Whitbread Beers in 1939

Compared to most provincial breweries, Whitbread brewed a very wide range of beers. Though not quite as many as some of their London rivals, for example, Barclay Perkins, which produced a ridiculous number of beers at the outbreak of the war.

A good example are the Mild Ales. Barclay Perkins brewed three different strengths of Mild, in the 4d, 5d and 6d per pint classes. But the latter two also came in semi-dark and dark versions, making a total of five Milds.

Whitbread, on the other hand, only brewed two strengths of Mild: 4d and 5d. And there were no colour variations. Both LA and X were always dark in colour. And darker than even the dark Barclay Perkins versions.

The vast majority of Whitbread’s Mild came in the form of X. While Barclay Perkins brewed reasonable quantities of Ale 4d, the equivalent of LA. in 1939, Whitbread produced 232,453 barrels of X but just 5,747 barrels of LA.*

The effective gravities for both Whitbread’s Milds were almost certainly a couple of degrees higher. Their brewing records don’t include details of the primings which were almost certainly added at racking time. It was standard practice for Mild at the time.

Heavy hopping was a feature of London beers in the 19th century and by the outbreak of WW II, that was still the case. Over 8 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt is a lot for Mild. Between 4 and 5 lbs was more typical. Note that the rate is even higher than that of their Pale Ale.

Whitbread offered just one draught Bitter, PA. It fell into the 7d per pint class and would have counted as a Ordinary Bitter. Unlike the majority of their London competitors they didn’t have an 8d per ping Best Bitter.

Their IPA, in case you’re wondering, was sold exclusively in bottled form. Filling in the Light Ale slot, though not using that name. They couldn’t really, as that, most confusingly, was already taken by their low-gravity Dark Mild.

There was at least a genuine Brown Ale. By that, I mean a beer specifically brewed as such and not just a tweaked version of Mild. Double Brown was notable for being a good bit stronger than the average London Brown Ale. In many ways it was closer to a bottled Burton Ale than a classic Brown Ale.

A second, weaker version, Forest Brown, was also produced. As this doesn’t appear in the brewing records, I’m guessing it was basically X Ale. Certainly after the war it was parti-gyled with, and very similar to, standard Mild.

A real outlier was their Burton Ale, 33. So named because it was introduced in 1933 when excise duty was reduced. Most Burton Ales were 8d per pint beers with gravities in the range 1050-1055º, though some brewers, such as Truman, made 7d per pint versions at around 1048º.



* Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/01/107.

Whitbread Ales in 1939
Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	colour
LA	Mild	1028.4	1009.0	2.57	68.31%	8.27	0.93	83
X	Mild	1033.9	1010.5	3.10	69.03%	8.27	1.11	110
IPA	IPA	1037.1	1008.0	3.85	78.44%	10.00	1.51	18
PA	Pale Ale	1048.2	1012.0	4.79	75.10%	7.33	1.41	22
DB	Brown Ale	1054.5	1018.0	4.83	66.97%	8.49	1.92	105
33	Strong Ale	1061.0	1020.0	5.42	67.21%	8.49	2.15	115
Source:
Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/01/107.