A new book

Sadly, not one of my exciting ones. but an assemblage of travel reports. Imaginatively called "Tour! Vol. V".

I realised that  I hadn't published a book in 2024. Time to get my finger out and finish this book off. Which was really just creating a cover and uploading to Lulu. After a bit of proof reading. It's taken me the best  part of today. Despite the text already being complete.

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1906 Drybrough XX Stout

Next branch on the strength tree is, logically enough, XX Stout. That’s assuming they were all marketed as Stout. Given the low strength of X and XX, they could have been presented as Porters. Except the style was stone dead in Scotland. And Scottish brewers were already making feeble Stouts, something they would take to extremes after WW II.

I can’t recall seeing an English Stout as weak as this before WW I.

I’ll not repeat a discussion of the recipe. Consult the entry for X, XX’s parti-gyle, chum, above.

XX was mostly racked into relatively small casks. In this case: 4 butts, 3 barrels, 74 kilderkins and 24 firkins. In contrast, PI 60/-, a Pale Ale of similar strength, mostly went into larger casks. For example: 35 hogsheads, 60 barrels, 11 kilderkins and 6 firkins.

My guess is that the 4 butts were for bottling. Which is why some was putt into such a large cask.  Smaller casks tended to be preferred by private customers. Families who bought casks to drink at home. At least in England. Not sure if that was the case in Scotland, too.
 

1906 Drybrough XX Stout
pale malt	6.00 lb	66.23%
black malt	0.25 lb	2.76%
flaked rice	0.75 lb	8.28%
flaked maize	0.50 lb	5.52%
No. 1 invert sugar	0.25 lb	2.76%
No. 2 invert sugar	0.33 lb	3.64%
No. 4 invert sugar	0.25 lb	2.76%
honey	0.33 lb	3.64%
caramel 500 SRM	0.40 lb	4.42%
Fuggles 120 mins	0.33 oz
Cluster 120 mins	0.67 oz
Fuggles 90 mins	1.00 oz
Goldings 30 mins	1.00 oz
OG	1042
FG	1012
ABV	3.97
Apparent attenuation	71.43%
IBU	45
SRM	27
Mash at	148º F
Sparge at	167º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	61º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

 

Beer Guide to the 1970s (part twenty-eight)

Another trio of brewers. With only one still properly open. Which I guess is about par for the course.

Include is one of my favourite breweries when I was a youth: Shipstone. Who suffered a terrile fate. Being bought by Greenall Whitley, There's also Selby, a weird off and on brewery. Which came back from the dead, then went a bit zombie.


Selby
Selby (Middlebrough),
North Yorkshire.

Founded:    1870
Closed:            still brewing occasionally
Tied houses:    1

Selby was a slightly odd brewery, in that they stopped brewing in 1954 and operated as a bottler of Guinness and beer distributor. However, unlike most brewers who made such a move, they restarted brewing in 1972. I can’t remember trying their draught beer, though I did drink their bottle-conditioned beer in the Brahms & Liszt in Leeds.

beer	style	format	OG	description
Special Pale Ale	Pale Ale	draught	1036	strong with an agreeable flavour
Strong Ale	Strong Ale	draught	1048	dark and rich
Brahms & Liszt Special Pale Ale	Pale Ale	bottled	1048	bottle-conditioned

Shepherd Neame
Faversham,
Kent.

Founded:    1698
Closed:            still open
Tied houses:    235

In the 1970s, Shepherd Neame was the last independent brewery in Kent. With all but a handful of their pubs selling cask beer, they were well liked by CAMRA. Their tied estate stretched across all of Kent and there were a few pubs in London. I thought their beers were pretty good. Though it was difficult to find the Mild.

beer	style	format	OG	description
Bitter	Pale Ale	draught	1036	well hopped
Best Bitter	Pale Ale	draught	1039
Light Mild	Mild	draught		similar to the Bitter, only in clubs and on the Isle of Sheppey
Mild	Mild	draught	1031	dark and sweet
Old English Stock Ale	Old Ale	draught	1038	well  hopped butt thin
Draught Abbey	Pale Ale	keg
Hurlimann Swiss Lager	Lager	keg	1045	imported
Light Ale	Pale Ale	bottled
Abbey Ale	Pale Ale	bottled		medium-strength
Bishop's Finger	Strong Ale	bottled		pale
Christmas Ale	Old Ale	bottled		very strong
Brown Ale	Brown Ale	bottled

Shipstone
New Basford,
Nottinghamshire.

