How can you call that a Stout?

Guinness. Love them or leave them, you sometimes hate them. My own relationship with Guinness is equivocal. Just to prove that, I'm drinking one* right now.

Stout. What did the word originally mean, in a beer sense? Strong. Brown Stout is the name Stout began with, back in the 18th century. It had a brother, Pale Stout. Stout = strong, pale or brown = base malt.

Many things annoy me. My evenings are spent screaming at the TV, while Dolores covers her ears and the kids hide cower behind the settee. Pretty much top, beer-wise, is the assertion that you can't have an IPA under 4% ABV. Because IPA "was a strong beer" in the 19th century.

I've just two problems with that argument. First, IPA wasn't a strong beer in the 19th century. It was about standard strength. I've plenty of examples of a base-level X-Ale Mild that were stronger than Bass IPA (or whatever they called it, I think it was often just Pale Ale) in a given year.

Second problem: assuming beer styles are flies trapped in amber, unchanging. British beer styles have been exceedingly dynamic, in terms of strength, ingredients and even colour. Judging a modern British beer by the style guidelines of 1850 is ludicrous. Surely everyone can see that? Well, no they can't. Otherwise there wouldn't be the repeated, tedious complaint that Greene King commits fraud with their IPA.

I'm going to move this over the Irish Channel. And look at Guinness, applying the same logic that condemns Greene King IPA. Does Guinness match up to its 19th-century ancestors? How strong was Guinness Extra Stout in, say 1870? Or 1880? Or 1914?

Let's take a look at one of my traditional tables (I've deliberately thrown in some FES examples as a benchmark):

Guinness Stout 1870 – 1914
Year	Brewer	Beer	Acidity	FG	OG	colour	ABV	App. Attenuation
1870	Guinness	Extra Stout	0.24	1015.51	1078.06		8.20	80.13%
1870	Guinness	Stout	0.24	1015.51	1078.06		8.51	80.13%
1870	Guinness	Stout	0.20	1019.56	1078.01		7.75	74.93%
1888	Guinness	Stout	0.52	1018.1	1072		7.03	74.86%
1896	Guinness	Extra Stout		1017.55	1072.26		7.05	74.43%
1901	Guinness	Foreign Extra Stout		1013.302	1075.67		8.18	82.42%
1901	Guinness	Extra Foreign Stout	0.243	1013.20	1074.98		7.86	81.34%
1914	Guinness	Extra Stout			1074
Sources:
British Medical Journal June 25th 1870, page 658 http://books.google.nl/books?id=TH1AAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA68&dq=%22mild+ale%22&hl=en&ei=vhSbTeC0OoSeOtqelKMH&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22malt%20liquors%22&f=false
"Chemie der menschlichen Nahrungs- und Genussmittel" by Joseph König, 1889, page 839
Wahl & Henius, pages 823-830

Based on that, an Irish Stout should be 7-8% ABV

Guinness Stout 1964 – 1966
Year	Brewer	Beer	Acidity	FG	OG	colour	ABV	App. Attenuation
1964	Guinness	Foreign Extra Stout	0.07	1015	1072.8	200	7.56	79.40%
1964	Guinness	Extra Stout	0.04	1007.5	1043.1	225	4.64	82.60%
1964	Guinness	Extra Stout	0.06	1007.9	1044.9	150	4.82	82.41%
1964	Guinness	Extra Stout	0.06	1007.9	1044.8	175	4.81	82.37%
1964	Guinness	Extra Stout	0.06	1007.8	1044.8	175	4.82	82.59%
1966	Guinness	Extra Stout	0.05	1007	1043	160	4.69	83.72%
1966	Guinness	Extra Stout	0.04	1006.9	1043.5	170	4.77	84.14%
1966	Guinness	Extra Stout	0.04	1007.4	1043	190	4.64	82.79%
1966	Guinness	Extra Stout	0.04	1007.3	1043.6	170	4.73	83.26%
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002

Look at that. Modern Guinness Extra Stout is barely half the strength that it was 100 years ago.  How can you call that a Stout? Fraud, I call it.




* Guinness Special Export

Guinness vs Whitbread Stout

Remember this bit from "Beer Knowledge"?

"When the British government imposed restrictions on malting and beer strength during the First World War, the dry Irish style stole a march on its British counterpart and, aided by both canny advertising and the missionary zeal of Irish Diaspora, it's become the benchmark for stouts."

