Irish Stout before WW II

Hah. Not about Scotland in WW II. It's Ireland's turn.

Though their is a connection with my Scottish research. I noticed the Irish stuff when looking for Scottish material. And thought that I may as well collect and use it. There being an Irish Stout section pencilled into my next book.

I’m including Ireland in this section for one simple reason: large quantities of Irish-brewed Stout were consumed in the UK. Mostly in the form of Guinness. Even though by the 1930s Guinness had constructed a new brewery in London, this did not produce enough beer to serve the shole of the country. The North of England and Scotland got their Guinness from Dublin. As did, logically enough, Northern Ireland.

Between the wars, Guinness, like breweries un the UK, seems to have stuck with the gravity bands of the last WW I price controls. Which basically made it uneconomic to brew a draught beer over 1055º.

You’ll see that at this point Guinness was not the “Dry” Stout it later became. With attenuation around 75%, rather than the 85% it was from the mi-1950s on.

Not sure why the Beamish & Crawford Stout is weaker than Guinness. It looks like it was in a lower price class. Were they trying to undercut Guinness on price in order to compete?

Irish Stout before WW II
Year	Brewer	Beer	Price per pint (d)	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation
1934	Beamish & Crawford	XXX Stout		1048
1934	Beamish & Crawford	Export		1073
1935	Beamish & Crawford	Irish Stout	9.5	1054.3	1013.4	5.32	75.32%
1936	Beamish & Crawford	Stout		1047.7
1936	Beamish & Crawford	Irish Stout	8	1047.8	1013.8	4.41	71.13%
1937	Beamish & Crawford	Irish Stout	8	1047.2	1014.1	4.29	70.13%
1933	Guinness	Extra Stout	11	1054.6	1013.5	5.34	75.27%
1933	Guinness	Extra Stout		1054.7	1012.7	5.47	76.78%
1933	Guinness	Extra Stout		1055.2	1012.2	5.60	77.90%
1933	Guinness	Extra Stout		1055.2	1012.4	5.57	77.54%
Sources:
Truman Gravity Book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/C/252.
"Classic Porter and Stout", by Roger Protz.
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001.

 

 

Scottish Strong Stout before WW II

You can probably guess which part of my next book I'm working on currently. Yes, it Scottish beer during WW II.

I've only recently acquired the data needed to write it. After finally finishing off William Younger's records after what seemed like several years transcribing, I had everything I needed. Or just about. I'm missing the Abbey Brewery's records for 1945. I do have those from the Holyrood Brewery, but they mostly only brewed Pale Ales there, along with some No. 3.

Good research is very time-consuming. Just as well I'm unemployed and have plenty of time on my hands.

In addition to watery, super-sweet Stouts, there were also a few which resembled more those brewed in England. These had OGs over 1050º and a more reasonable rate of attenuation. Which left some well over 6% ABV. Which is stronger than most Stout brewed in England, other than a few oddities like Russian Stout.

Note that most of these beers are also called Milk Stout, despite not being all that sweet, judging by the FG. I know that in the case of William Younger, the quantity of lactose employed was quite small – less than 5% of the total fermentables.

For colour, William Younger relied on a little roast barley and crystal malt, plus a big dollop of caramel. I don’t know if other brewers employed similar materials. For those brewers conjuring up Stout from a Pale Ale brew, various sugars would have been their only option.

Scottish Stout before WW II
Date	Year	Beer	Price per pint (d)	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation
1937	Calder	Milk Stout		1055.8	1022.3	4.32	60.09%
1936	McEwan	Milk Stout	12	1064.4	1013.1	6.70	79.66%
1933	Younger, Wm.	Stout	8	1052.6
1936	Younger, Wm.	Milk Stout	10.5	1063	1014.7	6.30	76.67%
1937	Younger, Wm.	Milk Stout		1068	1020	6.24	70.59%
Sources:
Truman Gravity Book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/C/252.
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/02/001.

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Let's Brew Wednesday - 1939 Fullers OBE

Fullers also brewed another, stronger Burton Ale with the rather natty name of OBE – Old Burton Extra.

