Saturday 28 August 2021

Let's Brew - 1953 Heineken Stout

Yet another in my series of weird Heineken beers. From their pilot brewery, obviously.

It’s clear that they were experimenting with Stout recipes. Over a period of three weeks, they brewed three batches of Stout, each with a different grist. One had a more typically Dutch mix of pilsner malt, caramel mout and kleur mout. And weas hopped with Saaz. The other two used mild ale malt as base. In one case along with caramel mout and C.D.M. sugar (caramelised dextro-maltose). And this one with just roast barley.

The result is a very English-looking beer. Never in my life would I have expected to see Heineken using mild ale malt. It’s not as if it would have been available from a Dutch maltster. Next month, they reverted to the more standard Dutch-style grist. Judging by the number of identical brews, these weren’t experiments, rather small batch production runs.

The hops in this batch were all from Kent, a combination of Fuggles and Goldings, both from the 1953 season.

Based on some other brews of Stout, I’ve guessed that this was infusion mashed and top fermented.

If this version hit the market, drinkers must have noticed the difference from the usual beer. If only because it was much darker: 460 EBC as opposed to 230 EBC. And the hops were so different, English rather than Czech.

Pilot brewery records are so much more fun than those from full-size plants. There are always all sorts of weird brews. Like the Barclay Perkins decocted Mild from 1915.


1953 Heineken Stout
mild ale malt 15.00 lb 86.96%
roast barley 2.25 lb 13.04%
Fuggles 150 mins 3.75 oz
Goldings 60 mins 1.75 oz
Goldings 30 mins 1.25 oz
OG 1073
FG 1018
ABV 7.28
Apparent attenuation 75.34%
IBU 79
SRM 36
Mash at 154º F
Sparge at 165º F
Boil time 90 minutes
pitching temp 60º F
Yeast Wyeast 1099 Whitbread ale



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