Cairnes Single Stout 1914 - 1923

I've been trudging my way through Cairnes records or the last couple of weeks. Has it been fun? Instructional, perhaps.

Specifically, the interwar years and, one of my favourites, WW I. I hadn't seen a set of Irish records from WW I before. I knew that they were going to look different from English or Scottish ones. For the simple reason that the rules weren't the same.

In April 1918, the average gravity of a brewer's beers in Great Britain was limited to just 1030º, while in Ireland it was 1045º. I think this was simply because pre-war, average OG had been higher in Ireland: 1066º compared to 1052º in England.

You can see in the two tables that Cairnes Single Stout never fell below 1039º during the war. While Fullers Porter dropped to 1027.5º in 1918. Interestingly, Cairnes Single Stout hhit its nadir in 1920-1921. A time when the gravity of Fullers Porter was starting to bounce back. Though, by later in the 1920s, the two beers had near identical gravities.

The rate of attenuation of Cairnes Single Stout fell during the war, due to the FG being maintained at the same level. This was, presumably, to maintain the body. This doesn't seem to have occurred at Fullers.

The hopping rate at Cairnes almost halved in the middle of the war, from 7.6 lbs per quarter (336 lbs)) of malt to just 4.25 lbs. At Fullers, on the other hand, it remained pretty constant at between 6 lbs and 7 lbs per quarter. 

Cairnes Single Stout 1914 - 1923
Date	Year	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
1st Jan	1914	1050	1014	4.76	72.00%	7.60	1.34
1st Sep	1914	1050	1014.5	4.70	71.00%	6.70	1.27
7th Jan	1915	1052	1012	5.29	76.92%	6.61	1.17
2nd Oct	1916	1046	1012	4.50	73.91%	4.25	1.05
3rd May	1917	1048	1012	4.76	75.00%	4.25	1.55
7th Jun	1917	1046	1012	4.50	73.91%	6.92	1.13
1st Nov	1917	1046	1012.5	4.43	72.83%	6.92	1.08
3rd Jan	1918	1046	1014	4.23	69.57%	6.74	1.02
2nd May	1918	1039	1012	3.57	69.23%	7.54	0.97
3rd Oct	1918	1039	1013	3.44	66.67%	7.54	0.97
3rd Feb	1919	1039	1013	3.44	66.67%	7.54	0.98
2nd Oct	1919	1039	1012.5	3.51	67.95%	7.69	0.98
1st Jan	1920	1039	1012	3.57	69.23%	7.92	1.04
15th Apr	1920	1039	1013	3.44	66.67%	7.62	0.97
4th Oct	1920	1037	1012	3.31	67.57%	7.64	0.94
3rd Oct	1921	1037	1013	3.18	64.86%	7.60	0.98
2nd Feb	1922	1041	1014	3.57	65.85%	7.56	1.21
1st Jan	1923	1042	1014	3.70	66.67%	7.07	1.10
Sources:
Cairnes brewing records held at the Guinness archives, document numbers GDB/SUB/0022 and GDB/BR17/1257.

Fullers Porter 1914 - 1925
Date	Year	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
18th Nov	1914	1045.5	1012.5	4.37	72.59%	6.74	1.38
17th Feb	1915	1043.8	1010.8	4.37	75.35%	6.33	1.34
2nd Jun	1916	1043.0	1010.8	4.26	74.89%	6.23	1.43
4th Aug	1916	1039.1	1010.0	3.86	74.50%	6.63	1.38
12th Apr	1917	1044.2	1010.0	4.52	77.42%	7.24	1.48
9th Aug	1917	1035.5	1007.8	3.66	78.13%	7.54	1.23
5th Jan	1918	1035.9	1010.0	3.43	72.24%	6.81	1.26
19th Apr	1918	1027.5	1007.2	2.69	73.84%	6.41	0.97
14th Jan	1919	1027.8	1010.2	2.33	63.18%	6.83	0.74
10th Feb	1920	1034.2	1007.2	3.57	78.95%	7.02	1.13
16th Jun	1925	1041.5	1015.5	3.44	62.62%	7.95	1.55
Source:
Fullers rewing records hheld at the brewery.