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.