Tuesday 11 August 2015

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.

2 comments:

Jeff Renner said...

Image, please.

Ron Pattinson said...

Done. Been busy.