Without parti-gyling, it’s a beer which couldn’t have existed. Because the quantities in which it was brewed were so tiny, that they would have been totally impractical to brew single-gyle. This particular brew was one of the larger batches of OBE – a whole 26 barrels. Along with 134 barrels of BO and 223 barrels of X Ale. In total, not far short of 400 barrels were in the entire brew.

As it was parti-gyled with X and BO, the recipe is exactly the same. Just rather more of everything in OBE.

Surprisingly, for a beer of its strength, OBE seems to have principally been a draught beer. I had wondered whether it was a seasonal beer. Barclay Perkins also called their KKKK Old Burton Extra. It was even stronger than Fullers’ version and was only available during the winter. As I’ve found batches of Fullers OBE brewed in July, I’m guessing that it was available year-round.

1939 Fullers OBE
pale malt	13.00 lb	81.25%
flaked maize	2.25 lb	14.06%
glucose	0.50 lb	3.13%
caramel 1000 SRM	0.25 lb	1.56%
Fuggles 90 mins	2.25 oz
Fuggles 30 mins	2.25 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.50 oz
OG	1069.5
FG	1020
ABV	6.55
Apparent attenuation	71.22%
IBU	48
SRM	19
Mash at	149º F
After underlet	152º F
Sparge at	168º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	60.5º F
Yeast	WLP002 English Ale

Scottish Sweet Stout before WW II

I've finally plucked up the courage to tackle a section of my new book that I'd been dreading: Stout.

Why? Because I have so much data. And there were so many different types of Stout of widely varying strength and character. Put simply, it's a shitload of work. But something I need to engage with, if I ever want this damn book to be finished.

Scottish Stout began to diverge from the English originals already in the 19th century. The style had never been as popular North of the border as in England and, after WW II, many breweries weren’t really making it.

Well, they were and they weren’t. Almost all Scottish brewers had a Stout in their portfolio, but often not in their brewing records. A good example is Drybrough. I’ve seen a big swathe of their brewing logs and there. Not a sniff of a Stout after 1920, yet I have an analysis of it from 1933.

How did that work? My guess is that they took a Pale Ale and primed it up at racking time to transform it into Stout. I suspect something similar was happening at other Scottish brewers, who just parti-gyled different strength Pale Ales from a single recipe.

The move towards Sweet Stout began in Scotland, even before Mackeson had the brainwave of adding lactose. In the 1880s, William Younger brewed Stouts with a poor degree of attenuation and a very low level of hopping, sometimes with partially, or even all, spent hops. After the introduction of lactose, Scottish brewers went mad for it, enabling them to brew ever more poorly-attenuation Stouts.

By the 1930s, Scottish Sweet Stouts were usually below 3% ABV and sometimes less than 2%. This was achieved by a combination of a low OG and a very poor degree of attenuation. Some examples in the table are barely fermented at all. And you definitely weren’t going to get pissed on such beers.

Scottish Sweet Stout before WW II
Date	Year	Beer	Price per pint (d)	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation
1933	Dryborough	Nourishing Stout		1031	1019	1.54	38.71%
1933	Murray	Milk Stout		1036	1018	2.31	50.00%
1933	Tennent	Nourishing Stout		1024	1015	1.16	37.50%
1933	Tennent	Nourishing Stout		1029	1014	1.93	51.72%
1933	Tennent	Nourishing Stout		1031	1013	2.32	58.06%
1933	Tennent	Light Stout		1032	1014	2.32	56.25%
1937	Younger, Geo	Cream Double Stout		1045.5	1025.5	2.56	43.96%
1937	Murray	Milk Stout	6	1044.8	1019.2	3.30	57.14%
Sources:
William Younger Gravity Book held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/1/19,
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/02/001.

Scottish Mild in WW II (part three)

One final post on Younger's WW II Milds. It's been a roller-coaster ride. I'm still high from the adrenaline.

I’m going to concentrate on the grists of XXX now. For a good reason. The other two, X and XX, pretty much exclusively parti-gyled with XXX. While XX was quite often brewed single-gyle. Also, there were far fewer brews of X and XX than XXX. Given how volatile recipes were in the middle of the war, XX offers better opportunities for tracking them all.

Having kicked off the war with grits, a form of maize, as their adjunct of choice, there were bound to be big changes. The war cut off imports of maize and brewers dependent on it had to look for alternatives. Initially, that was flaked rice. Ultimately, flaked barley. Inbetween a variety of other adjuncts were employed. Often more than one at the same time.

