Whitbread Mild 1939 - 1945

Whitbread’s standard strength Mild, X, changed it’s name early in 1940 from X to XX. Odd, as, while you would expect XX to be stronger than X, the name change was also accompanied by a cut in gravity.

At the outbreak of war, Whitbread a weaker Mild called LA, with a gravity of 1028.3º. It was discontinued in 1940, probably because of the small volumes being produced. In 1939, they brewed just 5,747 barrels of LA. To put that into context, 232,453 barrels of X Ale were produced that same year.*

As with Barclay Perkins Mild, the gravity reductions to Whitbread’s Mild mostly occurred in the first half of the war. From 1942 onwards, it remained relatively stable at around 1028º. Which is very similar to where Barclay Perkins X ended up.

Whitbread’s Mild was typical of those brewed in London in being quite heavily hopped. 8 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt is a very reasonable rate and similar to the level of hopping found in may provincial Bitters. The hopping rate was reduced by about 25% in 1941 on government orders. But at around 6lbs per quarter of malt, the degree of hopping was still very respectable.

The base malt was mostly a mix of pale malt and mild malt, though occasionally it was 100% of just one.  The only coloured grain employed was crystal malt, the percentage of which declined steadily throughout the war. By its end, only about half as much was being used as in 1939.

As a brewery which pre-war had brewed from just malt and sugar, wartime government insistence on the use of unmalted grains caused more recipe changes than elsewhere. Adjunct brewers mostly just swapped flaked maize for flaked barley.

Whitbread used a variety of different adjuncts, including some unusual ones like barley meal and flaked rye. By the end of the war, they had settled down on the use of flaked barley. The proportion of unmalted grains increased over the later war years reaching almost 17% by 1945.

The sugar columns are a little misleading. The three where there’s no No. 3 listed almost certainly did contain it. Simply the brewing records for that period didn’t note the type of sugar being used. It was almost certainly No. 3, though. The rest of the “other sugar” is Hay’s M, a type of caramel.

The total amount of sugar used was about halved between 1939 and 1942, but returned to around its pre-war level in 1945.

Whitbread Mild 1939 - 1945
Date	Year	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	boil time (hours)		Pitch temp	colour
25th Sep	1939	1033.6	1010	3.12	70.24%	8.27	1.1	1.25	1	65º	17 + 40
23rd Apr	1940	1033.6	1009	3.25	73.21%	8.12	1.14	1.25	1.25	65º	16 + 40
31st Jul	1940	1031.5	1008.5	3.04	73.02%	8.42	1.09	1.25	1	65º	16 + 40
20th Nov	1940	1031.1	1010	2.79	67.85%	8.42	1.07	1.17	0.75	66º	16 + 40
31st Jan	1941	1030	1009	2.78	70.00%	8.1	1	2.17	1.5	65º	16 + 40
10th Oct	1941	1031.2	1009	2.94	71.15%	6.38	0.76	1.25	1.25	65º	14 + 40
30th Jan	1942	1029.1	1007.5	2.86	74.23%	5.84	0.75	1	1	65º	18 + 40
30th May	1942	1028.4	1007	2.83	75.35%	6.19	0.75	1	1	65º	16 + 40
5th Apr	1943	1027.8	1008	2.62	71.22%	6.07	0.76	1	1.25	65º	15 + 40
2nd Sep	1943	1028.2	1008	2.67	71.63%	6.07	0.73	1	0.83	65º	14 + 40
7th Apr	1944	1028.3	1007.5	2.75	73.50%	5.79	0.69	1	0.75	65º	14 + 40
11th Dec	1944	1028.4	1008.5	2.63	70.07%	5.91	0.72	1	1	65º	14 + 40
5th Apr	1945	1028.4	1008.5	2.63	70.07%	5.67	0.71	1	0.75	65º	15 + 40
24th Aug	1945	1028.1	1010	2.39	64.41%	5.67	0.71	1	0.75	65º	13 + 40
Source:
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/107, LMA/4453/D/01/108, LMA/4453/D/01/109, LMA/4453/D/01/110, LMA/4453/D/01/111, LMA/4453/D/01/112, and LMA/4453/D/01/113.

