saw one, and the ceiling has fake beams.




As far as I can tell, only one of the pubs mentioned in my small guide to Mühlhausen still exists: Ammerscher Bahnhof.



Ammerscher Bahnhof
Ammerstraße 83
99974 Mühlhausen/Thüringen.
http://www.ammerscherbahnhof.de/

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1950 Adnams PA

The 1950’s – what a wonderful decade. I sort of feel at home there, seeing it’s the era when I was born. Odd thought that.

But the usual images – teddy boys, rock and roll, rising living standards – all come from much later in the decade. The early years were much tougher. Rationing and shortages of almost everything were the order of the day.  Beer output was falling and gravities were only just starting to creep back up a little.

Yet this beer from that time is very recognisable. It looks much like the Ordinary Bitters I remember from my youth. OG of 1036, 3.6% ABV. Glancing at the 1977 Good Beer Guide there are dozens of Bitters with similar gravities. Including Adnams. Their Bitter is listed with exactly the same gravity as this version.

It would be difficult to have a much simpler beer than this: pale malt, No. 1 invert and English hops. It looks to me like a classic drinking Bitter. Especially as it has fairly robust hopping. In short, a beer built for a session. The eight pints in two hours kind of session.

It’s so simple, I'm struggling to think of anything more to say. Other than brew this beer. I’m sure you won’t regret it.





Now over to me . . . . .

1950 Adnams PA
pale malt	7.50 lb	93.75%
no. 1 sugar	0.50 lb	6.25%
Fuggles 90 min	0.75 oz
Goldings 60 min	0.75 oz
Goldings 30 min	0.75 oz
OG	1036
FG	1008.9
ABV	3.59
Apparent attenuation	75.28%
IBU	34
SRM	5
Mash at	149º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	61º F
Yeast	WLP025 Southwold

Georges still

More from the chairman of Georges, speaking at the company’s annual meeting.

Let’s start with an obligatory part of every brewery chairman’s speech: a moan about the level of taxation on beer.

“Price of Beer
Successive Chancellors of the Exchequer again and again turned to taxation beer as an easy source revenue. In less than one year, an additional 1d per pint was imposed twice, and there has been only one reduction of 1d per pint in recent years.

In our opinion, not nearly enough, it has proved, to make any real difference. Four and a quarter millions of this reduction had to be found by the wholesale trade. The price of beer to-day is consequently much too high owing to excessive taxation. Materials have also increased in price.”
Western Daily Press - Friday 27 January 1950, page 4.

As we’ve already seen, the tax on beer rose sharply during the war, but continued to rise after its end. It fell a little in 1950 and again in 1951, but remained at the high level of 321s per standard barrel for the rest of the 1950’s. In 1939 it had been 100s (with a 20s rebate per bulk barrel).* And brewers had complained then that it was ridiculously high.

More about the post-war boom in bottled beer:

“Extensions are also being carried out to enlarge the cold rooms in the bottling stores, and also new bottling units are being installed to cope with the ever increasing demand for bottled beer.

The output of bottled beer last month was a record for the brewery, and our weekly sales of bottle beer now exceed the cask.

I should like to emphasise again this year that the duty on beer is much too high, representing as it does nearly 7d on each pint of bitter ale. In the last ten years the duty has increased from 104s to 343s per standard barrel.”
Western Daily Press - Friday 27 January 1950, page 4.

Georges appear to have been doing better than average with their bottled beer. Or worse than average with their cask. Because despite a big increase in the proportion of bottled beer, cask still formed the majority of sales.  Bottled sales had risen from less than 5% of the total in 1900 to 25% in 1939 and 35% in 1954**.

7d of tax a pint is a lot when you consider that the retail price of Georges draught IPA in 1949 was 1s 5d or 17d***. I think he’s underestimating the tax. At 343s 4.5d per standard barrel****, the tax on a beer of the average gravity for 1949 (1033.43) comes to 8.7d*****. Close to 50% of the retail price.

All the shortages and restrictions must have been at best frustrating, at worst quite depressing. Here are some more:

“Country Hotels Suffer
Messrs Crockers and our managed houses, of which only have 14, have not done well in recent years. Possibly the Catering and Wages Act, certain clauses of which one reads in the Press, from time to time, may be altered, is largely responsible for this.

