Milk Stout 1925 - 1937

I should temporarily change title of the blog to The Milk Stout Story". Don't worry. I'm nowhere near finished with the topic.

I've dove into my collection of Gravity Book analyses to spear all the Milk Stout examples. And there are quite a few. All I can say is: what a diverse bunch.

For a start, the gravities are all over the shop. As you can see, the original, Mackeson, had a very respectable OG of 1060º in 1929. To put that into perspective, Guinness Extra Stout was around 1055º between the wars. The examples in the table vary from 1036º to 1066º. Though admittedly the high one is a Belgian example from Lamot. Though, at 1064º the strongest UK-brewed dexample isn't that far behind. The overall average of 1053º is probably about the same as the average for all Stouts.

Some of the rates of attenuation surprised me by how high they were. I wouldn't expect a Milk Stout, with all that unfermentable lactose to get higher than 65% apparent attenuation. Yet there are a few pushing 80%. Not sure how they achieved that, unless the quantity of lactose used was quite small. At the other end, there are a few at 50% attenuation of less. Which is more like you would expect. The overall average of 64% is higher than I would have guessed.
Note that the price per pint didn't always necessarily reflect the strength of the beer. At a time when beer strengths weren't gerneally known, it was relatively easy for a brewer to overprice a beer.

What I see is typical of fairly new styles. initially, different brewers interpretations vary considerably in strength and character, but eventually settle into a similar pattern. We'll see if that's true as I slowly creep through the decades.

Milk Stout 1925 - 1937
Year	Brewer	Beer	Price per pint d	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation
1925	Simonds	Milk Stout	11	1062.1
1927	Ashton Gate Brewery	Milk Stout	9	1052.4	1015.7	4.76	70.04%
1928	Simonds	Milk Stout	10	1058.7	1017.5	5.35	70.19%
1929	Mackeson	Milk Stout	10	1060.4	1020.4	5.18	66.23%
1930	Beer & Rigden	Milk Stout		1054.4	1027.1	3.50	50.18%
1931	Calder	Milk Stout		1059	1023	4.65	61.02%
1931	Fremlin	Milk Stout	10	1047.5	1019.9	3.56	58.11%
1932	Carter, Milner & Bird	Milk Stout	11	1044.2	1013.4	3.99	69.68%
1933	Murray	Milk Stout		1036	1018	2.31	50.00%
1933	Simonds	Milk Stout	10	1049	1018.5	3.94	62.24%
1934	Fremlin	Milk Stout	8	1048.7	1020.4	3.65	58.11%
1934	Woodhead	Milk Stout	8	1041.6	1016.3	3.26	60.82%
1935	Allsopp	Milk Stout	9	1049.3	1013.8	4.61	72.01%
1935	Ansell	Milk Stout	11	1060.7	1018.1	5.53	70.18%
1935	Fremlin	Milk Stout	8	1048.8	1020.2	3.69	58.61%
1935	Lamot	Milk Stout		1065.7	1016.9	6.35	74.28%
1935	Mann	Milk Stout	10	1044.6	1022.9	2.79	48.65%
1935	Simonds	Milk Stout	10	1048.4	1014.3	4.42	70.45%
1935	Simonds	Milk Stout	10	1055	1018.3	4.75	66.73%
1936	McEwan	Milk Stout	12	1064.4	1013.1	6.70	79.66%
1936	Wm. Younger	Milk Stout	10.5	1063	1014.7	6.30	76.67%
1937	Allsopp	Milk Stout	12	1050.3	1014.5	4.64	71.17%
1937	Ansell	Milk Stout	12	1060.8	1018.1	5.54	70.23%
1937	Calder Alloa	Milk Stout		1055.75	1022.25	4.32	60.09%
1937	Mackeson	Milk Stout		1057	1024.5	4.19	57.02%
1937	Mann	Milk Stout	9	1043.8	1023.8	2.56	45.66%
1937	Marston	Milk Stout	9	1045.8	1010	4.66	78.17%
1937	Murray	Milk Stout	6	1044.8	1019.2	3.30	57.14%
1937	Seed, Richard	Milk Stout	11	1052.9	1011.3	5.42	78.64%
1937	Wenlock	Milk Stout	8	1053.5	1025.9	3.55	51.59%
	Average		9.8	1052.6	1018.3	4.39	64.26%
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001.
Younger, Wm. & Co Gravity Book document WY/6/1/1/19 held at the Scottish Brewing Archive.
Thomas Usher Gravity Book document TU/6/11 held at the Scottish Brewing Archive.