Friday 5 January 2024

Boys Bitter adjuncts in the 1970s

A fairly short post today. More of the stuff I'm currently working on for "Keg!".

In case you think you could assemble the book yourself from my blog posts I'll warn you that this is a first draught. And the version published might well have minor, or even major, alterations.

Time for the adjuncts. Of which there aren’t a great number. Only half the examples contain any at all.

Flaked maize was the favourite adjunct for most of the 20th century. Yet only appears in the Maclay beer. The only other adjuncts are two forms of barley in the Truman beer. Including their own speciality, pearl barley. Which turns up in all their beers, other than the Lager.

The percentage of adjuncts averages out to around 5%. Though only half the beers contained any. And for those that did, the quantity was over 10%. 

Boys Bitter adjuncts 1969 - 1981
Year Brewer Beer flaked maize flaked barley pearl barley total adjuncts
1971 Maclay PA 6d 11.31%     11.31%
1971 Shepherd Neame Best Bitter       0.00%
1969 Truman LK   2.42% 7.97% 10.39%
1981 Eldridge Pope Dorchester Bitter       0.00%
  Average         5.43%
Sources:
Maclay brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number M/6/1/1/46.
Shepherd Neame brewing record held at the brewery, Brewing book 1971 H-5O5,
Truman brewing record held by Derek Prentice.
Eldridge Pope brewing record.

2 comments:

John said...

Would the pearl barley be processed through a cereal cooker as part of the brewing process, or does the processing that it has already had to make it Pearl barley make the starches available? I've never come across it in brewing before, only in soups!

Matt said...

Contrary to what I normally tell people, I think you mean draft rather than draught!