Mitch Steele interview part two

The second part of my interview with Mitch Steele is now available. In it, Mitch discusses his move from Anheuser Busch to Stone and the creative freedom he had there. He finishes by talking about his time at New Realm.

Chapman beers in 1880

Based in Brighton on the south coast, Chapman didn’t have a particularly large range by late 19th-century standards. Just six beers. Two Mild Ales, two Pale Ales, a Stock Ale and a Stout. A pretty minimal set.

X Ale, the standard has a reasonable enough gravity 1051º. Which, coupled with a high degree of attenuation, leaves it just about 6% ABV. Its sibling XX Ale isn’t quite so highly attenuated, but still weighs in at 7% ABV. Happy days for a Mild drinker like me.

The two Mild Ales weren’t parti-gyled, as is obvious from the higher hopping rate per quarter of the XX Ale. Which is almost double that of X Ale. Which, with just four pounds of hops per quarter (336 lbs) of malt, is lightly hopped, even for a Mild Ale.

Moving onto the two Pale Ales, they fall quite nicely into the Bitter and Best Bitter categories. AK has the classic Light Bitter gravity of 1045º. While PA, at 1059º looks very much like a full-strength Pale Ale.

The hopping rates of 10 lbs and 12 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt are about what you would expect for Pale Ales. 

Both Pale Ales have very high degrees of fermentation, well above 80% apparent. Combined with the fairly high hopping rate, must have resulted in beers that seemed pretty bitter. Especially given that they were dry-hopped.

I’m not totally what XXX was sold as, not having been able to find a Chapman price list. I’ve gone with Stock Ale. It could also have been Old Ale. The same thing, really, I suppose. The hopping rate of almost 11 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt implies that it was genuinely aged. Which would have knocked down the FG even more.

Finally, we come to the Stout. Which, at just 1064º, isn’t all that “stout”. And is weaker than an equivalent London beer. The hopping rate of jut 5.7 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt is also lower than you would find in a London Stout. 

Chapman beers in 1880
Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	dry hops (oz / barrel)
X	Mild	1051.2	1006.4	5.94	87.57%	4.00	0.94	0.00
XX	Mild	1067.9	1015.2	6.96	77.55%	7.00	2.18	0.00
XXX	Stock Ale	1067.0	1012.5	7.22	81.40%	10.71	3.16	16.00
AK	Pale Ale	1045.4	1005.5	5.28	87.80%	10.00	2.17	5.87
PA	Pale Ale	1059.3	1009.1	6.63	84.58%	12.00	3.43	6.86
S	Stout	1064.3	1021.1	5.72	67.24%	5.65	1.73	0.00
Source:
Chapman brewing record.

 

Adnams 2nd June 1913 XX mashing scheme

The final process is the most important one: mashing.

Surprise, surprise – it’s an underlet mash. A process beloved of English brewers both large and small. With the underlet raising the temperature of the mash by a couple of degrees. It’s not recorded in the brewing record, but there would have been a rest of 20 to 30 minutes between the initial infusion and the underlet.

After the underlet, there would have been another stand, probably of around two hours. Then the sparges would have begun. As was usual, the temperature of the water was reduced as the process progressed. 

And that's Adnams done. At least the 1913 iterations of their beers.  I could go back and do an analysis of their 1879 beers as well. Or 1890. 

Anyone interested in that? I could spin another half dozen posts out of that. Or are you totally fed up of Adnams?

Adnams 2nd June 1913 XX mashing scheme
operation	barrels	strike heat	initial heat	final heat
mash	14	160º F	149.5º F
underlet	0.5	200º F		150.5º F
sparge 1	25	165º F	149º F
sparge 2	26.5	160º F		153º F
Source:
Adnams brewing record Book 1 held at the brewery.

 

Let's Brew - 1913 Adnams PA

Brewed in far smaller quantities than the Mild Ales was Adnams Pale Ale. Clearly, it was very much a minority drink.

Like the Mild Ales, the gravity has fallen a bit since 1890, down 4º. Though it’s still far stronger than their other standard beers. Then again. Both X and XX Ale were pretty weedy beers.

