Whitbread London Stout malts 1939 - 1945

At any one time there were at least three, sometimes four, malts in the mix.

Brown and chocolate malt were omnipresent, while the base malt varied. When the war kicked off, pale malt was preferred, but in 1943 it was changed to mild malt. Which was of slightly lower quality and hence cheaper. At various times, a small quantity of PA malt, the poshest type of pale malt, was used. Probably because they had some going spare, you wouldn’t usually waste that sort of classy malt in a dark, roasty beer.

Speaking of roast, the proportion of brown malt was almost halved in 1943. No coincidence that it coincided with the beer becoming paler. Especially as the quantity of chocolate malt was also reduced. Whitbread was unusual in using chocolate malt rather than the usual black malt. They swapped in late 1922 and never went back.

The total malt content fell from around 90% to around 75% across the course of the war. There was a simple reason for that: adjuncts. Pre-war, Whitbread beers had been malt and sugar only. During the war they were compelled to use unmalted grains, just like everyone else.

Whitbread London Stout malts 1939 - 1945
Date	Year	OG	pale malt	PA malt	mild malt	brown malt	choc. Malt	total
8th Aug	1939	1046.9	71.47%			7.85%	7.85%	87.17%
9th Sep	1940	1043.4	74.79%			8.22%	8.22%	91.23%
22nd Sep	1941	1042.0	61.90%	13.49%		7.94%	7.94%	91.27%
4th Aug	1942	1038.7			67.92%	8.09%	6.47%	82.48%
31st May	1943	1039.6			61.40%	4.66%	7.77%	73.83%
22nd Sep	1944	1039.8			72.44%	4.97%	2.48%	79.89%
19th Sep	1945	1039.2		10.82%	54.89%	4.64%	6.18%	76.53%
Sources:
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/09/126, LMA/4453/D/09/127, LMA/4453/D/09/128 and LMA/4453/D/09/129.

Whitbread London Stout 1939 - 1945

Whitbread produced several Stouts at the outbreak of war: London Stout, London Oatmeal Stout, Mackeson Stout, Extra Stout and SSS. But, unlike Barclay Perkins, which had several different recipes for its Stouts, all of Whitbread’s had the same recipe. Inevitably, as they parti-gyled them all together.

Their main brand was London Stout, which came in both draught and bottled form. Costing, respectively, 7d and 8d per pint in the public bar. (If you bought a crate of four quart bottles, the price was just 7.5d per pint.)  At least at the outbreak of war. Tax increases soon pushed that price upwards.

Some brewers, such as Barclay Perkins heavily primed their Stouts, raising the effective OG by as much as 3º or 4º. Whitbread didn’t record primings in their brewing records, but, by cross-referencing with analyses of the finished beers, it appears they didn’t prime their Stouts, not even the draught version.

As was typical, the OG was eroded in the first half of the war and was stable for the remainder. Though, at just 3.5% ABV, it wasn’t very “stout” for the latter part of the war.

You can see the impact of government-dictated reductions in hop usage which kicked in during 1941. By the end of the war, with restrictions loosened, the hopping rate bounced back a little. The effect is also seen in the calculated IBUs. But remember that it’s just my calculation, not a measured value. Add the extra uncertainty of having to factor in the age of the hops and it’s even more of a guesstimate.

The colour paled across the war, simply due to the reduction in gravity and hence the quantity of malt employed.

Whitbread London Stout 1939 - 1945
Date	Year	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	calc. IBU	colour (EBC)	Pitch temp
8th Aug	1939	1046.9	1013.0	4.48	72.28%	6.89	1.28	31	330	62º
9th Sep	1940	1043.4	1012.5	4.09	71.20%	6.90	1.27	29	320	62º
22nd Sep	1941	1042.0	1011.5	4.03	72.62%	5.57	1.02	21	300	62º
4th Aug	1942	1038.7	1011.0	3.66	71.58%	6.64	1.11	23	330	62º
31st May	1943	1039.6	1012.5	3.59	68.43%	6.28	1.11	23	285	64º
22nd Sep	1944	1039.8	1013.5	3.48	66.08%	6.55	1.15	23	250	64º
19th Sep	1945	1039.2	1012.5	3.53	68.11%	6.14	1.09	23	285	64º
Sources:
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/09/126, LMA/4453/D/09/127, LMA/4453/D/09/128 and LMA/4453/D/09/129.