I just found something in one of Whitbread's spreadsheets that throws some light on this assertion. A bucket of cold light. It's a document with incredibly detailed sales records. Both of Whitbread's own beers and ones from other brewers. Like Guinness and Bass.

If that quote is to be believed, a tide of Guinness washed away British Stout after WW I. So in, say, 1943, you'd expect Guinness to be outselling Whitbread's Stouts, right? Let's see if that was the case.

First, Guinness sales:

Whitbread's Guinness sales 1943
Town Guinness	barrels
Guinness pints	12,399
Guinness half pints	7,991
Total Town Guinness	20,300
Country Guinness
Guinness pints	2,501
Guinness half pints	1,902
Total Country Guinness	4,403
Total Guinness	24,703
Source:
document LMA/44503/C/08/063

So a little less than 25,000 barrels. Not bad. But what about Whitbread's Stouts?

Whitbread's own Stout sales 1943
Town Stout (including Kent)	barrels
London Stout pints	18,484
Special Stout half pints	14,100
London Stout quarts	12,045
Total London Stout	44,629
Oatmeal Stout pints	1,985
Oatmeal Stout half pints	119
Oatmeal Stout quarts	1,396
Total Oatmeal Stout	3,500
Milk Stout pints	9,284
Milk Stout half pints	6,347
Milk Stout quarts	3,980
Total Milk Stout	19,611
Total Town Stout	67,740
Country Stout
London Stout pints	9,460
Special Stout half pints	821
London Stout half pints	547
London Stout quarts	661
Total London Stout	11,489
Oatmeal Stout pints	24,235
Oatmeal Stout half pints	4,812
Oatmeal Stout quarts	2,394
Total Oatmeal Stout	31,441
Milk Stout pints	25,906
Milk Stout half pints	19,041
Milk Stout quarts	1,196
Total Milk Stout	46,143
Total Country Stout	89,073
Total Whitbread Stout	156,813
Source:
document LMA/44503/C/08/063

Just a little bit more. And those figures are just bottled Stout. Whitbread still sold a fair bit of draught Stout. And they sold 20,000 barrels of Stout in Scotland that I haven't included.

In 1943 Whitbread sold more than 6 times as much of their own Stouts as they did Guinness. More than 25 years after Guinness was supposed to have swept British Stouts away.

Can we agree that story is bollocks?

The 1952 barley crop (part four)

Guinness had a particularly complicated relationship with barley growers. Sufficient to warrant several paragraphs in the article.

“New Guinness Barley Prices for Irish Growers
A minimum price of 66s. 9d. per barrel of 224 lbs. and a maximum price of 84s. 3d. per barrel of 224 lbs. delivered to buyers' premises, will be paid by Messrs. Guinness for their contracted quantities of malting barley of the 1953 crop.

This was agreed at a meeting recently of representatives of the Grain Growers' Association, Ltd., and the directors of Messrs. Guinness. Within these limits Messrs. Guinness undertook that their price on a delivered basis would be 3s. 9d. per barrel more than the average price of their purchases of malting barley ex farm in England.”
"Brewer's Guardian 1953", 1953, February page 14.

I can see why Guinness and Irish barley growers would want to cooperate. Guinness had an interest in sufficient supplies of good malting barley being available locally. And Guinness was by far the biggest purchaser of malting barley in Ireland. Farmers couldn’t avoid them, if they wanted to grow barley. So contracting growers and guaranteeing a price made sense for both sides.

But why did they guarantee to pay Irish farmers more than their English counterparts? I’m really intrigued by this. It looks like an attempt to bolster Irish agriculture.

Hang on a minute, it’s explained in the next bit of the text.

“Messrs. Guinness are prepared to make contracts for about 510,000 barrels.

Farmers who offer malting barley under contract and whose deliveries are rejected as being below malting quality will be offered a firm price of 55s. per barrel, delivered, provided the barley is fit for roasting purposes.

Messrs. Guinness reserve the right to make deductions on account of moisture above 19 per cent as determined by the buyers.

Aim of Agreement
The price for the last season's crop was 75s. for malting barley.

The basis of the new agreement is taken as representing an effort to induce farmers to market high quality barley. The farmer who does this could get up to 84s. 3d. per barrel, and if the British price should reach that level he would get 3s. 9d. more, or 88s. per barrel, which is regarded as a tempting price.”
"Brewer's Guardian 1953", 1953, February page 14.

There you have it: Guinness wanted to encourage Irish farmers to grow decent barley.

