Barclay Perkins XLK grists 1939 - 1946

A drop in gravity wasn’t the only change. The recipes were tinkered with several times during hostilities.

Most of the alterations to the grist was fiddling around with the base malt. In all, four different ones were used: pale malt, PA malt, SA malt and lager malt. I suspect the latter was employed just because there was some lying around in the brewery. PA malt was the best type of pale malt, intended, as the name implies for Pale Ales. While SA malt, which produced a less readily fermentable wort, was mostly used in Strong Ales.

The most significant change, however, was the introduction of crystal malt in 1941. It was really only in WW II and its aftermath that crystal malt came to be regularly used in Bitters. I suspect to replace body lost to gravity cuts.

The colour varied considerably, from 20 to 34. For a Bitter of this strength, I’d expect the colour to be 20 to 24. 34 is very dark for an English Bitter.

There were rather fewer modifications to the adjuncts used. Though these were prompted by the government rather than the brewers themselves. Maize, which had to be imported, some became unavailable. Initially it was replaced by rice, which itself gave way to flaked barley in 1942. The proportion employed varied from 5% to 10%.

The use of crystal malt seems to have removed the need for colour correction with caramel. My guess is that No. 3 invert sugar was in every version, but wasn’t fully recorded in all of the brewing records. Sometimes simply “Sacc.” (meaning “sugar”) is specified.

In common with many London brewers, Barclay Perkins principally employed hops from Kent. Which made sense as it was virtually in the brewery’s back yard. Though they did also use some from Worcester. Even before the war interrupted imports, Barclay used all English hops.

The vast majority of their hops were either Goldings or Fuggles, which is what you would expect. They were by far the two varieties which were the most widely grown.

Barclay Perkins draught XLK malts 1939 - 1945
Date	Year	OG	pale malt	crystal malt	SA malt	PA malt	lager malt	colour
22nd Jun	1939	1045.8	21.50%			50.63%		22
11th Jun	1940	1042.8	12.26%			68.29%		23
22nd Apr	1941	1042.8	10.34%	10.34%		72.41%		34
8th May	1942	1035.3		3.91%		80.47%		23
2nd Nov	1944	1035.7		6.12%	38.27%	38.27%	3.06%	20
7th Apr	1945	1035.4		7.44%		64.46%		29
25th Jan	1946	1035.3		7.03%		77.34%		24
Sources:
Barclay Perkins brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers ACC/2305/01/623, ACC/2305/01/624 and ACC/2305/01/626.

Barclay Perkins draught XLK adjuncts and sugars 1939 - 1945
Date	Year	OG	flaked maize	flaked rice	flaked barley	no. 3 sugar	Sacc.	caramel
22nd Jun	1939	1045.8	11.10%			16.65%		0.12%
11th Jun	1940	1042.8		8.76%			10.51%	0.19%
22nd Apr	1941	1042.8					6.90%
8th May	1942	1035.3			9.38%		6.25%
2nd Nov	1944	1035.7			6.12%	8.16%
7th Apr	1945	1035.4			9.92%	18.18%
25th Jan	1946	1035.3			4.69%	10.94%
Sources:
Barclay Perkins brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers ACC/2305/01/623, ACC/2305/01/624 and ACC/2305/01/626.

Barclay Perkins draught XLK hops 1939 - 1945
Date	Year	OG	hops
22nd Jun	1939	1045.8	MK Fuggles (1938), Kent W (1938), MK Goldings (1937 CS); EK Goldings (1938) dry hops
11th Jun	1940	1042.8	MK Fuggles (1939), W (1938), EK Goldings (1939); EK Goldings (1939) dry hops
22nd Apr	1941	1042.8	Worcs. (1939 CS), MK (1939 CS)
8th May	1942	1035.3	MK Fuggles (1941 CS), Worcs. Fuggles (1941), MK Fuggles (1940); EK Goldings (1940) dry hops
2nd Nov	1944	1035.7	K Fuggles (1943), MK Fuggles (1943), Worcs. Fuggles (1942), MK Fuggles (1944); EK Goldings (1944) dry hops
7th Apr	1945	1035.4	MK Fuggles (1943 CS), Worcs. (1942), MK Fuggles (1944); EK Goldings (1944) dry hops
25th Jan	1946	1035.3	MK Fuggles (1943), MK Goldings (1945), MK Colgates (1944), MK Fuggles (1944 CS); EK Goldings (1945) dry hops
Sources:
Barclay Perkins brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers ACC/2305/01/623, ACC/2305/01/624 and ACC/2305/01/626.