The long decline of Porter and Stout

One of the joys of  writing a proper book is putting material together in a proper order. A joy, because that's when you notice stuff. Information you already have, put into a new context.

There's been plenty of that serendipity as I plod my was through the fields of Stout history. The new book is full of tables, of course. It wouldn't be right without lots of tables. The information I mostly collected years ago. But I'm mostly using it slightly differently from how I have before. Giving me the occasional dazzling new insight. And plenty of dully gleaming ones.

This is a table I assembled for the interwar chapter. Whitbread brewing records have dead handy summaries of the quantity of each beer brewed week by week in the final few pages. Allowing us to trace the decline of not just Porter, but also Stout.

An inexorable decline throughout the whole period. With Porter and Stout dropping from a very respectable 35% in 1921 to just 22% in 1939. I would tell you what happened after that. But the bastards stopped recording the totals in 1940.

The revelation? I hadn't noticed just how much how much Whitbread Stout sales were on the slide between the wars.

S = Stout
CS = Country Stout
LS = London Stout
ES= Extra Stout
MS = Mackeson Stout
SSS = Treble Stout

In the 1920s, S, CS, LS and ES were idebntical.

Whitbread Porter and Stout output 1921 - 1939
	P	S	CS	LS	ES	MS	SSS	Total Porter & Stout	Total Ale & Porter	% Porter & Stout
1921	15,688	58,452		133,563	30,920			238,623	675,647	35.32%
1922	16,562	47,530	84,703	15,340	28,582			192,717	576,118	33.45%
1923	14,165	39,960	68,326	20,866	26,660			169,977	505,097	33.65%
1924	15,948	37,834	74,258	23,442	26,710			178,192	551,616	32.30%
1925	14,943	35,396	62,357	22,262	28,974			163,932	527,977	31.05%
1926	13,511	34,567	20,721	69,724	29,990			168,513	512,528	32.88%
1927	10,708	30,087		86,569	22,361			149,725	462,250	32.39%
1928	10,105	30,017		85,992	16,039			142,153	488,357	29.11%
1929	5,558	17,284		51,624	11,313			85,779	443,888	19.32%
1930	13,840	25,643		90,801	20,724			151,008	535,271	28.21%
1931	13,389	17,109		93,094	20,027			143,619	495,805	28.97%
1932	10,493			100,632	15,342			126,467	442,755	28.56%
1933	9,653			97,810	13,973			121,436	471,190	25.77%
1934	9,444			91,660	21,116			122,220	501,180	24.39%
1935	8,006			89,617	25,646			123,269	528,370	23.33%
1936	6,836			85,748	16,868	14,428		123,880	540,995	22.90%
1937	5,939			82,900	10,805	27,730		127,374	565,230	22.53%
1938	5,133			75,651	10,022	36,769		127,575	569,532	22.40%
1939	3,810			67,177	6,037	50,890	928	128,842	590,695	21.81%
Sources:
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/09/114, LMA/4453/D/09/115, LMA/4453/D/09/116, LMA/4453/D/09/117, LMA/4453/D/09/118, LMA/4453/D/09/119, LMA/4453/D/09/120, LMA/4453/D/09/121, LMA/4453/D/09/122, LMA/4453/D/09/123, LMA/4453/D/09/124, LMA/4453/D/09/125, LMA/4453/D/09/126, LMA/4453/D/01/086, LMA/4453/D/01/087, LMA/4453/D/01/088, LMA/4453/D/01/089, LMA/4453/D/01/090,  LMA/4453/D/01/091, LMA/4453/D/01/092, LMA/4453/D/01/093, LMA/4453/D/01/094, LMA/4453/D/01/096, LMA/4453/D/01/096, LMA/4453/D/01/097, LMA/4453/D/01/098, LMA/4453/D/01/099, LMA/4453/D/01/100, LMA/4453/D/01/101, LMA/4453/D/01/102, LMA/4453/D/01/103, LMA/4453/D/01/104, LMA/4453/D/01/105, LMA/4453/D/01/106 and LMA/4453/D/01/107.