I love the chance to perform some mathematics. 510,000 barrels is 280,600 quarters of 400 lbs. Assuming 90 lbs of extract per quarter and based on the average OG in the Republic of Ireland in 1953 (1045.21*) I make that enough barley to brew a little over 1.5 million barrels. Which is a huge percentage of the 2,145,110** barrels brewed in the Republic of Ireland in 1953. Not really surprising, as the vast majority of beer came from Guinness-owned breweries. It looks like Guinness were contracting around enough Irish barley to meet all their malting needs for the year.

barrels barley	quarters barley	total lbs extract	barrels @ 1045º
510,000	285,600	25,704,000	1,579,861

Interested in what happened to UK barley prices in 1953? That will tell us how good a deal Guinness gave Irish farmers.

The 66s. 9d. minimum per 224 lbs. is 119s 2d per 400 lb quarter. The maximum price of 84s. 3d. per 224 lbs is 150s 5d per quarter. While the average UK price per quarter in 1953 was 107s 5d. Looks to me like Irish farmers were getting a pretty good deal from Guinness. At least in 1953. It would be interesting to see what they did in later years as the barley price continued to fall.





* 1955 Brewers’ Almanack, page 110.
** 1955 Brewers’ Almanack, page 110.
*** 1971 Brewers' Almanack, page 61.

Guinness XX Porter in 1861

Remember that analysis of Drogheda Ale? The same book also had one of Guinness XX Porter. I thought you might be interested in seeing that as well.

One point before we start. Which Guinness product were they analysing? In the 19th century Guinness had three main products: Porter, Extra Stout and Foreign Extra Stout. Though the names used weren't always those. Before 1896 Porter was called Single Stout and Extra Stout was called Double Stout. Foreign Extra Stout was also known as Foreign Export Double Stout and West Indies Porter at different dates. Guinness weren't very consistent in their use of the designations Porter and Stout, using both words at different times to describe all three products.

Funnily enough, a name I haven't seen mentioned until now is Guinness XX Porter. Though when I did a bit of digging on the web, the name popped up in various 19th century adverts and texts. Luckily, I've been able to work out the OG of the beer they anaylsed and it's clear which of the Guinness products it is: Porter. I've other analyses for Guinness Porter and Extra Stout from the 1890's. The Porter was 1063º, the Extra Stout 1073º.

"On the Composition of Dublin Porter.

By George W. Jackson, B. A., and William J. Wonfor, Students in the Laboratory of the Museum of Irish Industry.

[Read on Monday Evening, December 17, I860.]

A Want has often been felt by medical men, and others, in Dublin, interested in the composition of such substances, of a reliable and complete analysis of Irish porter; for although the composition of the principal English and foreign beers has been determined by different chemists, no such investigation had hitherto been undertaken in Dublin. At the suggestion of Professor Galloway, Mr. Jackson undertook the analysis of Guinness's XX porter; but at an early stage of the proceedings being obliged by ill health to forego the completion of the research, the task devolved on me to finish it; and we have much pleasure in laying before the Royal Dublin Society the results of our joint investigation. The sample of porter which we employed was obtained from Mr. Edward Burke, of Middle Abbey-street, agent to the Messrs. Guinness; and the analysis was performed in the laboratory of the Museum of Irish Industry, under the direction of Mr. Galloway."
"The Journal of the Royal Dublin society, Volume 3", 1862, page 163.

Amazing, isn't it, that no-one had bothered to analyse beers in Ireland.

Here's the table they produced. With a few extra bits I've worked out, such as ABW, ABV, OG and apparent attenuation.

"The following are the amounts of the various constituents in 1000 parts by measure of the Porter:—

Guinness XX Porter 1861
	I	II	Mean
Total amount of fixed organic matter	67.566	66.426	66.996
Total amount of fixed inorganic matter	4.166	4.27	4.218
	71.732	70.696	71.214
Proof spirit*	89.6	92	90.8
ABW	4.41	4.53	4.47
ABV	5.60	5.75	5.68
Acetic acid	3.6	3.6	3.6
Grape Sugar	1.72	1.72	1.72
Albumen	8.272	7.5	7.886
Extractive matter	57.574	57.206	57.39
Silica	0.29	0.29	0.29
Phosphate of Magnesia	0.851	0.851	0.851
Lime	0.085	0.085	0.085
Phosphoric acid	0.69	0.703	0.697
Chloride of sodium	0.448	0.449	0.448
Sulphuric acid	0.277	0.274	0.276
Potash	1.5327	1.5	1.513
Soda	0.082	0.083	0.082
	71.816	70.661	71.238
FG	1019.565	1019.2	1019.383
OG	1062.1	1062.8	1062.45
apparent attenuation	68.49%	69.43%	68.96%
Source:
"The Journal of the Royal Dublin society, Volume 3", 1862, page 169
* Proof spirit has a sp. gr. of 0.9198 at 60º Fahr. and contains 49.25 per cent, by weight of real alcohol.