Whitbread Mild grists 1939 - 1945
Date	Year	OG	pale malt	crystal malt	mild malt	PA malt	wheat malt
25th Sep	1939	1033.6	75.73%	13.59%
23rd Apr	1940	1033.6	24.30%	13.08%	54.21%		1.87%
31st Jul	1940	1031.5	77.54%	13.57%	1.94%
20th Nov	1940	1031.1	81.42%	11.63%
31st Jan	1941	1030.0	20.17%	12.10%	58.49%		2.02%
10th Oct	1941	1031.2	65.39%	11.98%	4.99%	4.99%	2.00%
30th Jan	1942	1029.1		12.02%	68.11%		2.00%
30th May	1942	1028.4	46.32%	12.63%	16.84%		2.11%
5th Apr	1943	1027.8	9.28%	10.31%	55.67%
2nd Sep	1943	1028.2	46.39%	10.31%	18.56%
7th Apr	1944	1028.3		10.45%	71.08%
11th Dec	1944	1028.4		7.42%	73.14%
5th Apr	1945	1028.4		7.39%	62.32%
24th Aug	1945	1028.1	36.97%	7.39%	25.35%
Source:
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/107, LMA/4453/D/01/108, LMA/4453/D/01/109, LMA/4453/D/01/110, LMA/4453/D/01/111, LMA/4453/D/01/112, and LMA/4453/D/01/113.

Whitbread Mild sugars and adjuncts 1939 - 1945
Date	Year	OG	no. 3 sugar	other sugar	flaked barley	barley meal	flaked rye	flaked oat
25th Sep	1939	1033.6	9.06%	1.62%
23rd Apr	1940	1033.6	4.98%	1.56%
31st Jul	1940	1031.5	5.17%	1.78%
20th Nov	1940	1031.1		6.95%
31st Jan	1941	1030.0		7.23%
10th Oct	1941	1031.2		5.66%	4.99%
30th Jan	1942	1029.1	4.01%	1.84%	12.02%
30th May	1942	1028.4	5.61%	1.75%	8.42%	1.05%	5.26%
5th Apr	1943	1027.8	5.50%	1.72%				17.53%
2nd Sep	1943	1028.2	5.50%	1.72%				17.53%
7th Apr	1944	1028.3	4.18%	1.74%	12.54%
11th Dec	1944	1028.4	2.83%	1.77%	14.84%
5th Apr	1945	1028.4	9.86%	3.52%	16.90%
24th Aug	1945	1028.1	9.86%	3.52%	16.90%
Source:
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/107, LMA/4453/D/01/108, LMA/4453/D/01/109, LMA/4453/D/01/110, LMA/4453/D/01/111, LMA/4453/D/01/112, and LMA/4453/D/01/113.

* Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/01/107.

Adnams Mild Ale grists during WW II

Yeah! Back at work on my next book. Slowly grinding out the words.

The trick is not to look at how much still needs to be done, but to concentrate on one small part at a time. Which at the moment is Mild. A style very dear to my heart.

There weren’t very great changes to the recipe of Adnams XX during the war.  The basic grist of base malt with 5% each of amber and crystal malt barely remained unaltered. The only real change was the addition of some unmalted grains. The use of either flaked oats or flaked barley in the later years wasn’t voluntary, but dictated by the government.

Apologies for the lack of excitement there. Is it going to get any more heart-racing when we contemplate the copper additions?

No. The No.3 content drops after 1941, but then remains remarkably constant. The amount of tintose – obviously some type of caramel – increases a little, presumably to compensate colour-wise for the reduction in No. 3.

The hopping is equally dull. All English, Mostly with a combination of hops from the most recent season and the one before.

It’s an example of how the effects of the war weren’t consistent across the whole country. For the simple reason that there had been considerable regional variation before all the horribleness kicked off.

Adnams Mild Ale grists during WW II
Date	Year	OG	pale malt	amber malt	crystal malt	medium malt	flaked barley	flaked oat
20th Sep	1939	1029		4.79%	4.79%	76.62%
2nd Sept	1940	1029		4.69%	4.69%	81.34%
13th Mar	1941	1028	16.78%	6.29%	6.29%	75.52%
14th Jan	1942	1027		5.12%	5.12%	76.74%	5.12%
1st Jan	1943	1027		5.12%	5.12%	81.85%
17th Feb	1943	1027		5.12%	5.12%	76.74%	5.12%
9th Apr	1943	1027		5.12%	5.12%	71.62%		10.23%
2nd Feb	1944	1027		5.12%	5.12%	71.62%	10.23%
1st Jan	1945	1027		5.12%	5.12%	76.74%	5.12%
Sources:
Adnams brewing records held at the brewery, Books 26 to 32

Adnams Mild Ale sugars and hops during WW II
Date	Year	OG	no. 3 sugar	tintose	hops
20th Sep	1939	1029	12.77%	1.03%	English
2nd Sept	1940	1029	8.34%	0.93%	English (1938, 1939)
13th Mar	1941	1028	11.19%	0.70%	English (1939)
14th Jan	1942	1027	6.82%	1.10%	English (1940, 1941)
1st Jan	1943	1027	6.82%	1.10%	English (1941)
17th Feb	1943	1027	6.82%	1.10%	English (1941, 1942)
9th Apr	1943	1027	6.82%	1.10%	English (1941, 1942)
2nd Feb	1944	1027	6.82%	1.10%	English (1942, 1943)
1st Jan	1945	1027	6.82%	1.10%	English (1943)
Sources:
Adnams brewing records held at the brewery, Books 26 to 32

Adnams XX Mild Ale during WW II

In country districts, where often the only Mild a brewery produced was in the 4d class pre-war, the conflict had only minimal effect of beer strength.  Adnams is a good example.

