Visit the Shut up about Barclay Perkins site

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 .




More...