Founded:    1852
Closed:            1990
Tied houses:    280

Shipstone was one of three independent breweries in Nottingham. Their tied estate spread across the East Midlands in the counties Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Derbyshire, Lincolnshire and also Yorkshire. My personal favourite of the Nottingham breweries. Especially the Mild. Bought by Greenall Whitley in 1978 and fucked. 

beer	style	format	OG	description
Bitter	Pale Ale	draught	Bitter	well hopped
Mild	Mild	draught	Mild	Dark Mild, well hopped
Keg Bitter	Pale Ale	keg
India Pale Ale	IPA	bottled
Gold Star Ale	Pale Ale	bottled		light gravity
Strong Ale	Old Ale	bottled		dark
Nut Brown Ale	Brown Ale	bottled
Ship Stout	Stout	bottled	1044	medium sweet

Mother

I was a huge Pink Floyd fan as a teenager. My introduction to rock music. Weirdly, via a teacher. A young, hippy sort of English teacher who played us Pink Floyd in lessons. Stuff from Meddle.

I'm still not sure how this worked. But Pink Floyd was somehow fixed in my head. And when we went to stay with Aunt Nell in Brum, we were in a record shop. And, having heard of Pink Floyd, we bought one of their albums. Me and my brother I mean by we. And Piper at the Gates of Dawn was the album.

It was the start of my love of music. Syd Barrett my hero.

Astronomy Domine. Great chord sequence and in three four time. Learning to play it, taught me just how wonderful it was. A Syd song. But not the Floyd song that's stuck weirdly in my head.

Brass. I love the sound of brass instruments. I played around with brass sounds in my own crappy tracks. Piss me off and I'll make you listen to them. But there was always one example of brass in rock. One I loved. But hadn't heard for a decade or three.

Atom Heart Mother.

 
Tears flow so easily in my dotage.

The perfect Christmas present

Either for a loved one or yourself, is  one of my many  books.

People often ask "How many books have you written, Ron?"

"Around fifty." Is  about as precise as I can get. Due to  some inconsistencies in the volume numbers in the book series, it's not easy to work out an exact count.

You  can fins all of them here:

Visit my bookstore

Here are some of the more popular volumes:

Beer Guide to the 1970s (part twenty-seven)

We're getting close to the end of the independent breweries. Just a couple of dozen left to go. Then we'll just have the homebrew pubs and national brewers to go. So another 20 parts or so to go. Lots for you to look forward to.

Two of today's trio of breweries are still going strong - Robinson and St. Austell. Two solid regional brewers with decent-sized tied estates. Brewers which are still pursuing the vertically-integrated approach. Back in the 1970s, pretty much all brewers, large or small operated that way. Other than Guinness, obviously. The one brewery in today's set which has closed - Ruddle - abandonned this system in the 1970s. Which is probably why they no longer exist.


Robinson
Stockport,
Greater Manchester.

Founded:    1838
Closed:            still open
Tied houses:    318

One of the largest independent brewers in the Manchester area, Robinson endeared themselves to CAMRA by serving cask beer in all their tied houses. Their beers were pretty solid and enjoyed a good reputation. I quite liked them, too.

beer	style	format	OG	description
Best Bitter	Pale Ale	draught	1042	well hopped
Bitter	Pale Ale	draught	1035
Best Mild	Mild	draught	1032	Light Mild
Old Tom	Old Ale	draught	1079	not too sweet
Cock Robin	Pale Ale	keg
Einhorn Lager	Lager	keg	1035.9
Light Ale	Pale Ale	bottled
Pale Ale	Pale Ale	bottled		stronger
Party Brew	Pale Ale	can		Bitter in a 4-pint can
Old Tom	Old Ale	bottled	1079
Brown Ale	Brown Ale	bottled
Unicorn Stout	Stout	bottled		medium sweet

Ruddle
Langham,
Rutland.

Founded:    1858
Closed:            1998
Tied houses:    44

One of the early cult cask breweries, Ruddle took a rather unusual tack. In 1978, they sold off all but one of their tied houses to concentrate on the supermarket trade. A brave move, which ultimately didn’t work out. The brewery was bought by Grand Metropolitan in 1986, who sold them on to Grolsch in 1992. Who in turn sold them to Morland in 1997. I never cared for either of their Bitters. County was far too sweet and heavy. I never understood why some drinkers ratted it so highly.

beer	style	format	OG	description
Bitter	Pale Ale	draught	1032	agreeable
County	Pale Ale	draught	1050	exceptionally strong and well hopped
Barley Wine	Barley Wine	draught		seasonal
Classic	Pale Ale	keg	1050	kegged County
Keg	Pale Ale	keg		stronger and hoppier than many keg beers
Bitter	Pale Ale	keg	1032	kegged Bitter
Mild	Mild	keg		Dark Mild full bodied
Langdorf	Lager	keg
Light Ale	Pale Ale	bottled
Export	Pale Ale	bottled
County	Pale Ale	bottled
Rutland Ale	Barley Wine	bottled
Bob Brown	Brown Ale	bottled
Strong Brown	Brown Ale	bottled	1046

