Let's Brew - 1905 Binnie 100/- Ale

What style would I call this? Shilling Ale, I guess. As it doesn’t really fit in with any modern style.  And, unlike 80/-, there isn’t a modern beer with the same name. Which, I suppose, at least removes any risk of confusion.

Compared to 80/-, it has an extremely complicated grist. With all of three different ingredients. Two of which are sugar. The brewing record lists one as “sugar” and the other “Sacc.” The latter being an abbreviation of saccharum, another word for sugar. I’ve assumed than Sacc is invert sugar and the other raw cane sugar. Only one type of pale malt this time, though.

Only two types of hops this time. Well, three if you count the spent hops, which make up almost a third of the total. The rest are Kent and Bavarian, with far more of the latter.

I imagine that the FG would have fallen a bit before consumption. Though not enough to stop it being very sweet. Full of malty goodness, I suppose. The hopping is far too low for any ageing longer than a couple of weeks.

1905 Binnie 100/- Ale
pale malt	12.75 lb	87.93%
No. 2 invert sugar	0.875 lb	6.03%
raw cane sugar	0.875 lb	6.03%
Hallertau 90 min	0.67 oz
Hallertau 60 min	0.67 oz
Fuggles 30 min	0.67 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.25 oz
OG	1068
FG	1034
ABV	4.50
Apparent attenuation	50.00%
IBU	21
SRM	7
Mash at	154º F
Sparge at	180º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	61º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

 

W.E. & J. Rigden sugars in 1884/85

Continuing with the fermentables, it's time for sugar. Several different types of lovely sugar.

In most cases, it’s one of the classic invert sugars, No. 2 or No. 3. With the cheap beers using No. 3, the posher beers No. 2. Though this wasn’t consistent in the case of AK. When brewed single-gyle, No. 2 was used. When it was parti-gyled with Beer or Table Ale, it was No. 3. Which must have had some impact on the colour of the beer. But was anyone looking that closely?

The Black Beers, however, have something completely different. Described simply as “sugar” in the brewing records. What the hell was that? Simply raw cane sugar? That would probably be my guess. But there’s no way to be certain. Rather randomly, this type also appears in the Stock version of AK.

Pretty high, is how I would describe the sugar content. Which for most of Rigden’s range is above 20%. In many cases, above 25%. Note that it’s the highest in three of the most expensive beers, Special Ale, XXK and XXX. And lowest in Beer, the Mild Ale. 

W.E. & J. Rigden sugars in 1884/85
Beer	Style	no. 2 sugar	no. 3 sugar	other sugar	total sugar
Beer	Mild		17.39%		17.39%
AK	Pale Ale		22.47%		22.47%
AK Stock	Pale Ale			22.86%	22.86%
Special Ale	Pale Ale	25.00%			25.00%
XXK	Pale Ale	27.59%			27.59%
TA	Table Ale		22.47%		22.47%
XXX	Stock Ale	26.23%			26.23%
P	Porter			17.39%	17.39%
DS	Stout			15.63%	15.63%
Source:
Fremlin brewing record held at the Kent Archives, document number U3555/2/GBR/BX2/1/9.

 

 

W.E. & J. Rigden grists in 1884/85

And what about the ingredients in Rigden's beers? Well, let’s take a look. Starting with grains.

The base malt in every beer is pale malt. Nothing unusual there. Note, though, that often there was more than one type of pale malt.

Only the Black Beers contain any other type of malt. Namely brown and black malt. Which leaves them with a very London-like grist. With getting on for a 20% roast malt content. I assume that the proximity to capital was why the grist is so similar to those of London brewers.

Only the three cheapest beers, Table Ale, Beer and AK, contain any adjuncts. In the form of flaked maize. Which lowers the malts percentage to around 65%. While the posher beers have around 75%, or, in the case of the Black Beers, 85%. It’s clear that, in the cheap beers, flaked maize is a direct substitute for base malt.

W.E. & J. Rigden grists in 1884/85
Beer	Style	pale malt	brown malt	black malt	total malt	flaked maize
Beer	Mild	69.57%			69.57%	13.04%
AK	Pale Ale	64.04%			64.04%	13.48%
AK Stock	Pale Ale	77.14%			77.14%
Special Ale	Pale Ale	75.00%			75.00%
XXK	Pale Ale	72.41%			72.41%
TA	Table Ale	64.04%			64.04%	13.48%
XXX	Stock Ale	73.77%			73.77%
P	Porter	65.22%	10.87%	6.52%	82.61%
DS	Stout	65.63%	11.72%	7.03%	84.38%
Source:
Fremlin brewing record held at the Kent Archives, document number U3555/2/GBR/BX2/1/9.

