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22-04-2013, 08:10
Visit the Shut up about Barclay Perkins site (http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2013/04/mitchell-butler-strong-ale-and-stout.html)


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More M & B. I forgot to mention that these are all beers that were brewed at Cape Hill which, in the 1980's, was the largest producer of cask beer in the world. Long gone now, of course, having closed in 2002. Though the name Mitchell & Butler lives on as a pub chain.

Stout. There's loads of rubbish been written about British Stouts after WW I. Mostly about them all being sweet. M & B's Stouts show how wrong that generalisation is. In the 1920's and 1930's, with attenuation over 80%, M & B's Stouts would have been drier than Guinness. The attenuation fell a bit after WW II, but was still mostly hovering close to 80%.

There's limited data, but it looks to me like we've an example of style splitting with Nourishing Stout and Extra Stout. The date where Extra Stout appears is important, 1932. That's in the chaotic period of an unwise jump in beer tax between 1931 and 1933. It was a disaster all round. Brewers dropped gravities to keep the retail price the same and the tax collected fell.

What some breweries did, when they perceived a demand for a beer at the old strength, was to introduce a "new" product, that was basically the old beer, just with a new name. Barclay Perkins did thuis with their Mild, introducing XX Ale at the same strength as X Ale had been before the gravity drop. Extra Stout looks like one of these beers. Look how the gravity of Nourishing Stout fell from 1048º to 1043º and Extra Stout appears at 1049º.

I'm astonished to see that M& B's two Stouts not only survived the war, but remained at pretty much the same gravities. I'm struggling to think of any other beer - export versions excepted - where taht's true.

That Amba is a funny one: a pale Old Ale. Old Ale was popular in the West Midlands before WW II - still is to some extent. But it's usually a dark beer. Always, really. It would be great to know more about the beer's history.

And blow me if there isn't another beer that's the same gravity either side of WW II, Strong Ale. (I've just though of another example. Seeing that 1106 OG has reminded me: Barclay's Russian Stout. That manaaged to navigate both World Wars with no drop in gravity.) It's a pretty powerful beer, with a decent attenuation for such a high gravity

You're probably thinking (hoping?) that this series is over now. It isn't, there's more M & B to come.





Mitchell & Butler Strong Ale and Stout 1926 – 1954


Year
Beer
Style
Price
size
package
Acidity
FG
OG
colour
ABV
App. Atten-uation


1926
Nourishing Stout
Stout
8d
pint
bottled


1048.7





1929
Nourishing Stout
Stout
8.5d
pint
bottled
0.07
1006.3
1048.4

5.5
86.98%


1931
Nourishing Stout
Stout
9d
pint
bottled

1005
1046.1

5.4
89.15%


1932
Nourishing Stout
Stout
9d
pint
bottled
0.06
1006.7
1043

4.7
84.42%


1932
Extra Stout
Stout
8d
pint
bottled
0.06
1006.8
1049

5.5
86.12%


1951
Nourishing Stout
Stout
1/5d
pint
bottled
0.04
1007.4
1042.8
1 + 10
4.6
82.71%


1951
Extra Stout
Stout
10.5d
half
bottled
0.04
1009
1048
1 + 9
5.1
81.25%


1951
Nourishing Stout
Stout
1/6d
pint
bottled
0.07
1007.3
1042.1
1 + 12
4.5
82.66%


1953
Nourishing Stout
Stout
10d
half
bottled
0.06
1006.5
1039.2
1 + 11
4.3
83.42%


1953
Extra Stout
Stout
1/-
half
bottled
0.05
1008.2
1049
1 + 11
5.3
83.27%


1953
Extra Stout
Stout
1/-
half
bottled
0.05
1009.8
1046.2
21 B
4.7
78.79%


1954
Extra Stout
Stout
1/-
half
bottled
0.05
1011.2
1049
1 + 14
4.9
77.14%


1962
Extra Nourishing Stout
Stout
13d
half
bottled
0.05
1012.2
1037.1
275
3.1
67.12%


1960
Export Lager
Lager
16d
half
bottled
0.02
1010
1039.7
7.5
3.7
74.81%


1958
Amba Pale Old Ale
Old Ale
15d
nip
bottled
0.04
1012.4
1056.3
18
5.5
77.98%


1932
Strong Ale
Strong Ale
10d
half
bottled
0.12
1023.9
1108

11.1
77.87%


1935
Strong Ale
Strong Ale
9d
half
bottled
0.11
1022.7
1109

11.4
79.17%


1953
Strong Ale
Strong Ale
2/4d
half
bottled
0.19
1026.5
1106
6 + 40
10.5
75.00%


Sources:


Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001


Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002



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