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25-07-2013, 08:13
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When I was in London a few weeks ago I did my best to complete the set of Whitbread Ale logs. For whatever reason, some of the volumes never appeared, even though I'm pretty sure I ordered them. Luckily, as most cover July 1st to June 30th the following year, I'm pretty sure that I have every year covered.

Wondering why I go no earlier than 1836? It's because that's the year Whitbread started brewing Ale. Before that, they'd been a 100% Porter brewery. All the big London Porter brewers seem to have taken up Ale brewing in the 1830's. It's thought that it was in response to the new category of pub, called beer houses, which weren't allowed to sell spirits. The demand for Ale grew as a result of their creation and the Porter brewers didn't want to miss out.

To modern eyes, these look a pretty off set of Milds. In fact the only one that even vaguely resembles a modern Mild is the Table Beer. That's what they gave to children. Whitbread's weakest proper Mild, X Ale, was around 6% ABV and had a gravity well over 1070º. The top of the range XXXX Ale was a real monster, weighing in at over 1100º and around 10% ABV. All would count as strong today. Even for Americans.

There's a curious phenomenon here. One I've spotted before amongst Scottish beers. There's very little difference in the FG of X Ale and XXXX Ale. Which means, perversely, that the degree of attenuation increases as the gravity of the beer increases. You'd expect it to be the other way around. There's no way that can be accidental. It looks to me as if they were aiming for a finished beer with a good deal of body. An FG in the 1030's gave them that, so that's what they aimed for.

The hopping is, as you'd expect for the early 19th century, pretty robust, ranging from 2 lbs per barrel for X Ale, to 4 to 5 lbs for XXXX Ale. With the high terminal gravities, you'd need a good dose of hops to balance out all the malty sweetness.

I would have listed the grists, but as easy for me to tell you: all 100% pale malt. Nice and simple, like all beers of the period.

Next we'll be looking at Whitbread's Stock Ales.




Whitbread Mild Ales in the 1830's


Year
Beer
Style
OG
FG
ABV
App. Atten-uation
lbs hops/ qtr
hops lb/brl
boil time (hours)
boil time (hours)
boil time (hours)
Pitch temp
max. fermentation temp
length of fermentation (days)


1837
TB
Table
1034.6



8.02
1.09
1.5
2
3
º
º



1836
X
Mild
1077.0
1029.4
6.30
61.87%
6.55
2.33
2
2
3
63.5º
74.5º
4 + 2


1837
X
Mild
1075.9
1031.6
5.86
58.39%
7.07
2.35
2
2
?
63º
73º
5 + 1


1838
X
Mild
1077.8
1033.2
5.90
57.30%
7.27
2.51
2
2
3.17
64º
74.5º
5 + 2


1839
X
Mild
1078.7
1032.7
6.08
58.45%
6.02
2.03
2.17
2
3
64º
72º
4 + 3


1838
XL
Mild
1081.7



6.30
2.25
1.67
2
3
64º
74.5º
4 + 3


1839
XL
Mild
1082.3
1031.6
6.71
61.62%
6.02
2.13
2.17
2
3
63º
74º
4 + 3


1837
XX
Mild
1091.4
1035.5
7.40
61.21%
6.05
2.35
2
2
3
59º
74º
6 + 2


1838
XX
Mild
1091.7
1034.6
7.55
62.24%
7.33
2.83
2
2
3
61º
72.5º
5 + 1


1839
XX
Mild
1091.1
1034.3
7.51
62.31%
6.09
2.40
2
2
3
60º
75.5º
4 + 3


1836
XXX
Mild
1102.8
1036.0
8.83
64.96%
6.09
2.80
2
2
3.5
62.5º
74.5º
5 + 4


1837
XXX
Mild
1102.2
1035.5
8.83
65.31%
7.07
3.16
2
2
?
61º
73.5º
5 + 1


1838
XXX
Mild
1101.9
1041.0
8.06
59.78%
6.76
3.08
2
2
3
60º
81º
4 + 2


1839
XXX
Mild
1102.2
1036.0
8.76
64.77%
6.02
2.62
1.67
2
3
60º
76º
5 + 2


1836
XXXX
Mild
1114.7
1039.3
9.97
65.70%
7.00
3.64
2.17
2
2.5
60º
73º
7 + 1


1837
XXXX
Mild
1114.1
1037.4
10.15
67.23%
7.31
3.67
2
2
2.5
60º
72º
4 + 2


1839
XXXX
Mild
1111.4
1042.9
9.05
61.44%
6.02
5.65
2.17
2
3
60º
71º
8 + 2


Source:


Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/001, LMA/4453/D/01/002 and LMA/4453/D/01/003 .



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