Sunday 9 January 2022

Imperial Russian Stout 1849 - 1986

Someone commented on a post a few days ago about Barclay Perkins beers in the late 19th century, remarking on the pitiful OG of Russian Stout in 1946. Had the terms "Russian" and "Imperial" become meaningless by the middle of the 20th century.

My reply was that the low gravity was connected with the war and later went back to the classic 1100º+. Want proof? Well, obviously, I've got plenty. From a couple of different sources.

Russian Stout was extremely unusual in being almost exactly the same gravity in 1986 as in 1847. I can't think of another beer that managed to get through the two World Wars with no drop in gravity.

If you're wondering why the rate of attenuation is greater in the examples from 1938, 1950 and 1953 is greater, the answer is simple. Those are analyses of the finished beer, after the secondary Brettanomyces fermentation. While the others are taken from brewing records and the FG is at the end of primary fermentation.

Imperial Russian Stout 1849 - 1986
Year OG FG ABV App. Atten-uation colour
1849 1104.9 1031 9.78 70.46%  
1850 1109.0 1031 10.32 71.57%  
1855 1107.2 1033 9.82 69.22%  
1856 1106.9 1033 9.78 69.14%  
1859 1105.3 1033 9.56 68.65%  
1922 1100 1030 9.15 70.00%  
1924 1103.4 1040 8.39 61.32% 420
1928 1102.8 1042 8.05 59.16% 680
1929 1102.7 1037.5 8.63 63.49% 340
1931 1102.9 1040.5 8.26 60.65% 460
1936 1102.5 1034 8.93 66.83% 400
1937 1104.5 1041.5 8.33 60.29% 380
1937 1102.7 1023.2 10.47 77.41%  
1938 1101.5 1024.1 10.18 76.26%  
1950 1100.1 1021.1 10.41 78.92% 350
1953 1101 1018 10.97 82.18% 500
1981 1101.8        
1986 1104        
Source:
Barclay Perkins brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers ACC/2305/1/540, ACC/2305/1/542, ACC/2305/1/544, ACC/2305/01/611, ACC/2305/01/614, ACC/2305/01/621.
Whitbread Gravity books held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/02/001 and LMA/4453/D/02/002.
Good Beer Guide 1982 and 1987.

 

2 comments:

The Beer Nut said...

Is Guinness Foreign Extra another that survived the wars intact?

Ron Pattinson said...

Nut,

yes. But that was an export only beer. Bass No. 1 and Truman No.1 Barley Wine are beers sold domestically which emerged from the wars pretty much unscathed.