Sitting on a park bench

today, supping a can of super-strength Lager, I wrote a little song. Inspired by our difficult times.

It's about loss, disenfranchisement, despair, the illusion of time, man's fragile existence and the ultimate futility of all human endeavour. Not to mention lurking mortality.

I'd like to share in with you, in the hope that it might help lighten the darkness that surrounds us. 

It's called: "I'm in Love with Rock and Roll."

 

I'm in love with rock and roll,
But rock and roll, it ain't in love with me.

No more.

I'm in love with rock and roll,
But rock and roll, it ain't in love with me.

No more.

I'm too old and I'm to fat,
I've no idea where things are at,
The bands I love are all old hat,
I've turned into a right old twat.

I'm in love with rock and roll,
But rock and roll, it ain't in love with me.

No more.

I'm in love with rock and roll,
But rock and roll, it won't return my calls.

No more.

I can twitch, but I can't jive,
None of my heroes are alive,
I like to be at home by five,
. . .   PM.

I'm in love with rock and roll,
But rock and roll, it ain't in love with me.

No more.

I'm in love with rock and roll,
But rock and roll, it told me to fuck off.

Quite cold.

Being young was so much fun,
I used to think like everyone,
That growing old would never come,
Turns out I was fucking wrong.

I'm in love with rock and roll,
But rock and roll, it don't care for me.

No more.

You're in love with rock and roll,
But rock and roll, it never loved you back.

Not once.

You never had a fucking clue,
Pose around is all you'd do,
We were all so bored with you,
Shame you didn't know that too.

London draught Stout before WW II

Brown Beer – Porter and Stout – were the beers that made London the most important brewing centre in the world. The glory may have faded a little, but the capital remained home to some of the country’s largest breweries. They hadn’t turned their backs on Stout, even if Porter was on its last legs.

No surprise, then, that Stout was still part of a pub’s standard draught range, along with Mild, Bitter and Burton. Indeed, there were two classes of draught Stout. What you could, I suppose call Ordinary Stout at 7d per pint and Best Stout at 8d.

We’ll start with the weaker of the two.

There are a couple of outliers, Wenlock at the top end and Courage at the bottom. Which look like a 6d and an 8d beer, respectively. The average of 1047º looks about right for the norm.

Let’s move onto the pricier one. Noting that Truman had beers in each class.

1055º or so was usually about as draught beer got between the wars, as a result of WW I price controls. There’s not a lot to choose between the examples from different breweries. No really a shack, seeing as they were all paddling in the same pool.

7d London draught Stout before WW II
Year	Brewer	Beer	Price per pint (d)	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation
1937	Charrington	Stout	7	1045.8
1937	Courage	Stout	7	1040.0
1937	Mann	Stout	7	1047.1
1935	Meux	Stout	7	1047	1016.7	3.92	64.47%
1935	Truman	Stout	7	1048	1011.2	4.78	76.67%
1935	Watney	Stout	7	1046	1008.9	4.83	80.65%
1937	Wenlock	Stout	7	1054.4
1937	Whitbread	Stout	7	1050.8
	average			1047.4	1012.3	4.5	73.93%
Sources:
Truman Gravity Book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/C/252.
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001.

8d London draught Stout before WW II
Year	Brewer	Beer	Price per pint (d)	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation
1935	Barclay Perkins	Stout	8	1059	1012.6	6.05	78.64%
1937	Barclay Perkins	Stout	8	1055.3
1937	Taylor Walker	Stout	8	1055.8
1933	Truman	Stout	8	1053.4	1015.8	4.88	70.41%
	average			1055.9	1014.2	5.47	74.53%
Sources:
Truman Gravity Book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/C/252.
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001.

 

 

 

Let's Brew - 1960 Truman R1

To go with the Stock version of No. 1 I published a few days ago, here's the running version it was blended with.

There are some intriguing differences between the Stock and Running versions of No. 1.

The grists are similar, but not identical. There’s around twice as much crystal in R1. And it also contains some flaked maize, which S1 doesn’t. But it’s the sugar that confuses me. Why is there No. 1 invert rather than No. 3? It results in R1 having a much paler colour. Which I find odd.

You’d expect R1 to be less heavily hopped, and it is. It contains about exactly half as many hops per barrel. And, sure enough, the calculated IBUs are about exactly half those of S1. I know nothing about the hops themselves, other than that they were all English.