St. Austell
St. Austell,
Cornwell

Founded:    1860
Closed:      still open
Tied houses:    132

One of the few independent breweries in Cornwall, St. Austell’s tied estate was mostly in the Southeast of the county. They served cask in a little more than half of their pubs. Unlike some brewers in the Southwest, they did still brew a Mild. Though it was pretty rare, especially in cask form. I can only remember coming across their beer at festivals. I thought they were OK, but nothing special.
 

beer	style	format	OG	description
BB	Pale Ale	draught	1031	good malty flavour
Hick's Special	Pale Ale	draught	1050	rich and distinctive
XXXX	Mild	draught	1032	Dark Mild
St. Austell Extra	Pale Ale	keg	1037	introduced in the early 1950s, filtered but unpasteurised
Light Ale	Pale Ale	bottled
Brown Ale	Brown Ale	bottled
Duchy Special Pale Ale	Pale Ale	bottled
Smuggler's Ale	Strong Ale	bottled
Prince's Ale	Barley Wine	bottled		first brewed for Prince Charles' 21st birthday. One of the strongest beers in the country

 

Let's Brew - 1906 Drybrough X Stout

Drybrough’s records from this period are a nightmare. There’s some weird gyling and blending going on. The only brews I can make any sense of are some Pale Ale parti-gyles and a couple of X Ale parti-gyles.

I’ll be honest, I’m not sure that there wasn’t some sort of blending going on here. I’m just assuming the three gyles were left as fermented.

Usually, I’d assume X meant Mild. Not sure that’s the case here. For a start, the hopping rate is higher than for the Pale Ales. 7.5 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt compared to just 5 lbs. Then I noticed the No. 4 invert and black malt. These are clearly Stouts.

The first thing that strikes me is how weak this beer is. Weaker even than Table Beer.  Not really “stout” at all.

It’s a pretty complicated recipe. Especially in the sugars. Where there are three inverts, caramel and hone.  The latter is an unusual one. You see it in recipes for domestic brewers, but not for commercial brewers.

There were four types of hops. Three English, two from the 1905 harvest and one from 1903. The fourth type was Californian from 1906.
 

1906 Drybrough X
pale malt	4.25 lb	66.88%
black malt	0.15 lb	2.36%
flaked rice	0.50 lb	7.87%
flaked maize	0.33 lb	5.19%
No. 1 invert sugar	0.1875 lb	2.95%
No. 2 invert sugar	0.25 lb	3.93%
No. 4 invert sugar	0.1875 lb	2.95%
honey	0.25 lb	3.93%
caramel 500 SRM	0.25 lb	3.93%
Fuggles 120 mins	0.25 oz
Cluster 120 mins	0.50 oz
Fuggles 90 mins	0.75 oz
Goldings 30 mins	0.75 oz
OG	1030
FG	1011
ABV	2.51
Apparent attenuation	63.33%
IBU	37
SRM	19
Mash at	148º F
Sparge at	167º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	61º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

 

Beer Guide to the 1970s (part twenty-six)

This must be one of my longest series of posts ever. And I'm not even close to being finished. So much fun for us to look forward to.

None of today's trio of breweries is still operating. Two were closed by Greene King and one by Carlsberg. I guess that tells us something about what's been going on in UK brewing in the last couple of decades. I wonder which company closed the most UK breweries?  Bass Charrington and Whitbread must be somewhere near the top of the list.



Rayment
Furneaux Pelham,
Hertfordshire.

Founded:    1820
Closed:       1987
Tied houses:    31

A subsidiary of Greene King. But the story is a bit more complicated. It was bought by a member of the King family in 1888 and run as a separate business. Only fully merging with Greene King in 1931. Its small tied estate was mostly concentrated in the villages around Bishop’s Stortford and Saffron Walden. I tried their beer at festivals. OK, but didn’t really stand out.

beer	style	format	OG	description
BBA Bitter	Pale Ale	draught	1036	A well hopped "beery" beer of pleasant distinctive flavour
AK Pale Ale	Pale Ale	draught	1031	A Light Mild not unlike the Bitter
XX Mild	Mild	draught		Dark Mild
Keg Bitter	Pale Ale	keg
Keg Mild (Dagger)	Mild	keg
Pelham	Pale Ale	bottled		Light Ale
Super Ale	Pale Ale	bottled		A strong Light Ale
Brown Ale	Brown Ale	bottled		medium sweet
Dagger Brown	Brown Ale	bottled		sweeter and darker