 

 

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1903 Binnie 80/- Ale

We're back with Binnie again. As I try to process the results of my Glasgow archive run into recipes for my next book. This is recipe number 366, in case you're interested.

I’ll make this clear from the start: this beer has no connection with modern 80/-. This is a Shilling Ale, the original type of Scottish Ale, more akin to an English Mild. While modern 80/- is a type of Pale Ale.

No complication in the grist, which is just 100% pale malt. Though there are two types of pale malt, 3.5 quarters from Scottish barley, 2 quarters from foreign. Which was a fairly typical mix. As the UK couldn’t grow enough malting barley to meet the needs of the brewing industry.

It was a similar story with hops, where imports were needed to match demand. That’s reflected in the hops used, where two-thirds are imported. There are equal quantities of Kent, Bavarian and Californian. Along with a quantity of spent hops. Even with those, the hopping rate is still a feeble 3 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt. Which is mot much more than half of what you’d find in a London Mild Ale of the period.

No way this would have undergone any ageing. It’s far too lightly hopped. 

1903 Binnie 80/- Ale
pale malt	13.75 lb	100.00%
Cluster 90 min	0.50 oz
Hallertau 60 min	0.50 oz
Fuggles 30 min	0.50 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.25 oz
OG	1059
FG	1020
ABV	5.16
Apparent attenuation	66.10%
IBU	20
SRM	5
Mash at	154º F
Sparge at	175º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	62º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

 

W.E. & J. Rigden beers in 1884/85

Not quite Beer & Rigden at this point, as they didn’t merge with George Beer until 1922. This beer was brewed in their Faversham brewery, which later became home to Fremlins when under Whitbread control.

According to an advertisement from 1884, Rigden marketed eleven beers.

Which, you may notice, doesn’t quite match the beers that appear in the brewing records.

Well, that’s not totally true, as TB does turn up. But only in a note at the bottom, saying how a brew was racked. For example, a brew of Beer on the 19th September 1884 was racked as 66 barrels Beer, 76 barrels AK, 9 barrels TA, 9 barrels TB. Presumably, the TA and TB were created by adding water post-fermentation.

Single Stout, I imagine, was created by blending Porter and Stout. Or by watering down some of the Double Stout. Similarly, I’d guess that XX was created by either blending X and XXX or by watering down XXX.

That said, let’s get on with looking at the beers in more detail.

Table Ale is a bit unusual for and English brewery this late in the 19th century. For the price, the gravity of 1042º is pretty decent. It seems to have been basically a weaker version of Beer (or X Ale).

Moving up the strengths, Beer has a pretty reasonable gravity for a provincial Mild Ale. Though it is weaker than a London X Ale. I’m guessing that the stronger XX Mild Ale probably had a gravity of around 1060º.

There are three Bitters: in ascending order of strength, AK, Special Ale and XXK. The last looks like a classic Stock Pale Ale, judging by its gravity and hopping rate. And probably had at least nine months ageing. Special Ale was most likely semi-Stock and aged for just three months. While AK was a classic Running Bitter.

The idea of a Stock AK is quite amusing. As it doesn’t really make any sense. The whole point of Light Bitters like AK was that they weren’t aged at all, Despite the K in its name.

The Stock Ale would also have had at least nine months of ageing. Quite possibly more. It was sometimes parti-gyled with XXK

Fuck. I have to finish this for tomorrow’s post. Just draw own conclusions from the data. Classic copout there.
 

Source material

Sometimes people ask me how many brewing records I have. Well, being honest, I usually offer the information unprompted. And my answer is: 15,000 to 20,000.

That was really just a guess. So this week I decided to actually check. And the number I got was 39,242. Though that's probably not completely accurate. Because I think I have a few duplicates in there. On the other hand, some of those documents are PDF files with multiple images. Which would add another 3,000 or so. The real number is probably at least 43,000.

Which is a shitload of material. Luckily, I've been accumlating this material for almost 20 years. And I've had the chance to process a fair proportion of it. Though I've still records that I harvested over ten years ago that I haven't touched yet.