1960 Truman R1
pale malt	19.00 lb	88.37%
crystal malt 60 L	1.00 lb	4.65%
flaked maize	1.00 lb	4.65%
No. 1 invert sugar	0.50 lb	2.33%
Fuggles 150 mins	1.75 oz
Fuggles 60 mins	1.75 oz
Goldings 30 mins	1.75 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.50 oz
OG	1093.5
FG	1033
ABV	8.00
Apparent attenuation	64.71%
IBU	50
SRM	11
Mash at	151º F
Sparge at	160º F
Boil time	150 minutes
pitching temp	58º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1099 Whitbread Ale

 

This recipe is in my two new books, Strong! vols. 1 & 2 and Strong! vol.2.

 

 

 

 

A good year for blogging

If for nothing else. What I really meant was, a good year statistically for me blogging, More posts than any year since 2014, the last time I topped 500.

I put it down to all those posts pushing discounts on my books.

I'll end the year with a WW II pub tale. And another colourful criminal:

"FOUND IN HOTEL CELLAR
Prison for a Thief with Bad Record
For stealing nine bottles of gin and four of whiskey, value £l7 10s. 3d., from the Railway Hotel, London Road, Twickenham. Henry George Dilloway (53), builder, of 12a, Hampton Road, Twickenham, was sent to prison for three months with hard labour, at Brentford, on Thursday.— He had pleaded not guilty. 

Mrs. Kathleen Horton said that about 3.30 p.m. on December 18th she returned to the hotel and saw Dilloway, whom she knew as "Darkie,” in the cellar with two bottles of gin in his pockets. She informed her husband and saw a bag containing bottles of whiskey. Dilloway had no authority to be on the premises, the house being closed. 

Reginald Walter Horton, the licensee, said he was in the saloon bar after returning to the hotel with his wife, when she said "Darkie is in the cellar.” Ask what he as doing. Dilloway replied that he had come to see Cyril, a man who resided at the house. Witness noticed that he had two bottles of gin in his coat pockets and he put down bag containing 11 other bottles of spirits. Witness said he went to mall up Mr. Cyril Wilson, and on his return «found that Dilloway had gone. Then he checked the stock, found 13 bottles of spirit short, and informed the police. Later he received phone call from Dilloway, but after the latter had used the words “Was this the thing,” the lines became crossed and he heard no more of the conversation. 

Det. Sergt. Elliott said that 8.30 p.m. on December 18th he saw Dilloway in the Nelson public house, Stanley Road, Teddington. and told him he was going to arrest him for stealing gin and whiskey from the Railway Hotel. He replied "There’s nothing stolen.” When he was charged at Twickenham Police Station he said. You have charged me with stealing.” 

Dilloway, on oath, said he went to the house to ask Mr. Wilson if he could borrow a barrow. He had no intention of stealing, and stole nothing. No one saw him with the bag although he admitted it was there.

The Chairman: Then how do you get over the fact of the two bottles in your pockets? Dilloway replied that, he did not have them. He admitted that he placed the other bottles in the bag. 

The Chairman; Obviously with the intention of taking them.— Dilloway; Yes, but I thought better of it.—Asked by Sergt. Elliott how he got into the house, Dilloway said he went through the back gate and found the door open. 

Det. Sergt. Elliott said that at Richmond in 1930, Dilloway was sent to prison for two months for deserting his family; in 1930 at the Central Criminal Court, he was sentenced to nine months for bigamy: in 1934, he was fined £5 and sent to prison for two months for the unlawful possession of two bottles of whiskey, and in the same year was fined for aiding and abetting the sale of intoxicating liquor without a licence. 

The Chairman said that the Bench had not the slightest doubt that he went to the house with the intention to steal the spirits."
Middlesex Chronicle - Saturday 30 December 1944, page 2.

An interestingly varied set of offences there. It does  seem a bit counterproductive sending some one to prison for deserting their family.

My books cheap (for a little while)

Treat yourself for the New Year! January is a miserable month - cheer yourself up with one of my books.

Until January 1st at 11:59 PM UTC you can get 15% off my Lulu books with this discount code:

NEWYOU15

The perfect opportunity to pick up some of my wonderful books cheaply.

