Legacy II

Following on from my earlier post about the legacy of Martyn Cornell. What would happen to the stuff I'm working on if I dropped dead tomorrow?

I'm assuming here that my son Andrew will handle this. You never know, though. The git could betray me.

What I do trust, is his writing ability. He's pretty good. Annoyingly, in two languages. Why did I make all that effort to bring up the kids bilingual? I remember. Because I'm not an egocentric twat.

I am, what you say, prolific, when it comes to writing. I've published loads. Still, there's lots lying around. Several complete manuscripts. "America!", for example. I can't remember why I've never released that. Private ones, like "Xmas!". 

I've a couple of books or travel reports on the go. They can just be ended where they are. I particularly like "Shut up, Dad". (My attempt to be the new Hunter Davies.) Andrew can just whiz them through to Lulu.

Then there's "Free!". A really important book for me. Covering 1880-1914. (Where I'd like to spend the rest of my retirement.) I'm 75% of the way through. I'd hate it to be unseen.

Andrew might not totally pay attention to what I say while I'm still breathing. He should be able to find these back.

The recipe section can be published pretty much as is. It would have been a separate volume anyway. Really, everything other than the beer styles section can be published. That still needs a lot of work.

OK, Andrew? 

My 2025: injuries

This is the first in a series of posts about my highlights of 2025. Everyone else seems to do it. So I thought I'd give it a go. Kicking off with this year's medical issues.

I expected 2025 to be less wearing on my body than 2024. Spoiler for the weak of heart: it wasn't.

After escaping Rio carnival unscathed, I buggered my hand on the return trip from Chile in April. Simply putting my carry-on bag into the overhead locker. It was a aggravation of the arm break I suffered in Salvador the year previously. And put my recovery back, er pretty much indefinitely.

Using scissors was out of the question. For the rest of the year? I would see.

Nothing was broken on my trip to Argentina in June. Instead, I caught pneumonia. Which was lovely. I returned home barely able to breathe. And spent a few weeks gasping for air. So much fun.

With Andrew to guard me, I managed to escape from Australia unscathed. Phew. Though my right hand still wasn't in full working order.

In November I went with Mikey to Folkestone for our annual visit. All went swimmingly until the last evening. When I fell in my hotel bathroom. And broke my right arm again.

The cast is now off. And, on the plus side, my right thumb is now working much better tah before the second arm break. Something to be happy about.

Now I'm just looking forward to whatever mishaps I'll have in 2026.

Legacy

Martyn Cornell's extremely sad death earlier this year got me thinking about legacy. And unpublished work.

Luckily, Martyn had completed what I'm sure he considered the pinnacle of his work: Porter. Tragic, though, that he never saw its release. It would have been an even greater tragedy, had he been struck down before finishing.

What did Martyn leave unfinished? I can't believe that he wasn't working on another book. (He asked me about self-publishing because he was so pissed off with how long it took to get a book published.) 

Not to go all fanboy, but (meaning I am doing) how much material is there that hasn't been published? Including stuff chopped from Porter. I'd buy a book with that in. Niche, made possible by self-publishing. 

A compilation of his, often very long, always hugely informative, blogposts would make a great book. And preserve them in print. As Zythophile is no longer there. Fuck. This material really needs to be saved.


Maybe I should get in touch with his brother. 

Drinkalongathon 2025

Yes, it's that most wonderful time of year again. Drinkalongathon time!

Am I really still doing this? Yes! I most certainly am. Why? No fucking idea. It's just something I do every year. Until I get bored. Or become infirm. Or lose my marbles. Or simply drop dead. All are possibilities. I'm hoping for the first option.

Time to let you know what you'll need to take part in this year's event. You'll have a week, which should be long enough to source all the string and eggs. After all, what's Christmas day without eggs and string?

1 crate of St. Bernardus Abt
4 pieces of string
1 bottle of fino sherry
250 gm smoked bacon (back or streaky)
3 more pieces of string
1 bottle of port
5 soft-boiled eggs
5 eggs who think they're hard . . . but are really barely cooked
1 bottle of starboard
6 mince pies
4 crumpets (oo-err)
1 bottle of ruffo sherry
1 litre of whisky (the cheapest possible, I'm a empoverished pensioner, no Lagavullin for me any more)
200 gm mature cheddar
1 reserve crate of St. Bernardus Abt
1 small, yellow plastic duck
100 gm really immature gorge
1 copy 2026 Good Beer Guide*
3 bottles of red wine
1 CD Reggae Christmas
No UB40 Red, red wine
1 emergency crate of St. Bernardus Abt
1 medium onion
5 raw eggs
5 experienced eggs
1 bottle fizzy wine (no champagne for pensioner me)
2 bottles of white wine (if you have children under 10)
1 emergency pint
1 duck, roasted to perfection (don't want to show off, but ...)
1 slab of smoked salmon
2 slabs of cheap Lager (if you have children over 10)
5 broken eggs
5 just holding it together eggs
1 bottle HP sauce
6 pieces of emergency string 

Be prepared! Have your string and eggs ready for Christmas Day! See you then! 