The shortage of petrol may also partly responsible, especially in country hotels where there have been in many cases serious decreases in the number of visitors.”
Western Daily Press - Friday 27 January 1950, page 4.

The Catering and Wages Act comes in for a lot of criticism from brewers. It seems to have set some sort of minimum wages. Obviously breweries, who owned lots of pubs, employed, albeit indirectly, lots of people in the catering trade.

I wonder if it was just a shortage of petrol that damaged the trade of country hotels. Or was it because no-one had any spare cash?

This next passage is dead handy. Because it allows me to calculate something.

“The company's licensees are again to heartily congratulated on the efficient way in which they have conducted their houses, during the past 12 months, in spite of many restrictions and difficulties, which seem to increase rather than diminish. It is even more difficult than usual to forecast the future prospects of the company, as in these days of uncertainty much depends on taxation, the cost of living etc. Your directors do not consider that the output can be maintained, much less Increased, unless there is a really substantial reduction in the beer duty, already referred to; last year over £2.5 millions was paid this company in this tax alone

Brewers should allowed produce a beer which is at least 3d per pint cheaper and at the same time be allowed sufficient materials to increase the average gravity.”
Western Daily Press - Friday 27 January 1950, page 4.

That’s quite a depressing message: expect sales to go down, not up. Though the impact would probably also depend on the margins on beer in different types of packaging. If they had a better margin on bottled than cask, overall revenues might have been stable. Unfortunately, I’ve no idea if that was the case.

You can tell he was really unhappy about the high beer tax. That’s the third or fourth time he’s mentioned it. I’m really glad he mentioned how much tax they’d paid in 1949. It allows me to calculate how many barrels they brewed. The calculation is slightly complicated by the fact that the tax rose halfway through Georges financial year, in April 1949. Assuming half at each rate and that their average OG was the same as the national one, I make it 232,664 bulk barrels. To put that into context, it’s 0.86% of the 26,990,144 barrels brewed in the UK in 1949******.

That's me done with Georges. I'll have to look for some more annual meeting reports. I love me a whingeing chairman.




* Brewers' Almanack 1955, p. 50 and Brewers' Almanack 1962, p. 48.
** "Brewing Theory and Practice" by E. J. Jeffery, 1956, page 330.
*** Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001.
**** Finance Act 1949.
***** Brewers' Almanack 1955, p. 50.
****** Brewers' Almanack 1955, p. 50.

Adnams LA and LBA 1947 - 1959

Yes, I am doing Adnams Pally Allies. I know I promised them. Sort of. And I almost occasionally come through with my promises.

Throughout most of this period Adnams only brewed one Pale Ale, with the imaginative brew house name of PA. Wonder how they came up with that one? In 1947 they briefly brewed something called LA (presumably standing for Light Ale). Though as it looks much like the PA, I don’t really think it was a different beer.

In the last four years we’re covering there was something called LBA (Light Bitter Ale) which had a gravity a few points lower than PA. There’s such a small difference it hardly seems worth it. Though British brewers are still wont to brew multiple Bitters with tiny differences in gravity.

It would be nice to know in which form LBA was sold. It could have been a draught beer but my money would be on it being a bottled-only beer sold as Light Ale. For a beer of such modest gravity, a pound of hops per barrel is quite a lot. The attenuation isn’t great for most examples of LBA: under 70%. Which leaves it under 3% ABV. You weren’t going to get very pissed in a session on that.

Moving on to the grist, it’s pretty simple: pale malt and sugar. Except for in 1947 when there’s a little flaked barley. That’s a hangover from the war years when brewers were forced to use some flaked barley by the government. The reason was a very basic one. Flaking required less energy than malting. I’m not sure what Hydrol is. It could possibly be a form of glucose.

There’s very little to say about the hops, other than that they’re almost all English. The logs give no indication of the variety, or even the region in which they were grown.