Over the whole course of the war, Adnams XX lost a mere two gravity points, falling from 1029º to 1027º. There was a good reason why the gravity didn’t fall below 1027º: the way the tax system worked it made no economic sense. The tax equivalent to a beer of 1027º was the minimum charged, whatever the strength of the beer.

Just as with the gravity, there was very little change in the hopping rate of XX during the war. Despite brewers being ordered by the government early in the war to reduce it. Though Adnams’ hopping rate was a good bit lower than at either Whitbread or Lees. It started around 5 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt. While Whitbread’s rate went from over 8 lbs per quarter to around 5.5 lbs. While Lees went from around 7 lbs per quarter to 5.5 lbs.

Adnams Mild Ale during WW II
Date	Year	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
20th Sep	1939	XX	1029.0	1006.1	3.03	78.99%	4.93	0.57
2nd Sept	1940	XX	1029.0	1006.1	3.03	78.99%	4.90	0.57
13th Mar	1941	XX	1028.0	1006.1	2.90	78.24%	5.33	0.57
14th Jan	1942	XX	1027.0	1005.0	2.91	81.53%	4.63	0.50
1st Jan	1943	XX	1027.0	1005.5	2.84	79.48%	4.63	0.51
17th Feb	1943	XX	1027.0	1005.5	2.84	79.48%	4.63	0.51
9th Apr	1943	XX	1027.0	1005.0	2.91	81.53%	4.63	0.50
2nd Feb	1944	XX	1027.0	1006.1	2.77	77.43%	4.63	0.51
1st Jan	1945	XX	1027.0	1006.1	2.77	77.43%	4.63	0.50
Sources:
Adnams brewing records held at the brewery, Books 26 to 32

Let's Brew - 1939 Boddington CC

Boddington’s Strong Ale, CC, had been around for a while, pre-dating WW I.  Surprisingly, it wasn’t much weaker in 1939 than it had been in 1913, when its gravity was 1062º.

There was quite a tradition of Strong Ales in the Manchester area. A tradition which continued well past WW II. CC itself managed to stick around until at least the 1950s. I suspect that it was a bottled beer, though it may have been sold on fraught occasionally in the winter.

The grist is similar to their XX Mild, based around pale and crystal malt. Though proprietary the sugars are slightly different, I’ve interpreted them again as being No. 3 invert. There’s also rather a lot of caramel, which is responsible for the finished beer’s dark brown colour.

As was typical at Boddington, a large number of different types of hops were employed. In this case five. As this example was brewed before the outbreak of war, it’s no surprise to see some foreign hops in the mix. They were Oregon and Styrian, both from the 1937 harvest and kept in a cold store, plus English from the 1937 and 1938 harvests.

1939 Boddington CC
pale malt	7.25	57.63%
crystal malt 60 L	1.50 lb	11.92%
flaked maize	2.75 lb	21.86%
flaked wheat	0.33 lb	2.62%
malt extract	0.125 lb	0.99%
No. 3 invert sugar	0.500 lb	3.97%
caramel 1000 SRM	0.125 lb	0.99%
Cluster 220 mins	0.75 oz
Fuggles 90 mins	0.75 oz
Fuggles 60 mins	1.50 oz
Goldings 30 mins	1.50 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.50 oz
OG	1056.5
FG	1015
ABV	5.49
Apparent attenuation	73.45%
IBU	67
SRM	18
Mash at	148º F
Sparge at	162º F
Boil time	220 minutes
pitching temp	62º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1318 London ale III (Boddingtons)

Barclay Perkins Mild Ales during WW II

I've finally got back to working on my current book project.  The trip to Japan and South Korea interrupted me for more about six weeks. Maybe I shouldn't go so crazy writing up my trips in such tedious detail.

Before WW I, most of the larger London brewers brewed a single Mild, usually called X Ale, which had an OG a little over 1050º. The war changed all that, particularly in creating a demand for low-gravity Milds, which were similar to the cheaper classes of wartime beer. These were in the watery 1027-1030º range.

The disastrous Snowden emergency budget of 1931 also prompted London brewers to expand their range of Milds. Standard Mild dropped from 1043º to 1037º as a result of the increase in excise duty. But as there was still demand form a stronger type of Mild, some brewers introduced a “new” XX Ale at the old X Ale strength.

