Wednesday 20 January 2010

1909 Beer Style Guide - finished!

Me and Kristen have finally got our fingers out and completed the 1909 Beer Style Guide. Looks pretty groovy.


I'm convinced it will become a must-have ittem for all time-travelling beer lovers. At least the ones travelling to Edwardian Britain. But, let's face it, if you could choose anywhere and anytime to visit, wouldn't it be Edwardian Britain? I know it's first on my list.

The book is 153 pages of non-stop fun and frivolity. Almost. Between the thousands of tables you'll find the odd sentence and even the occasional joke. But mostly it's facts. Cold, hard facts. An iceberg of facts.

27 comments:

Oblivious said...

Very good book, enjoyed reading it

mrbowenz said...

I like it , even more special that you are both contributing , and great companion to your "Let's Brew Wednesday " effort .

Well Done !

Korev said...

I downloaded the earlier version 105 pages from Lulu will there be a free upgrade to this later completed version?
Cheers
Peter

Ron Pattinson said...

Korev, erm, you'll have to let me think about that.

The other version - 1909! - was never intended for sale. I published it as a special competition prize.

The Beer Nut said...

If Edwardian Britain is so attractive, how long before you rename the blog Shut Up About Mary Poppins?

Ron Pattinson said...

Beer Nut, Mary Poppins is 1960's Hollywood.

The Beer Nut said...

It bloody isn't. Though yes, I'm aware it's not gen-ew-ine Edwardian. The first book came out in 1934.

Ron Pattinson said...

Beer Nut, trust a librarian to know that.

The Beer Nut said...

What I didn't know until just there now was that the books are set in the present day, and it was Disney's decision to move the setting to the Edwardian era.

Maybe I'm the one who should be writing Shut Up About Mary Poppins...

Ron Pattinson said...

Beer Nut, you've just answered my next question.

Maybe you should concentrate on Shelley Bobbins instead. Much better songs, especially the booze hound one. "Buy me a beer, two bucks a glass, somebody help me I'm freezing my ass."

Matt said...

As someone who won a copy of 1909 in the competition, I can thoroughly recommend it. The tables really are fascinating.

1909 was the year my grandad was born. I still drink from a dimpled pint jug he purloined from the pub decades ago. The ship on the front of the book looks a bit like the Lusitania, sunk in 1915, which he claimed to have just missed as a child returning from the US where his father had been working.

Graham Wheeler said...

Ron Pattinson said...
"Beer Nut, Mary Poppins is 1960's Hollywood.

Actually, 1960's Pinewood, Middlesex, but as Walt Disney paid for it, and I guess that he lived in Hollywood, you are morally correct.

If the book has recipes in it, I would surreptitiously plug it on the home brew forums. There must have been thousands of the Durden Park 'Old British Beers' book sold over the years.

Oblivious said...

"There must have been thousands of the Durden Park 'Old British Beers' book sold over the years."

Really do you think so?

Graham Wheeler said...

Oblivious said...
"Really do you think so?

Dunno really.

It's been around a long time, twenty years or more. It has run to several editions and several reprints. I would have thought that before the days of electronic printing, it would be uneconomical to get a booklet printed in much less than 1000-copy runs.

Durden Park recipes regularly crop up on the forums, sometimes some poor sod attempting to mash a couple of kilos of drum-brown malt.

Low thousands maybe.

dbecan said...

Heh, I'm in the same boat as Korev. Got overly excited when I saw 1909! on the Lulu page. Already attempted to piece together and brewed a couple of recipes from the tables, I'd love to see the completed version now that it's here.

Derek Hyde said...

Do you have any other books you'll be finishing in the near future? (I'm cheap and want to save on the shipping to Canada). :D

mentaldental said...

There. I have brazzenly plugged the book on The Homebrew Forum, Jim's Homebrew, and Northants Brewers forum.

That must be good for, oh, two extra copies.

Bill said...

How come I got Peace in the post for winning and not 1909? Just curious as I already own Peace.

Derek Hyde said...

I couldn't wait... put in an order & just received it today (surprisingly fast). They'll have to on the shelf though, I'm in the middle of two other beer books!

Anonymous said...

Is there an errata for the book?
I have noticed errors in the recipes and wondered if corrections are available.

Ron Pattinson said...

Anonymous, Kristen is working on that.

TheBigEasy said...

I was anonymous, now I am not.

Do you wish to know where I have seen errors?

Ron Pattinson said...

TheBigEasy, yes, send in any errors you've discovered.

TheBigEasy said...

P67 - Courage - 1914 - Imperial Stout

The Recipe by percentages do not match the Homebrew weights

TheBigEasy said...

p37 Fullers 1910 Pale ale - percentages don't match homebrew weights

p57 Fullers 1910 Porter - percentages don't match homebrew weights

p121 recipe has no header so no name

Edward said...

I bought this book recently with your code as I hoped it would answer some of the questions I had with the Let's Brew postings. It answered most but not all (I was hoping for more details on substitutions). Are the corrections available anywhere online? Specifically I'm looking for the 1914 Courage Imperial Stout recipe. The grist weights are clearly wrong and the percentages seem questionable - 12.2% black malt seems really high in a 1.094 beer described as "Dark blackish brown"

Ron Pattinson said...

Edward, drop me an email and I'll send you a corrected recipe.