Tennent's Lager 1889 - 1890

Many thanks to Barm for sending me a couple of pictures from some early Tennent's Lager documents. They're what I've based this post on.

They aren't brewing records, but an overview of the quantity of Lager brewed and the materials used. They still contain plenty of useful information such as OG, hopping rate and grist. Plus they give an idea of how much Lager Tennent were brewing.

The records cover 1889-1890 and in the 6 months that they cover, Tennent brewed 2,418 barrels of Lager. Assuming that they brewed a similar amount every month of the year, that comes to an annual output of 4,836 barrels. Or bugger all. Large London brewers had single batches of Mild Ale of more than 1,000 barrels. Though this is before Tennent's shiny new Lager brewery first brewed in 1891. Presumably they upped production a bit then.

Let's move on to the beer itself. Its gravity was around 1056º, about dead on average for the period. And a couple of points below a contemporary London X Ale. It's odd they way they changed the grist a few times: occasionally brewing it all malt, but mostly with about 25% maize. Though there were single brews that used either rice or sugar.

Tennent's Lager 1889 - 1890
Date	Year	Brewer	Beer	OG	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	barrels	lbs hops	total qtrs	qtrs malt	flaked maize	flaked rice
31st Oct	1888	Tennent	Lager Beer	1053.0	4.62	1.25	48	60	13	13
7th Nov	1888	Tennent	Lager Beer	1054.0	4.62	1.18	102	120	26	26
14th Nov	1888	Tennent	Lager Beer	1057.0	4.50	1.20	100	120	26.67	20	6.67
21st Nov	1888	Tennent	Lager Beer	1060.0	4.50	1.20	100	120	26.67	20	6.67
28th Nov	1888	Tennent	Lager Beer	1058.0	4.50	1.13	106	120	26.67	20	6.67
5th Dec	1888	Tennent	Lager Beer	1057.0	4.50	1.12	107	120	26.67	20	6.67
12th Dec	1888	Tennent	Lager Beer	1055.0	4.50	1.07	112	120	26.67	20	6.67
19th Dec	1888	Tennent	Lager Beer	1056.0	4.87	1.16	112	130	26.67	20	6.67
4th Jan	1888	Tennent	Lager Beer	1056.0	4.87	1.18	110	130	26.67	20	6.67
8th Jan	1888	Tennent	Lager Beer	1056.0	4.87	1.17	111	130	26.67	20	6.67
16th Jan	1888	Tennent	Lager Beer	1056.0	4.87	1.20	108	130	26.67	20	6.67
22nd Jan	1888	Tennent	Lager Beer	1055.0	4.87	1.13	115	130	26.67	20	6.67
29th Jan	1888	Tennent	Lager Beer	1056.0	4.87	1.14	114	130	26.67	20	6.67
6th Feb	1888	Tennent	Lager Beer	1055.0	4.87	1.13	115	130	26.67	20	6.67
13th Feb	1888	Tennent	Lager Beer	1055.0	4.87	1.14	114	130	26.67	20	6.67
27th Feb	1888	Tennent	Lager Beer	1054.0	4.87	1.10	118	130	26.67	20	6.67
15th Mar	1888	Tennent	Lager Beer	1055.0	4.87	1.13	115	130	26.67	20	6.67
20th Mar	1888	Tennent	Lager Beer	1056.0	4.87	1.13	115	130	26.67	20	6.67
28th Mar	1888	Tennent	Lager Beer	1055.0	4.87	1.13	115	130	26.67	20	6.67
3rd Apr	1888	Tennent	Lager Beer	1054.0	4.91	1.12	116	130	26.5	26.5
10th Apr	1888	Tennent	Lager Beer	1053.0	4.87	1.10	118	130	26.67	20	6.67
17th Apr	1888	Tennent	Lager Beer	1053.0	4.87	1.08	120	130	26.67	20	6.67
1st May	1888	Tennent	Lager Beer	1054.0	4.87	1.06	123	130	26.67	20		6.67
8th May	1888	Tennent	Lager Beer	1053.0	4.87	1.09	119	130	26.67	20	6.67
15th May	1888	Tennent	Lager Beer	1054.0	4.91	1.13	115	130	26.5	26.5
29th May	1888	Tennent	Lager Beer	1055.0	4.87	1.10	118	130	26.67	20	6.67
Source:
Record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive

The hopping rate is very low, way lower than even for Mild. Here's a table to show how it compares with London beers of the same period:

London beers 1889 - 1891
Date	Year	Brewer	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Attenuation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
7th Oct	1891	Barclay Perkins	BS	Stout	1077.0	1027.0	6.61	64.94%	8.56	2.98
19th Feb	1891	Barclay Perkins	KK	Stock Ale	1075.0	1020.2	7.25	73.04%	15.17	4.91
11th Mar	1891	Barclay Perkins	KKK	Stock Ale	1085.0	1021.6	8.39	74.58%	14.75	5.43
10th Jun	1890	Barclay Perkins	X	Mild	1058.0	1015.5	5.62	73.26%	7.92	1.98
8th Jan	1890	Whitbread	2KKK	Stock Ale	1075.3	1025.0	6.66	66.82%	14.29	4.90
10th Jan	1890	Whitbread	2PA	Pale Ale	1054.6	1011.0	5.76	79.84%	10.79	2.78
28th Oct	1889	Whitbread	FA	Pale Ale	1052.4	1008.0	5.87	84.72%	10.17	2.65
21st Oct	1889	Whitbread	KK	Stock Ale	1074.5	1020.0	7.21	73.16%	12.12	4.25
1st Nov	1889	Whitbread	KKK	Stock Ale	1086.4	1028.0	7.73	67.60%	14.00	5.87
23rd Oct	1889	Whitbread	PA	Pale Ale	1060.4	1012.0	6.40	80.13%	11.05	3.19
11th Oct	1889	Whitbread	X	Mild	1060.1	1016.0	5.84	73.38%	7.02	1.94
10th Oct	1889	Whitbread	XK	Mild	1066.8	1018.0	6.45	73.04%	6.99	2.23
12th Feb	1889	Whitbread	P	Porter	1057.1	1015.0	5.57	73.79%	8.04	2.00
29th Jan	1890	Whitbread	SS	Stout	1083.1	1025.0	7.69	69.92%	10.63	4.76
29th Jan	1890	Whitbread	SSS	Stout	1095.6	1037.0	7.75	61.28%	10.63	5.47
Sources:
Barclay Perkins brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives document number ACC/2305/1/586
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/055, LMA/4453/D/09/083, LMA/4453/D/09/084

In multiple 19th-century sources I'd read how much more lightly hopped Lager was than British beers. This confirms that. Tennent's Lager had about half as many hops per barrel as even running beer.