Combine this with different coloured versions and you could end up with a dazzling variety of Milds produced in a single brewery. Barclay Perkins went into the war with five, three strengths and with two differently coloured versions of the stronger two. That obviously wasn’t going to last long, as the war inevitably brought about some rationalisation of a brewery’s range.

Barclay Perkins provides a good example of what happened to the different calsse3s of Mild Ale during the war.

Their three strengths of Mild – A (4d), X (5d) and XX (6d) – started the war with reasonable gaps in strength of 5 or 6 gravity points. But by 1943 that was down to a mere 3 points spanning all three. Little wonder then that that year the weakest, A, was dropped.

A similar effect could be seen at breweries that produced multiple Pale Ales. Gravity reductions during the war concertinaed the beers together as the gravity gaps got even smaller. This inevitably led to some examples being dropped, usually the weakest.

Barclay Perkins Mild Ales during WW II
Date	Beer	Price per pint (d)	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour
1939	A	4	1030.7	1008.8	2.83	71.31%	42
1940	A		1028.6	1007.5	2.74	73.80%	39
1941	A		1028.7	1008	2.68	72.12%	46
1941	A		1028.8	1006	2.96	79.16%	45
1942	A		1027.3	1007	2.63	74.36%	46
1943	A		1027.1	1007	2.60	74.17%	42
1939	X	5	1034.9	1009	3.35	74.18%	43
1940	X	6	1035.5	1011.9	3.05	66.48%	80
1941	X		1031.6	1008.5	2.99	73.10%	49
1942	X		1028.6	1006	2.93	79.02%	41
1943	X		1028.6	1007	2.80	75.52%	44
1944	X		1028.9	1009	2.57	68.86%	40
1945	X	12	1030.0	1008.4	2.80	72.00%
1939	XX	6	1042.5	1012.5	3.89	70.60%	45
1940	XX	8	1032.9	1007.8	3.26	76.29%	80
1941	XX	8	1033.5	1009.2	3.15	72.54%	100
1942	XX		1031.4	1006	3.30	80.89%	43
1943	XX	11	1030.2	1007.2	2.98	76.16%	75
1945	XX		1031.4	1010	2.77	68.15%	50
Sources:
Barclay Perkins brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers ACC/2305/01/623, ACC/2305/01/624, ACC/2305/01/625 and ACC/2305/01/626.
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001.

How I write my travel posts

You may have wondered how I can get so much detail into my travel posts. Simple: I make most of it up.

No, that's not true. I won't pretend that I can remember everything precisely after I return and start writing the blog posts. I'm too old and my brain too alcohol riddled for that. So I've developed a few techniques to help my faulty recollection.

I take lots of photos
Just shy of 400 on my last trip with the kids to Japan and South Korea. I use photos both to jog my memory about events, but also as a lazy way of taking notes. For example, by photographing a menu or a meal. Then there's a vague chance that I might remember what I ate and drank. Photos are also good for keeping events is sequence, as they're date and time stamped.

Of course, I also need photos to illustrate the posts. The more I take, the better. But I still usually return wishing I’d taken more. It doesn’t help when the kids keep telling me off for snapping away.

I write notes by hand
I have to admit that this is pretty erratic. Not wanting to be a twat and spoil a good time with friends, I usually only put pen to paper when I’m on my own. Mostly sitting at a bar somewhere. Often in an airport. I just scribble down any old crap that comes into my head and hope that I’ll be able to read it later.

Quite often, I’ll transcribe and use it exactly as written. Because, rather than notes in the true sense, it tends to be my observations of what I see around me. Or impressions of the trip so far. Occasionally I will note something down that I don’t want to forget. But that’s more the exception.

I write electronic notes
At the start or the end of the day, while I’m in my hotel, I’ll dash off some notes about what I’ve been up to on my travel laptop. Mostly this is just in the form of notes. A few sentences about places and events. Though sometimes I’ll write whole paragraphs that end up pretty much intact on the blog.

Some of my electronic notes were copied from emails to Dolores. I was sending her reasonably long reports on what the kids were up to as the holiday progressed. Quite big chunks of these emails, in slightly modified form, ended up in the blog posts.

I returned from Asia with a couple of thousand words in a text document. This formed the skeleton of the blog posts.

I write in parallel
Once I’ve returned, I try and flesh out each post with as much detail as I can remember. As I recall stuff, I quickly write it down. Which usually entails jumping around the timeline of the trip as events from different days pop into my head.

It’s quite an anarchic way to write, but I find that it works well for me. Obviously, the emphasis is on getting the early days of a trip completed first. But sometimes I have finished the beginning and end of a trip before I’ve done the middle.

This travel writing takes up a lot of my time. Yesterday I returned to my current book project for the first time in five weeks. Just as well I’m not working to a deadline.