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

 

Lucky fucker

I can't really complain. I'm a jammy git. Born at a good time.

After WW II, families like mine profitted from, well, the war. Better wages, social benefits.

My mother's family were clever. But the early death of her father in the 1830s meant grammar school wasn't an option. Couldn't afford it.

When my mother was widowed in the 1970s, me and my brother had free school uniforms, free school meals. Grammar school was still an option. I didn't pay to go to university. I was paid to go. I didn't realise how lucky I was. It seemed normal And part of progress.

Won't say that all the modern world is crap. Some modern technology is incredible empowering. Being creative is easier than ever, in some ways. 

I can fulfill my John Bull printing set dreams. Publish my own books. Anything I want. And someone might even buy them.

(Maybe just as well I couldn't publish back in the 1970s. There's a reason I burned my teenage poetry. Fuck me. If I had published that.)

Got to live in a beautiful part of a beautiful city. Before xenophobes complicated that. And accommodation here got too expensive.

Waved a very happy farewell to work at 63. Just wish it had been a decade or so earlier.

Still wish I was 18. So much I still want to do. 

Derek Prentice and brewing in the 1970s part 4

The last part of my interview with Derek Prentice. Discussing keg, tank and cask beer, continuous fermentation, parti-gyling, underlet mashing, craft beer and old beer styles, Truman Barley Wine, Burton Ale, Truman Tap Bitter, the end of Truman. Covering both the 1970s and 1980s.

Fullers X March 10th 1910 mashing scheme

Just one process left. And that’s mashing. In my spreadsheet of details extracted from brewing records I don’t include anything about mashing. Why? Because what breweries recorded varies enormously. And is difficult to summarise in a couple of columns.

Fullers were one of the better breweries when it came to noting down mashing details

It’s pretty much a classic underlet process. Where there’s an initial infusion mash at 149º F, followed by the addition of a smaller quantity of water introduced from below. This raised the temperature by 4º F.

At some point after the underlet “Saccharum Liquor”, that is a sugar solution, was added to the mash. This is rather odd, as sugar was usually added at the boiling stage.

The process was completed by a sparge at 168º F to 168º F.

A majority of English brewers used a method something like this. The ability to perform an underlet mash being the main reason for retaining internal rakes in the mash tun.

Fullers X March 10th 1910 mashing scheme
operation	barrels	strike heat	initial heat	mashed (mins)	stood (mins)	tap heat
mash	97	159º F	149º F	60	30
underlet	21	175º F	153º F			148º F
Saccharum Liquor	19
sparge	169	168º F
		165º F				152º F
Source:
Fullers brewing record held at the brewery.

 

Derek Prentice and brewing in the 1970s part 3

The third part of my talk with Derek Prentice about brewing in the 1970s, Talking about about keg and cask beer, primings, maltings, hop varieties, mashing and dropping system of fermentation.

My YouTube channel

You might have noticed that I've posted a few videos on YouTube over the last couple of days. There will be more to follow.

It's part of my drive to document and preserve. Initially, it's mostly material that I acquired for my book on the 1970s, "Keg!". I conducted several Zoom interviews Which I think are worth making public. Especially as the interviewees are all past retirement age. And won't be around forever.

I'm particularly keen on recording Derek Prentice's recollections of more than half a century in brewing. Despite my urging, Derek shows no interest in writing his memoirs. But he's happy to be interviewed and share his memories. I already have around two hours of video. And plan to record several more. Covering his time at Youngs and Fullers.

My intention is to assemble as much video as I can, documenting the last 50 or 60 years of UK brewing. The stuff that normally doesn't get recorded and rarely makes its way into books. Creating what I hope will be a useful source for future historians.

I welcome suggestions for people to interview. I already have around a dozen names, which should keep me going for a while.
 

Let's Brew - 1893 Cannon AK 10d

I have so many AK recipes now. It’s so wonderful. 

This is a pretty typical example: light, in both senses of the word. A pretty high degree of attenuation must have left it pretty dry. As well as a relatively high, for the OG, alcohol content.

