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More from Andrew Campbell's excellent "The Book Of Beer". How appropriate that it was published in the year of my birth.
First, his take on the ingredients of Stout:
"To produce stout the proportion of pale malt will be lower [than two-thirds], perhaps down to under half the total, with sugar in a two to one proportion to a blend of higher roasted crystal or amber malts, and some black malt. Darker colour and fuller flavour will result. London stouts are mostly lightly hopped and sweet; Irish stouts bitter. Occasionally a proportion of oat malt is added to accentuate the mealy flavour."
"The Book Of Beer" by Andrew Campbell, 1956, page 85.
He's not 100% accurate with regard to London Stout. Whitbread used a combination of mild ale malt, brown malt, chocolate malt and No3 invert sugar. Barclay Perkins went with a mix of mild ale malt, brown malt, crystal malt, back malt or roasted barley and dark brewing sugar.
He goes on to describe the types of Stout available. Public taste, it appears, was moving towards sweeter Stouts in most instances.
"Ordinary stouts are not often to be found on draught, as their rather full qualities can mature to excess and spoilage will result. Guinness, a strong Irish stout, reaches perfect condition within three or four days of bottling, when it will be rich, full and creamy. Kept in storage too long it may become stale and develop a rather acrid flavour. Guinness is a well-hopped stout, brewed without sugar, and has a bitter flavour which makes the regular drinker reject the sweeter stouts.
During the last few years Younger, Charrington, Watney and other brewers have produced sweet stouts, for which there is strong demand. Some are new brews, some area new name and label to replace the pre-1939 milk stout, now illegal unless the brew actually contains milk.
The stronger stouts - Guinness, Whitbread's, Mackeson's, Hammerton's (Watney's) - range upwards from 1040º. The import figures from Eire show quite clearly that Guinness is around 1046º, with about 4.5 per cent alcohol by volume. There are a few very strong types, such as Barclay's Imperial Stout and Simond's Archangel Stout, brewed well above the 1070º mark and getting toward the strength, bulk for bulk, of French wine.
Analysis of figures published in various trade and scientific journals in recent years show the following typical srengths of stout:
Stouts in the mid 1950's
Number of examples
gravity
type
1032º
Ordinary stout
1036º
Ordinary stout
1040º-1042º
Stronger stout
1045º-1047º
Including several London and Irish brews
1050º-1052º
Stronger still
1055º
A Scottish brew
1075º
Very strong
1092º
The strongest
Source:
"The Book Of Beer" by Andrew Campbell, 1956, page 86.
Fifteen similar samples for mild show four as low as 1023º, one at 1028º, four at 1031º-1033º, and six in the best mild category of 1037º-1039º. A Scotch ale was 1043º, and a best mild was as high as 1046º, which really puts it with the Burtons.
The Scotch ales sold in the South of England are stronger sweet mild beers, but there are distinctions between brews which are considered in a later chaper."
"The Book Of Beer" by Andrew Campbell, 1956, pages 85-87.
He wasn't far out with his estimation of Guiness's OG. As you'll see below, is was around 1047º. There was a bigger spread of gravities than for other styles, covering pretty much the whole range of British beer strengths.
I'm pleased to see that he differentiates between London and Irish Stout. Though sweet Stout was not totally dominant amongst English Stouts.
Here's my own table, which corroborates many of Campbell's assertions:
Stouts in the mid 1950's
Year
Brewer
Beer
size
package
Atten-uation
1956
Adams
Double Stout
half pint
bottled
1954
Adnams. Southwold
Black Velvet Sweet Stout (no lactose)
half pint
bottled
1954
Aitken & Co
A Stout
half pint
bottled
1954
Ansell, Birmingham
New Best Stout
half pint
bottled
1956
Atkinsons [Aston, Birmingham]
Double Punch Stout
half pint
bottled
1955
Beamish & Crawford
Irish Stout (no lactose)
bottled
1954
Bent's
Red Label Stout
half pint
bottled
1954
Bents Brewery
Imperial Stone Stout
half pint
bottled
1954
Bernard
Export Stout
half pint
bottled
1955
Blair & Co
Sweet Stout
half pint
bottled
1955
Brains
Extra Stout
half pint
bottled
1955
Brutton, Mitchell, Toms Ltd.