 

* CAMRA till I die. 

bespoke historic birthday recipe

Just reminding you all of the terrific service I offer. A bespoke recipe of a beer brewed on your birthday (or some other significant date) at some point in the past. For just 25 euros. Bargain, I say.

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Make your birthday special - by brewing a beer originally made on that date.

For a mere 25 euros, I'll create a bespoke recipe for any day of the year you like. As well as the recipe, there's a few hundred words of text describing the beer and its historical context and an image of the original brewing record.

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It's that time of year

It's the one time of year when  people buy physical books. I've just one message for you: buy my books! (Preferably lots of them.)  

Just think of my poor children having to go without beer and vodka this Christmas. Please, please, think of the children. Buy my books!

Visit my bookstore

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1897 Fremlin X

Since I've been boring you stupid with details of Fremlin's beers, I may as well round it off with a recipe.

Very unusually for the 19th century, Fremlin brewed bugger all Mild Ale. They really were, as they advertised, a Pale Ale brewer.

This looks pretty much like bog-standard Mild Ale of the period. Though quite pale.

It’s a reasonably simple recipe. All base malt, but of three types: one of Californian high-dried and two of English pale malt. Plus a sugar described as “cane”. I’ve assumed that means raw cane sugar rather than pure sucrose.

All English hops, three from the 1896 harvest and one from 1897. 

No ageing, of course. 

1897 Fremlin X
pale malt	4.00 lb	39.02%
Munich malt 20L	4.00 lb	39.02%
raw cane sugar	2.25 lb	21.95%
Fuggles 120 mins	1.00 oz
Fuggles 60 mins	1.00 oz
Goldings 30 mins	1.00 oz
OG	1050
FG	1015
ABV	4.63
Apparent attenuation	70.00%
IBU	37
SRM	9
Mash at	150º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	60º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1099 Whitbread ale

 

Yule Logs!!!!!!!!!!

Once again, I've managed by the skin of my teeth to get my Christmas book out just before Christmas. Let's see if I manage to sell as many copies as last year.

Once again, I've assembled a collection of old brewing records and crudely stuck the together into a book. One where the only complete sentence is the copyright statement. That's what I call writing.

Get your copy now!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Fremlin sugars in 1897

The sweet stuff now. Of which there are also quite a few different types. Four, to be exact.

Let’s start with No. 2 invert. Which in the individual brewing records is listed as “glucose”. But in the month totals is described as “Garton’e No. 2 invert”.  I suppose they were half right with glucose.

The proportion of No. 2 used is pretty high. Between 15% and 20%. That’s about as much as you ever see. What’s surprising, is that in most cases it’s combined with another sugar. One we’ll be looking at next, dectro-maltose.

More than half the beers also contain some of this sugar. All the Pales Ales, other than H, the weakest. Not being 100% fermentable, I always assume that it’s there to add body.

Something simply escribed as “cane” seems to operate in the place of No. 2 in some beers. I guess that it means some sort of raw cane sugar rather than pure sucrose.

The final type is caramel. Small quantities destined for the Black Beers, Porter, Cooper and Double Stout.

Between 20% and 25% is a lot of sugar. In everything other than the Pilsener. They sure did love their sugar.

Fremlin sugars in 1897
Beer	Style	no. 2 sugar	cane	dextro-maltose	caramel	total sugar
X	Mild	23.53%				23.53%
H	Pale Ale		22.00%			22.00%
BA	Pale Ale		18.60%	4.65%		23.26%
BA C	Pale Ale		15.69%	7.84%		23.53%
BA L	Pale Ale	16.67%		8.33%		25.00%
BB	Pale Ale	17.65%		5.88%		23.53%
BB L	Pale Ale	16.67%		8.33%		25.00%
PA	Pale Ale	15.69%		7.84%		23.53%
PA L	Pale Ale	20.00%		8.00%		28.00%
IPA	IPA	15.69%		7.84%		23.53%
Pilsener	Pilsener					0.00%
P	Porter		24.39%		2.44%	26.83%
Cooper	Porter	24.49%			2.04%	26.53%
DS	Stout		18.93%		1.18%	20.12%
Source:
Fremlin brewing record held at the Kent Archives, document number U3555/2/F/Bx2/1/22.

