Fullers vs Youngs Porter and Stout grists in the early 1930s

There’s a lot more malt fun in the next set: Porter and Stout. Which were the grists where there was the most room for variation. At least when it came to malts.

The classic London Black Beer grist was a combination of pale, brown and black malt. With sometimes some amber thrown in, especially in the posher Stouts. Whereas in the rest of England brewers had mostly switched to just pale and black malt by the middle of the 19th century.

The big London brewers like Barclay Perkins and Whitbread, were very faithful to brown malt, continuing to use it even after WW II. But neither Fullers nor Youngs were.

Fullers went for the minimalist option, with black as the only coloured malt. Youngs opted for something more complex. Using amber and crystal malt in addition. Which bumps the coloured malt percentage to almost 25%. And leaves the percentage of malt much higher than at Fullers.

Youngs used the cheaper mild malt as base, rather than pale malt. I can’t say that I blame them. With all that coloured malt. Who was going to notice the base malt?

Oatmeal Stouts were all the rage between the wars. We can see both brewers were packaged at least some Stout as Oatmeal from the presence of oats. A purely token amount in the case of Fullers. Something more substantial at Youngs. A quantity that probably had a noticeable effect on the character of the beer.

Instead, the Fullers beers have a decent amount of flaked maize. Just like all Fullers other beers.

Two sugars at each of the breweries, If you’ve been paying attention, obviously different ones. Special Dark and two types of caramel (Carameline and London caramel) at Fullers. So many different types of caramel they had in the past. It’s a nightmare.

At Youngs, it was bog-standard No. 3 invert and enigmatic "OM”.  From the name, I suspect the latter was a sugar specifically designed for Oatmeal Stout. Who knows what it might have contained.

And what about the hops? Pretty much the same as all the other beers. That is, two types of English hops from the two most recent seasons.

Unlike in modern brewing, back in the day it wasn’t unusual to use the same hops in every beer. Or to use the same mashing scheme for every beer. Basically, they didn’t piss around as much as modern brewers do. 

Fullers vs Youngs Porter and Stout grists
Brewer	Beer	Style	pale malt	mild malt	black malt	amber malt	crystal malt	total malt
Fullers	P	Porter	63.46%		9.20%			72.66%
Fullers	BS	Stout	63.46%		9.20%			72.66%
Youngs	P	Porter		58.44%	7.79%	9.74%	5.84%	81.81%
Youngs	S	Stout		58.44%	7.79%	9.74%	5.84%	81.81%
Sources:
Fullers brewing record held at the brewery.
Young's brewing record held at Battersea Library, document number YO/RE/1/1.

Fullers vs Youngs Porter and Stout adjuncts and sugars
Brewer	Beer	Style	flaked maize	oats	no. 3 sugar	Sp Dark	OM	caramel	total sugar
Fullers	P	Porter	8.28%	0.66%		13.49%		4.91%	18.40%
Fullers	BS	Stout	8.28%	0.66%		13.49%		4.91%	18.40%
Youngs	P	Porter		7.23%	5.19%		5.19%		10.38%
Youngs	S	Stout		7.23%	5.19%		5.19%		10.38%
Sources:
Fullers brewing record held at the brewery.
Young's brewing record held at Battersea Library, document number YO/RE/1/1.

Fullers vs Youngs Porter and Stout hops
Brewer	Beer	Style	hop 1	hop 2
Fullers	P	Porter	English 1929	English 1930
Fullers	BS	Stout	English 1929	English 1930
Youngs	P	Porter	Kent 1930 CS	Sussex 1931
Youngs	S	Stout	Kent 1930 CS	Sussex 1931
Sources:
Fullers brewing record held at the brewery.
Young's brewing record held at Battersea Library, document number YO/RE/1/1.