 

Scottish weak bottled Stout after WW II

Low-gravity and poorly-attenuated Stouts had been brewed in Scotland since the late 19th century. For example, in 1888, William Younger’s S3 Stout was barely 4% ABV and hopped at just 4lbs per quarter (338 lbs) of malt, a very low rate. Even lower, as some, or all, of the hops were spent.
This trend to ever weaker and sweeter Stouts continued, reaching its ridiculous peak after WW II.

Some of these beers are so weak, they could have legally been sold to children, being around the same strength as shandy. Did people drink such beers straight? Because if you did, you weren’t going to have a very merry evening down the pub.

McEwan’s Imperial Stout is really a joke, being under 3% ABV. Is this the weakest Imperial Stout ever brewed? Sweet Stouts were brewed elsewhere in the UK, but never as ridiculously weak and poorly-attenuated as the most extreme Scottish examples.

Scottish weak bottled Stout after WW II
Year	Brewer	Beer	Price per pint (d)	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation
1949	Aitken	Stout		1038.5	1020	2.38	48.05%
1948	Belhaven	No. 1 Stout		1035	1011	3.11	68.57%
1949	Belhaven	No. 1 Stout		1035.5	1015.5	2.58	56.34%
1949	Blair	Invalid Stout		1035	1016	2.45	54.29%
1948	Maclachlan	Stout		1032	1009.5	2.91	70.31%
1949	McEwan	Imperial Stout		1039.5	1017	2.90	56.96%
1947	Tennent	Stout	13	1030.7	1018.18	1.61	40.78%
1948	Tennent	Stout		1030	1015.5	1.86	48.33%
1949	Tennent	Stout		1032	1017.5	1.86	45.31%
1949	Tennent	Stout	15	1034.9	1018.3	2.13	47.56%
1948	Younger, Geo	Extra Stout		1036.5	1017.5	2.44	52.05%
Sources:
Thomas Usher Gravity Book held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number TU/6/11.
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.

 

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1960 Truman S1

A couple of World Wars have done nothing to diminish the strength of Truman No. 1. Its gravity remains 1105º.

Even at this late a date, Truman produced their Barley Wine in a very old-fashioned way. S1 was brewed and aged for at least 12 months. At which point R1, the running version was brewed and blended with the aged beer. This blending was done by taste, not based on fixed ratios of old and young. The idea was to produce a blend which wasn’t too acidic.

Should you wish to follow this route, the next recipe is R1.

Nothing too complicated about the recipe, simply pale malt, a touch of crystal and No. 3 invert. It differs from all Truman’s other Burton Ales in containing no flaked maize.

Of the three types of English hops, I only have information about one. Which was Brewer’s Gold from the 1959 harvest.

1960 Truman S1
pale malt	21.00 lb	89.36%
crystal malt 60 L	0.50 lb	2.13%
No. 3 invert sugar	2.00 lb	8.51%
Fuggles 150 mins	4.00 oz
Brewer's Gold 60 mins	2.25 oz
Goldings 30 mins	3.00 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.50 oz
OG	1105
FG	1039
ABV	8.73
Apparent attenuation	62.86%
IBU	96
SRM	17
Mash at	150º F
Sparge at	160º F
Boil time	150 minutes
pitching temp	58º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1099 Whitbread Ale

 

This recipe is in my two new books, Strong! vols. 1 & 2 and Strong! vol.2.

 

 

 

 

 

Scottish draught Stout after WW II

The tendency towards ever-sweeter Stouts continued north of the border. And with it some very puny beers, especially in terms of ABV.

I was shocked to find draught Scottish Stout after WW II. Especially as I’ve precious little evidence of it between the wars. But it must have been a thing, as I’ve found examples from three different breweries. Draught Stout remained reasonably popular in London and, obviously, was big in Northern Ireland. In the rest of the UK, it was pretty much dead by WW II.

The main common feature of these draught Stouts is a puny OG. With the weakest, from Robert Younger – under 1030º. Which is a total joke for a beer whose name literally means “strong”.

Not that London draught Stouts were much stronger. In 1947, Barclay Perkins Best Stout was just 1037.6º  and Whitbread Stout 1035.3º.

At least the rate of attenuation is reasonable, with even the worst pushing 70% apparent. Though, due to the low OG, only one manages to crawl past 3% ABV. Even that is better than the next set manages.

