Kirkstall Brewery beers in 1885

Just a random look at beers from a random brewery this time. The random brewery in question being the Kirkstall Brewery in Leeds.

Not totally random, as it is yet another brewery whose beers I've drunk. In its final days when it was owned by Whitbread. There's a story behind that. When I arrived in Leeds in 1975, Whitbread had discontinued cask beer from all its Northern breweries except Castle Eden. So I basically completely ignored their pubs. Not that there were a huge number in Leeds, strangely enough. Around 1980, they re-introduced cask beer in the form of BYB Bitter. Then I started paying attention to their pubs. Frustratingly,  the brewery closed a few years later, in January 1983.

It was a mystery to me why Whitbread kept open the Kirkstall Brewery and closed the Bentley's Brewery in Woodlesford on the other side of Leeds. The Woodlesford brewery was right next to the railway line and with much more room around it than the cramped Kirkstall site. I guess it must have been less modern. Ironically the cask beer Whitbread brewed in Kirkstall bore the Bentley's name (BYB = Bentley's Yorkshire Breweries).

When they got back into cask, Kirkstall put out a few other experimental brews. I can remember drinking cask Dark Mild in one of their Leeds pubs with Henry and Sandra (not sure why I mention this, as you have no idea who these people are) in 1982.

There's another reason why this isn't a random brewery. You can see it in the table below: an AK. Kirkstall is the furthest north I've found one being brewed. Now isn't that fascinating?

Kirkstall Brewery beers in 1885
Date	Year	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)	Pitch temp	max. fermentation temp	length of fermentation (days)
7th Sep	1885	X	Mild	1052.6	1013.3	5.20	74.74%	6.50	1.40	2.5	2.5	57.75º	68.5º	5
8th Sep	1885	XXX	Mild	1066.2				8.00	2.22	2.75	3	57.5º	º
8th Sep	1885	L	Mild	1049.6				5.03	1.07	2.5	2.5	58º	º
10th Sep	1885	PA	Pale Ale	1060.9				9.87	3.31	2	2	58º	º
10th Sep	1885	AK	Pale Ale	1049.9				12.42	2.01	3.25	2.5	58º	º
11th Sep	1885	BA	Pale Ale	1055.4				10.00	2.33	2	2	58º	º
15th Sep	1885	KKK	Stock Ale	1069.3				10.00	2.97	2.5		58º	º
15th Sep	1885	L	Mild	1049.3				5.67	1.20	2.25	4.25	58.5º	º
16th Sep	1885	IS	Stout	1071.7				10.35	3.71			58º	º
Source:
Kirkstall Brewery brewing records.

Other than that, there's nothing very special about their beers. Just the usual combination of Mild Ale, Pale Ale, Strong Ale and Stout.