First thing that jumps out at me is the attenuation: less than 70%. That's much lower than modern Guinness Extra Stout, where it's 85%. But, as I've pointed out before, very dry and highly-attenuated Guinness is a relatively recent phenomenon, dating from just the 1950's. With an acetic acid content of 0.36%, Guinness's XX porter must have been quite a tart beer. Analyses of Guinness Porter and Stout from 1870 also show quite high levels of acetic acid: 0.24%, 0.20% and 0.26%. In another sample from 1888 the acidity was as high as 0.52%.

How did Guinness Porter compare with the London version? Time for another table, I think. here are the details of four London-brewed Porters from the same period:

Year	Brewer	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
1862	Barclay Perkins	TT	Porter	1055.1	1017.5	4.98	68.25%	15.29	3.79
1861	Whitbread	P	Porter	1053.5	1015.8	4.98	70.47%	10.37	2.63
1860	Truman	Runner	Porter	1057.6	1013.9	5.79	75.96%	8.2	2.36
1858	Courage	Porter	Porter	1055.12				12.00	2.86
Source:
Brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives.

The London Porters all had a lower OG, averaging around 1055º, compared to the 1062º of Guinness Porter. In terms of attenuation, there wasn't a huge amount of difference. With the exception of Truman's Runner, all were a shade under 70%.

Here's the slightly bizarre conclusion of the scientists:

"Without expressing any opinion as to the medicinal virtues of the porter we examined, we may, perhaps, be permitted to draw attention to the facts which our analysis reveals, that it contains a large quantity of heat and flesh-producing matter, as well as the necessary inorganic constituents required in the formation of bone and flesh.

As we were obliged to limit ourselves to one sample of porter, as it would have required more time than we could give to have examined samples of porter from all the different manufactories, we selected Guinness's as the type of all the rest."
"The Journal of the Royal Dublin society, Volume 3", 1862, page 170.

Anyone an idea as to what "heat and flesh-producing matter" might be? I haven't the foggiest. It's the weird sort of thing 19th century scientists had a habit of saying. I think they just made most of it up.

Lazy bastards, that's all I can say. If only they'd been able to drag themselves away from their laudanum, they might have found the time to analyse all the different types of Dublin Porter. Now that would have been interesting. But no, dilettantes that they were, they only bothered with Guinness.

Bottled Stout in the 1950's - Standard Stouts >70% attenuation

You’d best get settled in because this is going to take a while. I’ve made up a whole load of Stout categories and I’ll be slowly crawling through them over the next weeks. Not sure exactly why I’m doing this, other than that I’ve started and I’d like to finish.

I suppose it’s all part of one of my current grand schemes. A close look at British beer and brewing in the period 1945 to 1960. With a particular emphasis of bottled beer and bottling. I know. Really dull stuff. But I see that as a challenge. And if worried about alienating readers, I’d never write anything I really want to.

I’ve arranged the beers in descending order of attenuation. You can see that not only is Guinness Extra Stout No. 1, it also occupies 9 of the top 20  positions. But there’s a fair spread amongst the Guinness examples, from 80.13% to 93.95% apparent attenuation. There are 13 examples from other breweries with a higher degree of attenuation of the least attenuated version of Guinness.

There are several beers that look quite similar to Guinness: Massey, Matthew Brown, Magee Marshall, Chesters, Holts and M & B. Though some do have a lower OG. All but M & B are from the Northwest of England. Is that a coincidence, or were drier Stouts more popular in that part of the country?

Looking more closely, there are almost no Southern breweries in the list. Just these ones: Watney, Hunt Edmunds, Starkey, Knight & Ford, Shrewesbury & Wem, Truman and Flowers. And most of those are towards the bottom end of the list. Not sure what that tells us, but I find it interesting.

Judging by its price, Guinness was a premium product. The average price per pint of the whole set is  26.2d. For Guinness it’s 30.5. But that makes sense, if you think about it. Two breweries – Guinness and the bottling/reselling brewery – both needed to make a profit from it.