The only real change in the grist is the addition of some flaked maize. Other than that, it remains just base malt and No. 1 invert sugar. Though there were two types of base malt. Half was made from English barley and half from Californian. All malted in the UK, of course.

The hops are pretty diverse. Oregon from the 1911 harvest, two types of Kent from 1912 and Saaz, also from 1912. The dry hops were a combination of Saaz from 1912 and Hallertau from 1911.

My guess is that this was a semi-stock Pale Ale, aged for two or three months. 

1913 Adnams PA
pale malt	10.00 lb	83.33%
flaked maize	0.75 lb	6.25%
No. 1 invert sugar	1.25 lb	10.42%
Cluster 165 mins	1.00 oz
Fuggles 60 mins	1.00 oz
Saaz 30 mins	1.00 oz
Hallertau dry hops	0.67 oz
Saaz dry hops	0.33 oz
OG	1056
FG	1011
ABV	5.95
Apparent attenuation	80.36%
IBU	41
SRM	6
Mash at	153º F
Sparge at	165º F
Boil time	165 minutes
pitching temp	60º F
Yeast	WLP025 Southwold

 

Adnams boiling and fermentation in 1913

Time to crack on with some processes. Beginning with boiling and fermentation.

With just a single copper, boiling was a fairly simple affair at Adnams. The Mild Ales underwent a boil of 1.75 hours. All the other beers got 15 minutes more. Nothing much more to say, really. All pretty normal.

The pitching temperatures are all around 60º F. Which is what I always think of as the standard temperature for pitching. Perhaps a degree or two lower for strong beers.

Similarly, the maximum fermentation temperatures are all within a degree or so of 70º F. Higher in the stronger beers, lower in the weaker ones. Nothing odd at all.

The normalcy theme continues with the length of fermentation. Which, for every beer except PA, was seven days. About as long as you would expect, if the brewer wasn’t in a rush.

Adnams boiling and fermentation in 1913
Beer	Style	boil time (hours)	Pitch temp	max. fermen-tation temp	length of fermen-tation (days)
X	Mild Ale	1.75	60º F	69.75º F	7
XX	Mild Ale	1.75	60.25º F	68.25º F	7
BLB	Pale Ale	2	60.5º F	69.5º F	7
PA	Pale Ale	2	60º F	70.25º F	8
BS	Stout	2	60º F	70.75º F	7
DS	Stout	2	59.75º F	71.25º F	7
Tally Ho	Old Ale	2	60º F	71.25º F	7
Source:
Adnams brewing record Book 1 held at the brewery.

 

 

 

Mitch Steele part one

The first part of my interview with Mitch Steele, former brewer at Anheuser Busch. This covers his time studying at UC Davis, working at a winery,  his first brewing job at the San Andreas brewpub and his move to Anheuser Busch.

Adnams hops in 1913

Quite a few different types of hops were employed at Adnams. Seven in total, four of them English and four foreign. All from either the 1911 and 1912 harvests. So nothing ridiculously old.

All of the beers, other than X Ale, contain at least three types of hops. With BS and Tally Ho both having five different types.

A majority of the English hops were from Worcester, the rest either from Kent or not specified. Nothing unusual about that, as Kent and Worcester were two of the largest producers of hops. And producers of top-quality hops.

It’s interesting that few of the foreign hops were sourced from the USA. Which was by far the largest supplier of hop imports to the UK. Rather, the foreign hops mostly come from Central Europe. Namely Saaz and Württemberg. Regions well known for good quality hops.

Saaz is, in fact, the second most common type of hop. Appearing in all the beers, other than the two Mild Ales. And it also appears as a dry hop in BLB and Tally Ho. It’s a sign of the high regard of UK brewers for Saaz that it was being used as a dry hop. 