There’s nothing very complicated about the malt bill. It’s simply pale malt, crystal malt and the mysterious “M”. I’m really not sure what it was. The one log where they spell it out fully, I can’t read it. Though there are a couple which say Munich, so perhaps that’s what it is. Or possibly melanoidin malt.

The rise in the proportion of base malt is down to a reduction in the amount of adjuncts employed. Pre-war, most of Younger’s beers were around 45% grits. The largest percentage of adjuncts I’ve seen. More than 15% unmalted grains was unheard of at most breweries.

The sugars are also a bit tricky to pin down. One is simply described as “invert”, the other is a proprietary sugar called CWA. As invert only appears in dark beers, my money is on it being No. 3. But I could be wrong.

All I really know about CWA is that it was a starch conversion syrup, i.e., an enzymatic syrup. I’m assuming some sort of diastatic malt extract, like DME. Malt extract of this type were surprisingly common in the middle of the 20th century.

William Younger XXX Ale malt and sugar 1939 - 1944
Date	Year	OG	pale malt	crystal malt	M malt	invert	CWA
17th Nov	1939	1037	45.00%	6.00%	6.00%	2.00%	2.00%
19th Sep	1940	1036	48.11%	5.66%	5.66%	1.89%	1.89%
13th Mar	1941	1035	45.92%	6.12%	6.12%	4.08%	4.08%
9th Dec	1941	1036	62.26%	5.66%	5.66%	1.89%	1.89%
26th Dec	1941	1035	59.43%	5.66%	5.66%	3.77%
23rd Jan	1942	1034	60.00%	6.00%	6.00%	4.00%
24th Apr	1942	1033	57.45%	6.38%	6.38%	0.00%	4.26%
15th Jul	1942	1033	72.00%	6.00%	6.00%	4.00%
8th Aug	1942	1033	72.00%		12.00%	4.00%
11th Dec	1942	1033	63.46%	11.54%	5.77%	3.85%	3.85%
4th Nov	1943	1033	66.00%		12.00%	2.00%	2.00%
9th Nov	1943	1033	63.83%	6.38%	6.38%	2.13%	2.13%
14th Jan	1943	1033	60.58%		11.54%	3.85%	3.85%
9th Apr	1944	1033	57.45%		12.77%	2.13%	2.13%
Sources:
William Younger brewing records held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document numbers WY/6/1/2/76, WY/6/1/2/77, WY/6/1/2/78 , WY/6/1/2/79 and WY/6/1/2/81.

The following table shows how much the adjuncts used by Younger bounced around during the war. This wasn’t specific to their Milds. Every style used the adjunct of the day. The biggest surprise is that grits were still featuring as late as 1942. Maize disappeared from most UK brews in 1940.

Most breweries went through adjuncts in this order during the war: flaked maize, flaked rice, flaked barley, flaked oats and finally flaked barley again. Younger did things quite differently, using a couple of adjuncts simultaneously – for example, grits and flaked rice – and used a couple I’ve noy encountered elsewhere. Namely chit barley and ground barley. Though the latter I have seen mentioned in other technical sources.

William Younger XXX Ale adjuncts 1939 - 1944
Date	Year	OG	flaked rice	grits	flaked barley	chit barley	ground barley	flaked rye	flaked oat
17th Nov	1939	1037		39.00%
19th Sep	1940	1036	19.81%	16.98%
13th Mar	1941	1035	15.31%	18.37%
9th Dec	1941	1036		16.98%		5.66%
26th Dec	1941	1035		16.98%			8.49%
23rd Jan	1942	1034		18.00%			6.00%
24th Apr	1942	1033		19.15%			6.38%
15th Jul	1942	1033			12.00%
8th Aug	1942	1033			12.00%
11th Dec	1942	1033						11.54%
4th Nov	1943	1033			6.00%				12.00%
9th Nov	1943	1033			19.15%
14th Jan	1943	1033			20.19%
9th Apr	1944	1033			25.53%
Sources:
William Younger brewing records held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document numbers WY/6/1/2/76, WY/6/1/2/77, WY/6/1/2/78 , WY/6/1/2/79 and WY/6/1/2/81.

