The ups and downs of Porter and Stout

I'm moving back a little further in time to see how Whitbread Porter and Stout fared in the late 19th and early 20tth centuries.

It's a rather more complicated story than between the wars, when the trend was always downwards. 1880 to 1899 is one of general decline, but then turned around and was rising all the way until 1910.

In 1880, Porter and Stout made up 38% of Whitbread’s output. But by 1899 had fallen to 29%. The fortunes of Stout seem to have been transformed by the introduction of Country Stout, which was soon selling over 100,000 barrels a year and boosted Black Beer’s share to over 40%.

Sales of Double Stout also shot up with the dawn of the new century, hitting over 40,000 barrels.

To put these numbers into context, most years Whitbread brewed more of one beer, X Ale, than all the Porter and Stout combined.

The last couple of decades of the 19th century were happy times for brewers, as can be seen in the increase in Whitbread’s output, which more than trebled between 1880 and 1910.

P = Porter
C = Country Porter
S = Stout
CS = Country Stout
LS = London Stout
SS = Double Stout
SSS = Treble Stout 

Whitbread Porter and Stout output 1880 - 1910
year	P	C	S	CS	LS	SS	SSS	Total Porter & Stout	Total Ale & Porter	% Porter & Stout
1880	75,898		471			8,411	15,069	99,849	261,785	38.14%
1881	75,423		217			9,143	14,366	99,149	284,391	34.86%
1882	79,605		523			9,577	15,682	105,387	297,645	35.41%
1883	78,595		541			10,352	15,213	104,701	292,671	35.77%
1884	89,925		323			12,160	16,049	118,457	320,769	36.93%
1885	91,885		970			12,290	17,146	122,291	322,140	37.96%
1886	88,017		720			11,445	17,531	117,713	304,472	38.66%
1887	90,397		841			12,422	17,426	121,086	329,214	36.78%
1888	91,008		425			14,138	15,515	121,086	347,267	34.87%
1889	94,097		392			14,819	15,859	125,167	354,835	35.27%
1890	100,250					18,110	16,950	135,310	381,026	35.51%
1891	113,027					20,602	15,335	148,964	416,814	35.74%
1892	94,027	29,124				17,887	15,029	156,067	451,176	34.59%
1893	80,067	39,543				17,355	13,679	150,644	457,418	32.93%
1894	75,553	35,516				17,194	13,542	141,805	464,323	30.54%
1895	73,459	37,043		2,706		17,796	12,743	143,747	473,435	30.36%
1896	73,994	39,188		10,132		19,205	12,206	154,725	508,008	30.46%
1897	79,624	42,933		17,003		19,490	12,263	171,313	545,887	31.38%
1898	84,316	41,162		26,549		20,039	11,576	183,642	603,695	30.42%
1899	78,190	44,556		36,138		23,238	10,962	193,084	664,164	29.07%
1900	77,183	43,102	4,252	50,286		28,316	11,087	214,226	671,579	31.90%
1901	76,080	37,766	7,946	68,719		34,541	10,398	235,450	706,223	33.34%
1902	81,926	35,700	8,315	82,752		41,017	11,333	261,043	741,806	35.19%
1904	82,848	32,620	12,904	110,689		44,874	13,187	297,122	759,324	39.13%
1905	89,170	29,352	13,669	119,703		42,062	14,009	307,965	778,152	39.58%
1906	84,261	5,686	13,512	152,418		38,968	17,219	312,064	802,427	38.89%
1907	99,864		15,235	152,880		40,447	16,181	324,607	823,499	39.42%
1908	92,529		4,023	170,830		45,252	14,833	327,467	811,599	40.35%
1909	85,610			187,934		45,660	14,060	333,264	860,823	38.71%
1910	108,166				199,761	43,041	10,879	361,847	850,828	42.53%
Sources:
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/045 to LMA/4453/D/01/075 and LMA/4453/D/09/076 to LMA/4453/D/09/104.

And, just for those who complained last time, here's a chart of the data.