Thursday 8 December 2022

Between the wars draught London Stout

What happened to London Stout after WW I? Well, it got quite a bit weaker. As you would expect.

London was unusual in that Stout remained a standard draught beer throughout the interwar period. Most brewers decided to make their draught Stout an 8d per pint beer. Though a few plumped for a 7d beer and some made both a 7d and an 8d one. The last was a dangerous practice. From the gravity books I can see that some unscrupulous landlords were either watering their Stout or selling the 7d version for 8d.

The beers fit very neatly into the gravity bands defines in the last set of WW I price controls. Where an 8d beer was 0ver 1054º and 7d 1046º-1053º. It's incredible how these definitions of strength/price remained in place right through until WW II.

For a style of beer which was intended to be full-bodied, the average rate of attenuation is pretty decent, being around 72% for both types.

Next we'll be looking at a few of these Stouts in greater detail. Won't that be fun? 

Between the wars draught London Stout
Year Brewer Price per pint (d) OG FG ABV App. Atten-uation
1928 Courage 7 1048 1014 4.41 70.83%
1928 Hoare 7 1046.6 1013.6 4.28 70.82%
1931 Taylor Walker 7 1049 1013 4.67 73.47%
1926 Truman 7 1046.3      
1928 Wenlock 7 1042.9 1011.8 4.03 72.49%
  Average   1046.6 1013.1 4.35 71.90%
1928 Barclay Perkins 8 1054.9 1017.2 4.89 68.67%
1926 Cannon 8 1057.9      
1930 Charrington 8 1055.2      
1929 Hoare 8 1056.2 1018 4.95 67.97%
1926 Huggins 8 1055.5      
1927 Mann Crossman 8 1056.6      
1931 Meux 8 1051 1014.7 4.71 71.18%
1931 Taylor Walker 8 1055.3 1015.9 5.11 71.25%
1929 Truman 8 1058 1011.3 6.09 80.52%
1929 Watney 8 1055.9 1014.5 5.38 74.06%
1926 Whitbread 8 1058.7      
1931 Wenlock 8 1046.6 1012.3 4.45 73.61%
  Average   1055.2 1014.8 5.08 72.23%
Sources:
Truman Gravity Book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/C/252.
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001.


3 comments:

Matt said...

By 1946, Orwell was opining in The Moon Under Water that "I doubt whether as many as 10 per cent of London pubs serve draught stout".

Phil said...

The beers fit very neatly into the gravity bands defines in the last set of WW I price controls. Where an 8d beer was 0ver 1054º and 7d 1046º-1053º. It's incredible how these definitions of strength/price remained in place right through until WW II.

So is that - the WWI price controls and 20-25 years of stability afterwards - where we get references to low-end 4d (mild) ale and the public bar as the "four-ale bar" (meaning fourpenny-ale)?

Ron Pattinson said...

Phil,

four ale bar comes from before WW I and refers to the price per quart of standard Mild Ale.