I was surprised to see a beer described as a Sweet Stout (Chesters) in this set and one containing lactose (Hydes). Especially as the latter had a 75% rate of attenuation. There can’t have been that much lactose added or the FG would be higher.

I originally had two examples of Mackeson in this set. But I removed them because I’d taken the details from brewing records and they were for the beer as brewed, before the addition of lactose at the end of primary fermentation.

Bottled Stout in the 1950's - Standard Stouts >70% attenuation
Year	Brewer	Beer	Price	size	Acidity	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour
1953	Guinness	Extra Stout	1/-	nip	0.18	1046.3	1002.8	5.70	93.95%	1 + 8
1959	Massey	Prize Stout	12.5d	halfpint		1040.8	1004.2	4.78	89.71%	475
1959	Matthew Brown	Lion Oatmeal Stout	13d	halfpint		1040.4	1005.2	4.59	87.13%	150
1954	Guinness	Extra Stout	1/3.5d	half pint	0.05	1047.5	1006.6	5.34	86.11%	200
1954	Magee Marshall	Extra Stout	11d	half pint	0.04	1043.5	1006.4	4.84	85.29%	200
1954	Guinness	Extra Stout	1/2d	half pint	0.05	1047.4	1007.1	5.26	85.02%	1 + 13
1954	Chester Brewery	Extra Stout	1/-	half pint	0.11	1042.7	1006.5	4.72	84.78%	250
1951	Guinness	Extra Stout	1/3d	half pint	0.05	1049.1	1007.5	5.43	84.73%	1 + 8
1952	Guinness	Extra Stout	1/2d	half pint	0.07	1047.4	1007.5	5.20	84.18%	1 + 8
1957	Matthew Brown	Lion Oatmeal Stout	1/-	half pint	0.09	1041.4	1006.7	4.52	83.82%	250
1959	Holt, Joseph	Brown Stout	13.5d	halfpint		1045.2	1007.5	4.91	83.41%	325
1953	Mitchell & Butler	Extra Stout	1/-	half pint	0.05	1049	1008.2	5.32	83.27%	1 + 11
1951	Guinness	Extra Stout	1/3.5d	half pint	0.08	1047.7	1008.1	5.16	83.02%	1 + 8.5
1952	Bent's Brewery	Imperial Stone Stout	11.5d	half pint	0.07	1041.3	1007.1	4.45	82.81%	1R + 8B
1951	Mitchell & Butler	Nourishing Stout	1/5d	pint	0.04	1042.8	1007.4	4.61	82.71%	1 + 10
1951	Mitchell & Butler	Nourishing Stout	1/6d	pint	0.07	1042.1	1007.3	4.53	82.66%	1 + 12
1950	Guinness	Extra Stout	1/11d	pint	0.06	1048.6	1008.6	5.21	82.30%	1 + 8
1957	Guinness	Extra Stout	1/5d	half pint	0.05	1047.3	1008.6	5.04	81.82%	150
1953	Guinness	Extra Stout	1/3.5d	half pint	0.05	1047.4	1008.7	5.04	81.65%	1 + 11
1959	Hey's	White Rose Stout	14d	halfpint		1046.6	1008.7	4.94	81.33%	325
1951	Mitchell & Butler	Extra Stout	10.5d	half pint	0.04	1048	1009	5.08	81.25%	1 + 9
1952	Matthew Brown	Oatmeal Stout	11.5d	half pint	0.07	1041.1	1007.8	4.33	81.02%	1 + 11
1959	Robinson	Unicorn Black Stout	14.5d	halfpint		1041.8	1008.1	4.38	80.62%	240
1954	Watney	Reids Special Stout	12.5d	half pint	0.04	1043.3	1008.5	4.53	80.37%	1 + 15
1951	Courage	Sturdy Extra Stout	12d	half pint	0.05	1043.6	1008.6	4.55	80.28%
1958	Guinness	Extra Stout	1/4.5d	half pint	0.07	1046.3	1009.2	4.83	80.13%	200
1951	Watney	Special Stout	12d	half pint	0.06	1045.3	1009.1	4.71	79.91%	1 + 12
1959	Hewitt Bros.	Oatmeal Stout	10d	halfpint		1042.3	1008.8	4.36	79.20%	300
