Whitbread Porter and Stout in 1939

Now onto the half of Whitbread’s range: Porter and Stout. I’m listing them separately, just for the sake of clarity. They were also in a separate brewing book from the Ales. I’m not the first person to have divided up their beers this way.

On the face of it, there were the same number of beers: six. Except London Stout (LS) and London Oatmeal Stout (LOS) were exactly the same. No difference at all in recipe or strength. Other than that London Stout was available both draught and bottled, while the “oatmeal version” only appeared in bottles.

All of the Ales were on sale in the UK. That wasn’t true of the Stouts. Extra Stout (ES) was brewed specifically for the Belgian market. Explaining why it was dropped early and 1940 and picked up again early in 1948.

The vast majority was just two beers: London Stout and Mackeson. Around 91%, to be specific. Sales of Porter had been plunging since the 1920s. It wouldn’t be around much longer. While Mackeson was rapidly increasing in popularity.

Whitbread Porter and Stout production in 1939
beer	style	barrels	% of total
P	Porter	3,810	2.96%
LS	Stout	67,177	52.14%
ES	Extra Stout	6,037	4.69%
MS	Milk Stout	50,890	39.50%
SSS	Imperial Stout	928	0.72%
Total		128,842
Source:
Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/09/126.

SSS had been Whitbread’s strongest Stout between the 1860s and WW I, before being dropped in 1917. It made an unexpected comeback in 1939. Though it didn’t last long, being discontinued again the following year. Not really a surprise, that. Such a strong beer would have been untenable in wartime.

Typically for London, all of these beers were reasonably well hopped at around 7lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt. That is a lower rate than for the Ales, which were mostly hopped at over 8lbs per quarter. Unsurprisingly, the Imperial Stout got the most hops.

The OG and FG shown above for Mackeson, taken from the brewing record, don’t reflect the beer as sold. As they exclude the lactose which was added as primings at racking time. These analyses of the finished beer are more accurate:

Whitbread Mackeson Milk Stout 1937 - 1939
Year	Brewer	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation
1937	Mackeson	Milk Stout	1057	1024.5	4.19	57.02%
1938	Mackeson	Milk Stout	1056.5	1025.5	3.99	54.87%
1938	Mackeson	Milk Stout	1058.25	1026.75	4.05	54.08%
1939	Mackeson	Milk Stout	1056	1025	3.99	55.36%
Source:
Thomas Usher Gravity Book held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number TU/6/11.

Around 5º of OG were added by the lactose primings. Which are excluded from the following tables of ingredients.

Whitbread Porter and Stout in 1939
Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
P	Porter	1029.6	1008.0	2.86	72.97%	6.93	0.87
LS	Stout	1047.3	1013.0	4.54	72.52%	6.93	1.38
LOS	Stout	1047.3	1013.0	4.54	72.52%	6.93	1.38
MS	Stout	1051.8	1017.5	4.54	66.22%	7.40	1.59
ES	Stout	1055.4	1017.0	5.08	69.31%	6.93	1.62
SSS	Stout	1110.3	1043.0	8.90	61.02%	7.40	3.38
Source:
Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/09/126.