Milk Stout 1938 - 1939

You may be wondering about my current Milk Stout obsession. Why? Would seem a logical question.

It's because I'm on my travels. Not as I write this, but as you read it. I'll be in Michigan when this is published, a couple of days into my Macbeth tour. I've no idea when I'm away if I'll have either the time or the inclination to write blog posts. So I write them all before I leave. Enough to have me covered until a couple of days after I return. Having a theme saves me the trouble of thinking up post ideas.

Lots more lovely Milk Stouts. Though they're still a bit all over the shop, varying in OG from 1036º to 1066º. Which is pretty much identical to the last set. Except top dog this time is William Younger. I published a recipe for 1939 William Younger Btlg DBS and remarked it didn't look like the usual idea of a Milk Stout. I'm heartened to see that it clearly was marketed as a Milk Stout, because it's a perfect match for the two examples in the table.

You can see that the gravity of Mackeson has fallen a little, from 1060º in 1929 to 1056º in 1939. While at the same time the FG has risen from 1020º to 1025º, reducing the attenuation from 66% to 55%. The conclusion must be that it was becoming sweeter. The ABV also dropped from 5.2% to 4%. I don't think I would have appreciated that.

The most significant change is in the average rate of attenution, which has fallen from 64% to 61%. It looks to me as if Milk Stout in general was getting sweeter. Something I suspect will be confirmed when we look at Milk Stouts during and after WW II. There's another couple of posts mapped out.

Milk Stout 1938 - 1939
Year	Brewer	Beer	Price per pint d	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour
1938	Barclay Perkins	Milk Stout	6	1048.6	1019.2	3.79	60.49%	325
1938	Bernard	Milk Stout	9	1057	1013.6	5.65	76.14%	320
1938	Birkenhead Brewery	Milk Stout		1057.9	1020.9	4.78	63.90%	320
1938	Brickwoods	Milk Stout	10	1052.6	1016.2	4.72	69.20%	330
1938	Fullers	Milk Stout	8	1045.5	1020.4	3.23	55.16%
1938	Gilmour	Milk Stout	9	1047.4	1014.5	4.26	69.41%
1938	Hydes	Milk Stout	9	1052.4	1016.5	4.65	68.51%	225
1938	John Smith	Milk Stout		1047.9	1016	4.13	66.60%
1938	Mackeson	Milk Stout		1056.5	1025.5	3.99	54.87%
1938	Mackeson	Milk Stout		1058.25	1026.75	4.05	54.08%
1938	Richdale, John	Milk Stout	9	1045.1	1017.2	3.60	61.86%	320
1938	Stone, Wm.	Milk Stout		1055.4	1027.6	3.57	50.18%
1938	Truman	Milk Stout		1047.1	1021	3.36	55.41%
1938	Watney	Milk Stout	9.5	1048.6	1020.2	3.66	58.44%
1938	Watney	Milk Stout	10	1050.5	1025.3	3.23	49.90%	175
1939	Barclay Perkins	Milk Stout	9	1049.2	1020.2	3.74	58.94%	320
1939	Calder Alloa	Milk Stout	10	1052.5	1021	4.06	60.00%
1939	Kemp Town	Milk Stout	9	1046.8	1015.7	4.02	66.45%	200
1939	Leicester Brewing & Malting Co.	Milk Stout	11	1040.3	1011.5	3.73	71.46%	200
1939	Lovibond	Milk Stout		1051.9	1019.4	4.20	62.62%	425
1939	Mackeson	Milk Stout	12	1056	1025	3.99	55.36%
1939	Ridley	Milk Stout		1049.2	1020.2	3.74	58.94%	330
1939	Tamplin	Milk Stout		1036	1011.5	3.17	68.06%	225
1939	Taylor Walker	Milk Stout	10	1061.1	1031	3.86	49.26%	800
1939	Truman	Milk Stout	9.5	1047.7	1022	3.31	53.88%	250
1939	Truman	Milk Stout	9.5	1045.7	1020.1	3.30	56.02%	275
1939	Warwick & Richardson	Milk Stout		1052.4	1021.2	4.02	59.54%	300
1939	Watney	Milk Stout	10	1050.3	1024.5	3.31	51.29%	175
1939	Wm. Younger	Milk Stout (Monk Export Brand)		1065.8	1023.9	5.42	63.68%	500
1939	Wm. Younger	Milk Stout	12	1065.5	1019	6.04	70.99%
	Average		9.6	1051.4	1020.2	4.02	60.70%	316.6
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001.
Thomas Usher Gravity Book document TU/6/11 held at the Scottish Brewing Archive.