Ruby Stout (lactose present)
half pint
bottled
1956
Bullard & Sons [Norwich]
Double Stout (no lactose)
half pint
bottled
1954
Calder
Scotch Stout
half pint
bottled
1955
Castletown
Manx Oyster Stout
bottled
1954
Chesham & Brackley
Raven Stout
half pint
bottled
1954
Chester Brewery Co
Extra Stout
half pint
bottled
1955
Cresswell
Oatmeal Stout
half pint
bottled
1956
Deuchar R
Edinburgh Sweet Stout
half pint
bottled
1955
Devenish, Weymouth
Double Weymouth Sweet Stout
half pint
bottled
1956
East Anglian Breweries
Ely Silk Stout
half pint
bottled
1956
East Anglian Breweries
Ely Oatmeal Stout
half pint
bottled
1956
Ely Brewery
Cardiff Stout
half pint
bottled
1954
Flowers Breweries Ltd
Table Stout
half pint
bottled
1955
Fowler
Stout
half pint
bottled
1954
G Younger
Extra Stout
half pint
bottled
1954
Greene King
Stout
half pint
bottled
1954
Greene King
Sweet Stout
half pint
bottled
1954
Groves & Whitnall
Red Rose Stout (Lactose present)
half pint
bottled
1954
Guinness
Extra Stout
half pint
bottled
1954
Guinness
Extra Stout
half pint
bottled
1955
Guinness
Export Stout
half pint
bottled
1954
Hall & woodhouse
Glucose Stout
half pint
bottled
1956
Hammonds
Senior Sovereign Sweet Stout
half pint
bottled
1954
Hancocks
M Stout (Lactose present)
half pint
bottled
1955
Hancocks
Extra Stout
half pint
bottled
1954
Hey &Son [Bradford]
White Rose Stout
half pint
bottled
1956
Hey & Son [Bradford]
White Rose Stout (no lactose)
half pint
bottled
1955
Hope & Anchor Brewery, Sheffield
Royal Jubilee Stout
half pint
bottled
1954
Hydes, Manchester
Special Stout (Lactose present)
half pint
bottled
1955
J & J Morison
Sweet Stout
nip
bottled
1955
J Aitken
Stout
half pint
bottled
1954
Jeffrey & Co
Nourishing Stout
half pint
bottled
1954
John Smith, Tadcaster
Magnet Stout
half pint
bottled
1954
JW Green, Luton
Oatmeal Stout
half pint
bottled
1954
JW Lees & Co Ltd
Archer Stout
half pint
bottled
1954
JW Paddey
Paddey's Stout
half pint
bottled
1956
Lacons, Yarmouth
Extra Stout
half pint
bottled
1954
Lamb Brewery Co.
Double Stout
half pint
bottled
1955
Maclachlan
Extra Sweet Stout
half pint
bottled
1954
Magee Marshall
Extra Stout
half pint
bottled
1954
Mardens
Mylki Stout
half pint
bottled
1955
McEwan
Sweet Stout
half pint
bottled
1954
McLennan & Urquhart
Dalkeith Stout
bottled
1954
McMullen, Hertford
Mac Stout
half pint
bottled
1954
Mitchell & Butler, Birmingham
Extra Stout
half pint
bottled
1956
Morgans Brewery Ltd [Norwich]
Viking Stout
half pint
bottled
1955
Murray W
Export Stout
nip
bottled
1955
P Phipps & Co Ltd
Velvet Stout
half pint
bottled
1954
Plymouth Breweries
Brown Imperial Stout
half pint
bottled
1954
Plymouth Breweries
Oatmeal Stout
half pint
bottled
1955
Rayments
Town Stout (lactose absent)
half pint
bottled
1954
Russells
Imperial Stout
half pint
bottled
1956
Samuel Webster & Sons
Velvet Stout
half pint
bottled
1954
Steel & Coulson
Elephant Sweet Stout
half pint
bottled
1956
Steward & Patteson, Norwich
Stout
nip
bottled
1955
Tennant Bros. Ltd, Sheffield
Malt Stout
half pint
bottled
1956
Tennant Bros. Ltd, Sheffield
Glucose Stout
half pint
bottled
1955
Tennent
Stout
half pint
bottled
1955
Thornley
Special Glucose Stout
half pint
bottled
1956
Thornley's Radford Brewery
Gluco Stout
half pint
bottled
1954
Threlfalls Brewery
Extra Stout
half pint
bottled
1954
Thwaites, Blackburn
Cream Stout
half pint
bottled
1954
Vaux & Co
Sweet Strong Stout
half pint
bottled
1954
Whitaker
Standard Stout
half pint
bottled
1954
Whitbread
Mackeson Stout
half pint
bottled
1956
Whitbread
EMS
half pint
bottled
1954
Whitworth Son & Nephew
Sweet Stout
half pint
bottled
1954
Wilsons
Wembly Extra Stout
half pint
bottled
1954
Wm. Younger & Co
Nourishing Stout
half pint
bottled
1954
Wm. Younger & Co
Capital Stout (Lactose present)
half pint
bottled
1955
Worthington
Imperial Stout (White Shield)
bottled
1956
Worthington
XX Stout
half pint
bottled
1956
Young, Crawshay & Young
Double Stout
half pint
bottled
1956
Younger
Sweetheart Stout
half pint
bottled
Source:
Whitbread Gravity Book
There's still plenty more to come from Campbell. Plenty more.
More...