I am struggling to see how this differs from X in any significant way. Slightly lower OG, slightly higher hopping rate. Hardly enough for them to be in different styles.

Excitement on the recipe front. There are two whole malts. One unnamed, the other called “Queen St.”. That being the address of the brewery, I assume that they malted it themselves.

Two types of hops, both Worcester, one from 1892 and one from 1893.

No ageing. 

1893 Cannon AK 10d
pale malt	10.50 lb	100.00%
Goldings 90 min	1.33 oz
Goldings 30 min	1.33 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.25 oz
OG	1045
FG	1007
ABV	5.03
Apparent attenuation	84.44%
IBU	34
SRM	4
Mash at	153º F
Sparge at	165º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	58º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1099 Whitbread ale

 

Central Europe in 2008: Budvar

Some video of the Budvar brewery in 2008 that I'd forgotten about. And never used because I didn't know how to nail all the bits together.

Derek Prentice and brewing in the 1970s part 2

I've just published the second part of my interview with Derek Prentice. Lots of good stuff about takeovers, brewery closures and dodgy brewing practices in the 1970s.

Fullers boiling and fermentation in 1910

Processes now. Starting with boiling and fermentation.

With the exception of X and BO, all the beers had two coppers.

Nothing very odd about the boiling process. Mostly, the boil length was in the range of 1.5 to 2 hours. Which was fairly typical. The only exception is BO, where the boil lasted 2.75 hours. Presumably some of that time was to concentrate the wort.

The fermentation temperatures are equally unexceptional, in the 60º F to 70º F range. I’m not finding much to say here, am I? 

Around a week for primary fermentation was pretty standard, too. Fullers used the dropping system of fermentation. I thought it would be interesting to include when the beers were dropped to the settling square.  There doesn’t seem to be much consistency to it, varying between 20 and 70 hours. 

Fullers boiling and fermentation in 1910
Beer	Style	boil time (hours)		Pitch temp	max. fermen-tation temp	length of fermen-tation (days)	dropped after (hours)
X	Mild	2		59º F	69º F	7	20
AK	Pale Ale	1.75	2	60º F	68.5º F	8	70
PA	Pale Ale	1.75	2	59.5º F	69º F	8	46
P	Porter	1.5	1.75	60º F	66.5º F	6
BS	Stout	1.5	1.75	59.5º F	69º F	6
BO	Strong Ale	2.75		60º F	70º F	9	60
	Average	1.88	1.88	59.7º F	68.7º F	7.3	49.0
Source:
Fullers brewing record held at the brewery.

 

Derek Prentice interview part 1

The first part of my interview with legend Derek Prentice is now available. Lots of good stuff about brewing at Truman in the 1970s.

Fullers hops in 1910

All that’s left in terms of ingredients are the hops. Which are always fun. Where will they be from? Because just before WW I the UK was importing bucketloads of hops. From pretty much every country that grew them.

Sure enough, every beer contained some Oregon hops. Mostly not very fresh at three years old. Oddly enough only the two Black Beers got relatively fresh ones. Perhaps because their nasty flavour would be masked by all the roast.

Nothing very exotic about the other hops. Which were all English. Mostly from Kent. Which makes sense, as it was right on Fullers doorstep. Where specified, these were from a combination East Kent and Mid-Kent.

These hops were fresher than the Oregons, none being more than two years old. And quite a lot being from the most recent season.

Every beer received four types of hops, other than X. Which only had three. Multiple hop types was pretty standard at the time. 

Fullers hops in 1910
Beer	Style	hop 1	hop 2	hop 3	hop 4
X	Mild	Oregon 1907	MK 1909	EK 1908
AK	Pale Ale	Oregon 1907	English 1908	MK 1909	EK 1908
PA	Pale Ale	Oregon 1907	??? 1909	MK 1909	EK 1908
P	Porter	Oregon 1909	English 1908	EK 1908	EK 1909
BS	Stout	Oregon 1909	English 1908	EK 1908	EK 1909
BO	Strong Ale	Oregon 1907	English 1908	MK 1908	MK 1909
Source:
Fullers brewing record held at the brewery.