 

 

Scottish Mild in WW II (part two)

Quite brief today. Though this isn't the end of my ridiculously-detailed look at William Younger's Mild Ales. It was unusual that they had three Milds in their range. Most breweries had two at most. Except for weirdoes like Barclay Perkins, who made five or six.

Strongest of Younger’s Milds was XXX. It wasn’t, however, anything like as high in gravity as the top-grade London Milds, which were over 1040º when the war kicked off.  Younger’s XXX was the equivalent of a 5d per pint London Mild, which was effectively Ordinary Mild.

Being a bit stronger than their other Milds, there was more scope for reductions in gravity with XXX. Even so, a drop of just 4º between 1939 and 1944 isn’t bad going at all.

As with the weaker Milds, the hopping rate is feeble. Which I guess which is what drinkers must have expected from Younger’s Milds. Dry hopping was also dropped after a couple of years of war. Which, given the lack of copper hops, might have had quite a big impact on the flavour of the beer.

William Younger XXX Ale 1939 - 1944
Date	Year	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	dry hops (oz / barrel)
17th Nov	1939	1037.0	1014.0	3.04	62.16%	2.50	0.36	2.05
19th Sep	1940	1036.0	1014.0	2.91	61.11%	2.78	0.37	1.92
13th Mar	1941	1035.0	1014.0	2.78	60.00%	2.35	0.31	1.86
9th Dec	1941	1036.0	1015.0	2.78	58.33%	2.35	0.31	0.00
26th Dec	1941	1035.0	1013.5	2.84	61.43%	2.22	0.30	0.00
23rd Jan	1942	1034.0	1012.0	2.91	64.71%	2.35	0.29	0.00
24th Apr	1942	1033.0	1011.0	2.91	66.67%	2.19	0.28	0.00
15th Jul	1942	1033.0	1012.0	2.78	63.64%	2.24	0.29	0.00
8th Aug	1942	1033.0	1011.0	2.91	66.67%	2.24	0.29	0.00
11th Dec	1942	1033.0	1012.0	2.78	63.64%	2.94	0.39	0.00
4th Nov	1943	1033.0	1012.5	2.71	62.12%	2.94	0.39	0.00
9th Nov	1943	1033.0	1012.0	2.78	63.64%	2.94	0.38	0.00
12th Jan	1943	1033.0	1014.0	2.51	57.58%	2.78	0.38	0.00
9th Apr	1944	1033.0	1013.0	2.65	60.61%	2.94	0.38	0.00
Sources:
William Younger brewing records held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document numbers WY/6/1/2/76, WY/6/1/2/77, WY/6/1/2/78 , WY/6/1/2/79 and WY/6/1/2/81.

Let's Brew - 1941 William Younger DBS Btlg

I'm still up to my neck in WW II recipes. Essentially, William Younger recipes. Still got quite a way to go, though I have got to 1942. That's 43 recipes. Just a few more years to go.  Luckily they dropped a few beers in the second half of the war.

Younger only seems to have brewed their Stout intermittently. No shock that it was mostly in the cooler months. Almost every example I have was brewed between September and April.

While the gravity is almost unchanged at just 1º down, there’s been some more shuffling around of the grist. Nothing too drastic. There’s a little more base malt, and about 50% more of roast barley and crystal malt. All at the expense of flaked rice.

The caramel has been dropped completely, which probably explains why the roast barley was bumped up. And the quantity of lactose has been halved. I can’t help but think that these changes must have affected the flavour of the beer noticeably.

I’ve adjusted the FG down from the 1023.5º in the brewing record, based on an analysis from 1939.

A single type of Kent hops, from the 1940 harvest, were employed in the copper. 

1941 William Younger DBS Btlg
pale malt	7.50 lb	50.85%
roasted barley	1.50 lb	10.17%
crystal malt 60L	1.50 lb	10.17%
flaked rice	2.25 lb	15.25%
grits	1.75 lb	11.86%
lactose	0.25 lb	1.69%
Fuggles 150 min	1.00 oz
Fuggles 60 min	1.00 oz
Fuggles 30 min	0.75 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.50 oz
OG	1060
FG	1017
ABV	5.69
Apparent attenuation	71.67%
IBU	32
SRM	30
Mash at	154º F
Sparge at	160º F
Boil time	150 minutes
pitching temp	61.5º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

Naughty vicar postscript

I've been directed to some more information about Hugo de la Mothe's life.

