Tuesday 11 December 2018

Drybrough 60/- grists 1938 - 1947

When it came to gristts, Drybrough was very typically Scottish. They used very little in the way of coloured malt, just a tiny amount of black or chocolate malt. The quantities are so small it could only have been for colour adjustment. Other than that, there’s only pale malt and a small quantity of enzymic malt.

Tell a lie, there was another type of malt Drybrough used: malted oats. Which is slightly odd. Not that they used oats. They didn’t have much option with that: brewers were instructed in early 1943 to replace flaked barley with oats. But in flaked, not malted, form. In fact, oats weren’t supposed to be malted at all. So where did Drybrough get theirs from?
The base malt percentage actually increased during the war. This wasn’t unusual as adjuncts like flaked maize became unavailable and sugar was diverted to food production.

In terms of adjuncts, the types of grains being used were totally out of the brewer’s control. At the start of the war brewers were told by the government to use flaked barley instead of flaked maize. In 1943 the government ordained that flaked oats should replace flaked barley. And, finally, in 1944 it was back to flaked barley. Messing around I’m sure brewers could have done without.

Drybrough continued to employ flaked barley after the end of the war, though after 1953 in conjunction with flaked maize. It was only around 1960 that they reverted to just flaked maize, as they had brewed before the war.


Drybrough 60/- grists 1938 - 1947 malts
Date Year OG pale malt black malt choc. Malt enzymic malt
14th Oct 1938 1038 72.04% 0.73% 1.76%
19th Oct 1939 1038 79.40% 0.32% 1.76%
3rd Jan 1940 1036 86.31% 0.56% 2.81%
3rd Feb 1941 1037 85.52% 0.23% 2.92%
11th Jul 1941 1034 88.84% 0.26% 2.70%
2nd Feb 1942 1032 83.02% 0.37% 3.11%
3rd Feb 1943 1032 80.77% 2.88%
14th Oct 1943 1032 72.84% 2.88%
17th Jan 1944 1032 72.54% 0.67% 2.81%
13th Jul 1944 1032 75.55% 0.59% 2.98%
8th Feb 1945 1032 76.44% 0.47% 2.39%
8th Oct 1946 1029 76.53% 0.33% 2.78%
23rd Oct 1947 1029 75.98% 0.63% 1.58%
Sources:
Drybrough brewing records held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document numbers D/6/1/1/4 and D/6/1/1/5.


Drybrough 60/- grists 1938 - 1947 adjuncts
Date Year OG flaked maize flaked barley flaked oats malted oats
14th Oct 1938 1038 15.81%
19th Oct 1939 1038 8.82%
3rd Jan 1940 1036
3rd Feb 1941 1037
11th Jul 1941 1034
2nd Feb 1942 1032 4.15%
3rd Feb 1943 1032 7.69%
14th Oct 1943 1032 7.67% 7.67%
17th Jan 1944 1032 5.00% 10.01%
13th Jul 1944 1032 11.93%
8th Feb 1945 1032 12.74%
8th Oct 1946 1029 12.34%
23rd Oct 1947 1029 12.66%
Sources:
Drybrough brewing records held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document numbers D/6/1/1/4 and D/6/1/1/5.

4 comments:

James said...

Ron, sorry if you've answered this before, but what does "enzymatic malt" mean in this context? Is that a malt extract?

James said...

Errrrrr I meant "enzymic malt."

Ron Pattinson said...

James,

no, it's enzymic malt.

James said...

Yes, I mangled my question. I was wondering if it might be the same as the "enzymatic malt extract" mentioned in this recipe:

https://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2009/10/lets-brew-wednesday-1965-courage-light.html

I guess not. A little googling seems to indicate that it may have been what we would today call "acid malt," meant to lower the pH of the mash. The quantity indicated is in a range where acid malt could have some effect, whereas I think even a malt with very high diastatic power would make little difference in those quantities.