Shut up about Barclay Perkins: Whitbread Mild 1939

Tuesday, 17 September 2019

Whitbread Mild 1939 - 1945

Whitbread’s standard strength Mild, X, changed it’s name early in 1940 from X to XX. Odd, as, while you would expect XX to be stronger than X, the name change was also accompanied by a cut in gravity.

At the outbreak of war, Whitbread a weaker Mild called LA, with a gravity of 1028.3º. It was discontinued in 1940, probably because of the small volumes being produced. In 1939, they brewed just 5,747 barrels of LA. To put that into context, 232,453 barrels of X Ale were produced that same year.*

As with Barclay Perkins Mild, the gravity reductions to Whitbread’s Mild mostly occurred in the first half of the war. From 1942 onwards, it remained relatively stable at around 1028º. Which is very similar to where Barclay Perkins X ended up.

Whitbread’s Mild was typical of those brewed in London in being quite heavily hopped. 8 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt is a very reasonable rate and similar to the level of hopping found in may provincial Bitters. The hopping rate was reduced by about 25% in 1941 on government orders. But at around 6lbs per quarter of malt, the degree of hopping was still very respectable.

The base malt was mostly a mix of pale malt and mild malt, though occasionally it was 100% of just one. The only coloured grain employed was crystal malt, the percentage of which declined steadily throughout the war. By its end, only about half as much was being used as in 1939.

As a brewery which pre-war had brewed from just malt and sugar, wartime government insistence on the use of unmalted grains caused more recipe changes than elsewhere. Adjunct brewers mostly just swapped flaked maize for flaked barley.

Whitbread used a variety of different adjuncts, including some unusual ones like barley meal and flaked rye. By the end of the war, they had settled down on the use of flaked barley. The proportion of unmalted grains increased over the later war years reaching almost 17% by 1945.

The sugar columns are a little misleading. The three where there’s no No. 3 listed almost certainly did contain it. Simply the brewing records for that period didn’t note the type of sugar being used. It was almost certainly No. 3, though. The rest of the “other sugar” is Hay’s M, a type of caramel.

The total amount of sugar used was about halved between 1939 and 1942, but returned to around its pre-war level in 1945.

Whitbread Mild 1939 - 1945
Date	Year	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	boil time (hours)		Pitch temp	colour
25th Sep	1939	1033.6	1010	3.12	70.24%	8.27	1.1	1.25	1	65º	17 + 40
23rd Apr	1940	1033.6	1009	3.25	73.21%	8.12	1.14	1.25	1.25	65º	16 + 40
31st Jul	1940	1031.5	1008.5	3.04	73.02%	8.42	1.09	1.25	1	65º	16 + 40
20th Nov	1940	1031.1	1010	2.79	67.85%	8.42	1.07	1.17	0.75	66º	16 + 40
31st Jan	1941	1030	1009	2.78	70.00%	8.1	1	2.17	1.5	65º	16 + 40
10th Oct	1941	1031.2	1009	2.94	71.15%	6.38	0.76	1.25	1.25	65º	14 + 40
30th Jan	1942	1029.1	1007.5	2.86	74.23%	5.84	0.75	1	1	65º	18 + 40
30th May	1942	1028.4	1007	2.83	75.35%	6.19	0.75	1	1	65º	16 + 40
5th Apr	1943	1027.8	1008	2.62	71.22%	6.07	0.76	1	1.25	65º	15 + 40
2nd Sep	1943	1028.2	1008	2.67	71.63%	6.07	0.73	1	0.83	65º	14 + 40
7th Apr	1944	1028.3	1007.5	2.75	73.50%	5.79	0.69	1	0.75	65º	14 + 40
11th Dec	1944	1028.4	1008.5	2.63	70.07%	5.91	0.72	1	1	65º	14 + 40
5th Apr	1945	1028.4	1008.5	2.63	70.07%	5.67	0.71	1	0.75	65º	15 + 40
24th Aug	1945	1028.1	1010	2.39	64.41%	5.67	0.71	1	0.75	65º	13 + 40
Source:
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, LMA/4453/D/01/112, and LMA/4453/D/01/113.

Whitbread Mild grists 1939 - 1945
Date	Year	OG	pale malt	crystal malt	mild malt	PA malt	wheat malt
25th Sep	1939	1033.6	75.73%	13.59%
23rd Apr	1940	1033.6	24.30%	13.08%	54.21%		1.87%
31st Jul	1940	1031.5	77.54%	13.57%	1.94%
20th Nov	1940	1031.1	81.42%	11.63%
31st Jan	1941	1030.0	20.17%	12.10%	58.49%		2.02%
10th Oct	1941	1031.2	65.39%	11.98%	4.99%	4.99%	2.00%
30th Jan	1942	1029.1		12.02%	68.11%		2.00%
30th May	1942	1028.4	46.32%	12.63%	16.84%		2.11%
5th Apr	1943	1027.8	9.28%	10.31%	55.67%
2nd Sep	1943	1028.2	46.39%	10.31%	18.56%
7th Apr	1944	1028.3		10.45%	71.08%
11th Dec	1944	1028.4		7.42%	73.14%
5th Apr	1945	1028.4		7.39%	62.32%
24th Aug	1945	1028.1	36.97%	7.39%	25.35%
Source:
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, LMA/4453/D/01/112, and LMA/4453/D/01/113.

Whitbread Mild sugars and adjuncts 1939 - 1945
Date	Year	OG	no. 3 sugar	other sugar	flaked barley	barley meal	flaked rye	flaked oat
25th Sep	1939	1033.6	9.06%	1.62%
23rd Apr	1940	1033.6	4.98%	1.56%
31st Jul	1940	1031.5	5.17%	1.78%
20th Nov	1940	1031.1		6.95%
31st Jan	1941	1030.0		7.23%
10th Oct	1941	1031.2		5.66%	4.99%
30th Jan	1942	1029.1	4.01%	1.84%	12.02%
30th May	1942	1028.4	5.61%	1.75%	8.42%	1.05%	5.26%
5th Apr	1943	1027.8	5.50%	1.72%				17.53%
2nd Sep	1943	1028.2	5.50%	1.72%				17.53%
7th Apr	1944	1028.3	4.18%	1.74%	12.54%
11th Dec	1944	1028.4	2.83%	1.77%	14.84%
5th Apr	1945	1028.4	9.86%	3.52%	16.90%
24th Aug	1945	1028.1	9.86%	3.52%	16.90%
Source:
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, LMA/4453/D/01/112, and LMA/4453/D/01/113.