Scottish draught Stout after WW II
Year	Brewer	Beer	Price per pint (d)	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation
1947	Younger, Robert	Stout	14	1028	1007.5	2.66	73.21%
1947	McEwan	Stout	14	1030.5	1006	3.18	80.33%
1947	Campbell, Hope & King	Draught Stout	12	1032.5	1010.5	2.85	67.69%
Sources:
Thomas Usher Gravity Book held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number TU/6/11.

 

 

My books cheap (again, again)

Until January 1st at 11:59 PM UTC you can get 15% off my Lulu books with this discount code:

NEWYOU15

The perfect opportunity to pick up some of my wonderful books cheaply.

Deterioration of hops over time

I regularly find dead useful stuff when searching for something else completely. For example, this paragraph about hop deterioration. Extremely useful for someone writing recipes where the original beer had hops of varying ages.

What I was looking for was information on the new hop variety OP21, which I'd come across in wartime William Younger brewing record. Brewer's Friend, if you were wondering.

Weirdly, the bit that really interested me also had a William Younger connection.

It will be noticed that in the majority of cases the preservative value (P.V.) of the hops used, both “experimental” and control, was not ascertained. In the writers opinion, no really satisfactory comparative test of varieties of hops can be made in the absence of this knowledge. In this connection we should like to mention that Mr. G. T. Peard, head brewer of Marston, Thompson & Evershed, Ltd., Burton-on-Trent, has made the suggestion that the merchant should be asked to provide an analysis with the hops he supplies, so that the brewer is enabled to select the most suitable hops when buying. Further, we would point out that if this were done, it would be possible, by assessing the loss in P.V. of such hops during storage, for those brewers who desired to know the P.V. of the hops at the time of brewing to have this information. In this way hops could be used at the proper hop-rate and with the maximum of economy. On the question of the practicability of this assessment, we have consulted Mr. J. S. Ford, of Wm. Younger & Co., Ltd., who kindly furnished us with the following very valuable information: “We have a large mass of data concerning the fall in a resin content during storage. Our cold store 1° C. shows a loss of 0.07 per cent, a per month during the first 10-12 months and about 0.10 per cent, per month during the second 12 months. In an ordinary store we find 0.13 per cent, per month during the first 10-12 months; during the second year it is very variable and may go as high as 0.5 per cent, per month. Indeed, the loss is so variable and great, that after one year in ordinary store, many hops should go below the copper, not into it — I mean to heat the worts not to hop them. As regards the new varieties and higher resin content hops we have not so many data but we have found that when properly packed, the cold store figures we have quoted for ordinary hops apply to the loss in the new varieties."
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Mar - April, 1944, page 84.

The "Preservative Value" mentioned is calculated from both the alpha and beta resins. (PV=10(alpha + beta/3)). So it isn't exactly the same as the alpha acid content, but I think it's a fairly good guide to the decline in resin content.

I've made a few calculations based on the figures provided by Younger:

In cold store
variety	Fresh	6 months	12 months	18 months	24 months
Goldings	5%	4.98%	4.96%	4.93%	4.87%
Cluster	7%	6.97%	6.94%	6.90%	6.82%

Not that much deterioration at all. Ut looks much worse for those not in a cold store:

Not in cold store
variety	Fresh	6 months	12 months	18 months	24 months
Goldings	5%	4.96%	4.92%	4.77%	4.47%
Cluster	7%	6.95%	6.89%	6.68%	6.26%

Looking at one if the few sets of analyses I have, the alpha acid content declines more rapidly than the PV:

Analyses of Fuggle's hops during storage
	cold store			warehouse
storage period	alpha resin	beta resin	preservative value	alpha resin	beta resin	preservative value
	6.28	8.6	91.5	6.67	9.26	97.6
5 months	6.22	8.2	89.5	5.83	9.17	88.8
9 months	5.72	8.25	84.7	4.72	9.34	78.5
14 months	5.84	8.54	86.9	3.48	8.64	63.6
19 months	5.15	8.92	81.2	3.21	9.9	55.1
Source:
"Brewing Science & Practice" H. Lloyd Hind, 1943, page 349

The PV is falling by around 0.6% per month in cold store, while the alphas acid content is falling by around 1% per month. So It seems that while the bitterness declines by quite a bit, even after 19 months the PV hasn't been that badly affected.

The rule of thumb I'm going to use in future, for cold stored hops is 1% per month for the first year, 2% after that. Non cold-stored hops 3% per month for the first year, 6% after that.