Tuesday 18 August 2015

Bottled Stout in the 1950's - Standard Stouts 65-70% attenuation

Here we go again with another dull and pointless table. Sell your piece in the first sentence, they advise. I think I’ve achieved that goal admirably.

The sport will be to see if I do ever get to the end. I’d put the chances at around 50-50. There are always new shiny things to distract me. Though in my case the shiny things usually aren’t very shiny. Dusty, more like. I’ve still an absolute stack of 19th-century Lager analyses to harvest. And there’s that Which report on beer from 1960 Boak & Bailey sent me. It’s hard not to get drawn away by that.

Anyway, will I can still be arsed to continue, let’s crack on. I was just about to say how they came from all pars pf the UK when I noticed something: two examples of Mercer’s Stout. Is that the fabled Mercer’s Meat Stout? If it is, it looks remarkably ordinary. Though I guess you wouldn’t spot its potential oddness from the bare stats.

I just spotted something odd: a lot of the FG’s are very similar. 33 of the 47 have an FG between 1014 and 1015.9. Looks like customers expected a certain amount of body in their Stout.

It’s surprising that in these reasonably-attenuated set that there should be four Stouts containing lactose. Five, really. It isn’t mentioned in the Whitbread Gravity Book entry, but Mackeson definitely contained it. Less surprising is that these examples are all towards the bottom of the table.

Despite not really being in tooth-rotting country yet, five have the words “sweet” of “glucose” in their name. Looks to me like sweetness was becoming a selling point for Stout. Quite a change from its 18th-century classification as a beer and hence heavily hopped.

Of this set, Mackeson and Sam Smiths Extra Stout are the only two that still exist. Not such a shock as only Hydes, Sam Smiths and Thwaites are still around.

One final point. How exactly is Mc Ewan’s Stout Imperial at just 3.7% ABV? That’s a Table Beer by 19th-century standards.

Here’s the funny, fun, fun bit. The table:

