Fuller's questions answered

John Keeling of Fullers has kindly answered some of my questions on the mashing as recorded in the 1906 logs.


What did "opened sluices" mean?

J.K There is a gate at the front of the square. This was used to skim yeast off for either pitching or dumping. This was not used in my time because we had a suction system.

I have a question about the mashing part. This is from the AK, but they are all similar.

65 barrels at 164º F mashed 1 hour Stood 25 minutes
15 barrels at 175º F underlet Taps Stood 25 1 1/3 hours

Are the 15 barrels of liquor being added to the mash tun from underneath? Is that what the bit about underlet means?

J.K Underletting was allowing liquor in from underneath- 175 would have been a high temperature. The methodology in my time was to mash then immediately start to raise the temperature of the liquor tank for sparging.We did not underlet unless we had a problem. We do not have separate mash and sparge liquor tanks I suspect they had no steeles masher- mashing took one hour (with a steeles masher it took 20 mins!). This could involve mixing in vessel which might have blocked the plate slots. Underletting would therefore have been to clear the slots.

Come to think of it, I don't understand all of the next two lines, either:

Tap Gravity 26.9 Initial Heat 153 155 Tap Heat 148
Tap Final 3.4 Tap Final 151

I think I understand what Tap Gravity, Initial Heat and Tap Heat mean. But what
about Tap Final?

J.K. Tap gravity = PG of wort at time taken. Initial heat = mash bed temperature at
completion of mash. Tap heat= temperature of run off at time taken, final would have been temperature at the end of run off.

Oh, and any idea what beer BO was? It looks like a Burton to me. Or a Brown Ale. Dark, around 1055. I've found it party-gyled with X and OBE. It can be confusing the way they refer to X Ale as H sometimes. I guess that stands for Hock.

J.K. I would guess Burton Original.

The American homebrewer who is doing the recipes for my book said he was going to try to brew AK. It should be interesting. He was unsure about the hop additions. My best guess was around 50% added at the start of the boil, the other 50% 30-40 minutes before the end. Would that sound about right to you?

J.K. Hop additions were at start of boil then as a late copper hop (10 mins from end) in my time. I suspect they were different in 1906.


Many thanks to John for his answers. Until I get my time machine working, finding someone to ask about Barclay Perkins brewing methods could be more problematic.