In the early days, I'd immediately extract the information I'm interested in immediately after returning from the archive. I've since had to be more focused. Processing only the records which are relevant to projects I'm currently working on. For example, during my last visit to the Scottish Brewing Archive, I collected Lorimer & Clark records from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. I've no plans to look at them anytime soon. Records from 1880 to 1914 take precedence.

I've been contemplating recently what I'll do with all this material after my death. Or, rather, what will be done with by others. It would be a real shame if it were to be lost. Martyn Cornell's passing earlier this year has really concentrated my mind. My plan is to make all my images and spreadsheets public before I die. Assuming that I get some warning of that tragic event.

And on that happy note, I'll end. 

Tomson & Wotton hops in 1893

Time now for the other main ingredient: hops. 

The first thing that strikes me is that all but one of the hops are English. Which, at this point, was quite unusual. With the UK importing massive quantities of hops from all over the world. “But the brewery was based in Kent, the hop garden of England” you might say. Except most of the hops used come from Worcestershire, not Kent.

Other than X and AK, none of the beers has more than one type of hop. Which is unusual. Brewers mostly used multiple types of hops – three or four, typically – to smooth out any changes when supplies of one type of hop ran out and needed to be replaced.

Most on the hops employed are relatively fresh, from the most recent season or the one before. The exception being the East Kent hops used in X, which are five years old. It’s by no means unusual for hops several years old to find their way. But five years is a bit excessive. For English hops. Not so odd with American hops, with their higher alpha acid content and unwanted flavour.

All the Pale Ales are dry hopped. Always with Worcester hops. Mostly in quite modest quantities. Other than AKK which has a massive 2 lbs per barrel. Only slightly less than the quantity of copper hops.

Tomson & Wotton hops in 1893
Beer	Style	hop 1	hop 2	dry hops	dry hops (oz / barrel)
X	Mild	EK 1888	Californian 1891		0.00
AK	Pale Ale	EK 1892	Wor 1893	Wor 1892	2.00
AK (Stock)	Pale Ale	Wor 1892		Wor 1892	4.00
AKK	Pale Ale	Wor 1892		Wor 1892	32.00
KK	Pale Ale	Wor 1892		Wor 1892	4.00
P	Porter	MK 1891			0.00
KKK	Stock Ale	EK 1892		Wor 1892	4.00
Source:
Tomson & Wotton brewing record held at the Kent Archives, document number R/U7/B5.

 

 

Let's Brew - 1891 Peter Walker Imperial Stout

Bit of a funny one today. I have just a single brewing record from Peter Walker. Which someone sent me. Sometime. A few years back. As it's an Imperial Stout, it seemed a shame to waste it.

Brewing Imperial Stout wasn’t just limited to brewers in London. As this example from Peter Walker of Warrington demonstrates.

It’s maybe a couple of degrees lower in gravity. The mix of malts is rather similar, though. Especially the inclusion of amber malt. Which, to me, is the sign of a posh Stout. Roast malts make up almost 25% of the grist. Quite a lot, that. Then again, this is a style that’s meant to be thick and treacly. 

Four types of hops. Bavarian from the 1889 crop, along with two types of English hops from 1888 and one from 1889.

I imagine that the real FG was a good bit lower than the racking gravity that I’ve listed. A Stout this strong would have been aged one or two years, at least. Probably in a smallish vat. Though it could have been in hogsheads, depending on what kit the brewery had. 

1891 Peter Walker Imperial Stout
pale malt	16.50 lb	76.74%
brown malt	2.00 lb	9.30%
black malt	2.00 lb	9.30%
amber malt	1.00 lb	4.65%
Fuggles 105 mins	3.25 oz
Hallertau 60 mins	3.25 oz
Goldings 30 mins	3.25 oz
Goldings dry hops	1.00 oz
OG	1092
FG	1033
ABV	7.81
Apparent attenuation	64.13%
IBU	91
SRM	51
Mash at	150º F
Sparge at	190º F
Boil time	105 minutes
pitching temp	61º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1318 London ale III (Boddingtons)

 

Tomson & Wotton grists in 1893

To be honest, it’s not very interesting. The majority of the beers only have a single ingredient in the grist. Pretty dull, right? Just a one type of pale malt.

The only exceptions were X Ale and Porter. With the former having a small amount of sugar. No idea what type of sugar, as there’s nothing specified in the brewing record. Which isn’t unusual for the period.

Most interesting is the Porter. Which has the classic London combination of malts: pale, brown and black. With a very high percentage of brown malt. More, even, than you’d see in a London Porter at the time. Where 10% to 15% was the norm.