Bottled Stout in the 1950's - Standard Stouts 65-70% attenuation
Year Brewer Beer Price size Acidity OG FG ABV App. Atten-uation colour
1959 Bents Red Label Stout 12d half 1048.3 1014.5 4.38 69.98% 250
1950 Hancocks Export Stout 1/2d half 0.06 1044.4 1013.4 4.02 69.82% 1 + 18.5
1953 Mercers Stout 1/1d half 0.06 1045.7 1013.8 4.13 69.80% 1 + 22
1954 Bernard Export Stout 1/2d half 0.04 1043.9 1013.3 3.96 69.70% 1 + 14
1951 Hammerton Oatmeal Stout 23d pint 0.06 1047.1 1014.3 4.25 69.64% 1 + 21
1959 Ansell Newcrest Stout 14d half 1046 1014 4.15 69.57% 190
1954 Tollemache Beano Stout 9.5d half 0.04 1041 1012.6 3.68 69.27% 350
1951 Groves & Whitnall Red Rose Stout 1/2d half 0.06 1047.5 1014.6 4.26 69.26%
1951 Hammerton Oatmeal Stout 16d half 0.07 1045.6 1014.1 4.08 69.08%
1950 J & T Bernard Stout (Export) 1/1d half 0.11 1045.5 1014.1 4.07 69.01% 1 + 10
1959 Stones Samson Stout 13d half 1045.7 1014.2 4.08 68.93% 459
1952 Duttons Mercers Stout 1/1d half 0.06 1045.3 1014.1 4.04 68.87% 1 + 21
1950 Hydes Special Stout 1/8d pint 0.05 1045.5 1014.2 4.05 68.79% 1 + 9
1951 Truman Black Ben Stout 14.5d half 0.06 1047.6 1014.9 4.23 68.70% 1 + 9
1954 Ansell New Best Stout 1/2d half 0.05 1049.7 1015.7 4.40 68.41% 1 + 9
1954 Meux Special Stout (no lactose) 10.5d nip 0.04 1040.2 1012.7 3.56 68.41% 300
1958 Bernard Export Stout 26d 16 oz 0.05 1046.4 1014.7 3.96 68.32% 225
1959 Sam Smith Taddy Stout 14d half 1047.1 1015.1 4.14 67.94% 225
1953 Plymouth Breweries Oatmeal Stout 1/0.5d half 0.06 1047.9 1015.4 4.21 67.85% 1 + 15
1953 Stones Samson Stout 1/0.5d half 0.05 1046.6 1015 4.09 67.81% 1 + 20
1952 Flowers & Son Ltd Stout 11d half 0.07 1044.1 1014.2 3.87 67.80% 1R + 16B
1959 Greenall Whitley Sterling Stout 14d half 1046.8 1015.1 4.10 67.74% 225
1959 Thwaites Cream Stout 13d half 1044.3 1014.3 3.88 67.72% 225
1952 Wilsons Wembley Stout 11.5d half 0.07 1044.3 1014.5 3.86 67.27% 1 + 14
1954 Flowers Table Stout 1/2d half 0.04 1046.1 1015.2 4.00 67.03% 325
1953 Brickwoods Black Bricky 11d nip 0.14 1045.7 1015.1 3.96 66.96% 1 + 12
1959 Hydes Special Anvil Stout 12.5d half 1041.4 1013.7 3.58 66.91% 200
1954 Chesham & Brackley Raven Stout 1/3d half 0.04 1047.5 1015.8 4.10 66.74% 475
1956 East Anglian Breweries Ely Silk Stout 1/2d half 0.07 1046.2 1015.4 3.98 66.67% 275
1957 Samuel Smith Sams Extra Stout (lactose absent) 1/2d half 0.06 1049.8 1016.6 4.30 66.67% 225
1950 McEwan Imperial Stout 1/1.5d half 0.06 1043 1014.4 3.70 66.51% 22 B
1959 Workington John Peel Stout 13d half 1040.9 1013.7 3.52 66.50% 300
1952 Hope & Anchor Jubilee Stout 1/2d half 0.08 1041.7 1014 3.58 66.43% 1R + 11B
1959 Hanson, Julia Special Stout 15d half 1044.9 1015.1 3.85 66.37% 225
1950 Hammerton Oatmeal Stout 10.5d half 0.06 1040.7 1013.7 3.49 66.34% 1 + 17
1954 Hancocks M Stout (Lactose present) 1/- half 0.04 1043 1014.5 3.69 66.28% 350
1959 Marston Mello Sweet Stout 15d half 1040.3 1013.6 3.45 66.25% 325
1954 Steel Coulson Elephant Sweet Stout 1/2.5d half 0.07 1041.7 1014.1 3.57 66.19% 350
1959 Flowers Sable Stout 15d half 0.02 1044.3 1015 3.79 66.14% 250
1959 J & J Bernard Export Stout 13d half 1046.2 1015.8 3.93 65.80% 275
1953 Truman Best Stout (Lactose present) 12d half 0.06 1044.4 1015.2 3.78 65.77% 1 + 8
1957 Whitbread Mackeson Stout 1/4d half 0.06 1046.3 1015.9 3.93 65.66% 250
1954 Hall & woodhouse Glucose Stout 1/- half 0.04 1042.7 1014.7 3.62 65.57% 375
1954 Vaux & Co Sweet Strong Stout 1/2d half 0.05 1047.6 1016.4 4.03 65.55% 1 + 20
1954 Groves & Whitnall Red Rose Stout (Lactose present) 1/1d half 0.06 1048.8 1016.9 4.13 65.37% 300
1954 Cornbrook Brewery Co. Barley Stout (Lactose present) 1/1d half 0.04 1047.2 1016.5 3.97 65.04% 300
1952 Atkinsons Semi Sweet Stout 1/- half 0.06 1046 1016.1 3.87 65.00% 1R + 16B
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001.

I’ve a few more years’ worth of this stuff left. Sadly enough for you.

2 comments:

Peter Dickinson said...

Next to bottom C????? is Cornbrook Brewery, Chester Road Manchester

Ron Pattinson said...

Peter Dickinson,

thanks for that. I should have been able to guess that.