Whitbread PA grists 1939 - 1945

Whitbread’s grists were a little simpler than those of Barclay Perkins. In terms of malts, it was very similar, with base pale or PA malt plus crystal malt. Unlike Barclay Perkins, Whitbread had already included crystal malt in the grist before the outbreak of war. Unusually, they had started employing crystal malt in PA in 1928. That’s much earlier than most breweries.

Most of the time there was only one sugar, No. 1 invert. The exception was in 1940, when they briefly used something called DM in addition. No idea what it was, other than that it was a proprietary sugar. At the start of the was sugar made up 15% of the grist, but after a year that fell to 9-11%. Presumably this was dictated by the amount of sugar they were allocated by the government.

Before the war, Whitbread employed no unmalted adjuncts, just malt and sugar. That changed during the war due to government demands. The type of adjunct used was also determined by the government. Mostly it was in the form of flaked barley, except in 1943 when there had been a bumper oats crop and the government directed some of the surplus for brewing. Not being great fans of adjuncts, Whitbread dropped flaked barley in autumn 1946, probably as soon as it was able to.

Like Barclay Perkins, Whitbread employed English hops, mostly from Kent, but also ones from Worcester and Sussex. They were usually from two or three different years. This wasn’t a result of the war but something they had practiced during the interwar years. As those from older harvests had been kept in a cold store, they would have retained most of their alpha acid.

Just before the end of the war some Oregon hops pop up. Presumably the shipping situation had improved sufficiently for imports of hops to resume.

There was little variation in the colour of PA. It was usually 25-26, which is about what you would expect for a beer of this type.

Whitbread PA grists 1939 - 1945
Date	Year	OG	pale malt	PA malt	crystal malt	no. 1 sugar	DM sugar
27th Sep	1939	1048.2	24.06%	56.15%	4.81%	14.97%
23rd Apr	1940	1047.2	14.44%	65.78%	4.81%	14.97%
14th Aug	1940	1043.1	14.33%	64.04%	5.90%	11.24%	4.49%
6th Feb	1941	1042.9	14.59%	69.73%	4.86%	10.81%
30th Jan	1942	1040.0		76.65%	3.30%	10.99%
29th May	1942	1038.6		76.24%	4.97%	8.84%
3rd Apr	1943	1038.5	4.97%	67.96%	4.97%	8.84%
22nd Feb	1944	1039.1		72.47%	6.74%	8.99%
4th Apr	1945	1039.4		66.57%	8.43%	12.36%
Sources:
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/107, LMA/4453/D/01/108, LMA/4453/D/01/109, LMA/4453/D/01/110, LMA/4453/D/01/111 and LMA/4453/D/01/112.

Whitbread PA adjuncts 1939 - 1945
Date	Year	OG	flaked barley	barley meal	flaked rye	flaked oat
27th Sep	1939	1048.2
23rd Apr	1940	1047.2
14th Aug	1940	1043.1
6th Feb	1941	1042.9
30th Jan	1942	1040.0	9.07%
29th May	1942	1038.6	5.80%	0.83%	3.31%
3rd Apr	1943	1038.5				13.26%
22nd Feb	1944	1039.1	11.80%
4th Apr	1945	1039.4	12.64%
Sources:
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/107, LMA/4453/D/01/108, LMA/4453/D/01/109, LMA/4453/D/01/110, LMA/4453/D/01/111 and LMA/4453/D/01/112.

Whitbread PA hops 1939 - 1945
Date	Year	OG	hops	colour
27th Sep	1939	1048.2	Worcester (1938), MK (1937 CS), EK (1937 CS), Sussex (1936 CS)	22
23rd Apr	1940	1047.2	MK (1937 CS, 1938 CS, 1939) and EK (1938 CS)	26.5
14th Aug	1940	1043.1	MK (1937 CS, 1938 CS), EK (1938 CS, 1939)	25
6th Feb	1941	1042.9	MK (1937 CS, 1939), EK(1940)	26
30th Jan	1942	1040.0	MK (1938 CS, 1941), EK (1938 CS, 1939 CS), Worcester (1940), samples	22.5
29th May	1942	1038.6	MK (1941), EK (1939 CS, 1941)	26
3rd Apr	1943	1038.5	MK (1941, 1942), Kent (1941), samples (1941)	26
22nd Feb	1944	1039.1	MK (1942, 1943), EK (1941)	25
4th Apr	1945	1039.4	MK (1942, 1943, 1944), Oregon (1942)	26
Sources:
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/107, LMA/4453/D/01/108, LMA/4453/D/01/109, LMA/4453/D/01/110, LMA/4453/D/01/111 and LMA/4453/D/01/112.