Adnams hops in 1913
Beer	Style	hop 1	hop 2	hop 3	hop 4	hop 5	dry hop 1	dry hop 2
X	Mild Ale	Eng 1911	Eng 1912
XX	Mild Ale	B n B	Wür 1911	Wo 1912
BLB	Pale Ale	Wo 1912	Sz 1912	Kt 1911			Sz 1912	Wo 1912
PA	Pale Ale	Sz 1912	Wo 1912	Kt 1911
BS	Stout	Wür 1911	Or 1911	Wo 1912	Sz 1912	Kt 1911
DS	Stout	Wür 1911	Wo 1912	Sz 1912
Tally Ho	Old Ale	Wür 1911	Or 1911	Wo 1912	Sz 1912	Kt 1911	Sz 1912	Wo 1912
Key:
Wür. = Württemberg
Wo = Worcester
Eng = English
Or = Oregon
Kt = Kent
Sz = Saaz
Source:
Adnams brewing record Book 1 held at the brewery.

 

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1913 Adnams X Ale

Moving forward in time a couple of decades, we find a new version of X Ale. Which looks very much like a modern Mild. And is not very typical of the style pre-WW I.

A gravity of just 1033º was low even for a Mild Ale brewed way out in the sticks. Even a very high degree of attenuation leaves it not much over 3.5% ABV

Simple is an understatement when it comes to the recipe. Just base malt, sugar and caramel colouring. And really just one type of base malt. I can’t imagine that it was a very full-bodied beer. That’s about all I can say. I assume that the caramel had a dark colour as it was called “tintose”.

Two types of hops. Worcester from the 1911 harvest and English from 1912. Hopped at a puny rate of 3.75 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt.

My guess is that a Mild like this would have been consumed just a couple of days after racking. 

1913 Adnams X Ale
mild malt	5.75 lb	84.31%
glucose	1.00 lb	14.66%
caramel 5000 SRM	0.07 lb	1.03%
Fuggles 105 mins	0.33 oz
Fuggles 60 mins	0.33 oz
Fuggles 30 mins	0.33 oz
OG	1033
FG	1005.5
ABV	3.64
Apparent attenuation	83.33%
IBU	13
SRM	23
Mash at	151º F
Sparge at	165º F
Boil time	105 minutes
pitching temp	60º F
Yeast	WLP025 Southwold

 

Adnams sugars in 1913

Sugars are always fun. At least in this case there are no weird proprietary sugars. Many of which leave me totally stumped.

The total sugar content is a little on the high side at 16% to 18%. While the average sugar usage for whole country was 13% in 1913. 

No. 1 invert appears in both the Pale Ales and Tally Ho. It’s exactly the type of sugar that you would expect in Pale Ales, being very light in colour

The darker beers – the two Mild Ales and the Stouts – contain rather large amounts of glucose. So, half invert. A bit surprising, as it would have been very pale in colour. And would have lightened the colour, especially in the quantities used.

Counteracting that, there’s a very dark sugar, CDM (Caramelised Dextro-Maltose) in both Stouts. Dextrin not being very readily fermentable, this would have added body as well as colour.

The final sugar type is Tintose. Which, judging by its name and the tiny quantities used, was a type of caramel. It appears in both the Mild Ales and Tally Ho. 

Adnams sugars in 1913
Beer	Style	no. 1 sugar	glucose	CDM	Tintose	total sugar
X	Mild Ale		15.84%		0.99%	16.83%
XX	Mild Ale		17.41%		0.97%	18.38%
BLB	Pale Ale	16.00%				16.00%
PA	Pale Ale	9.30%				9.30%
BS	Stout		14.16%	3.54%		17.70%
DS	Stout		13.11%	3.28%		16.39%
Tally Ho	Old Ale	15.53%			0.64%	16.16%
Source:
Adnams brewing record Book 1 held at the brewery.

 

Systems of taxation

How beer is taxed can have a big impact on what gets made.

A couple of examples.

In the system introduced in the UK in 1880 (and in effect for moe than a century) tax was based on the OG of the wort before fermentation. This gave brewers a huge incentivbe to throw in all sorts of crap, including beer returned from pubs. As this stuff was tax-free. When half of the retail price of a pint was duty, 5% per barrel tax-free could add up to a lot of money.

The US flat-rate tax system has also distorted the market. However strong your beer, you pay the same tax. In ost countries, the tax is in some sort of proportion to the amount of alcohol in a beer. A flat-rate tax is an incentive to brew stronger beer. As the production costs of a 5% and a 9% beer aren't very different. But drinkers won't be happy paying the same price for the weaker beer.