Adnams LA/LBA 1945 - 1959
Date	Year	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)
3rd Jun	1947	1034.0	1008.3	3.40	75.56%	7.58	1.00	2
7th Sep	1956	1031.0	1010.5	2.71	66.05%	8.00	1.02	2
1st Aug	1957	1032.0	1010.0	2.91	68.84%	8.00	1.00	2
10th Jan	1958	1032.0	1008.3	3.13	74.03%	7.47	0.98	2
2nd Dec	1959	1031.0	1009.4	2.86	69.62%	7.82	1.01	1.58	1.5
Source:
Adnams brewing records held at the brewery.

Adnams LA/LBA grists 1945 - 1959
Date	Year	OG	pale malt	PA malt	flaked barley	no. 1 sugar	Hydrol	hops
3rd Jun	1947	1034.0	87.27%		5.45%	7.27%		English
7th Sep	1956	1031.0		89.19%		10.81%		English
1st Aug	1957	1032.0	89.19%			5.41%	5.41%	English
10th Jan	1958	1032.0	85.71%			9.52%	4.76%	English
2nd Dec	1959	1031.0	85.07%			8.96%	5.97%	English, Styrian
Source:
Adnams brewing records held at the brewery.

PA next. I had intended including it here but ran into arsing issues.

Dutch Lager Styles 1870 - 1960 (part six)

Heineken’s wholesale prices  1904 – 1911
That wasn’t Heineken’s complete range of beers. It looks as if there were some beers which were only produced in Amsterdam: Gerste, Münchener and Export.

Heineken wholesale prices 1904 - 1914
beer type	cents per litre
Gerstebier	8
Lager	8
Rotterdamsche Gerste	11
Münchener	14
Export	14
Beiersch (donker)	13
Pilsner (licht)	13
Bock	15
Source:
1904-1914 - "Korte Geschiedenis der Heineken's Bierbouwerij Maatschappij N.V. 1873 - 1948" (p.218)

My guess would be that the Gerste was a lower gravity version of the Gerste brewed in Rotterdam, that is a dark, bottom-fermenting beer which wasn’t lagered. Export must be a type of Dortmunder, with a gravity of around 14º Plato. Münchener I suppose was a stronger version of Beiersch, again with a gravity of around 14º Plato.


Comparative prices in 1911

In this 1911 pricelist, you can see the relative prices of different types of Lager:

Price relative to ABV
Beer	ABV	price per bottle	cents per 1% ABV	% cheaper than Pils
Gerste	3.7	11	2.97	26.14%
Lager	3.4	9	2.65	41.67%
Pils	4.8	18	3.75
Source:
Advert in Rotterdamsch Nieuwsblad, 16th September 1911, page 4.

Rotterdamsch Nieuwsblad, 16th September 1911, page 4.

Pilsener was, relative to its alcoholic strength, the worst value for money, as this table demonstrates:

Pils was 26% more expensive per unit of alcohol.

Thuringia in the DDR

I came across a dozen printed pages yesterday. One of the first thing I wrote about beer. Way back in 1990.

Never been published before. Not much point publishing it now, as it's a guide to beer in Thuringia in 1990. I suppose it has some historic value, as it records an odd time. When the wall was down, but the DDR was still an independent country.

And it's a few easy blog posts. No need to think up lots of new words. I've regretted my commitment to post daily since, er, just about since I made it. I'll be able to spin at least half a dozen posts out of this old crap. Sorry, classic, rediscovered early writings.

Let me know what you think of it.

"Thuringia in the DDR
Thuringia, which now forms the southwestern corner of the DDR, consists, approximately, of the 'bezirk' of Suhl, Erfurt and Gera. Its landscape is dominated by rolling hills and forests, still containing much wildlife, which contrast sharply with the grim, industrial image of the DDR. The Thuringer Wald in the south is an area of particular natural beauty. Only the northeast, in the region of Jena and Gera, is spoilt by the more obtrusive presence of industry. The countryside is dotted with villages of ancient half-timbered houses, seemingly almost untouched by the 20th century. For the most part these are still real living communities rather than groups of city commuters trying to rediscover rural life. Consequently most villages still have a baker's, butcher's and, of course, a pub.

From 1920 to 1952 Thuringia was a 'land' or state (and should be again as of late 1990 when the DDR becomes a federal state) with its capital in Weimar, then later in Erfurt. There are many other attractive towns, some unfortunately wearing their age badly, and most of any reasonable size have a brewery.

