Monday 25 April 2022

London water treatment 1880 - 1914

In London, similar treatments were taking place. The date is a little later, but much the same elements are being employed.

Gypsum appears as an addition in everything, save for Porter and Stout. While kainit is only missing from Fullers Brown Beers, which were brewed from untreated London well water. That London brewers weren’t treating their water much makes sense, as the local water was supposed to be suitable for those types of beers.

Barclay Perkins often included plain old salt. In reality, more than appears in the table. Which shows what was added before the mash. Another ounce per barrel was added in the copper.

I’m not totally sure what function calcium bisulphite served. Its common use was as a preservative. Given it was added prior to the mash, I can’t see that it was its purpose here.

I’ve no idea what SSCC was. Only a tiny amount was used in Fullers beers, whatever it was.

Barclay Perkins water treatment in 1910 (per barrel)
beer style gypsum kainit calcium bisulfite sodium chloride
X Mild Ale 0.25 oz 2.00 oz 0.125 pint  
XLK Pale Ale 3.00 oz 1.00 oz    
KK Stock Ale 1.00 oz 3.00 oz 0.125 pint 1.00 oz
KKK Stock Ale 1.00 oz 3.00 oz 0.125 pint 1.00 oz
BS Brown Stout   3.00 oz   3.00 oz
Sources:
Barclay Perkins brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers ACC/2305/1/601 and ACC/2305/1/602.


Fullers water treatment in 1902 (per barrel)
beer style gypsum kainit SSCC
X Mild Ale 2.00 oz 1.50 oz  
AK Pale Ale 4.00 oz 3.00 oz 1.00 fl oz
BO Stock Ale 4.00 oz 1.00 oz 1.00 fl oz
Porter Porter      
BS Stout      
SS Stout      
India Pale Ale IPA 4.00 oz 3.00 oz 1.00 fl oz
XK Pale Ale 4.00 oz 3.00 oz 1.00 fl oz
Source:
Fullers brewing record held at the brewery


8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Total guess but could the SSCC be an abbreviation for some kind of S(Sodium Chloride)C given the quantities used are similar to the amounts used in the Barclay Perkins beers?

Dan Klingman said...

Since the SSCC is in fluid ounces, it might possibly have been a sodium sulfate/calcium chloride solution the brewery made or purchased for modifying the sulfate and chloride content.

Anonymous said...

There's an entry in this text from 1922 noting that calcium bisulfite was used as an antichlor, so maybe it was being used to deal with any residual chlorine in the water supply or possibly residue from disinfectant.

https://books.google.com/books?id=Nqs6AQAAMAAJ

Jeff said...

Considering the measurment is in fluid ounces I'd wager this is soluble solution calcium chloride or something to that effect. That's the way it was added most of the time in that era if memory serves me.

Anonymous said...

Considering this is in fluid ounces I'd wager its soluble solution calcium chloride or something along those lines. That's usually how it was added to brewing liquor in this era.

Rob Sterowski said...

Another total guess: sodium sulphate and calcium chloride? No idea whether adding those makes any sense chemically though.

Jeff said...

My guess would be the 22cc stands for soluble solution calcium chloride or something along those lines.

Andy Holmes said...

As SSCC amounts are given as liquid it's not necessarily the same quantities as used in Barclay Perkins beers. But something like Solution of Sodium Chloride C... is a possibility. However, Saturated Solution of Calcium Carbonate would fit?