Five malts were employed in total. Including two base malts, pale and lager. The latter was used for beers they wanted to keep really pale: Export Pale Ale and Gold Label. Logically enough, neither of those included crystal malt. Nor did Final Selection. All the other beers did.
Brown malt, as you expect, is limited to the two Stouts. Whitbread, as a London brewer was very faithful to brown malt. Not so with black malt, which they replaced with chocolate malt in the 1920s. Which also showed up in the other two dark beers, Best Mild and Final Selection.
For most of the beers the malt content was fairly high, averaging about 85%. The exception being Gold Label, where it was just a shade under 70%.
| Whitbread grists in 1973 | |||||||
| Beer | Style | pale malt | brown malt | choc. Malt | crystal malt | lager malt | total malt |
| Best Mild | Mild | 70.55% | 3.27% | 8.73% | 82.55% | ||
| Trophy | Pale Ale | 78.54% | 6.37% | 84.91% | |||
| Tankard | Pale Ale | 78.54% | 6.37% | 84.91% | |||
| Export Pale Ale | Pale Ale | 89.74% | 89.74% | ||||
| Mackeson | Stout | 70.18% | 4.70% | 8.40% | 3.71% | 86.99% | |
| Extra Stout | Stout | 70.18% | 4.70% | 8.40% | 3.71% | 86.99% | |
| Final Selection | Strong Ale | 87.44% | 3.26% | 90.70% | |||
| Gold Label | Barley Wine | 69.28% | 69.28% | ||||
| Source: | |||||||
| Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/09/141. | |||||||
I was surprised to see the grists for Tankard/Trophy and Extra Stout/Mackeson so exactly identical. I'll guess that the adjuncts and sugars will also be the same.
ReplyDeleteWhich made me think, I'd be interested to see a selection of recipes from present day breweries like Marstons and Greene King where they ostensibly produce a very wide range of different beers to be sold under different brand names, including the names of now defunct breweries. How many different recipes do they actually use, and how many different brands are actually the same beer.
Interesting that brown malt existed at that time.
ReplyDeleteOscar
Chris Pickles,
ReplyDeletethe recipes were identical as they were parti-gyled.
Surprising to see that Gold Label is still sold. Who buys it?
ReplyDeleteIn the late 90s and early 00s my grandad would buy me a six-pack of Banks's Barley Gold as a treat for a skint student. So there's a market for it. I was surprised a brewery like Banks's was still making something like that. It was pretty bloody sweet, hard going to get through more than one or two in a session.
DeleteIain your Grand dad was class.
DeleteOscar
This is a dumb question from an American, but how were Whitbread beers like this?
ReplyDeleteMy introduction to Whitbread was when my city was a stop for the Whitbtead Round the World Race their marketing department dreamed up, with the irony that you couldn't buy any of their beer here if you tried.
Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteI can't really comment on the Chiswell Street beers as I never tasted any. I did have Best Mild from, I assume, Luton. It was a pretty bland keg Mild. Gold Label I also had, though no idea of where it was brewed. I have a weird soft spot for Gold Label.
Thom Farrell,
ReplyDeletewho buys Gold Label? Well, I do when I see it.
Not many big six era beers around anymore Ron.
DeleteOscar
Oscar
ReplyDeleteWell thats the thing, the Big Six dominated the market. Beer lovers were not happy with them because they refused to supply cask beer to large areas of their pub estates and had a stranglehold on the free trade. But there was a lot of brewing expertise there and Big Six breweries produced some absolutely splendid beers.
Allied had Tetley's, I don't need to comment on them here. I didn't like Ansell's - too sweet for me - but it met the local preference. I always enjoyed Ind Coope beers.
Draught Bass and Charrington's IPA.
Courage Best and Directors. And when they finally returned as cask beer, John Smith's Bitter and Magnet.
Whitbread Castle Eden Ale. Wethered Trophy. Pompey Royal. Chesters Fighting Mild.
Youngers IPA and No 3. Newcastle Exhibition when they reintroduced it in cask format.
Watney Mann, perhaps less so.... but Websters could be good. And I had a soft spot for Truman's late unlamented Tap Bitter.
So I'd say we CAMRA types may have railed against the Big Six, but we lost a lot of damn good beers when they faded away from the scene.
Thanks for your comment.
DeleteOscar