Thuringia has a long history as a brewing centre and still boasts one of the largest concentrations of the country's 250 or so breweries. Unsurprising, given that Franconia, with the greatest density of breweries in the world, is just over the border in the Federal Republic. The beers from any given brewery beers are usually only sold in the local area. This admirably decentralised approach does however have the disadvantage that, in any given town, 90% of the pubs seH the same beer. An exception to this are the 'spezial' or 'delikat' beers from certain breweries (such as Apolda or Braugold), which are sold as premium products and tend to be found in posher outlets all over Thuringia. An interesting development as a result of the border being opened, is the appearance, albeit at treble the price of the local stuff, of West German beer in both shops and pubs. A disadvantage of the open border is that you may be competing for pub space with crowds of W. Germans attracted by the, for them, laughably low prices in the DDR."

As I said earlier, there's a lot more of this.

Bottled Stout in the 1950’s – Strong Stout

This is the first of many posts about bottled Stout in the 1950’s. I hope you can contain your excitement.

To make things more manageable, I’ve created my own categories based on gravity and degree of attenuation. Pretty arbitrary, I’ll admit. But this is my party and I can do what I like. Including crying. And making up styles when I feel like it.

The biggest surprise is how many strong Stouts were still knocking around after WW II. There are six different brands with gravities over 1070. Kicking off with the granddaddy of them all, Barclay’s Russian Stout. Which had returned to its classic 1100 OG. In the early 1950’s it’s the only beer I can think of which still retained its 19th-century strength. Hang on. That 1958 Guinness FES is another.

The Bass and Worthington examples are obviously the same beer: P2. Just as Bass Red Triangle and Worthington White Shield were the same beer. I’m not sure why they insisted on keeping both brands long after the beers had become the same. Something similar was going on at Watney, where they were still branding Stouts as Reid when the brewery had been closed for half a century.

Royal Jubilee Stout played a key role in the merger mania of the 1950’s. Hope & Anchor of Sheffield wanted to sell it in Canada and struck a deal whereby they brewed Canadian Black Label Lager under licence in return. This drew the UK market to the attention of Eddie Taylor, owner of the Black Label brand. He’d been successful in merging brewing operations in Canada and saw an opportunity to do the same in Britain.

During the 1950’s Taylor built the UK’s largest brewing group, United Breweries, which eventually became Bass Charrington. Other large brewers didn’t want to get left behind and went on a takeover spree, too. By 1970, British brewing was dominated by 7 large groups: Allied breweries, Bass Charrington. Courage, Scottish & Newcastle, Watney and Whitbread. And Guinness, of course.

You’ll note that most of the stronger examples in the table have pretty decent attenuation.  I suppose you could say, in the case of Russian Stout, by cheating. With a secondary Brettanomyces fermentation measured in years, it was always going to be a dry beer. The same is probably true of Guinness FES, which I still believe was at least partially aged in vats.

I struck by how good value Russian Stout was. It’s the same price – 45d per pint – as the Bass, Murray and Castletown Stouts which are all much weaker. If you think that it took more than two years from mash tun to glass, that’s impressive.

Considering that I used attenuation as a criterion for selection, I’m surprised that there’s a Milk Stout and  a Sweet Stout in this set. The names allocated to Stouts in the 1950’s do show a trend towards sweetness. Things like Glucose Stout or – a real favourite this one – Nourishing Stout.

One last point. None of these even vaguely resembles the very sweet, low ABV beers British Stouts were supposed to have become around 1900, if you’d believe many beer historians.