 

Saint Mars of the Desert interview (video)

I chat with Dann and Martha about brewing in the USA and Yorkshire. And pissing on your own chips.

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1897 Fremlin IPA

And here we finally are at the top of the Pale Ale tree. It’s been a long climb, but worth it.

You might be a little confused by this beer. As it actually looks like an IPA is “supposed to”: over 6% ABV and hopped to hell. By this time, you’ve probably realised that most of the IPAs brewed in the UK didn’t fit that profile. Other than the ones brewed in Burton.

The recipe is generally similar to the other Pale Ales. Except that the adjunct is flaked wheat. Why was that? For head retention? Possibly. But wouldn’t the same be desirable in all the other Pale Ales, too?

Once again, the sugar is a combination of No. 2 invert and dextro-maltose. Which I’ve consolidated to all No. 2 invert.

Pretty sure that this was a Stock Ale. Nine to twelve months with Brettanomyces is my guess. 

1897 Fremlin IPA
pale malt	9.50 lb	70.37%
flaked wheat	0.75 lb	5.56%
No. 2 invert sugar	3.25 lb	24.07%
Fuggles 120 mins	2.00 oz
Goldings 90 mins	4.00 oz
Goldings 60 mins	2.00 oz
Goldings dry hops	1.50 oz
OG	1069
FG	1018
ABV	6.75
Apparent attenuation	73.91%
IBU	101
SRM	12
Mash at	148º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	120minutes
pitching temp	58º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1099 Whitbread ale

 

Fullers sugars in 1910

Quite a few different sugars. Five in all. Considerably more than malts. Most of the sugars were some sort of invert.

Let’s start with the numbered inverts. No. 2 appears in both the Pale Ales and the Strong Ale. No. 1 or No. 2 are the sugars you would expect to see in Pale Ales, as they are relatively light in colour. The darker No. 3 was the obvious choice for Mild Ale. Especially at a time when the style was becoming darker.

The Special dark invert that turns up in the two Black Beers sounds like it might be something like No. 4 invert. That is, a very dark type of invert sugar. The quantity used in Porter and Stout is very large, almost a quarter of all the fermentable material.

I’ve no idea what trivert is. Other than suspecting that it’s some sort of invert. And that it was pale in colour.

I assume that the caramel was being used mostly for colour correction, as it appears in all Fullers beers, including the pale ones.

Overall, the sugar content is quite high, averaging over 18%. With Burton Old (BO) the only beer with less than 10%. While in the Black Beers it’s over 25%.

Fullers sugars in 1910
Beer	Style	no. 2 sugar	no. 3 sugar	Special dark invert	Pale Trivert	caramel	total sugar
X	Mild		8.75%		10.00%	0.65%	19.39%
AK	Pale Ale	5.25%			7.88%	0.20%	13.33%
PA	Pale Ale	8.94%			5.96%	0.16%	15.06%
P	Porter			24.06%		2.92%	26.98%
BS	Stout			24.06%		2.92%	26.98%
BO	Strong Ale	8.13%				0.41%	8.54%
	Average						18.38%
Source:
Fullers brewing record held at the brewery.

 

 

 

Fullers grists in 1910

We’ll now take a look under the bonnet of these beers.

Most of the beers contained only a single malt: base pale malt. Which is pretty much what you’d expect for the period. A time when crystal malt was unknown in Pale Ales and by no means universal in Mild Ales.

Obviously, you can’t brew Porter or Stout without some sort of roast. Fullers went for the classic London combination of brown and black malt. The roast malts making up a hefty 16% of the total.

There’s quite a bit of variation in the malt content. From just under 70% in the Black Beers to 87% in the Strong Ale.

Every beer received a small dose of flaked maize. Nothing odd there. By this point, flaked maize was by far the most popular adjunct and flaked rice had been pretty much abandoned.