In my chat with Chris Flaskamp, I discovered Chile has another way to tax beer. One not based on alcohol content. It's at 21:47.

 

For those who can't be arsed to look at the video, the Chilean system is simply based on the price. As craft beer is more expensive, its brewers pay more tax than the big boys. Not very faif.

Adnams adjuncts in 1913

All the beers except for X Ale contain an adjunct of some sort. In most cases, that’s flaked maize. In quite small quantities, 7% at most. Which is less than the 8.5% average for the whole country. 

Both Stouts contain oats. It’s not clear from the brewing records exactly what form those oats are in. I’m guessing that it’s probably flaked oats. Obviously, they’re there so that some could be marketed as Oatmeal Stout. Unlike at some breweries – I’m looking at you London – there’s more than a nominal amount. Maybe even enough to have an impact on the character of the beer. 

Adnams adjuncts in 1913
Beer	Style	oats	flaked maize	total adjuncts
X	Mild Ale			0.00%
XX	Mild Ale		6.53%	6.53%
BLB	Pale Ale		6.00%	6.00%
PA	Pale Ale		6.98%	6.98%
BS	Stout	5.31%		5.31%
DS	Stout	4.92%	2.46%	7.38%
Tally Ho	Old Ale		4.66%	4.66%
Source:
Adnams brewing record Book 1 held at the brewery.

 

Chris Flaskamp interview

Chris Flaskamp, of Tübinger brewery, based in Pirque just outside Santiago in Chile, discusses brewing in South America. Touching on the problems of setting up a brewery, buying equipment, access to market and the possibility of Chile's own beer styles.

Adnams malts in 1913

And what went into these beers? Let’s take a look. Starting with the malts.

There are four of them in total. Which is more than you see at many breweries. There are two base malts: pale malt for the Pale Ales and Tally Ho; medium malt for the Mild Ales and Stouts. Not sure what medium malt was. I’m guessing it was something like mild malt, based on which beers it was used in.

You may have noticed that crystal malt doesn’t show up very often in the recipes in this book. It really wasn’t very common before WW I. Occasionally turning up in Mild Ales and Stouts. At Adnams, it was used in the stronger Mild and Tally Ho. An interesting choice there. 

The final type is black malt. Which, unsurprisingly, is found in the two Stouts. Which have the simplest of Stout grists, consisting of just base malt and black malt. Unlike London, where Stout grists always included brown as well as black malt. 

Adnams malts in 1913
Beer	Style	pale malt	medium malt	black malt	crystal malt	total malt
X	Mild Ale		83.17%			83.17%
XX	Mild Ale		68.56%		6.53%	75.09%
BLB	Pale Ale	78.00%				78.00%
PA	Pale Ale	83.72%				83.72%
BS	Stout		69.03%	7.96%		76.99%
DS	Stout		68.85%	7.38%		76.23%
Tally Ho	Old Ale	27.95%	46.58%		4.66%	79.18%
Source:
Adnams brewing record Book 1 held at the brewery.

 

Let's Brew - 1893 Cannon KK

Playing Best Bitter to AK’s Ordinary Bitter was KK. Which is quite confusing. As, in London, KK meant a Stock or Burton Ale.

It has a pretty decent gravity. Not quite a full-strength Pale Ale though. It’s a few degrees light for that. But also highly-attenuated, leaving it 6.5% ABV.

It’s another very simple recipe. With only a single type of malt. Hard to spin many words out of that. Dum-dee-dum. Let’s move on.

A whole two types of hops, both Worcester. From the 1892 and 1893 harvests.

My guess is that it was a semi-stock beer. Aged for maybe three months. 

1893 Cannon KK
pale malt	13.50 lb	100.00%
Goldings 90 min	2.25 oz
Goldings 30 min	2.25 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.25 oz
OG	1058
FG	1009
ABV	6.48
Apparent attenuation	84.48%
IBU	58
SRM	5
Mash at	151º F
Sparge at	164º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	58º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1099 Whitbread ale

 

I've been at this game a while

Blogging. Almost 20 years. So many posts.