Ed pointed me at an From ancestry.co.uk entry on Hugo. Which reveals that he was born in Broughton, Lancashire, England on 5th May 1890 to Frederick La Mothe and Mabel Clare Joughin. He died 24th June 1956 in Bromley, Kent.

He seems to have been married twice: Christina Ballie Wallace (1892 - 1920) and Noel Sophie Learmonth Gilchrist 1(890 - 1967). His second marriage produced two daughters: Jacqueline Colville Margaret De La Mothe (1925 - 2005) and Gillian Susan Noel De La Mothe (1931 - 1980).

Both children were born in London, the first in Kensington, the second in Chelsea. Both pretty posh neighbourhoods.

Chap provided some extra information in comments which I think are worth repeating here.

"Hugo's time as a District Officer in Nigeria is touched on in a 2011 book entitled 'Berengario Cermenati among the Igbirra (Ebira) of Nigeria: a study in colonial, missionary and local politics, 1897-1925'. Partially available on Google Books, it concerns what seem to be a series of disputes between Catholic missionaries, Protestants, the British colonial authorities, tribal leaders, the military and everyone else under the sun. Even though Hugo came in towards the end of the disputes, the Catholic missionary who is the book's protagonist (Berengario Cermenati) apparently wrote of him 'I ask God to give me the grace to resist the very strong temptation to physically attack that scoundrel and liar de la Mothe. My hands and fists are itching in an uncontrollable way.' The day after he wrote that, Dominic Laitu, a local who led a Protestant community that defected to Roman Catholicism and who was now helping the missionary, was sentenced to nine months hard labour for defaming the District Officer – Hugo. De la Mothe had previously alienated the Catholic community when a group of locals who had not been converted objected to Catholics holding a noisy prayer meeting during which a bell was rung loudly. The affair was referred to de la Mothe for his adjudication, which the Catholics interpreted as being asked to renounce their faith. They then complained that, when they refused, they had been carried off in chains on the orders of Hugo, who had also used highly offensive language. The story ends with a broken-hearted Berengario Cermenati becoming the only Catholic missionary ever to have been expelled from Nigeria. So Hugo de la Mothe was not unused to being the subject of complaints."

"The Flat Hat: According to Crockford's Clerical Directory 1947, the Reverend Hugo did his training for the ministry at Bishops' College, Cheshunt (1937) and Chichester Theological College (1939), becoming a deacon (the lowest level of Church of England clergy) in 1939 and a priest (next level up) in 1940. In 1939-40 he was the curate (i.e. assistant clergy) of Bideford in Devon, and from 1940-44 he was the Rector of Dogmersfield. Given the three-year gap and the fact that he isn't recorded at any other parish, it looks as if his clerical career had come to a stop. Crockford's records him as living at Bayonne, Haven View [Road], Seaton, Devon: is it just a coincidence that the house bears the same name as the French town that his great-great-great grandfather Dominique La Mothe hailed from (30 November)?" 

"Dan Klingman: In the Church of England, the term 'living' means 'job as parish priest'. It is an alternative for 'benefice', more formally defined as a position in which the holder is expected to perform defined spiritual duties while being supported by the revenues attached to the position. In the past, those revenues might have been generated by parishioners' tithes (one-tenth of income), by the rents from ecclesiastical properties (glebe), or by the congregation. These days, parish clergy are supported by a stipend paid by the diocese. In the Church of England, the patron of a particular living or benefice is entitled to 'present' (i.e. appoint) a priest to fill a vacancy. In about 50% of parishes, the right of patronage rests with the diocesan bishop; in the remainder, the patron may be, depending on the parish's history, the Crown, an Oxbridge college, a body corporate or even an individual. Patronages cannot be sold, but they can be inherited, and to be a patron imposes a certain responsibility, both in making the appointment and in providing wise counsel to the officeholder during his/her incumbency. Both in leaving the appointment to his mother and in his apparent indifference to the whole mess, the patron of the living at Dogmersfield seems to have been remiss, to say the least."