 

Fremlin adjuncts in 1897

We now move on to adjuncts. Of which there are three. Which seems rather a lot. Most brewers chose an adjunct and stuck to that for all their beers. Not Fremlin.

The three cheapest beers – X, H and BB – used flaked barley. Which is an unusual choice. I’ve rarely seen it employed. The one exception being WW II. When brewers were ordered to use it. For the simple reason that there was plenty of barley available, but not enough labour to malt it all.

Flaked maize crops up in Pilsener and PA. Two of their most expensive beers. And rather a lot of it in Pilsener. I’m guessing that it’s partly to keep the colour low. As the base isn’t lager malt but standard pale malt.

Flaked wheat – another unusual choice – appears in BA, BA C and IPA. Which seems quite random.

Adjunct-free are the three London Pale Ale variants, BA L, BB L and PA L. Possibly because these were Stock Pale Ales. Also the three Black Beers: Porter, Cooper and Stout.

Other than in Pilsener, the proportion of adjuncts was quite low, just around 6%. 

Fremlin adjuncts in 1897
Beer	Style	flaked maize	flaked barley	flaked wheat	total adjuncts
X	Mild		5.88%		5.88%
H	Pale Ale		6.00%		6.00%
BA	Pale Ale			6.98%	6.98%
BA C	Pale Ale			5.88%	5.88%
BA L	Pale Ale				0.00%
BB	Pale Ale		5.88%		5.88%
BB L	Pale Ale				0.00%
PA	Pale Ale	5.88%			5.88%
PA L	Pale Ale				0.00%
IPA	IPA			5.88%	5.88%
Pilsener	Pilsener	20.00%			20.00%
P	Porter				0.00%
Cooper	Porter				0.00%
DS	Stout				0.00%
Source:
Fremlin brewing record held at the Kent Archives, document number U3555/2/F/Bx2/1/22.

 

 

Fremlin malts in 1897

Let’s take a look at what went into all those Pale Ales. Starting off with the malts.

Of which there were five. Which is quite a lot for a brewery that specialised in Pale Ales. Unsurprisingly, most of it was pale malt. Though there was also some high-dried malt in a couple of beers. Not so odd in a dark beer like Cooper. More unusual in a Pale Ale like BB.

Interestingly, all three Black Beers have chocolate malt rather than black malt as the main roasted element. I have seen that elsewhere – for example at Whitbread – but it only started much later, after WW I. Fremlin definitely seem to have been early adopters.

Porter and Stout also both contain brown malt. That favourite London ingredient. Which means these beers must have been similar in character to the equivalent beers from the capital.

It’s fascinating to see how quickly Oat Stout spread. I assume that’s why malted oats turn up in the Porter and Stout. Compared to the Oatmeal Stouts brewed after WW I, the percentage of oats is quite high. Also, it malted form. Whereas later it was almost always in flaked form.

The malt percentage is fairly decent, mostly around 70%-75%.  

Fremlin malts in 1897
Beer	Style	pale malt	high dried malt	brown malt	choc. malt	malted oats	total malt
X	Mild	70.59%					70.59%
H	Pale Ale	72.00%					72.00%
BA	Pale Ale	69.77%					69.77%
BA C	Pale Ale	70.59%					70.59%
BA L	Pale Ale	75.00%					75.00%
BB	Pale Ale	35.29%	35.29%				70.59%
BB L	Pale Ale	75.00%					75.00%
PA	Pale Ale	70.59%					70.59%
PA L	Pale Ale	72.00%					72.00%
IPA	IPA	70.59%					70.59%
Pilsener	Pilsener	80.00%					80.00%
P	Porter	40.24%		14.63%	10.98%	7.32%	73.17%
Cooper	Porter	42.86%	18.37%		12.24%		73.47%
DS	Stout	63.91%		7.10%	5.33%	3.55%	79.88%
Source:
Fremlin brewing record held at the Kent Archives, document number U3555/2/F/Bx2/1/22.

 

 

Let's Brew - 1894 Cannon KKK

Strongest of Cannon’s range was KKK. Not that it’s all that strong by 19th-century standards.

My guess is that this was considered an Old Ale or Stock Ale. Not 100% sure about that. Though their parent company, Tomson & Wooton, called their KKK a Stock Ale.

