Was it a Pale or an IPA? Now there's a tricky question. Inside the brew house, the name was definitely PA. But all the advertisements call it East India Pale Ale. So what is it really? To be honest, I don't really care. Pale Ale, IPA - it's pretty much the same thing, despite what anally-retentive home brewers might insist.
As usual, I'll be making a comparison with my usual benchmark, similar beers from London. But, because this is Pale Ale we're looking at, I've thrown is some from Truman's Burton brewery, too.
There's phenomenon that you often see when a beer style is new. Initially, versions from different breweries and in different regions are very similar, clearly taking a beer as an example and cloning it fairly closely. As time progressed, versions from different regions begin to diverge and acquire their own character.
You can see this in the beers below. The Pale Ales from Yorkshire, London and Burton are generally very similar beers. The gravities, level of attenuation and hopping levels are all broadly the same. OG's in the low 1060's, 75-80% attenuation, 4-5 lbs of hops per barrel. Whitbread's hopping rate was a little lower and Tetley dropped theirs in the 1890's, but in general there's not much between the beers in terms of specifications.
There is some difference in the process. The boil times are quite short in London and quite long in Burton with Leeds in between. The pitching temperature looks much higher at Tetley but, as they didn't let it rise much during fermentation, there was probably little difference in the actual fermentation temperature. But because I don't have the maximum temperatures for Whitbread and Truman, we can't see that for certain.
I'm not sure what I've proved with this, other than that Pale Ales were much the same everywhere in the late 19th century.
Next time, we'll be seeing how the grists of these beers compare.
Tetley Pale Ale 1858 - 1896 | |||||||||||||
Year | Beer | OG | FG | ABV | App. Atten-uation | lbs hops/ qtr | hops lb/brl | boil time (hours) | boil time (hours) | boil time (hours) | Pitch temp | max. fermen-tation temp | length of fermen-tation (days) |
1858 | A | 1062.6 | 1015.0 | 6.30 | 76.11% | 17.56 | 4.39 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 60º | 70º | 9 | |
1858 | A | 1063.7 | 1023.8 | 5.28 | 62.61% | 17.56 | 4.39 | 1 | 1 | 58º | 69º | 9 | |
1858 | A | 1065.1 | 1029.9 | 4.65 | 54.04% | 17.56 | 4.39 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 61.75º | 70º | 8 | |
1868 | PA | 1060.1 | 1015.0 | 5.97 | 75.12% | 18.00 | 4.60 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 59º | 64º | 7 | |
1868 | PA | 1061.8 | 1012.2 | 6.56 | 80.27% | 18.00 | 4.44 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 58º | 65º | 8 | |
1868 | PA | 1058.2 | 1014.4 | 5.79 | 75.24% | 18.00 | 4.14 | 1.5 | 2 | 62º | 68º | ||
1878 | PA | 1060.7 | 1011.6 | 6.49 | 80.82% | 18.00 | 4.69 | 2 | 68º | 69.75º | 10 | ||
1878 | PA | 1056.5 | 1011.6 | 5.94 | 79.41% | 18.00 | 4.37 | 2 | 68º | 69.75º | 10 | ||
1878 | PA | 1060.7 | 1011.6 | 6.49 | 80.82% | 18.00 | 4.45 | 2 | 68º | 69.75º | 11 | ||
1878 | PA | 1060.7 | 1011.1 | 6.56 | 81.74% | 18.00 | 4.57 | 2 | 68º | 69.5º | 10 | ||
1888 | PA | 1063.2 | 1011.4 | 6.85 | 82.02% | 16.00 | 5.75 | 2 | 61º | 68º | 8 | ||
1896 | PA | 1062.9 | 1011.6 | 6.78 | 81.50% | 13.92 | 3.64 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 60.5º | 68.5º | 9 |
1896 | PA | 1062.0 | 1012.2 | 6.60 | 80.36% | 12.29 | 3.00 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 60.5º | 68.75º | 9 |
Sources: | |||||||||||||
Tetley brewing records held at the West Yorkshire Archive Service document numbers WYL756/11/ACC1903, WYL756/16/ACC1903, WYL756/25/ACC1903, WYL756/44/ACC1903 and WYL756/49/ACC1903. |
Whitbread Pale Ale 1865 - 1896 | |||||||||||||
Year | Beer | OG | FG | ABV | App. Atten-uation | lbs hops/ qtr | hops lb/brl | boil time (hours) | boil time (hours) | boil time (hours) | Pitch temp | max. fermen-tation temp | length of fermen-tation (days) |
1865 | PA | 1061.8 | 1012.7 | 6.49 | 79.37% | 14.67 | 4.36 | 58º | º | 7 | |||
1867 | PA | 1063.2 | 1017.7 | 6.01 | 71.93% | 15.06 | 4.87 | 58º | º | 6 | |||
1878 | PA | 1058.4 | 1011.1 | 6.27 | 81.04% | 12.19 | 3.60 | 2.33 | 58º | º | 10 | ||
1888 | PA | 1061.2 | 1018.8 | 5.61 | 69.23% | 12.43 | 3.49 | 1.33 | 1.75 | 57º | º | ||
1896 | PA | 1060.9 | 1015.0 | 6.08 | 75.39% | 14.59 | 4.03 | 1.5 | 1.75 | 57º | º | ||
Sources: | |||||||||||||
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives document numbers |
Truman (Burton) Pale Ale 1877 - 1887 | |||||||||||
Year | Beer | OG | FG | ABV | App. Atten-uation | lbs hops/ qtr | hops lb/brl | boil time (hours) | boil time (hours) | boil time (hours) | Pitch temp |
1877 | P2 | 1062.3 | 1019.4 | 5.68 | 68.89% | 19.00 | 5.01 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 58º |
1877 | P1 | 1066.5 | 1016.6 | 6.60 | 75.00% | 19.00 | 5.39 | 3 | 3.25 | 3 | 57º |
1887 | P1 S | 1066.5 | 1019.4 | 6.23 | 70.83% | 17.44 | 5.00 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 56º |
1887 | P2 | 1061.2 | 1013.9 | 6.27 | 77.38% | 14.70 | 4.45 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 58º |
Sources: | |||||||||||
Truman brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives document numbers B/THB/BUR/35 and B/THB/BUR/11. |
1 comment:
when Tetleys was really Tetleys! :)
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