Whitbread London Stout 1939 - 1945

Whitbread produced several Stouts at the outbreak of war: London Stout, London Oatmeal Stout, Mackeson Stout, Extra Stout and SSS. But, unlike Barclay Perkins, which had several different recipes for its Stouts, all of Whitbread’s had the same recipe. Inevitably, as they parti-gyled them all together.

Their main brand was London Stout, which came in both draught and bottled form. Costing, respectively, 7d and 8d per pint in the public bar. (If you bought a crate of four quart bottles, the price was just 7.5d per pint.)  At least at the outbreak of war. Tax increases soon pushed that price upwards.

Some brewers, such as Barclay Perkins heavily primed their Stouts, raising the effective OG by as much as 3º or 4º. Whitbread didn’t record primings in their brewing records, but, by cross-referencing with analyses of the finished beers, it appears they didn’t prime their Stouts, not even the draught version.

As was typical, the OG was eroded in the first half of the war and was stable for the remainder. Though, at just 3.5% ABV, it wasn’t very “stout” for the latter part of the war.

You can see the impact of government-dictated reductions in hop usage which kicked in during 1941. By the end of the war, with restrictions loosened, the hopping rate bounced back a little. The effect is also seen in the calculated IBUs. But remember that it’s just my calculation, not a measured value. Add the extra uncertainty of having to factor in the age of the hops and it’s even more of a guesstimate.

The colour paled across the war, simply due to the reduction in gravity and hence the quantity of malt employed.

Whitbread London Stout 1939 - 1945
Date	Year	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	calc. IBU	colour (EBC)	Pitch temp
8th Aug	1939	1046.9	1013.0	4.48	72.28%	6.89	1.28	31	330	62º
9th Sep	1940	1043.4	1012.5	4.09	71.20%	6.90	1.27	29	320	62º
22nd Sep	1941	1042.0	1011.5	4.03	72.62%	5.57	1.02	21	300	62º
4th Aug	1942	1038.7	1011.0	3.66	71.58%	6.64	1.11	23	330	62º
31st May	1943	1039.6	1012.5	3.59	68.43%	6.28	1.11	23	285	64º
22nd Sep	1944	1039.8	1013.5	3.48	66.08%	6.55	1.15	23	250	64º
19th Sep	1945	1039.2	1012.5	3.53	68.11%	6.14	1.09	23	285	64º
Sources:
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/09/126, LMA/4453/D/09/127, LMA/4453/D/09/128 and LMA/4453/D/09/129.