Let's Brew Wednesday - 1928 Barclay Perkins KK (bottling)

Just a day late this week. But I think you'll find that today's recipe was worth the wait. An interwar K Ale from Barclay Perkins. Just what I fancy drinking now, if I'm honest.

For those of you who've arrived half-way through this blog, I'll explain a little about K Ales. Old hands can skip to the next paragraph. In the 19tth century London brewers had two parallel lines of Ales (not including Pale ale - that's a totally different beast). One set of Ales (X Ales) were sold mild or young. The other set (K Ales) were Keeping (or Stock) Ales, aged before being sold. Initially there were four grades of X Ales, called X, XX, XXX and XXXX, in ascending order of strength. There were only three grades of K Ale, KK, KKK and KKKK. XX had the same gravity as KK, XXX the same as KKK and XXXX the same as KKKK. As the century progressed, the stronger X Ales faded away and by WW I few breweries had more than an X and XX. The name Stock Ale started to fall into disuse around 1900 and K Ales to be known instead as Strong Ales.

Now on with the new stuff. In the 1920's, Barclay Perkins brewed a variety of Strong Ales. There was draught KK, known to drinkers as Burton. KKK a stronger draught beer. KKKK Winter Brew or Old Burton, a strong seasonal draught beer. And finally the beer we're looking at today, KK bottling sold as No.1 Southwarke Ale, known as Old Ale to drinkers. (As you can see from above, I actually have the right label this time.)

K Ales, as beers, were somewhere between a strong Mild and a Bitter. Dark, but quite heavily hopped. It's hard to think of a modern British beer that's really much like them. Almost forgot the dry-hopping. They were quite heavily dry-hopped, too.



That's me done again. Time for Kristen . . . .




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Barclay Perkins - 1928 - KK ale
General info: Burton ale…big, brown and bitter as hell. The Burton ales of yesteryear rarely resemble the Burton ales of today. These beers were very dark with huge gravities and even bigger hopping schedules. The amount of non-malt adjuncts was quite high with this beer having around 20% of such ingredients. The hops were fresh and added in huge amounts throughout the beer. A very substantial beer with the vast ability to age.
Beer Specifics			Recipe by percentages
Gravity (OG)	1.070		33.2% English pale malt			4.7% Crystal 75L
Gravity (FG)	1.016		19.4% American 6-row			14.7% Invert No2 sugar
ABV	7.25%		18.7% Mild malt			1% Caramel Colorant
Apparent attenuation	77.27%		8.3% Flaked maize
Real attenuation	63.30%
IBU	66.2		Mash	120min@154°F		1.03qt/lb
SRM	42			120min@67.8°C		2.15L/kg
EBC	83.0
			Boil	2.5hours
	Homebrew @ 70%				Craft @ 80%
Grist	5gal		19L		10bbl		10hl
English pale malt	4.48	lb	2.038	kg	242.80	lb	93.81	kg
American 6-row	2.61	lb	1.189	kg	141.63	lb	54.72	kg
Mild malt	2.52	lb	1.146	kg	136.57	lb	52.77	kg
Flaked maize	1.12	lb	0.509	kg	60.70	lb	23.45	kg
Crystal 75L	0.64	lb	0.291	kg	34.69	lb	13.40	kg
Invert No2 sugar	1.99	lb	0.906	kg	107.91	lb	41.69	kg
Caramel Colorant	2.24	oz	64.0	g	7.59	lb	2.93	kg
	13.351		6.078		731.88423
Hops
Goldings 4.5% 150min	1.48	oz	42.0	g	91.85	oz	2.219	kg
Goldings 4.5% 90min	1.48	oz	42.0	g	91.85	oz	2.219	kg
Goldings 4.5% 30min	1.48	oz	42.0	g	91.85	oz	2.219	kg
Goldings 4.5% dry hop	1.38	oz	39.0	g	85.33	oz	2.062	kg
Fermentation	73°F /22.8°C
Yeast	Nottingham ale yeast
	1028 London Ale Yeast  - WLP013 London Ale Yeast
Tasting Notes: Toasted malt and biscuits…lots and lots of biscuits. Some grain husk with a ton of dark fruits…cherries and plums. Absolutely NO roast. Endive and hay. Orangey hops and lots of spice. Although higher in FG than some beers of this gravity, it finishes quite dry tasting b/c of the tannins and hop bitterness.

Ingredients and technique

Grist & such
Lots of things going into this relatively simple concept of a Burton ale. Three pale malts, some crystal and maize and then a really good portion of Invert No2 sugar. The 15% No2 will really lend the most character of all ingredients. There is no roast flavors or aromas so the color comes from a large amount of caramel colorant. 1% of the entire grist is quite a lot for any beer. If you want to drop it, as always, feel free. However the first time you make it its good to do it as the original.

Hops
The hops were all relatively fresh, the oldest being 2 seasons old. All were from exactly the same producer and all were Kentish, middle kent to be specific. Unlike most of BP’s beers these were added at three different times in the copper. At make up, at 90 minutes and then at 30 minutes. There was no aroma addition which didn’t matter as this beer was dry hopped at a rate of 0.5lb/ bbl.

Mash & Boil
A simple single infusion along with a single underlet left the average for this mash on the higher end. BP did this a lot for the majority of their beers. Not getting fancy very often. The boil was quite long at 2.5 hours and 2 hours for the second gyle.

Fermentation, Conditioning & Serving
Fermentation was done at a quite a high temperature for such a large beer which would have lent a definitely spicy/hot/ alcohol character to the beer. The beer finished in 145 hours and was then conditioned for about 3 weeks. The CO2 should be around 2.2 volumes allowing the hops to show off and keep the end from being to flabby.

Gyling & Blending
A simple 2 gyle, partigyle. The vast majority of the hops went into the first gyle (75%). The sugars were split between the first and second. This is one beer, with the way its gyled and the type of beer that is very well suited for a gyle. If you want to drop the gyle you’ll need more hops to get the same BU count b/c  of the gravity of the beer.

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KK	5gal	19L	10bbl	10hL
G1 - vol	2.34	8.90	4.69	4.69
G1 - grav	1.081	1.081	1.081	1.081
G1 - BU	102	102	102	102
G2 - vol	2.66	10.10	5.31	5.31
G2 - grav	1.060	1.060	1.060	1.060
G2 - BU	31	31	31	31
G3 - vol	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
G3 - grav	1.000	1.000	1.000	1.000
G3 - BU	0	0	0	0
Hopping	0.3oz/gal	2.26g/L	0.59lb/bbl	0.23kg/hL
Totals	OG 1.07	FG 1.016	BU 64.6	Abv 7.1%