Kidd beers in early 1917

Kidd was a smallish brewery just outside London in Dartford, Kent. One for which some brewing records have been preserved due to being taken over by Courage in the late 1930s.

Based on their brew length of around 150 barrels, I estimate their annual production was between 40,000 and 50,000 barrels. To put that into perspective, in 1917 Whitbread brewed 578,502 barrels.* And they weren’t even the largest brewery in London.

Kidd brewed a range of six beers in early 1917, most likely fewer than they had been making at the start of the war. As the war progressed breweries gradually discontinued less popular beers and ones with high gravities. By the time the war ended, many were just brewing four or five beers.

Surprisingly, the weakest beer of the bunch is the only Pale Ale, BB. Which I’m guessing stood for Best Bitter. Both BB and XXXX were very heavily hopped. 14-15 lbs per quarter is about as high as a hopping rate got at that time. The other beers all have a similar level of hopping as equivalent London beers. And London was well-known for hoppy beers.

These are the Kidd beers:

Kidd beers in early 1917
Date	Year	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	boil time (hours)		Pitch temp
19th Mar	1917	X	Mild	1044.3	1013.9	4.03	68.75%	8.00	1.52	2.25	2.25	59º
16th Feb	1917	SXXX	Mild	1052.6	1018.0	4.58	65.79%	8.98	2.07	2.5	2	59º
15th Mar	1917	BB	Pale Ale	1038.2	1011.1	3.59	71.01%	14.08	2.30	2.5	2	59º
20th Mar	1917	Porter	Porter	1044.9	1015.0	3.96	66.67%	8.00	1.67	2.5		59º
6th Feb	1917	Stout	Stout	1062.6	1018.8	5.79	69.91%	9.00	2.28	2		59º
23rd Mar	1917	XXXX	Strong Ale	1069.8	1023.3	6.16	66.67%	15.00	4.65	2.5	2	59º
Source:
Kidd brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number ACC/305/16/013.

As I’ve already mentioned Whitbread, let’s use them as a contextualising tool. In early 1917, they were brewing 8 beers. Well, 7 really as LS (London Stout) was identical to their Porter. The one Mild that Whitbread brewed fell inbetween the two of Kidd. Though they didn’t brew much of the SXXX.

Whitbread beers in late 1916 and early 1917
Date	Year	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	boil time (hours)		Pitch temp
1st Feb	1917	X	Mild	1046.5	1007.0	5.23	84.96%	4.83	0.98	1.75	1.75	60º
21st Feb	1917	IPA	IPA	1046.5	1010.0	4.83	78.51%	11.94	2.42	1.5	1.75	60º
15th Feb	1917	PA	Pale Ale	1050.1	1012.0	5.05	76.07%	9.84	2.13	1.5	2	60º
15th Nov	1916	P	Porter	1050.4	1011.0	5.21	78.18%	5.80	1.34	1.5	1.75	61º
15th Nov	1916	LS	Stout	1050.4	1011.0	5.21	78.18%	5.80	1.34	1.5	1.75	61º
14th Mar	1917	SS	Stout	1076.0	1024.0	6.87	68.40%	7.07	2.48	1.75	1.83	57º
14th Mar	1917	SSS	Stout	1092.2	1035.0	7.57	62.04%	7.07	3.01	1.75	1.83	57º
13th Feb	1917	KKK	Stock Ale	1069.8	1024.0	6.06	65.62%	9.62	2.99	1.5	2	57º
Source:
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/082 and LMA/4453/D/09/111.

Whitbread’s Porter and Stouts are of a higher gravity than Kidd’s, though the hopping rate is lower. In fact all of Kidd’s beers are more heavily hopped than their Whitbread equivalents. Maybe it was something to do with being located in Kent. Though Shepherd Neame, another Kent brewer, had very low hopping rates.

The other big difference between the two breweries is the boil times, which were quite a bit longer at Kidd. Most breweries reduced their boil times during WW I as part of a deal with the government. Brewers promised to reduce their coal usage in return for not being nationalised.



* Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/082 and LMA/4453/D/09/111.