Let's Brew - 1924 Barclay Perkins KKK

A very appropriate recipe for this time of year, as KKK - and later KKKK - was effectively Barclay's Christmas beer.

I’m shocked that Barclay Perkins brewed their stronger Burton Ale, KKK, after WW II. Though it was a fairly modest batch of 118 barrels, brewed on their small kit. Even more surprisingly, it’s only 5º weaker than pre-war.

The recipe is very similar to that of KK, but with one big difference – there’s no flaked maize. Pale and SA malt form the base again. As usual, I’ve substituted mild malt for the latter. Rather than BS like KK, KKK uses plain old No.2 invert.

All the hops were Goldings: Mid-Kent from the 1922 and 1923 harvests and East Kent from 1932, all cold stored. The dry hops were also 1923 cold-stored East Kents. There were also rather a lot of hops, as it used the pre-war rate of 14 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt.

There’s no indication in the brewing record as to whether KKK was aged. But, this was brewed in August. Not exactly the month you’d imagine drinking a beer this strong. My guess is that this was a winter seasonal. Probably the precursor of KKKK, which appeared later in the 1920s.

1924 Barclay Perkins KK
pale malt	2.25 lb	18.37%
mild malt	7.00 lb	57.14%
crystal malt 60 L	0.50 lb	4.08%
flaked maize	1.00 lb	8.16%
No. 3 invert sugar	1.25 lb	10.20%
caramel 1000 SRM	0.25 lb	2.04%
Strisselspalt 135 mins	0.50 oz
Fuggles 135 mins	0.75 oz
Fuggles 60 mins	1.50 oz
Fuggles 30 mins	1.50 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.50 oz
OG	1058
FG	1015
ABV	5.69
Apparent attenuation	74.14%
IBU	47
SRM	24
Mash at	152º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	135 minutes
pitching temp	58.5º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1099 Whitbread Ale

This recipe is in my two new books, Strong! vols. 1 & 2 and Strong! vol.2.