Let's Brew 1921 Barclay Perkins BS S Irish Stout type

A special treat for the upcoming St. Patrick's day. An experimental "Irish Stout type".

Barclay Perkins had the advantage of a very flexible brewhouse. Unlike Whitbread, they could brew small batches. Their New Brewery concentrated on small batch beers and experimental brews. It was there most of their many Stouts were brewed. Including IBS or Russian Stout. There were also test brews of new hops. These were usually of one of their mainstream beers - XLK or X - in a batch of just 30 barrels. Most was later mixed in with a full-size batch of the same beer.

The date of this brew is very significant: November 1921.  Just when Ireland was gaining independence. When Guinness, until then the largest brewery in the United Kingdom, suddenly became foreign. Doubtless Barclay Perkins saw this as a chance to take some of Guinness's market.

Zythophile and I have argued in the past that what distinguished London Stout from Irish Stout was the use of brown malt. In Ireland, brewers quickly dropped brown malt after the invention of black patent malt in 1817. London brewers stuck with it to the bitter end. For Barclay Perkins, the distinction was different. As this beer demonstrates. It has a typical London grist, consisting of pale malt, brown malt, amber malt and roast barley. (Don't read too much into the latter ingredient. Barclay Perkins flipped randomly between black malt and roast barley all through the interwar years.)

In terms of ingredients, this beer is pretty much a clone of Barclay Perkins BS. The difference lies in the blending. Of which the log gives a detailed description. At racking time half the batch had old IBS Ex (the strong version of Russian Stout) added and half old BBS Ex (a strong export Stout). Clearly Barclay Perkins thought it was blending in aged beer that was the defining feature of Irish Stout.


That's me done, so over to Kristen with the technical details . . . . .

Barclay Perkins - 1921 - BS - Irish Stout
General info: Wicked neat experimental stout from BP. Apparently at the time the 'Irish-type stout' was different from their 'London-type' stout in that there was an addition of old/aged stronger stout blended back with the beer. When you look at the grist it’s a very straightforward stout. It dries out very well after racking. They then blend in some of their London export stout at about 10% making a much more robust beer! Experimental indeed! The blending gives a much more complex beer with more dark fruits and bitterness.
Beer Specifics			Recipe by percentages
Gravity (OG)	1.046		6.2% Amber malt			53.6% Mild malt
Gravity (FG)	1.013		8.5% Brown malt
ABV	4.39%		4.9% Roasted barley
Apparent attenuation	71.71%		26.8% American 6-row
Real attenuation	58.74%
IBU	40.3		Mash	120min@148°F		1.21qt/lb
SRM	41			120min@64.4°C		2.53L/kg
EBC	79.8
			Boil	120 min
	Homebrew @ 70%				Craft @ 80%
Grist	5gal		19L		10bbl		10hl
Amber malt	0.56	lb	0.254	kg	30.27	lb	11.69	kg
Brown malt	0.77	lb	0.350	kg	41.75	lb	16.13	kg
Roasted barley	0.45	lb	0.204	kg	24.27	lb	9.38	kg
American 6-row	2.42	lb	1.104	kg	131.50	lb	50.81	kg
Mild malt	4.85	lb	2.207	kg	263.01	lb	101.62	kg
					490.79202
Hops
Cluster 7% 120min	0.98	oz	27.8	g	60.76	oz	1.468	kg
Goldings 4.5% 30min	0.76	oz	21.6	g	47.26	oz	1.142	kg
Goldings 4.5% dry hop	0.37	oz	10.4	g	22.84	oz	0.552	kg
Fermentation	70°F /21.1°C
Yeast	Nottingham ale yeast
	1028 London Ale Yeast  - WLP013 London Ale Yeast
Tasting Notes: Rich and dark. Toasted biscuits, burn bread crusts and coffee. Lots and lots of coffee. Some husky grain mixed in with some spicy hops. Lots of drying tannins. A boat load of dark fruit. Mostly raisins and dried cherries. Very rich but light at the same time.

Ingredients and technique

Grist & such
This experimental ‘Irish stout’ is made with pretty much BP’s standard BS London stout grist. Amber malt, brown malt and roasted barley. 26% American 6-row and over 50% mild malt. No sugar whatsoever. Not a whole lot of places at the time didn’t use at least some portion of sugar. A deep and dark ‘dry’ stout with a lot of tannic character.

Hops
A good amount of bitterness with a definite green tea vege drying character. Some newer Cluster-type hops and Goldings in the middle and dry hopped.  About a 1/6th of the entire hopping was done with old Alsace/ Hallertauer-type hops. Haven’t seen this before but since this is experimental its hard to dry conclusions off one instance. The dry hops are at about 4oz/ bbl which isn’t a ton but will give a definitely hop aroma.

Mash & Boil
A neat little short step mash. A half hour at in a very low saccharification rest and then up to regular temperatures. A single underlet and then a sparge. The ratio of water to grain is nearing current usuage for a lot of ale making. The boil was standard at two hours with the normal stout two hop additions, at make up and then 30 minutes out.

Fermentation, Conditioning & Serving
The fermentation was quite warm. It was racked after a week, blended with the old beer and left to for about 3 weeks before it was conditioned. It was dry hopped and 0.5 gallons/ bbl of freshly fermenting (24 hours) wort from their standard BS London stout was added to each cask. The beer was left to condition for about two weeks. The fermenting wort had an OG of around 1.038 which would finish at around 1.013. So there was about 0.7 pts added to the cask that are able to be fermented to produce carbonation giving a final carbonation of about 2.0 or a little under volumes of CO2. After worting and dry hopping these casks were taken for a ‘walk’.

Gyling & Blending
No gyle but straight blending of beers. This beer was blended with the BS Export stout at 10%.  Here are the numbers:
90% - Irish stout – Pre blend: 1.013FG, 4.4%, 40bu
10% - Export stout – 1.016FG, 7.33%, 102bu
Final Irish stout: 1.014FG, 4.7%, 46bu