There’s also a hefty amount of black malt. Which leaves the proportion of roasted malt at almost 40%. I don’t need to point out that this is a hell of a lot. Resulting in a pretty damn black beer.

Tomson & Wotton grists in 1893
Beer	Style	pale malt	brown malt	black malt	other sugar
X	Mild	95.45%			4.55%
AK	Pale Ale	100.00%
AK (Stock)	Pale Ale	100.00%
AKK	Pale Ale	100.00%
KK	Pale Ale	100.00%
P	Porter	60.61%	30.30%	9.09%
KKK	Stock Ale	100.00%
Source:
Tomson & Wotton brewing record held at the Kent Arrchives, document number R/U7/B5.

 

 

Preliminary archive results

When I'm in archives, I don't spend a huge amount of time analysing documents. There's plenty of time for that later. I just snap away, making sure I take as many photos as possible.

I snapped 29 documents described as brewing books. More than enough material, surely? Well, it's not quite as simple as that.

The good news, is that there were records from more than the two breweries, Fremlin and George Beer & Rigden, that were in my original plan. There was a single brewing book each from two breweries owned by Tomson & Wotton. Both from 1893. And much of the two books in the same handwriting. They also contain most everything I'm interested in and are easy to read..

Not such good news with George Beer & Rigden. Of the twelve documents I photographed, only five are really brewing records. The others are gyle books, which only list the ingredients. Nothing about processes. On the other hand, the actual brewing records are very good, containing all the information I usually plug into my spreadsheet. Unfortunately, only one is for the period I'm interested in, 1880 to 1914.

What about Fremlin? I photographed fourteen volumes. On the upside, all but one are really brewing books. Only the last one, from 1970, is a gyle book. They aren't as complete as the Beer & Rigden records. They really are just brewing books, with no details of the fermentation at all. But it gets worse.

Part of a Fremlin brewing record.

The first five brewing books are in code. And not just the mashing temperatures, which I've seen before. All the numbers are in code. Even the boil time and the gravity. Fucking magic. It makes them just about unusable. Fortunately, the other records are all uncoded. Including three covering 1880 to 1914. If I'm lucky, I'll be able to use those to decode the others. But it will take a load of work. 

Overall, less useful stuff than I'd hoped for. But plenty to be getting on with. And probably 40 to 50 recipes for the book. Which was what I was really after. 

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1893 Tomson & Wotton Porter

The range of beers brewed by Tomson & Wotton is a little odd. At a time when Porter was disappearing from most of England, they continued to brew one. Yet didn't brew a Stout of any description. A style pretty well every other brewery in the UK produced.

Perhaps it was the influence of nearby London that had an impact. But the grist is quite unusual. in that it has a large percentage of brown malt. Making up a quarter of the grist. That about double what you'd find in a London Porter. And the capital was where brown malt retained its popularity. My guess is that this would have tasted quite similar to the Porters brewed in London.

There were two types of hops: East from the 1888 harvest and Californian from 1891. Both types reasonably old, then.

Pretty sure that this was a Runner. So no ageing. 

1893 Tomson & Wotton Porter
pale malt	8.25 lb	67.35%
brown malt	3.00 lb	24.49%
black malt	1.00 lb	8.16%
Cluster 90 mins	1.25 oz
Goldings 60 mins	1.25 oz
Goldings 30 mins	1.25 oz
OG	1050
FG	1016
ABV	4.50
Apparent attenuation	68.00%
IBU	35
SRM	36
Mash at	154º F
Sparge at	180º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	62º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1099 Whitbread Ale

 

 

Tomson & Wotton beers in 1893

Some results from my expedition to Maidstone last week. From the one brewing book they hane from Tomson & Wotton.

The range is quite narrow, just seven beers. And two of those are AK. One Mild, four Pale Ales, one Porter and one Stock Ale. No Stout. No Strong Ale, really. And with a very narrow range of gravities: from 1047º and 1062º.

I know that there really were two beers sold as AK, because I've seen it in an advert. Which is also how I know that KK was a Palae Ale.

The gravities aren't that different from London. The Mild is a bit weaker, but the Pale Ales cover a similar range of gravities and the Porter is about the same.

It's a similar story with the hopping rates, which are very similar to those in London. 7 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt for Mild, 11 lbs per quarter for a strong Pale ale.

The rate of attenuation isn't great, only 76% at best. Though I'm not 100% that it's the racking gravity. The true FG could be lower.

