Whitbread grists in 1939

In reality, the six beers in the last post were brewed from four recipes. LA and X were parti-gyled together, as were DB and 33. While PA and IPA were both brewed single-gyle.

The slightly unusual feature of Whitbread was that they used no adjuncts, just malt and sugar. To put their ingredient usage into context, in 1939 the average across all breweries was 78% malt, 16% sugar and 6% unmalted grains.   All of Whitbread’s beers contained a higher malt percentage than that average.

Their malt usage, amongst their Ales, at least, was quite dull. Just base malt and some crystal. PA malt (Pale Ale malt) was simply the poshest version of pale malt, usually reserved for, unsurprisingly, Pale Ales. Though also used in higher-class Ales such as DB and 33.

It’s interesting that all the Ales contain crystal malt. No surprise in the Mild Ales and Burton, but this was quite early for it to appear in Pale Ales. That was mostly a post-war thing.

Note that the cheapest beers, LA and X, contain the highest percentage of malt. While the most expensive, DB and 33, contain the least.

The sugars are scarcely more exciting. Just No. 1 invert in the two Pale Ales. While the Milds get No. 3 and some caramel. Which is pretty much what you would expect. The two strong dark beers, DB and 33, went for a combination of caramel and Albion. Not sure what the latter was, but probably some sort of dark invert.

There’s considerable variation in the proportion of sugar across the different styles. With the two cheapest beers containing the least. A good demonstration that the principal reason for using sugar wasn’t its price.

Whitbread Ale malts in 1939
Beer	Style	OG	pale malt	PA malt	crystal malt	total malt
LA	Mild	1028.4	75.73%		13.59%	89.32%
X	Mild	1033.9	75.73%		13.59%	89.32%
IPA	IPA	1037.1	28.85%	51.92%	3.85%	84.62%
PA	Pale Ale	1048.2	24.06%	56.15%	4.81%	85.03%
DB	Brown Ale	1054.5	25.27%	52.17%	2.45%	79.89%
33	Strong Ale	1061.0	25.27%	52.17%	2.45%	79.89%
Source:
Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/01/107.

Whitbread Ale sugars in 1939
Beer	Style	OG	no. 1 sugar	no. 3 sugar	Albion	caramel	total sugar
LA	Mild	1028.4		9.06%		1.62%	10.68%
X	Mild	1033.9		9.06%		1.62%	10.68%
IPA	IPA	1037.1	15.38%				15.38%
PA	Pale Ale	1048.2	14.97%				14.97%
DB	Brown Ale	1054.5			19.57%	0.54%	20.11%
33	Strong Ale	1061.0			19.57%	0.54%	20.11%
Source:
Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/01/107.