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27-10-2013, 07:17
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I've made an executive decision to carry on with Mild. This post and one more will follow Whitbread's Mild until the closure of Chiswell Street in the early 1970's.

I won't pretend that there's going to be any great excitement in this stuff. Oh, one thing I forgot last time. Did you notice how after 1950 the gravity never fell below 1030. There's a very good reason for that. The way duty was calculated changed in that year. Until then, there was a flat rate charged per 36 gallons of up to 1027 gravity, plus an additional amount for every degree above 1027. In 1950 that was changed to a gravity of 1030. It meant that you paid the duty for a beer of 1030, even if your beer was just 1027. It made brewing a beer below 1030 financially unattractive.

Which begs the question, had the rules not changed, would Whitbread have continued to brew a sub-1030 Mild. And was the rule changed designed to bump up the gravity of the weakest beers to 1030?

You can see that Whitbread's stronger Mild, XXX, didn't last long. Introduced in 1954, it was discontinued in 1955. But not before the gravity had been cut from 1037.5 to 1034.8. The mid-1950's was when stronger beers of various kinds were introduced. Mostly they were stronger Bitters, but there were some Milds, too. Presumably sales of XXX didn't take off. Then again, that was exactly the period when Mild's decline began. You can notice the fall in demand from the batch sizes. Until 1951 Whitbread brewed their Mild in batches of 800 or 1500 barrels. After that date it was 400 or 800 barrel batches. A pretty sure sign of a fall in demand.



Whitbread Mild Ale 1955 - 1964


Date
Year
Beer
OG
FG
ABV
App. Attenuation
lbs hops/ qtr
hops lb/brl
boil time (hours)
boil time (hours)
Pitch temp
length of fermentation (days)
colour


20th Oct
1955
Best Ale
1030.9
1009.5
2.83
69.26%
5.59
0.71
1
0.75
65º
8
105


27th Jan
1955
MA
1030.9
1009.5
2.83
69.26%
5.56
0.71
1
0.75
65º
6
115


24th Oct
1955
XXX
1034.8
1010.0
3.28
71.26%
5.56
0.80
1
1.58
65º
8
115


7th Nov
1956
Best Ale
1030.0
1008.5
2.84
71.67%
5.56
0.68
1
1
65º
7
105


11th Jan
1957
Best Ale
1030.4
1010.0
2.70
67.11%
5.56
0.71
1
0.75
65º
6
100


6th Mar
1958
Best Ale
1030.7
1008.5
2.94
72.31%
5.67
0.70
1
0.75
65º
6
110


1st Jul
1959
Best Ale
1030.5
1010.5
2.65
65.57%
5.56
0.71
1
1.75
64º
7
115


2nd Mar
1960
Best Ale
1030.6
1010.0
2.73
67.32%
5.67
0.70
1
1
64º
7
110


4th Oct
1961
Best Ale
1032.5
1009.8
3.00
69.85%
5.51
0.70
1
1
64º
7
105


6th Mar
1962
Best Ale
1032.2
1009.2
3.04
71.43%
5.35
0.69
1
0.75
64º
8
100


26th Mar
1963
Best Ale
1031.0
1008.6
2.96
72.26%
5.61
0.70
1
0.75
64º
9
105


28th May
1964
Best Ale
1030.7
1009.4
2.82
69.38%
5.84
0.72
1
0.75
64º
7
105


Sources:


Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/122, LMA/4453/D/01/123, LMA/4453/D/01/124, LMA/4453/D/01/125, LMA/4453/D/01/126, LMA/4453/D/01/127, LMA/4453/D/01/129, LMA/4453/D/01/130 and LMA/4453/D/01/131.



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There was one definite change in brewing technique between this period and the last: the fermentation time was extended. In the late 1940's and early 1950's, it averaged 5 days but could be as few as 4. In this time period, it averaged around 7 days. I have no explanation for why this occurred. It's unlikely they carried out a major refit of the brewery in the austerity years just after the war.

The rate of attenuation is quite poor, averaging 69.7% for the samples in the table, down from the 71.5% for the set from 1945-1954. Which leaves almost every example below 3% ABV.



