Whitbread Double Brown 1939 - 1945

Brown Ale wasn’t immune to the downward pressure on gravities during the war. Especially examples like Whitbread Double Brown that were quite strong.

Over the course of the war the gravity of Double Brown fell 11 points, or around 20%. Though an increase in the rate of attenuation in the later war years meant that the ABV wasn’t much lower in 1945 than 1939. I’m sure drinkers appreciated the extra alcohol, but it must have considerably changed the character of the beer, leaving it with much less body than pre-war versions.

Anything over 4% ABV was pretty strong by the end of the war. In 1945, average OG was just 1034.5º.  And most Mild Ales barely scraped in at 3% ABV.

There was also a 20% reduction in the hopping rate, from 8.5 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt to 6.25 lbs. This was the result of a reduction of the quantity of hops made available to brewers in June 1941.

Whitbread Double Brown 1939 - 1945
Date	Year	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
21st Sep	1939	1054.5	1018.0	4.83	66.97%	8.49	1.92
11th Apr	1940	1054.1	1017.0	4.91	68.58%	8.50	1.82
14th Aug	1940	1049.3	1011.5	5.00	76.67%	8.50	1.71
20th Nov	1940	1047.3	1016.5	4.07	65.12%	8.42	1.62
31st Jan	1941	1046.1	1015.5	4.05	66.38%	8.10	1.54
13th Oct	1944	1044.2	1008.5	4.72	80.77%	6.77	1.22
24th Aug	1945	1043.3	1008.0	4.67	81.52%	6.25	1.16
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/01/111 and LMA/4453/D/01/112.