When searching for early references to Dark Mild, one I stumbled upon was in a massive catalogue from William Whiteley Ltd., published in 1913. They billed themselves as "universal providers" and it's no exaggeration.
Bed linen, external blinds, marquees, saddles, furniture handles, mangles, hammers, dog collars, revolvers, model trains, cameras, Russian flags, salad dressing, ham, mushroom spawn, monkeys, coal and beer. In fact, if you want to know the price of just about anything in 1913, this is the place to look. The two volumes run over 1200 pages.
Obviously the beer bit interests me most. Quite a lot of beers are included, mostly draught, but also quite a few bottles.
There's this little notice at the start of the beer section to remind you of the idiocy of UK licensing laws:
"SPECIAL NOTICE.
Under the conditions of our Licence we cannot supply leas than 3 dozen Imperial Pints; 4 dozen Reputed Pints; 6 dozen Imperial Half-Pints of Bottled Ales and Stout. 2 dozen Reputed Quarts; 4 dozen Reputed Pints of Cyder.
Quantities can be made up, assorted, to suit our Customers' requirements."
While in the revolver section there are no restrictions on sales.
It also claims: "Any Ale or Stout not quoted in these Lists can be procured at short notice." I'm not sure that's 100% true. I'm betting that they couldn't have got hold of the beer from a tint brewery in rural Scotland.
The bottled Stouts they had as regular offerings were mostly from the London area, with the exception of Usher, Allsopp and Guinness. They mostly look pretty weak, based on the price.
I've assumed that Whitbread Copper is their Porter, and Stout is London Stout. And that seems to tally with their strength. Draught Porter was 2d per pint and bottled beer sold at a premium. So 2s 6d a dozen (2.5d per pint) is about the cheapest you'd ever expect to see a beer described "Stout".
Guinness is probably the strongest beer in the list. And that wasn't super-strong for a Stout. There were much stronger ones. For example, Whitbread SS and SSS were 1086º and 1095º, respectively. At just 2d per pint, Whiteley's own brand Brown Stout must have been under 1050º.
Not sure why the Guinness bottled by M.H. Foster was more expensive. They must be the same beer, as Guinness only made Extra Stout and the export version Foreign Extra Stout.
Bottled Stouts in 1913 |
Brewery |
Place |
beer |
price (per doz)
Imperial pint |
OG |
Whiteley |
London |
Whiteley’s London
Brown Stout |
2s |
|
Whiteley |
London |
Whiteley’s Nourishing
Stout (specially selected) |
2s 6d |
|
Whitbread |
London |
Whitbread's
Cooper |
2s 4d |
1053 |
Whitbread |
London |
Whitbread's Stout |
2s 6d |
1054 |
Usher |
Devizes |
Usher’s Court
Luncheon Stout |
2s 6d |
|
Usher |
Devizes |
Usher's Oatmeal Stout |
2s 6d |
|
Watney,
Combe, Reid |
London |
Reid's Stout |
3s 6d |
|
Watney,
Combe, Reid |
London |
Reid's Invalid Stout |
3s |
|
Watney,
Combe, Reid |
London |
Reid’s Family Stout |
2s 6d |
|
Sedgwick |
Watford |
Sedgwick's Stout |
2s 6d |
|
Fremlin |
Maidstone |
Fremlin’s Stout,
Elephant Brand |
2s 6d |
|
Fremlin |
Maidstone |
Fremlin’s Oatmeal
Stout |
2s 6d |
|
Allsopp |
Burton |
Allsopp’s Luncheon
Stout |
2s 6d |
|
Waltham |
London |
Waltham’s Brown Stout |
2s 6d |
|
Waltham |
London |
Waltham's S. N. Stout |
3s |
|
Allsopp |
Burton |
Allsopp's Special
Stout |
3s 3d |
|
Raggett |
London |
Raggett's Nourishing
Stout |
4s |
|
Guinness |
Dublin |
Guinness’s Extra
Double Stout |
3s 4d |
1074 |
Guinness |
Dublin |
Guinness’s Extra
Stout (bottled M. H. Foster & Sons) |
4s |
1074 |
Sources: |
William Whiteley General Price List October, 1913, Volume 2,
page 1196. |
Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan
Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/09/107. |
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan
Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001. |