Wednesday 1 June 2016

Let’s Brew Wednesday - 1919 Tetley F

A final Mild recipe for Mild Month. OK, it’s one day into June, but I couldn’t resist.

Especially as it’s another Tetley recipe. F, which I’m pretty sure stands for Family Ale. A bottled beer I remember from my time living in Leeds. In those days it looked very much like a bottled version of their Mild.


This one is an, er, interesting recipe. With grits making up 25% of the fermentables. Plus a tiny little bit of chocolate malt. And South American sugar. “Peru” is how it’s described. That’s another 18% of the grist. Making it pretty low on malt. Sure it tastes lovely, mind. It is a Tetley beer, after all.

When this was brewed, 30th October 1919, it would have counted as a 5d beer:

Price control 1917-1921
Oct 1917 Apr 1918 Feb 1919 Jul 1919 Apr 1920
2d <1019 td="">
3d <1023 td=""> 1020-1026 <1019 td="">
4d <1036 td=""> <1030 td=""> 1023-1028 1027-1032 1020-1026
5d 1036-1042 1030-1034 1029-1034 1033-1038 1027-1032
6d 1035-1041 1039-1045 1033-1038
7d 1042-1049 1045-1053 1039-1045
8d >1050 >1054 1045-1053
9d >1054
Sources:
The Brewers' Almanack 1928 pages 100 - 101.
"The British Brewing Industry 1830-1980"


F was parti-gyled with X at 1027.1 and X1 at 1041.3, meaning they were 4d and 6d beers, respectively.

Tetley continued to brew F up to 1940. It always had a gravity of around 1034.


1919 Tetley F
pale malt 1.50 lb 21.74%
mild malt 2.25 lb 32.61%
chocolate Malt 0.15 lb 2.17%
grits 1.75 lb 25.36%
demerera sugar 1.25 lb 18.12%
Cluster 90 mins 0.50 oz
Fuggles 30 mins 0.75 oz
OG 1033.8
FG 1010.2
ABV 3.12
Apparent attenuation 69.82%
IBU 21
SRM 7
Mash at 151º F
Sparge at 165º F
Boil time 90 minutes
pitching temp 65º F
Yeast Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire Ale Timothy Taylor

4 comments:

Lady Luck Brewing said...

Low bitterness in that beer, there's no hops.
Grits must have been cheaper than flaked maize at that time.

Grits must have been a pain to deal with in the brewhouse.

The Professor said...

21 IBU is low bitterness? For a such a low gravity ale?
I think not.
That bitterness seems just fine to me. Any more and it might become an out of balance mess.

Anonymous said...

What do you think they meant by Family? I'm sure it wasn't for kids -- something husbands and wives might drink together maybe? Or is it some kind of reference to a Tetley family recipe? Some other thing altogether?

Ron Pattinson said...

Anonymous,

it just means that it was a beer meant to be drunk at home.