Saturday, 30 June 2018

Let's Brew - 1959 Watneys Dairy Maid Sweet Stout

What typifies the 1950s more than a piss-weak, ridiculously sweet Stout? This beer certainly fits that bill.

I’m lucky to have this brewing. For a start, I didn’t collect it myself. And it doesn’t come from Watneys themselves. Well, not directly. Because it’s in a brewing book of Ushers of Trowbridge. A brewery Watneys had purchased and which made some of their beers.

Once again, I’m thankful for having some Whitbread Gravity Book analyses. Because they tell me that the OG and FG were quite different from those in the brewing record. The OG is 3 points higher and the FG 6.5 points. Which doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Candy primings were added at the end of primary fermentation. But, assuming the OG of the primings is 1150º, they add 7 gravity points, according to my calculations. What’s going on? Well, my guess is that all the other shit they mixed in at racking time is bringing down the OG. 667 barrels were brewed and a further 106 barrels of various types of ullage blended in. That’s around 14% of the total.

I’m guessing that the candy sugar raised the effective OG by six or seven points and the ullage brought it down by four. Watneys beers are so much fun. Not quite sure how you would replicate that on a homebrew scale.

Based on the name, you’d assume there was lactose in this beer. But there doesn’t seem to be. I can’t see any in the recipe and not of the Gravity Book analyses mention its presence. As owners of the biggest Milk Stout brand, Whitbread took a particular interest in lactose in Stout.

The recipe contains just one coloured malt, black malt. Though that’s in quite a large amount. Then lots of sugar. The No. 3 invert is my substitution for CDM (Caramelised Dextro-Maltose). There’s just one type of hops, described simply as “Kent”. They were from the 1958 crop.

1959 Watneys Dairy Maid Sweet Stout
mild malt 4.75 lb 65.11%
black malt 0.67 lb 9.18%
flaked maize 0.25 lb 3.43%
malt extract 0.125 lb 1.71%
No. 4 invert sugar 0.67 lb 9.18%
cane sugar 0.33 lb 4.52%
candy sugar 0.50 lb 6.85%
ginger pinch
Fuggles 45 mins 0.75 oz
Fuggles 30 mins 0.50 oz
OG 1034
FG 1012
ABV 2.91
Apparent attenuation 64.71%
IBU 14
SRM 39
Mash at 154º F
Sparge at 170º F
Boil time 45 minutes
pitching temp 60º F
Yeast WLP023 Burton Ale


Bill said...

It has ginger -- I think that's the first time I remember one of your British recipes having spice in it.

Googling, it looks like you have a couple of others with a little ginger, all from 1959 and all with Watney/Ushers connection.

Any idea what's going on there? Is it just a result of the set of records you've been going through, and it's actually a more common practice? Or is it a reflection of a particular quirk at a particular time?

Ron Pattinson said...


just Ushers of Trowbridge being weird. Never seen the ginger shit anywhere else.

InSearchOfKnowledge said...

I thought it read "Dirty Maid Sweet Stout" :-p