Bottled Stout in the 1950's - Strong Stouts >65% attenuation
Year	Brewer	Beer	Price	size	Acidity	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour
1953	Barclay Perkins	Russian Stout	22.5d	half pint	0.08	1101	1018	10.97	82.18%	1 + 25
1950	Barclay Perkins	Russian Imperial Stout	22.5d	half pint	0.11	1100.1	1021.1	10.41	78.92%	1 + 19
1955	Bass	Imperial Stout			0.34	1078.8	1018.4	7.90	76.65%	375
1955	Worthington	Imperial Stout			0.17	1078.2	1017.3	7.97	77.88%	325
1953	Bass	Imperial Stout	15d	nip	0.08	1078.2	1025.1	6.90	67.90%	1 + 20
1953	Samuel Smith	Sam's Extra Stout	1/2d	half pint	0.06	1077.8	1020	7.54	74.29%	1 + 13
1958	Guinness	Foreign Extra Stout		half pint	0.12	1074.4	1015.9	7.65	78.63%	250
1950	Watney	Reids Stout			0.10	1072.9	1021	6.75	71.19%	1 + 14.5
1955	Watney	Reids Stout			0.05	1072.1	1018	7.06	75.03%	325
1955	Guinness	Export Stout		half pint	0.04	1071.4	1013.3	7.61	81.37%	175
1950	Unknown	Imperial Stout			0.16	1066.8	1017	6.49	74.55%	1 + 19
1955	Murray W	Export Stout	1/3d	nip	0.05	1064.6	1015.8	6.36	75.54%	350
1953	Castletown	Manx Maid Stout	1/3d	nip	0.06	1064.1	1022.3	5.41	65.21%	1 + 18
1950	Tennent	Milk Stout (Export)		half pint	0.16	1063.2	1020	5.60	68.35%	1 + 17
1955	Castletown	Manx Oyster Stout			0.05	1063	1013	6.53	79.37%	250
1955	Hope & Anchor	Royal Jubilee Stout		half pint	0.06	1059.5	1019.9	5.13	66.55%	325
1953	Brickwoods	Black Bricky	1/-	nip	0.06	1054.8	1015.5	5.10	71.72%	1 + 11
1953	Young & Co	No. 1 Stout	11d	nip	0.07	1052.1	1016.3	4.64	68.71%	1 + 69
1956	Hammonds	Senior Sovereign Sweet Stout	1/3.5d	half pint	0.06	1050.4	1016.2	4.43	67.86%	300
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001.

Let’s move on to the second set. More than half of the examples are only just below my arbitrary ceiling for this group. One, Bass Imperial Stout, also appears in the other table. Of the five examples with attenuation below 60%, it’s significant that two are Scottish. Scottish Stout genuinely seems to have gone mostly sweet quite early. From what I’ve seen in brewing records the trend started in the 19th century.

Archangel Stout must have been an interesting drink. With an FG of over 1040º - that’s higher than the OG of many Stouts – it must have been quite treacly. Which is just how an Arctic Ale is supposed to be.

Would you be allowed to call a beer Export Vitamin Stout today? I doubt it. They probably wouldn’t even let Nourishing or Invalid Stout pass, the miserable bastards.

Notice how few beers there are in this group. You could argue there are only really five. Which is all there would be left if I shifted the boundary from 65% to 63% attenuation.

Bottled Stout in the 1950's - Strong Stouts <65% attenuation
Year	Brewer	Beer	Price	size	Acidity	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour
1953	Simonds	Archangel Stout	16.5d	nip	0.05	1084.6	1041.2	5.57	51.30%	1 + 10
1956	Bass	Imperial Stout	18d	nip	0.06	1077.5	1027.9	6.43	64.00%	350
1950	Calder Alloa	Milk Stout			0.07	1069.3	1029.7	5.10	57.14%	1 + 14 B
1958	Hope Brewery	Export Vitamin Stout	15d	nip	0.06	1066.2	1024.2	5.25	63.44%	300
1956	Steward & Patteson	Stout	1/3d	nip	0.05	1064.6	1027.4	4.79	57.59%	350
1953	Steward & Patteson	Double Stout	1/2d	nip	0.08	1063.8	1031.4	4.16	50.78%	1 + 31.5
1955	Truman	Stout			0.06	1062	1022	5.18	64.52%	225
1957	Tennent	???? Brand Stout		half pint	0.06	1059.4	1020.8	4.99	64.98%	300
1953	Bellhaven	Heavy Stout	1/3d	nip	0.05	1059	1029.6	3.77	49.83%	1 + 16
1956	Whitbread	EMS		half pint	0.06	1056.7	1020.3	4.71	64.20%	325
1956	Atkinsons	Double Punch Stout	1/3.5d	half pint	0.05	1051.8	1018.9	4.25	63.51%	500
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001.

We’ll be looking at some weaker Stouts next time.