Branded Stout in 1953

Still there? I didn’t think so. I’m used to talking to myself. The family isn’t exactly fascinated by beer history.

“Stop being annoying, Dad.” Is Alexei’s normal response to a remark about hop usage in Scotland in the 1860’s. No interest in anything, these young people. Amazingly, not even the brands of Stout available in the early 1950’s. Un-fucking-believable.

Branded Stout. Not something I’d given a load of thought to. But now I think about it, old labels for Stouts quite often have names. Which explains the very long list. And is more evidence that Guinness were far from monopolising the Stout market. Confirming Stout was an important product for breweries at the time. Why else go to the trouble of naming them.

Doubtless it’s also connected with Stout becoming an exclusively bottled beer for most breweries. Draught Stout was still about in London in the 1950’s, but not really anywhere else. At a certain point, most drinkers must have expected Stout always to be in bottled form.

But there remained a sizeable market for Stout. In Mass Observation’s Bolton of the late 1930’s, it’s mostly women drinking Stout. My guess is that was still the case in the early 1950’s. Sweet Stout is certainly what my Mum drank in the 1960’s. In fact her beer of choice is in the list: Warwick & Richardson’s Milk Maid Stout. She was most upset when it was discontinued after the brewery was absorbed into the Courage group.

I’m keeping in short. I’ll just remark that many of the beers just classes as Stout were Sweet Stouts. Milk Maid, for example. That’s why my Mum liked it: sweet and not too alcoholic. Many examples of this type of Stout were under 3% ABV.

Branded Stout in 1953
Brewery	Brand	Type
Ansells Brewery	Tonic	Bottled Stout
Beamish & Crawford	Foreign Extra	Bottled Stout
Daniel Thwaites	"Cream of All Stout"	Bottled Stout
Fuller, Smith & Turner	Samson	Bottled Stout
Barclay, Perkins	Victory	Formerly Milk Stout
Taylor, Walker	Cannon Stout	High gravity
Brickwood	Black Brlcky	Ex-Strong Stout
Star Brewery	Club Stout	Stout
Abington Brewery	Oak Stout	Stout
Arthur Guinness, Son	Harp	Stout
Atkinsons Brewery	Punch	Stout
Beamish & Crawford	An Tostal	Stout
Castletown Brewery	Manx Maid	Stout
Castletown Brewery	Manx Oyster Stout	Stout
Charrington	Anchor	Stout
Charrington	Punch	Stout
Cobb & Co.	Margate Stout	Stout
East African Breweries	Nguvu	Stout
East Anglian Breweries	Silk Stout	Stout
H. & G. Simonds	Archangel	Stout
H. & G. Simonds	Velvet	Stout
Harman's Uxbridge Brewery	Snip	Stout
Hope & Anchor Breweries	Royal Jubilee	Stout
Hope & Anchor Breweries	Vi	Stout
J. G. Swales	SOS	Stout
J. W. Lees & Co.	Archer	Stout
Marston	Mylki	Stout
Massey's Burnley Brewery	Prize  Stout	Stout
Northampton Brewery	Jumbo	Stout
P. Phipps	Little Rat	Stout
Queensland Brewery	Bulimba Red Top	Stout
Richard Whitaker & Sons	Standard	Stout
Robert Younger	Oat Creme	Stout
South African Breweries	Gluko	Stout
Timothy Taylor	Black Bess	Stout
Tollemache's Breweries	Beano	Stout
Warwicks & Richardsons	Milk Maid	Stout
Wm. Younger	Capital	Stout
Worksop & Retford Brewery	Prior well	Stout
Walters Trinidad Brewing	Black Velvet	Stout & Milk Stout
West Riding Bottling	White Rose	Stout and Mild Ale
Duncan Gilmour	Milk Round	Stout bottled
Campbell Praed	Red well	Stout, bottled
W. Butler	All Malt	Stout, bottled
Frederic Robinson	Unicorn	Sweet Stout
Hope & Anchor Breweries	Jubilee	Sweet Stout
James Hole	Castle Stout	Sweet Stout
Source:
Brewery Manual 1953-1954, pages 382 - 394.

Light Ale next, I think. Pretty sure there were some of those.