Thursday 5 January 2023

Was roasting malt banned in WW I?

War brought with it all sorts of restrictions. From which malt wasn’t spared. Though they weren’t the ones often bandied about.

Various writers have asserted that there was a ban on roasting malt. Which finished off Porter, stopped the brewing of Stout and left the UK market wide open for Guinness. Except that never happened.

There were plenty of Orders from the Food Controller relating to malt. None of them mentions roasted or coloured malt. I won't go through the whole lot. They all concern the manufacture, transport and sale of malt. The first Order, in February 1917, forbade all three, without the express permission of the Food Controller.  *

The last Order, in February 1918, only allowed maltsters to produce the quantity of malt required to brew the maximum barrelage set for the first six months of 1918.  **

A cursory glance at the grists reveals that brewers retained access to supplies of roasted malts. Courage are a good example, as they brewed Stout uninterrupted through all of the war years.

There was a big reduction in the roast malt content, particularly in the form of brown malt, in 1917. It still averaged around the 20% level for the latter war years.  

Courage Double Stout/Stout grists 1914 - 1920
Date Year Beer pale malt brown malt black malt total malt total roast malt
21st Oct 1914 Double Stout 60.22% 19.59% 10.52% 90.33% 30.11%
10th Mar 1915 Double Stout 58.43% 20.22% 10.11% 88.76% 30.34%
22nd Sep 1915 Double Stout 61.48% 20.23% 10.51% 92.22% 30.74%
1st Dec 1915 Double Stout 59.20% 20.62% 11.31% 91.13% 31.93%
10th May 1916 Double Stout 60.10% 20.03% 10.02% 90.15% 30.05%
3rd Jan 1917 Double Stout 64.41% 10.17% 8.47% 83.05% 18.64%
24th Oct 1917 Double Stout 68.69% 9.81% 8.41% 86.92% 18.22%
16th Jan 1918 Double Stout 69.79% 8.82% 11.23% 89.84% 20.05%
2nd May 1918 Stout 68.73% 10.91% 10.91% 90.55% 21.82%
2nd Jul 1919 Stout 67.53% 8.76% 11.34% 87.63% 20.10%
1st Oct 1919 Stout 69.61% 7.84% 9.80% 87.25% 17.65%
21st Jan 1920 Stout 67.30% 9.24% 13.64% 90.18% 22.87%
Sources:
Courage brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers ACC/2305/08/247, ACC/2305/08/248, ACC/2305/08/249, ACC/2305/08/250 and ACC/2305/08/251.

 I suppose roasting malt was banned in a way. Because making any sort of malt was.

 


* "Food Supply Manual October 1917", pages 68-69.

** "Food Supply Manual April 1918", pages 167-168.

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