No surprises in the recipe. Which has just a single type of malt, described as “Scotch”. Interesting, given how far Kent, where the brewery was located, is from Scotland.

A single type of hops, too. East Kent from the 1893 harvest. Pretty fresh, given that this beer was brewed in January. The hopping rate is a little lower than in XXX. Which isn’t what I would have expected. Though the dry-hopping is heavier.

As I believe this was a Stock Ale, it’s logical that it would have been aged. Probably for at least twelve months.
 

1894 Cannon KKK
pale malt	14.50 lb	100.00%
Goldings 90 min	2.00 oz
Goldings 30 min	2.00 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.50 oz
OG	1062
FG	1015.5
ABV	6.15
Apparent attenuation	75.00%
IBU	46
SRM	5
Mash at	150º F
Sparge at	163º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	59º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1099 Whitbread ale

 

 

London called

And I answered. Well, I went there, at least. Along with Dolores, on our traditional December trip.

No blow by blow account this time. Just a few photos and observations.

Staring with the really important stuff. Most expensive pint? 7 quid forty for a pint of Landlord in the Marquis Cornwallis. Fuck me. That's as bad as Amsterdam. It was a pretty good pint, mind.

Most annoying? Two pubs where there were handpumps with their clips thew right way around, but none of the beers actually on. This happened at the Rocket on Euston Road and the Nags Head on Camden High Street.

I was struck by how much Landlord there is in London. Even our hotel stocked it. (At just 4.95 a pint and in surprisingly good condition.)  Which is good news, as it's a beer that's up to Dolores's high standards. She's quite fussy when it comes to beer. More so than me. Traditional cask Bitter is her thing. London Pride being her favourite. Though she's more than happy to drink Landlord. She wasn't as impressed with Shepherd Neame Masterbrew. Thin, in her opinion. She switched to cider.

Most of the cask was in decent condition. Other than a couple of pints in the Euston Flyer. Where both my ESB and Hophead were past their best. Though not vinegar.

All the pubs we visited seemed to have plenty of custom, even in the afternoon. We were in central London, though. Mostly in pretty touristy bits. I'm sure that it's not typical of the country as a whole. Or even all of London.

Everything seemed a good bit more expensive than last year. Which I suppose is to be expected.

And what of breakfasts? I hear you ask. A proper full English every morning. Fried eggs, bacon, tomatoes, toast, tea and orange juice. The perfect start to the day.

I got to eat a pie, too. With mushy peas.

To complete our seasonal bliss, we attended a one-man performance of A Christmas Carol in the Charles Dickens house. Very impressive. 

Fremlin beer output in October 1897

My trip to Maidstone provided me with so much material. As I'm sure you're starting to realise. Here's a reminder that it's useful to photograph pretty much anything you find in a brewing record. Even if it looks like a bookmark.

There’s a sheet of paper in the last page for October in the brewing log, listing all sorts of monthly totals. Including how much of each beer was brewed. This makes it clear how much of a Pale Ale brewery Fremlin was.

The two weakest Pale Ales, H and BB, accounted for over 50% of their output. And the eight Pale Ales and one IPA were 93% of production. The biggest seller of the other beers, Porter, amounted to only 3% of the beer Fremlin brewed. 

Most of the beers produced were blended at racking time. Not just with primings to condition the beer in the cask, but also a small quantity of vatted Stock Ale. I assume that this was to add some aged character. It’s interesting that even X, the Mild Ale, had some of this aged beer blended in.

The proportion of vatted beer added was between 1% and 2%. Over all beers, averaging 1.76%.

There could have been few breweries in the country where Pale Ale so dominated output. Even specialist brewers in Burton produced a higher proportion of other styles. I wonder why Fremlin ended up concentrating so much on Pale Ales?
 

Fremlin beer output in October 1897
	beer	primings	vat	Total	%
H	3,049.5	85.25	57	3,185.75	30.94%
BB	2,329	79.75	43	2,451.75	23.81%
BA C	1,325	46.25	36	1,407.25	13.67%
BA	655	20.25	8.5	683.75	6.64%
PA C	1,165.5	39.75	17	1,222.25	11.87%
IPA	43.5			43.5	0.42%
X	169.5	7	9	185.5	1.80%
P	301	-		301	2.92%
Cooper	73.5			73.5	0.71%
DS	83.5	3.25	19	105.75	1.03%
BB L	371.75	3		374.75	3.64%
BA L	73			73	0.71%
PA L	137.25			137.25	1.33%
Pilsener	46.5			46.5	0.45%
Victoria		5		5	0.05%
total	9,823.5	289.5	183.5	10,296.5
Source:
Fremlin brewing record held at the Kent Archives, document number U3555/2/F/Bx2/1/22.

