Sunday 11 December 2022

Between the wars London Stout grists

As promised, a look at interwar Stout grists. Let's see if we can make any sense of them. As they continue to become increasingly complex and diverse.

A dizzying array of malts were used, eight in total. Only one appears in every beer: brown malt. No real surprise there. They couldn't even agree on the roast element, with black malt, roast malt and chocolate malt all being employed.

Pale, mild and SA malt were used as base. The last in quite high quantities in some beers, such as IBS Ex (Russian Stout). Sa malt produced a less readily-fermentable wort. Something you'd want in a beer intended for a long Brettanomyces secondary fermentation. Mild malt? It was relatively cheap and in beers laden with dark malts, you weren't really going to notice the base.

Barclay Perkins clearly liked amber malt, as it turns up in every one of their Stouts. While crystal only makes an appearane in the standard-strength examples.

Oats occur in several beers. Though only one, OMS, is billed as an Oatmeal Stout. That's through part-gyling. Not that, apart from in the Courage example, the quantity is tiny. Far too little to have any impact on the character of the beer.

I'm surprised at how little flaked maize there is. Especially in the Barclay Perkins beers. They put it in everything. Or at least, that's what I thought. 

Between the wars London Stout grists
Year Brewer Beer pale malt brown malt black malt amber malt choc. Malt crystal malt mild malt SA malt roast barley oats flaked maize
1928 Barclay Perkins OMS   5.87%   11.75%   7.83% 50.90%   9.54% 0.24%  
1929 Barclay Perkins BS   5.49%   10.98%   7.32% 32.93% 10.98% 12.58% 0.23% 5.49%
1929 Barclay Perkins SBS   6.57%   8.45%   7.51% 37.56% 15.02% 11.74%    
1929 Barclay Perkins BBS Ex 8.75% 10.00% 7.50% 12.50%     20.63% 20.63%      
1929 Barclay Perkins IBS Ex   12.04% 7.29% 16.47%       50.69%      
1928 Courage Stout 62.73% 6.21% 6.21%     6.21%       6.83%  
1929 Whitbread ES 71.45% 8.81%     8.81%         0.49%  
  Average   20.42% 7.86% 3.00% 8.59% 1.26% 4.12% 20.29% 13.90% 4.84% 1.11% 0.78%
Sources:
Barclay Perkins brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number ACC/2305/01/614.
Courage brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number ACC/2305/08/256.
Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/09/123.


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