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15-03-2016, 07:11
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There’s nothing I love better than part two of a post. Unless it’s part forty. I love me them long series. How many have I never quite completed?

I had some tables that would have clogged up the first part a little too much. I never thought I’d say this, but sometimes a piece can include too many tables. I don’t want to all confuse your little brain things. If it’s anything like mine, it’ll struggle to cling onto one thought for two minutes, let alone several.

There is some didactic point to what I’m writing here. We’ll be looking at numbers for the output of our two London breweries, Whitbread and Labatt, to see what they tell us about the difference in the beer market in the UK and Canada. Because the big seller was very different.

First let’s take a look at Labatt’s output by style:



Totals year ending 31st Aug 1894


beer
style
barrels brewed
% of total


Pale
Pale Ale
3,863
16.23%


ES
Stock Ale
160
0.67%


EIP
IPA
17,613
74.00%


total Ale

21,636
90.90%


BS
Stout
2,165.50
9.10%


total

23,802



Source:


Labatt brewing record document number A08-054-1156




Three-quarters of what Labatt brewed was IPA. There isn’t a single brewery in the UK – not even in Burton-on-Trent – where the percentage would have been anything like that high in that period. I doubt there was a brewery where all the Pale Ales together made up 50% of output.

In the 12 months covered by the records, there was only a single brew of ES. It clearly wasn’t a particularly popular type of beer. Labatt’s other two beer, Pale and Brown Stout, were brewed reasonably regularly.

Now let’s look at Whitbread.



Whitbread output in 1893


Beer
barrels brewed
% of total


X
247,285
54.06%


XK
3,230
0.71%


KK
4,632
1.01%


KKK
2,050
0.45%


2KKK
1,593
0.35%


PA
11,629
2.54%


2PA
13,250
2.90%


FA
23,105
5.05%


Total Ale
306,774
67.07%


P
80,067
17.50%


C
39,543
8.64%


SS
17,355
3.79%


SSS
13,679
2.99%


Total Porter
150,644
32.93%


Total Ale & Porter
457,418



Sources:


Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/059 and LMA/4453/D/09/087.



Two beers sold far more than the others: standard Mild (X Ale) and Porter (P). If you include Country Porter (C) they come to 80% of the total. While Whitbread brewed many more beers than Labatt, most were only in small quantities. The combined output of all three Stock Ales (KK, 2KKK and KKK) was under 2% of the total. The two Stouts couldn’t manage 7% between them. The three Pale Ales (FA, 2PA and PA) did a little better, with over 10%.

In provincial breweries, the proportion of Porter and Stout would have been lower. A third is very high. But it’s easily explained by Whitbread’s history as a Porter brewer and a continued high demand for Black Beer in the capital.

To summarise, Whitbread brewed large quantities of Mild and Porter, a reasonable amount of Bitter, rather less Stout and bugger all Stock Ale. While Labatt brewed loads of Pale Ale, mostly IPA, some Stout and virtually no Stock Ale. You’ll agree that although both were still brewing British-derived styles, the emphasis on particular types was quite different.

One last table to end. Taken from totals in the brewing log. They don’t quite match mine, but have some other interesting information:



Labatt Totals year ending 31st Aug 1894


Bushels pale malt
40,627


Bushels patent malt
400


total malt
41,027


lbs hops used
48,045.5


barrels ale
21,649.8


barrels Brown Stout & Porter
2,165.5


total barrels
23,815.3


Old Ale and Brown Stout mixed
149.5


total Ale, Brown Stout and Porter brewed 1893-1894
23,665.8


Source:


Labatt brewing record document number A08-054-1156



A final point. Note the difference in scale between the two breweries: Whitbread 457,418 barrels, Labatt 23,802 barrels.



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