Tomson & Wotton beers in 1893
Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
X	Mild	1052.2	1016.1	4.77	69.20%	7.00	1.40
AK	Pale Ale	1046.9	1016.1	4.08	65.74%	9.00	1.71
AK (Stock)	Pale Ale	1051.1	1016.1	4.63	68.55%	9.00	1.71
AKK	Pale Ale	1057.3	1013.9	5.75	75.85%	10.00	2.14
KK	Pale Ale	1059.6	1016.6	5.69	72.13%	10.69	2.37
P	Porter	1051.2	1021.6	3.92	57.82%	6.67	1.49
KKK	Stock Ale	1062.0	1016.6	6.01	73.20%	10.00	2.37
Source:
Tomson & Wotton brewing record held at the Kent Arrchives, document number R/U7/B5.

 

Archiving again

No time to hang around this morning. I rise at 8 AM. Heading down for breakfast a little later.

I paid for the buffet breakfast. Which, for me, is egg, bacon, tomato, toast, coffee and orange juice. Hopefully enough to keep me going for a while. There won’t be much time to eat today.

After I’ve checked out, I embark on the walk to the archives. At least it’s downhill into town. It’s not a huge distance to the archives. But it isn’t the most pleasant walk, alongside a busy dual carriageway that follows the river.

Part way, the pavement disappears on my side of the road. So I have to cross it. Which takes ages, as the lights seem reluctant to change for the benefit of pedestrians. A few hundred metres later the same fun repeats when I need to get back to the other side again. This town seems very dominated by cars.

The Kent Archives are housed in the main library. A bright, modern building. I spend a few minutes on formalities and then off I go. I pre-ordered five volumes and I can get started snapping immediately.

I find it best to enter a trancelike state when doing this stuff. Otherwise, it would be disheartening to contemplate how many hours of drudgery lie ahead.

I have 34 documents in my hit list. At four an hour, I’d get through 24 documents. Which is the minimum I’ll be happy with. Let’s see how it goes.

You’re allowed to hand in three request slips at a time. Whenever you feel like it. By submitting a new set of three slips when I return the penultimate document, I have almost no waiting time. Perfect.

The staff are dead friendly and helpful. When they bring me the wrong document*  by mistake, they quickly fetch the correct one.

I brought along a couple of sarnies for lunch. But I never quite get around to stopping to eat. I’m just in the zone. In a rhythm of collecting documents, snapping, returning and submitting new request slips.

It makes the time go quickly, at least. And my back isn’t aching, as it sometimes does after an hour or two of snapping. That’s a win.

Looking at the clock, I notice that it’s 15:50. Fuck me. Where did the afternoon go? I’ve just time to put in three more slips before the cutoff at 16:00.

I get through the last three brewing books pretty quickly. As I need to be done by 16:30. I’ve a train to catch at 16:59. My ticket is only valid for that train So I’d better not miss it.

I’m leaving from Maidstone East, as it’s closer to the archive. It’s a suburban third-rail service. Not particularly fast. It takes over an hour to get to Victoria. Despite being rush-hour, it’s not that crowded as we’re headed into town.

Unlike the tube. Which is pretty busy. I still get a seat, though. Bit of a wait for a train to Terminal 4 at Kensington South. I arrive in Heathrow at 19:30. And quickly check in. Then pushing-in security. Where . . . my bag is picked out for inspection.

“Do you have cheese in your bag, sir?”

It seems an oddly specific question. Are they worried about cheese smuggling? 

“Yes.” I say, bravely.

The security man has, it seems, other concerns than an illicit dairy trade. He swabs my cheese. And then seems happy.

I think I remember now. Cheese looks the same as plastic explosive in the X-ray images. The palaver takes up valuable minutes.

“Do I want to get duty free?” I ask myself. After much deliberation, I reply “Yes.”

The cheapest malt whisky I can find. 42 quid for a litre. Now where’s the lounge? By gate 10, they said at check-in. While I’m looking, I drop my duty-free bag. The bottle is in a cardboard box. No harm done.

The lounge has moved since I was last here. Oh, look! A self-pour bar. I sloosh out about a quadruple or so whisky. 

I haven’t even had chance to sit down when there’s an announcement. My flight is boarding. Fuck. I quickly down my whisky. Standing up.

Boarding has, indeed, already started. I walk straight onto the plane.

