Wednesday 12 April 2023

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1953 Whitbread Extra Stout

I've been working hard on the recipes for my book "Stout!". I'm almost done with Whitbread. Once I've got them finished, I'm almost done. Just the last few Barclay Perkins and Truman ones to polish off. Around 250 recipes in total. I'm currently on recipe 192. This was recipe number 188.

Had the gravity of Extra Stout changed since 1948? Of course, it hasn’t, as it’s an export beer. No need to fiddle with the gravity of a beer outside the vicissitudes of UK tax and legislation.

This example was parti-gyled with Mackeson, though not the example above. They do have identical grists, however. Which means it has just shy of 16% roasted malt. Note how loyal Whitbread were to brown malt. Even at this late date, when most UK – and Irish, for that matter – brewers had long ago dropped it in favour of a grist of just pale and black malt.

What a surprise – the same old mashing scheme.

action barrels strike heat time mashed time stood tap heat gravity
mash 1 248 150º F 10 30    
underlet 36 170º F   90 143º F 1071
sparge 1 310 170º F        
mash 2         154º F 1031
sparge 2 176 165º F        

Kent and Sussex hops again from the 1951 and 1952 harvests, respectively. Around two thirds of the former and a third of the latter.

1953 Whitbread Extra Stout
mild malt 9.00 lb 75.00%
brown malt 1.00 lb 8.33%
chocolate malt 1.00 lb 8.33%
No. 3 invert sugar 0.67 lb 5.58%
caramel 500 SRM 0.33 lb 2.75%
Fuggles 60 mins 1.50 oz
Fuggles 30 mins 1.50 oz
OG 1055
FG 1012
ABV 5.69
Apparent attenuation 78.18%
IBU 30
SRM 37
Mash at 147º F
Sparge at 165º F
Boil time 60 minutes
pitching temp 64º F
Yeast Wyeast 1099 Whitbread Ale

 


 

2 comments:

Rob Sterowski said...

I remember drinking that in Belgium in the 1990s.

When did Whitbread eventually stop selling stout in the UK?

Ron Pattinson said...

Rob Sterowski,

I suspect Whitbread never stopped selling Stout. As there would have been Mackeson right until the end.