Saturday 25 March 2017

Let's Brew - 1946 Tetley Mild

Here’s a beer with a very special place in my heart. Something which for seven years was about the only beer I drank.

It’s typical of a type of Mild brewed in Yorkshire, lying somewhere between pale and dark. Weirdly, all those years I drank it, I never realised that it wasn’t really that dark. More of a dark red than brown.

The effect of the war is plain to see in the grist. Flaked barley was forced on brewers as a replacement for flaked maize during hostilities. It’s interesting to see how Tetley’s adjunct usage changed over time. In 1939 it was grits, in 1941 flaked rice, in 1943 flaked oats, in 1944 flaked barley and flaked oats and in 1945 flaked barley. All mostly out of the brewer’s hands.

What I’ve interpreted as brown sugar was listed as Barbados in the brewing record. While what I’ve put down as No. 3 invert was mostly ERC with a touch of G & S. No idea what either of those were but No. 3 is probably the best substitute.

The hops were a combination of Kent and Worcester, with no mention of variety. Chances were that they were Fuggles.

Though there’s not much difference in the OG compared the version I drank, the high degree of attenuation leaves this beer about 0.6% ABV stronger. The gravity is quite high for a Mild of this period. 1027-1030º was more typical.


1946 Tetley Mild
pale malt 4.00 lb 59.26%
flaked barley 1.00 lb 14.81%
brown sugar 0.75 lb 11.11%
No. 3 invert sugar 1.00 lb 14.81%
Fuggles 120 mins 0.25 oz
Fuggles 60 mins 0.25 oz
Fuggles 30 mins 0.25 oz
OG 1034.3
FG 1005.3
ABV 3.84
Apparent attenuation 84.55%
IBU 10
SRM 9
Mash at 148º F
Sparge at 165º F
Boil time 120 minutes
pitching temp 63.75º F
Yeast Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire Ale

17 comments:

Tandleman said...

I've got that showcard in my collection.

Unknown said...

The G & S was probably an admixture of glucose and sucrose added to the sacch blend, quite probably for priming at the racking stage.
The colour and abv seems pretty similar to Magee Marshall 's BB(best beer / mild).

Pierce said...

9 SRM? Was it really that light, or does it need some brewer's caramel like in the 1945 recipe on this site?

Unknown said...

I'd also plump for Fuggles and EKG , probably @70% Fuggles , 30% @ EKG at first charge, then reverse the proportions for second charge and finish with Ekg 65%, Fuggles 35%

Richard said...

I couldn’t call myself a Yorky and not celebrate the end of WW2 like our Grandparents did! I brewed this with a touch of scepticism mainly due to the quantity of sugar and my ability to make the invert correctly. After 2 weeks in the keg it had a slight hint of apple, after 4 it tastes sensational, so, as I’m sure they used to say, Cheers to the Allies and F* old adolph…. Thx for the recipe its a keeper…

Mike in NSW said...

I'm brewing this today as I was looking for a good Yorkshire Bitter to use up my bottle of Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire Ale yeast cake in the fridge, and I came across this Tetley's Mild. Been on the wrong side of t'Pennines lately with Bod and Duttons so time to come home for a while.

Last pints of Tetley's I had were the bitter in 1976, in a pub in York full of ancient geezers in cloth caps and mufflers and served SA Brain's style furiously through a tight sparkler with the runoff going back down to the cask. Nectar.

Is there a recipe for bitter as well, on your blog anywhere?

Skypilot said...

I brewed this a few weeks ago with Chevalier, and what I had left for flaked barley with 6 oz of wheat malt.
OG of 1030 and FG of 1004 = 3.3%
Pre carb samples were tasty with a sqiunt of brown sugar in the flavor.

Ron Pattinson said...

Skypilot,

have to tasted the finished beer yet?

Skypilot said...

Hey Ron,
I just kegged it up on Sunday and tossed a gallon in a polypin.
I'll report back with my tasting notes.

It's definitely different than I expected.

ntcarter said...

Hi Ron! Thank you so much for all you do! I've bought several of your books and love them. On to business.

I want to brew this and am wondering how necessary you view the invert sugar vs. just using cane sugar? Also, the SRM here is 7. I am a novice on the calculations but wouldn't the dark invert #3 make this a much darker beer than that? I get the same result as you if I ignore the invert (but include the brown) sugar in the calculation.

Thanks & Cheers!

Ron Pattinson said...

ntcarter,

with No. 3 invert at 70 SRM and brown sugar at 8 SRM, BeerSmith calculates the colour at 8.8 SRM. I now know that G & S is a type of caramel, which would darken the colour a bit more. The colour of the beer should be 10 to 12 SRM, so not really dark.

No. 3 has a very different flavour profile to sucrose, adding all sorts of dark fruit flavours.

ntcarter said...

Just popped the top on this and it is lovely. You were certainly right about the no. 3 invert, lots of sort of plum and raisin notes. Wonderful aroma. It tastes richly sweet but is light on the tongue and quite refreshing. If I did it again I’d add just a tiny bit of black malt maybe to get it from SRM 9 to about 12 as that color would be a bit more fitting to the taste, Cheers!

Ron Pattinson said...

ntcarter,

I'm glad that it worked out well with the invert sugar.

This has been a pretty popular recipe and everyone seems to have been pleased by the results.

Jan said...

Hello Ron,
a quick question on this recipe: which extract efficiency (brewing yield? Unfortunately I don't know the English term for it ...) do you expect for malts in your recipes? For sugars it should always be almost 100% of course. Do you also assume 100% for malts so that you can easily convert it to your own brewing system? My "Speidel Braumeister" only manages around 60%, so the amount of malt must probably be slightly higher than in classic hobby brewing systems, which are more likely to achieve 70% to 80%.
I'm really looking forward to this recipe!
Jan

Ron Pattinson said...

Jan,

I have the efficiency set to 72% in all my recipes.

ezequiel andrade said...

going to brew this on saturday with a little help from Mike karnowsky on the invert syrup n3.
Will post the results here.
I changed the flaked barkey for flaked oats ( no flaked barley here in argentina )
And i am going to use WLP 002 ( wyeast not available here )

Anonymous said...

Looks like O’ Hara’s Irish red