 

 

Let[s Brew Wedenesday - 1885 W.E. & J. Rigden Special Ale

The recipe writing has been going well. I've now over 400 for "Free!", by upcoming book. If I can keep up this pace, I may have all the recipes polished off by the end of the year. 

Next up strength-wise of Rigden’s Bitters is the rather oddly-named Special Ale. Not sure what makes this “special”. It’s just a mid-strength Pale Ale.

There’s rather more malt in the grist, as there’s no flaked maize. Though there is a higher percentage of sugar than in AK. And that sugar leads to quite a dark colour for the finished beer. Not quite as dark as Mild Beer, but on the way there.

Two types of hops were used. Both English, though I only have details of one: Sussex from the 1884 harvest. The other is just another squiggle.

The very heavy rate of dry-hopping leads me to believe that this was probably a semi-stock beer. Aged for three months or so before sale. 

1885 W.E. & J. Rigden Special Ale
pale malt	8.00 lb	74.42%
No. 2 invert sugar	2.75 lb	25.58%
Fuggles 120 mins	2.75 oz
Goldings 30 mins	2.75 oz
Goldings dry hops	2.25 oz
OG	1055
FG	1011.5
ABV	5.75
Apparent attenuation	79.09%
IBU	64
SRM	10.5
Mash at	150º F
Sparge at	180º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	59º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1099 Whitbread ale

 

Fremlin beers in 1897

One of the larger breweries in Kent, Fremlin produced an impressive range of beers. Fourteen of them in all, mostly Pale Ales.

There were eight of them in total, plus an IPA. With gravities from 1040º to 1069º. Which is a pretty decent spread. Though, rather oddly, three different beers were 1048º. You can see why they described themselves as a Pale Ale brewery in their advertisements. 

Weakest of the set was the rather enigmatically named H. Which looks like some sort of Light Bitter. There’s a bit of a jump then to BB at 1048º. Which came in two variations, BB and BB L. The latter, presumably, being a version for the London market, which was significantly more heavily hopped.

Next was BA at 1052º. Which came in three variations. BA C (I’m guessing country) at the lower gravity of 1048º and looks very much like BB. And BA L (London) with a higher gravity of 1055º, along with heavier hopping.

Next, we come to PA at 1058º. Which also had a London variant at 1061º. And, finally, there’s IPA at 1069º, which is very much at the top end of strength for the style.

There’s just a single Mild Ale, X, with a fairly typical gravity of 1051º. Which mainly differs from the Pale Ales in having a lower hopping rate of just over 6 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt. Compared to 7.5 to 10 lbs for the Pale Ales.

A whole three Black Beers were produced: Porter, Cooper and Double Stout. It’s odd to see Cooper being brewed. It was usually just a blend of Porter and Stout. It’s particularly odd, given it’s only 1º higher in gravity than the Porter.

We now come to the oddest beer of the bunch: Pilsener. In the 1890s, Lager was usually only brewed by specialists, with a special brewhouse dedicated to it. Fremlin was well ahead of the game and had already started brewing their Pilsener in the 1880s. 

Fremlin beers in 1897
Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
X	Mild	1051	1014.4	4.84	71.76%	6.32	1.45
H	Pale Ale	1040	1006.6	4.41	83.38%	7.57	1.26
BA	Pale Ale	1052	1013.3	5.12	74.43%	7.75	1.69
BA C	Pale Ale	1048	1009.4	5.10	80.38%	7.37	1.51
BA L	Pale Ale	1055	1015.5	5.22	71.80%	10.00	2.47
BB	Pale Ale	1048	1010.8	4.92	77.49%	7.26	1.52
BB L	Pale Ale	1048	1010.5	4.96	78.07%	9.33	2.09
PA	Pale Ale	1058	1015.5	5.62	73.26%	7.89	1.97
PA L	Pale Ale	1061	1016.9	5.83	72.30%	9.89	2.73
IPA	IPA	1069	1018.3	6.71	73.50%	8.00	3.49
Pilsener	Pilsener	1047				6.00	1.30
P	Porter	1052	1015.0	4.90	71.23%	6.45	1.37
Cooper	Porter	1053	1017.7	4.67	66.55%	5.41	1.36
DS	Stout	1071	1017.7	7.05	75.03%	7.48	2.76
Source:
Fremlin brewing record held at the Kent Archives, document number U3555/2/F/Bx2/1/22.