I had to begin with AK. I've been dreaming of getting my hands on an AK log for so long. Just couldn't resist it.
Let's start with the ingredients:malt:
75% pale malt
6% "Flaked"
19% sugar
Hops:
Darziel? 1908 6,67%
Oregon 1907 6,67%
Armold MK 1909 43,33%
de Laune? EK 1909 43,33%
hopping rate: 7.5 pounds per quarter, 1.43 pounds per barrel.
It was mashed at 150º F for 60 minutes, then stood for 25 minutes. It was sparged at 168º F. The strong wort was boiled for 105 minutes, the second wort for 2 hours.
The OG was 1045º and it was pitched at 60º F. The fermentation took 1 week, with the temperature of the wort reaching a maximum of 68.5º F. The wort was dropped into the settling square after 42 hours. The FG was 1008.9º, the ABV 4.8% and apparent attenuation 80%.For purposes of comparison here are some other Fuller's beers from the same year:
X Mild OG 1052.5º, FG 1014.7º, ABV 5%. 5.5 lbs hops per quarter.
PA OG 1054º, FG 1012º, ABV 5.6%. 9.5 lbs hops per quarter.
Porter OG 1049º, FG 1011º, ABV 5.11%. 7 lbs hops per quarter.
Brown Stout OG 1069º, FG 1022º, ABV 6.5%. 7 lbs hops per quarter.
The AK was the weakest beer I've found for that year, 1910. So what have we found out, other than that it was pretty weak? Well it was quite highly hopped. Only the PA had a greater hopping rate. And it was highly attenuated. The AK at PA stayed around three times as long as other beers in the rounds before being dropped into the settling squares.
I'll be honest. There are no big surprises. It's much as I had expected. Now I need to look at some of the older logs. Why hadn't I done that yet? Because the older ones are totally handwritten and a lot more work to decipher. And it's always best to work from newest to oldest. The more recent logs are always easier to understand.The Fuller's logs are very informative. They include a record of the fermentation, which many don't, including details of "dropping", "collecting" and "skimming". If you don't know what that "dropping" means, this excellent post from Zythophile should explain all.
Posts
7 comments:
So the answer to "What is AK?" is actually "a weak, fairly well-hopped table beer"?
Er, yes.
Hmmm...that hop looks more like Manziu or Marziu or the like. Look at the dudes M in March.
As for the sugar, I get 3qtr pale treacle and 2qtr Number 2 sugar. That goes along with 22lb 10oz caramel 680# priming (?) sugar.
I agree that it looks like FLaked and would seem to be maize at the lbs/qtr they indicate (~336/qtr). Flaked barley is a lot lighter than regular barley malt per volume.
They also used 5 oz gypsum and 1 oz magnesium sulfate(epsom salts) per barrel. 25oz irish moss it would seem.
It would also seem my numbers are way off from what you got.
I get a final extract of ~34lb/bbl (~1.093) pre boil for 240bbl. I based these numbers on 240bbl pre-boil, yes? Post-boil the gravity would be higher. If you look in the 'priming' section it indicates 144bbl @ 1.141. My calculated OG is around 1.156.
Thoughts?
My calculation of extract/OG matched that on the log exactly.
It's Luscious Priming, BTW. Great name. There's loads of different sugars in all the recipes. Something called London Caramel in some and another thing called caramelina.
The fermentation details are interesting. Especially when you compare the AK and PA, which had 40-odd hours in the rounds and the X and Porter, which just had 12. Now I wonder what the reason for that was?
Ah, that makes sense! Ok so after going back over the numbers again here is what I came up with specifically.
OG - 1.042
FG - 1.089
BU - 16 - 18 (schedule dependent)
EBC - ~20 (Bass pale ale)
ABV = 4.78%
~80% apparent attenuation
65.8% real extract (attenuation)
33% No1 Pale
33% California
7.8% Flaked
10.4% Pale Treacle
7.8% No2 Invert sugar
0.3% Caramel
7.9% Luscious priming
Hops like Ron has listed. I back calculated the breakdown of alpha acids in the hops using a degradation calculator. I know the method of storage and the average holding temperature. This is one of the points were most people get old recipes wrong.
Ron, as to your point about the rounds, how did the gravities differ? OG and FG? There are some places that like dropping early to keep the beer from drying out. What about the volume? Once the lager volumes get going they really finish fast.
There's a huge difference between the fermentation of AK and most of there other beers. I would say more, but I'll be posting about it tomorrow. I'll compare the fermentation of Z and AK. Very surprising, how different they are.
Keep up the good work Ron. It is a pity that the gyle wasn't 47 then we would have brewed AK 47.
cheers John Keeling
Post a Comment