Wednesday 24 February 2016

Let's Brew Wednesday – 1948 Whitbread Extra Stout

English Stout. A topic I’ve banged on about at great length. This looks like another good opportunity for a little frothing at the mouth.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that Whitbread brewed three Stouts after WW II. Porter and Stouts were where the roots of its success lay. In the first half of the 20th century, Black Beers were a large percentage of Chiswell Street’s output. As late as 1939, 22% of the beer brewed there was Porter or Stout. Clearly an important product line for Whitbread.

Based on adverts I’ve seen, Whitbread sold their bottled Stout all over the UK before WW II. Then there was Mackeson. Which was a huge brand in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Not originally from Whitbread, but a beer they embraced. And parti-gyled with their existing Stouts. Remember I said there were three Stouts? Mackeson was at end of the line-up next to Whitbread Stout and Extra Stout.

I suspect Whitbread Extra Stout might have been an export beer. I’m really not sure. What I do know, is that it looks eerily similar to the pre-war version of another Extra Stout produced by an obscure Dublin brewery:

Guinness Stouts 1939 - 1948
Year Beer Price per pint OG FG ABV App. Atten-uation colour Acidity
1939 Extra Stout 10d 1054.5 1013.7 5.30 74.86% 1 + 10 0.07
1939 Extra Stout 10d 1054.5 1013.7 5.30 74.86% 1 + 10 0.07
1946 Extra Stout 1047 1016.1 4.00 65.74% 0.5 R  + 20.5 B 0.09
1946 Extra Stout 1041.7 1010.8 4.01 74.10% 11 Brown 0.08
1947 Extra Stout 1/7d 1041.8 1010.5 4.06 74.88% 1 + 6 0.07
1947 Extra Stout 1/7d 1042.5 1009.6 4.27 77.41% 1 + 7.5 0.10
1948 Extra Stout 1/3.5d 1047.2 1012 4.57 74.58% 1 + 6.5 0.12
1948 Export Stout 1072 1019.1 6.89 73.47% 1 + 10 0.07
1948 Extra Stout 2/- 1045.2 1012.6 4.23 72.12% 1 + 9 0.04
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.


I won’t get into a long discussion of the grist and that crap. As this is the same basic recipe as Whitbread Stout. That’s what parti-gyling is all about. For Mackeson, just add lactose at racking.

Almost forgot. English Stout rant. Not low-gravity, not sweet, no lactose. And that Guinness – a bit acidic. 0.04 – 0.05 was the usual level.



Over to me again for the recipe . . . .




1948 Whitbread Extra Stout
pale malt 5.75 lb 50.00%
mild malt 2.75 lb 23.91%
brown malt 0.75 lb 6.52%
chocolate Malt 0.75 lb 6.52%
no. 3 invert sugar 0.75 lb 6.52%
no. 2 invert sugar 0.75 lb 6.52%
Fuggles 60 min 1.50 oz
Saaz 30 min 1.50 oz
OG 1055.3
FG 1018.5
ABV 4.87
Apparent attenuation 66.55%
IBU 32
SRM 50
Mash at 148º F
Sparge at 170º F
Boil time 60 minutes
pitching temp 64º F
Yeast Wyeast 1099 Whitbread ale

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The SRM is too high and the ABV and IBU are too low for BJCP style rules. Could you please go back in time and tell the brewers they have it wrong?