London X Ale malts 1900 - 1915

Quite a few coloured malts are still knocking around in the grists. One iteration each of Barclay’s and Whitbread’s X Ales contain brown malt. Quite a lot in the case of the former and just a smidgen in the latter. This was early in the period covered, though.

Three beers have a very small amount of black malt, below 1% in every case. Presumably it was there for colour correction rather than flavour. While the percentage of amber malt in two Barclay’s examples is high enough to have impacted both the colour and the flavour.

As a type of malt specifically developed for beers like Mild Ale, you’d expect there to be more examples of crystal malt. This was certainly the case later in the century, when it became one of the standard ingredients for Mild. The percentages are all quite small, well below 10% in every case.

Fullers is the only brewery to include no coloured malts at all, sticking to just base malt. A tradition they continued for many decades.
 

London X Ale malts 1900 - 1915
Year	Brewer	pale malt	brown malt	black malt	amber malt	crystal malt	total malt
1900	Barclay Perkins	45.00%	23.63%			2.25%	70.88%
1906	Barclay Perkins	75.80%					75.80%
1909	Barclay Perkins	61.06%			10.18%		71.24%
1914	Barclay Perkins	66.04%			7.34%		73.38%
1900	Whitbread	91.30%					91.30%
1905	Whitbread	88.00%	3.00%				91.00%
1910	Whitbread	89.47%					89.47%
1914	Whitbread	93.41%					93.41%
1902	Fullers	67.47%					67.47%
1910	Fullers	74.05%					74.05%
1914	Fullers	75.52%					75.52%
1914	Courage	82.09%		0.83%		6.06%	88.98%
1900	Truman	80.33%		0.12%			80.45%
1905	Truman	79.07%					79.07%
1910	Truman	73.04%				3.91%	76.96%
1915	Noakes	68.86%		0.72%		5.02%	74.60%
	Average						79.60%
Sources:
Barclay Perkins brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers ACC/2305/1/593, ACC/2305/1/599, ACC/2305/1/601 and ACC/2305/1/603.
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/065, LMA/4453/D/01/070, LMA/4453/D/01/076 and LMA/4453/D/01/079.
Fullers brewing records held at the brewery.
Courage brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number ACC/2305/08/247.
Truman brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers B/THB/C/181, B/THB/C/186 and B/THB/C/190.
Noakes brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number ACC/2305/17/34.