Ridley
Chelmsford,
Essex

Founded:    1842
Closed:      2006
Tied houses:    65

Another smallish brewery north of London. Their tied estate was concentrated in central and northwest Essex. They were well-liked by CAMRA as all their pus sold cask beer, much of it straight from the wood. Bought by Greene King in 2006 and closed immediately.

beer	style	format	OG	description
Bitter	Pale Ale	draught	1034	well hopped
Mild	Mild	draught	1030	Dark Mild
Bishop Ale	Barley Wine	draught	1080
Bitter	Pale Ale	keg	1034.3
Essex Ale	Pale Ale	bottled		Light Ale
Old Bob	Pale Ale	bottled		strong Pale Ale
Stock	Old Ale	bottled		strong dark Ale
Bishop Ale	Barley Wine	bottled	1080
Brown Ale	Brown Ale	bottled
Stout	Stout	bottled

Ringwood
Ringwood,
Hampshire.

Founded:    1978
Closed:       2022
Tied houses:    0

One of the first of the new wave of breweries founded in the 1970s. I   can’t remember coming across their beers very often as I’ve never visited Hampshire. They were bought by Marston’s in 2006. One of several breweries which closed after Carlsberg took control of Marston’s brewing operations. 

beer	style	format	OG	description
Ringwood Bitter	Pale Ale	draught	1040	full-bodied and hoppy
Fortyniner	Mild	draught	1049	heavy and malty

Beer Guide to the 1970s (part twenty-five)

You may notice that this set is not  quite in alphabetical order. Paine should have been the first brewery in the last set. But I forgot them. A happy result of this mistake is that the two Randalls appear next to each other.

Only one of these three is still open. Though another still operates as a pub company. All are slightly obscure, not being very well known in the 197s. Mostly for geographical reasons. Their beers didn't stray far from home. And their tied estates were all pretty small: around 20 pubs.


Paine
St. Neots,
Cambridgeshire.

Founded:    1833
Closed:            1987
Tied houses:    24

A small brewery a little north of London, Paine’s tied estate was mostly in St. Neots and the surrounding villages. They were never a great favourite of CAMRA, possibly because only half of their pubs sold cask. I have vague memories of visiting one of their pubs off the A1. But I can’t recall anything about their beer. Though I'm sure that I did try them a least once.

beer	style	format	OG	description
XXX Bitter	Pale Ale	draught	1037	light Bitter with a pleasant flavour.
EG	Pale Ale	draught	1048	malty and slightly sweet
Special Mild	Mild	draught	1032	sweet
Pale Ale	Pale Ale	bottled
Extra Ale	Pale Ale	bottled		strong and well hopped
Gold Medal Ale	Pale Ale	bottled		the Bitter bottled, but stronger and sweeter
Brown Ale	Brown Ale	bottled		medium sweet

Randall (Jersey)
St, Hellier,
Jersey.

Founded:    1823
Closed:            1992
Tied houses:    20

The Jersey Randall got little attention from CAMRA as they were keg only.  They had a small tied estate but most of their trade was free. At the end of the decade, they reintroduced cask beer in the form of Randall’s Real Ale, at Bitter at 1042. They ceased brewing in the early 1990s.  Still operating as a pub company.

beer	style	format	OG	description
Island Draught Beer	Pale Ale	keg		naturally conditioned , unpasteurised and well hopped. Characteristics of traditional draught rather than keg.
Grunhalle Lager	Lager	keg		conceived by Randall
Boxer Pale Ale	Pale Ale	bottled		matured for a month, high hop rate
Nut Brown Ale	Brown Ale	bottled		sweetish
Grunhalle Lager	Lager	bottled

Randall (Guernsey)
St. Peter Port,
Guernsey.

Founded:    1868
Closed:            still open
Tied houses:    17

How confusing was it that there were two breweries called Randall in the Channel Islands? At least they were on different islands. In contrast to the Jersey Randall, Guernsey’s version sold cask beer in most of its pubs. As their beers never made it to the mainland, I never got to taste them.

beer	style	format	OG	description
Bobby Best Bitter	Pale Ale	draught	1044	distinctive
Bobby Mild	Mild	draught	1035	dark and thin
Bobby Keg Bitter	Pale Ale	keg		high gravity
Bobbi IPA Red Top	Pale Ale	bottled		similar to Keg Bitter but with more hops
Bobby Ale	Mild	bottled		bottled XX
Stout	Stout	bottled		medium sweet