1954	JW Lees	Archer Stout	1/-	half pint	0.06	1040.7	1008.5	4.19	79.12%	225
1950	Watney	Reids Special Stout	12d	half pint	0.06	1045.9	1009.6	4.72	79.08%	1 + 11
1953	Mitchell & Butler	Extra Stout	1/-	half pint	0.05	1046.2	1009.8	4.74	78.79%	21 B
1950	Watney	Reids Stout	17d	pint	0.06	1042.9	1009.1	4.39	78.79%	1 + 10
1953	Camerons	Sovereign Stout	1/1d	half pint	0.05	1044.3	1009.6	4.51	78.33%	1R + 17B
1957	Watney	Special Stout	13d	half pint	0.05	1042.3	1009.4	4.28	77.78%	200
1951	Hancocks	77 Export Stout	1/2d	half pint	0.06	1045.9	1010.3	4.63	77.56%	1 + 12
1954	Mitchell & Butler	Extra Stout	1/-	half pint	0.05	1049	1011.2	4.92	77.14%	1 + 14
1951	JW Lees	Archer Stout	1/1d	half pint	0.14	1041.7	1009.6	4.17	76.98%
1952	Leicester Brewing & Malting	Milk Stout	1/2.5d	half pint	0.17	1044.2	1010.2	4.42	76.92%	1 + 15.5
1959	Threlfalls	Extra Stout	13d	halfpint		1044.4	1010.5	4.40	76.35%	175
1951	JW Lees	Archer Stout	1/1d	half pint	0.06	1040	1009.5	3.96	76.25%
1953	Stroud Brewery	Cottswold Stout	1/-	half pint	0.06	1043.3	1010.4	4.27	75.98%	1R + 14B
1959	Lion Brewery	Lion Prize Stout	14d	half pint	0.06	1046.3	1011.3	4.38	75.59%	175
1954	Threlfalls	Extra Stout	1/1d	half pint	0.04	1046.9	1011.5	4.60	75.48%	225
1954	Hydes	Special Stout (Lactose present)	1/1d	half pint	0.04	1043.2	1010.9	4.19	74.77%	225
1952	Nimmo	Nimmo's Stout	1/-	half pint	0.05	1045	1011.4	4.36	74.67%	1R + 7B
1952	Mardens	Mylki Extra Stout	1/3d	half pint	0.06	1043.9	1011.2	4.24	74.49%	1R + 1 B
1957	Watney	Reids Special Stout	18d	half pint	0.06	1045.2	1011.8	4.33	73.89%	225
1959	Hunt Edmunds	Country Stout	12d	halfpint		1043.3	1011.7	4.10	72.98%	225
1952	Marston	Extra Stout	1/3d	half pint	0.06	1042.1	1011.4	3.98	72.92%	1R+13.5B
1952	Greenall Whitley	Wilderspool Extra Stout	1/1d	half pint	0.07	1040.4	1011	3.81	72.77%	1 R + 9 B
1959	Ardwick Brewery	Chesters Special Sweet Stout	15d	halfpint	0.04	1045.5	1012.5	4.28	72.53%	200
1954	Mardens	Mylki Stout	1/2d	half pint	0.04	1043.1	1012	4.03	72.16%	250
1950	Stone, Wm.	Samson Stout	1/-	half pint	0.07	1043.1	1012.1	4.02	71.90%	1 + 18
1952	Shrewesbury & Wem	Extra Stout	1/2d	half pint	0.08	1041	1011.8	3.78	71.22%	1R + 18B
1950	Truman	Black Ben Stout	14.5d	half pint	0.07	1048.8	1014.2	4.49	70.90%	1 + 9
1950	Truman	Black Ben Stout	14.5d	half pint	0.07	1049	1014.3	4.50	70.82%	1 + 10
1953	Starkey, Knight & Ford	Super Stout	1/2d	half pint	0.04	1045.9	1013.4	4.21	70.81%	1 + 16
1954	Flowers	Table Stout			0.07	1046.4	1013.6	4.25	70.69%	350
1959	Chesters	Special Sweet Stout	14d	halfpint		1044.6	1013.2	4.07	70.40%	200
1954	Thwaites	Cream Stout	1/1d	half pint	0.04	1044.3	1013.2	4.03	70.20%	200
1959	Cornbrook Brewery	Barley Stout	12.5d	halfpint		1046.3	1013.8	4.21	70.19%	250
1953	Worthington	XX Stout	1/-	half pint	0.05	1040	1012	3.63	70.00%	1R + 16B
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001.

What’s next? Standard-strength Stouts with not such good attenuation.