Whitbread Mild Ale 1955 - 1964


Date
Year
Beer
OG
hops
crystal malt
MA malt
no. 3 sugar
Hay M sugar


20th Oct
1955
Best Ale
1030.9
MK hops.
6.27%
79.44%
11.15%
3.14%


27th Jan
1955
MA
1030.9
MK and EK hops.
6.27%
79.44%
11.15%
3.14%


24th Oct
1955
XXX
1034.8
MK hops.
6.27%
79.44%
11.15%
3.14%


7th Nov
1956
Best Ale
1030.0
MK and KT hops.
6.27%
79.44%
11.15%
3.14%


11th Jan
1957
Best Ale
1030.4
MK hops.
6.27%
79.44%
11.15%
3.14%


6th Mar
1958
Best Ale
1030.7
MK hops.
6.41%
79.00%
11.39%
3.20%


1st Jul
1959
Best Ale
1030.5
MK hops.
6.27%
79.44%
11.15%
3.14%


2nd Mar
1960
Best Ale
1030.6
MK and Worcester hops.
6.41%
79.00%
11.39%
3.20%


4th Oct
1961
Best Ale
1032.5
MK, KT and Worcester hops.
6.23%
78.89%
11.76%
3.11%


6th Mar
1962
Best Ale
1032.2
EK, Saaz and ESX hops.
6.10%
79.32%
11.53%
3.05%


26th Mar
1963
Best Ale
1031.0
MK, Yugo and Worcester hops.
6.41%
79.00%
11.39%
3.20%


28th May
1964
Best Ale
1030.7
MK and K hops.
6.07%
79.35%
11.34%
3.24%


Sources:


Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/122, LMA/4453/D/01/123, LMA/4453/D/01/124, LMA/4453/D/01/125, LMA/4453/D/01/126, LMA/4453/D/01/127, LMA/4453/D/01/129, LMA/4453/D/01/130 and LMA/4453/D/01/131.



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Now the recipe. And it is the recipe. Just four ingredients in the grist - mild ale malt, crystal malt, No. 3 invert and Hay's M - always in the same proportions. This shouldn't be a surpise. 1955 to 1975 was one of the most stable periods in British brewery. You could almost stay stagnation, at least in terms of top-fermenting beers. Average gravity barely changed at all 1951 to 1993. If you looked at the previous 40-odd years - a period stretching back to before WW I - you'd see average gravity varying between 1053 and 1033*.



Average OG of beer brewed in the UK 1951 - 1993


year
OG
year
OG
year
OG


1951
1036.99
1966
1037.63
1981
1037.30


1952
1037.07
1967
1037.46
1982
1037.20


1953
1036.87
1968
1037.36
1983
1037.20


1954
1036.97
1969
1037.14
1984
1037.40


1955
1037.13
1970
1036.90
1985
1037.40


1956
1037.22
1971
1036.90
1986
1037.50


1957
1037.42
1972
1036.90
1987
1038.00


1958
1037.48
1973
1037.00
1988
1037.70


1959
1037.52
1974
1037.10
1989
1038.20


1960
1037.25
1975
1037.30
1990
1038.00


1961
1037.41
1976
1037.50
1991
1037.70


1962
1037.70
1977
1037.50
1992
1037.30


1963
1037.70
1978
1037.60
1993
1037.43


1964
1037.66
1979
1037.60




1965
1037.67
1980
1037.60




Sources:


Statistical Handbook of the British Beer & Pub Association 2005, p. 7


Brewers' Almanack 1955, p. 50


Brewers' Almanack 1971, p. 45


Brewers' Almanack 1962, p. 48



The hopping is almost as boring as the grist, consisting mostly of Kent hops with only the odd Eastern European ones thrown in for variety. It always pleases me to see Saaz in British beers. No idea why.

That's it for today. Next time we'll cover the rest of the 1960's and the couple of years the brewery was open in the 1970's.





* Sources: Brewers' Almanack 1955, p. 50
“The Brewers' Society Statistical Handbook 1988” page 7

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