In the first decade of the 20th century, Oatmeal Stout was all the rage. Fullers must have joined in the craze. Hence the tiny quantity of oats. The brewing records don’t make clear what form they were in. Probably flaked. Adding a minute quantity of oats to a Stout parti-gyle to be able to legally market some of it as Oatmeal Stout was a typical trick of London brewers. 

Fullers grists in 1910
Beer	Style	pale malt	brown malt	black malt	total malt	flaked maize	oats	total adjuncts
X	Mild	74.05%			74.05%	6.56%		6.56%
AK	Pale Ale	80.76%			80.76%	5.91%		5.91%
PA	Pale Ale	81.59%			81.59%	3.35%		3.35%
P	Porter	53.38%	10.53%	5.26%	69.17%	3.01%	0.85%	3.85%
BS	Stout	53.38%	10.53%	5.26%	69.17%	3.01%	0.85%	3.85%
BO	Strong Ale	87.40%			87.40%	4.07%		4.07%
	Average				77.02%			4.60%
Source:
Fullers brewing record held at the brewery.

 

Fremlin BB 1st Oct 1897 mashing scheme

And how were these beers mashed? In a fairly complicated way is the short answer.

It’s fairly typical of mashing practices in England. The process begins with a small amount of hot water to warm the mash tun. This was followed by an infusion mash, with 18 minutes of mashing.

There was then an underlet with a small amount of hotter water. After which the mash was left to stand for almost two hours.

The process ended with four sparges at descending temperatures.

All of Fremlin’s beers were mashed in a similar way. With the exception of Pilsner, which had a decoction mash. 

Fremlin BB 1st Oct 1897 mashing scheme
operation	barrels	strike heat	mash time	stand time	tap heat
heat tun	4	180º F			148º F
mash	43	160º F	18 mins		153º F
underlet	3	180º F		117 mins	158º F
sparge 1	13	175º F
sparge 2	13	170º F
sparge 3	24	165º F
sparge 4	48	160º F
Source:
Fremlin brewing record held at the Kent Archives, document number U3555/2/F/Bx2/1/22.

 

Let's Brew - 1897 Fremlin PA L

We’re still not finished climbing the Pale Ale tree. Now we have the London version of PA.

Which, as you should have noticed by now, means slightly stronger and more heavily hopped than the standard version. This beer is no exception.

No adjuncts this time around. Just base malt (half made from English barley and half from Californian) and two types of sugar. As usual, No. 2 invert and dextro-maltose. Which I’ve consolidated into just No. 2.

Only two types of hops here. Both English from the 1897 season.

With both a relatively high gravity and level of hopping, I’m sure this was aged. Nine to twelve months is my guess. 

1897 Fremlin PA L
pale malt	8.50 lb	72.34%
No. 2 invert sugar	3.25 lb	27.66%
Fuggles 120 mins	1.50 oz
Goldings 90 mins	3.00 oz
Goldings 60 mins	1.50 oz
Goldings dry hops	1.25 oz
OG	1061
FG	1019
ABV	5.56
Apparent attenuation	68.85%
IBU	79
SRM	11.5
Mash at	147º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	57º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1099 Whitbread ale

 

Boddington 2nd Dec 1901 mashing scheme

We’ll finish with mashing. Which was a pretty simple process at Boddington. Much simpler than at most English breweries. Where the minimum was an infusion mash, underlet and a couple of sparges.

Interestingly, the brewing record does include columns for an underlet, which are filled in with just dashes. Presumably, at one time they had used an underlet but had discontinued the practice.

In this example, there’s just a single infusion with a strike heat of 160º F, followed by a rest of two hours. The process was completed with three sparges at descending temperatures. 

Boddington 2nd Dec 1901 mashing scheme
operation	barrels	strike heat	rest	tap heat
mash	70	160º F	2 hours	150º F
sparge 1		168º F
sparge 2		164º F
sparge 3		160º F
Source:
Boddington brewing record held at Manchester Central Library, document number M693/405/125.