Let's brew Wednesday - 1924 Barclay Perkins RNS

Temporary relief today from my dull holiday tales with a recipe. It's been a while, hasn't it, since the last one?

The summer having finally appeared, it seems a good time to publish a Stout recipe. Stout and summer are inextricably intertwined in my twisted mind. Why? Isn't it obvious? Sun, empire, set, West Indian Stout. See?

Barclay Perkins were lucky enough to have a couple of brewhouses of different sizes. At the main one they churned out their high-volume beers: X Ale, PA and XLK. In batches of more than 500 barrels.  While the New Brewery concentrated on smaller run beers. Export PA, KK, KKK and a whole bunch of Stouts. The brew lengths of these beers varied from just 30 to 200 barrels.

These are the Stouts Barclay Perkins brewed in 1924 and 1925:

Barclay Perkins Stouts in the 1920's
Date	Year	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)	dry hops (oz / barrel)	colour
20th May	1924	RNS	Stout	1055.1	1019.0	4.78	65.52%	7.49	1.75	2	1.75	0.00	320
26th May	1924	BSc	Stout	1066.0	1020.5	6.02	68.94%	8.00	2.44	2.5		4.00	340
5th Jun	1924	IBS	Stout	1061.0	1020.0	5.42	67.21%	8.50	2.21	2.5		2.00	340
11th Sep	1924	BS Ex	Stout	1072.5	1024.0	6.42	66.90%	14.00	4.62	2.5		8.00
17th Dec	1924	IBS Ex	Stout	1103.4	1040.0	8.39	61.32%	16.00	6.97	2.25	2	10.67	420
17th Dec	1924	TT blend	Porter	1026.0	1007.0	2.51	73.08%	16.00	1.11	2.25	2	0.00
31st Aug	1925	BBS Ex	Stout	1079.7	1029.5	6.64	62.99%	15.00	5.38	2.5		8.00	230
25th Sep	1925	OMS Experimental for bottling	Stout	1045.6	1014.0	4.18	69.31%	8.40	1.66	2		0.00	200
25th Sep	1925	OMS for bottling	Stout	1050.9	1017.5	4.41	65.59%	7.64	1.71	2		0.00	260
Source:
Barclay Perkins brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number ACC/2305/1/611

A word of explanation. BSc was a Stout brewed for the Scottish market. BS Ex was Export Brown Stout. IBS the domestic version of Russian Stout. IBS Ex the export version of Russian Stout. OMS was their Oatmeal Stout. TT was Porter. And RNS?

I'm fairly certain RNS was brewed for the Royal Navy. Hence the RN in the name. Not sure whether it made it onto ships. Hang on a minute. My dad was in the Royal Navy in the 1920's. I wonder if he ever drank RNS?

The grists for all the Stouts were generally similar, though only RNS BSc and OMS contained crystal malt. Black malt and roasted barley were swapped around a fair bit. One brew of a beer would use the one, another the other. Absolutely no pattern or consistency to it at all.

Dry hops vary quite a lot between the different Stouts. RNS, TT and OMS were the only ones to receive none at all. I can understand it in the case of the latter two. But why RNS wasn't dry hopped when similar Stouts were I've no idea. Apologies for being so little help.






I'm all ausgeworded. Let's give Kristen a chance to do his thing . . . . . .

Kristen’s Version:

Notes: This one is going to be trouble for some of you b/c of the vast amounts of specialty malts. The three base malts are two proper English pale malts and a mild malt. Feel free to substitute for just a single one. If you go with a single mild, use English, not American. If you want to make it easy, a simple Maris otter will do marvelously. The amber and brown malt really do a great job of adding a lot of malty complexity in the toasty, cocoa range. The roasted barley gives a beautiful crimson hue to this bad boy so make sure and use your favorite. Oh, lest I forget. Do you see that ‘Roasted Barley – Copper’? That’s the amount of micronized (spice grinder) roasted barley you add directly to the copper. I found it doesn’t matter when you add it so just chuck it in at the start so you don’t forget! Don’t use American, you want something that’s sharp with character like Fawcett. The Invert No3 is mandatory*. You shouldn’t have a problem with this finishing too dry but be mindful of the yeast you choose as if its finishes too low it will gain a harshness to it. And yes, you read that right. Caramel. They added caramel to this dark bastard for whatever reason. It wasn’t a lot as you see but its there. Add it or don’t. Its up to you.

*re Invert No3 – Ok gents, if you don’t have invert 3, do not add plain sugar or golden syrup. You are much better off just going without for the whole thing. This will drop it down to a session stout for sure.