I realised just how many when searching for a photo to use in a video. Pretty sure that I took it when at Fullers for a vertical tasting of Vintage Ale. I couldn't remember which year it was. But it shouldn't be too difficult. Should it?

How wrong I was. Despite having some things that I thought were easily searchable, no luck. I even tried just looking through a list of my posts in 2008. Still couldn't find it. Filtering on the label "Fullers" and just trawling through the long list thankfully worked out.

(Just to prove the point I've just spent five minutes trying to find the page again.)

The page didn't have the photo I was after, however. Which is a shame. As searching my photos is a nightmare. At least the older ones. Those from 15 years ago or more. Which, again, is a sign of how long I've been in this game.

I've not got bored of it yet. Despite the stupefyingly dull nature of much of mt material. And the drudge of daily posts.

When will I stop?

2036. 

Hoping I'll still be alive then. 

Adnams beers in 1913

As a country brewery, Adnams gives us a good impression of what was happening outside the UK’s great metropoli.

With just seven beers, Adnams range was quite small. But well spread across different styles, there being two Mild Ales, two Pale Ales, two Stouts and one Old Ale.

The Mild Ales are, compared to the big cities, piss weak. X Ale looks very much like a post-WW II Mild, with its gravity just a shade over 1030º. Putting that into context, a London X Ale of the time was around 1050º. It must have been quite a shock for country folk visiting London

The two Pale Ales fall nicely into the Ordinary and Best Bitter slots. And, unlike the Mild Ales, are close in gravity to the equivalent London beers. Though the rate of hopping is much lower. Whitbread’s Pale Ales of the time received between 9 and 12 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt. Compared with just 6.5 lbs at Adnams.

Not quite sure why they brewed two Stouts at such similar gravities. Even the stronger of the two is well short of being Double Stout strength. It’s not even strong enough to really count as a Stout at all and has a gravity barely higher than a London Porter.

Named beers were very rare before WW I. Especially one that had been around as long as Tally Ho. Which had been brewed since at least 1879.

Both the Milds and Bitters show a high degree of attenuation. Only Tally Ho is below 70% apparent. But doubtless that would have increased during the long secondary fermentation that I’m sure it underwent before consumption. 

Adnams beers in 1913
Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	dry hops (oz / barrel)
X	Mild Ale	1033.0	1005.5	3.64	83.33%	3.73	0.54
XX	Mild Ale	1039.0	1007.0	4.23	82.05%	3.83	0.65
BLB	Pale Ale	1044.0	1007.0	4.89	84.09%	6.44	1.22	7.06
PA	Pale Ale	1056.0	1010.0	6.09	82.14%	6.53	1.54	7.56
BS	Stout	1055.0	1014.0	5.42	74.55%	4.19	1.08
DS	Stout	1060.0	1014.0	6.09	76.67%	4.91	1.34
Tally Ho	Old Ale	1081.0	1025.0	7.41	69.14%	6.21	2.25	10.50
Source:
Adnams brewing record Book 1 held at the brewery.

 

Interview with John Keeling

Yet another crappy video I've uploaded to YouTube.

 This time I'm talking to John Keeling, the highly-respected former head of brewing at Fullers. 

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1893 Cannon Table

Most of Cannon’s beers were brewed single-gyle. Though, occasionally, X was parti-gyled with Table.

The batches were pretty small. Around a dozen barrels, compared to 50 barrels for other beers. And it wasn’t brewed as often, either. Clearly the market for it was quite small. I’m guessing mostly – or totally – consumed at home. I don’t think pubs would usually sell a beer this weak in the 19th century.

It has the same achingly simple recipe as X. Just one type of base malt. Along with two types of hops, Californian and East Kent, both from the 1891 season.

Given its low gravity, this would have been drunk within a few days of racking.

1893 Cannon Table
pale malt	5.75 lb	100.00%
Cluster 90 min	0.625 oz
Goldings 30 min	0.625 oz
OG	1025
FG	1007
ABV	2.38
Apparent attenuation	72.00%
IBU	23
SRM	3
Mash at	153º F
Sparge at	165º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	62º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1099 Whitbread ale