When I put my bags in the overhead locker, I notice something. A smell of whisky. And a jangly, broken glass noise. Fuck. The bottle did smash when I dropped it. Fuck, fuck, fuckity-fuck.

The flight isn’t very full. And is just up and down, really. 

We left a bit early. But it’s still getting on for 23:00 when we disembark.

At least I’ve no luggage. It is quite a walk from the gate, though. Through a deserted landscape of closed shops. I dump my dripping duty-free bag in the first bin I come across.

The only place that isn’t empty is passport control. Where the electronic gates aren’t in use. Great. Just when I get to the front of the queue, they open them up. The fuckers.

A taxi gets me home well before midnight. It’s too late for tea. And Dolores is already in bed. Alexei, too. Andrew is up, obviously. Sadly, I’ve no whisky for a nightcap.

I managed to photograph 30 documents in total. Taking just over 1,300 photos. That’s a photo every 17 seconds or so. Not bad. Though it will take rather longer to process all those pictures.
 

 

* Which turned out to be interesting. A square book from Whitbread’s brewery in Wateringbury from 1963-64. A brewery I have very little information about. Other than it brewed bottled beer for export. 

Flying again

“Are you crazy? Another trip?”

“Yes, Dolores. I need the XP points.”

“What?”

“With KLM. I need three more XP points to keep my gold status.”

“You’re travelling just for that?”

“And to get some research in. I’m going to an archive.”

I wouldn’t want to miss the chance to photograph some more brewing records. I can never have too many of those. In particular. Records from the period 1880 to 1914. For the book I’m currently writing.

It’s not going to be a long trip. I won’t be in the UK for much over 24 hours. And six of those will be in the archive.

With my flight not until 4 PM, it’s a fairly relaxed start. Which is how I prefer it. There’s no-one to wave me off when I leave. Dolores and Alexei are at work. Andrew is still in bed.

There’s a lot of car traffic at Schiphol. Which has me worrying a bit. Needlessly. It’s pretty quiet at both security and passport control. No duty-free today. So it’s straight to the lounge.

Where it’s whisky time again. I’m loath to break with tradition. Brace of whiskies it is.

The last few times I’ve been in the KLM non-Schengen lounge, the warm food hasn’t been bad. Much better than the slop on their planes. Today the trend continues with zuurvlees. A tasty stew.

I shouldn’t have to far to walk. E is one of the closest piers to the lounge. And the display says that it’s a 3-minute walk to the gate. Wary of what happened last time, I head for the gate 40 minutes before the departure time.

Checking the gate hasn’t changed on my way to E pier, the display now says it’s a 12-minute walk. Best not doddle.

I really like the way that the one gate where you’re taken by bus to your plane, is right at the end of the pier. You walk all the way there, just to get on a bus. Perfect.

The flight is full, but thankfully short. With no checked luggage, I’m free as soon as I get through immigration. Which is just a short 10 km walk down a dingy corridor away. A really dismal welcome to the country.

St. Pancras is a long way by tube. About an hour. Always fun with luggage. As the carriage gets fuller and fuller the closer you get to central London. Luckily, I’ve only a small rucksack today.

I realise that I haven’t told you where I’m headed. Maidstone. And the Kent archives. I spent some time looking for regional archives. Preferably, where there were records from multiple breweries. And that I could get to relatively easily.

Kent Archives in Maidstone, turns out to have long sets from both Fremlin and George Beer & Rigden. Plus a couple of other things.

Because getting there from London by train isn’t difficult, Maidstone seems an easy destination to reach. It takes about 2.5 hours from Heathrow to Maidstone. On a tube and then two overground trains.

The first train, a fast Javelin, is packed when we leave St. Pancras. The second, a clanky suburban train from Strood, is much quieter.

I’ve come to Maidstone West station because it’s closer to my hotel than Maidstone East. Sadly, it’s uphill. And I really can’t be doing with hills. Especially with luggage, however light that might be.

My original plan was to hit Spoons and Tesco. But I’m feeling a bit knacked. Just Tesco, then. By Uber. What could be simpler?

Lots, it turns out. Uber keeps giving me stupid pickup points. Then can’t find me a driver. Eventually, one does roll up.

Loaded up with crisps, sandwiches and hotel whisky, it’s time to try my luck with Uber again. A 25-minute wait. What a fucking joke. I could walk it quicker than that. So I do. Remembering that I saw a couple of pubs on the way.

The first, the Royal Albion looks deserted. When I get to the door, I understand why. It’s closed. Despite all the lights being on inside.

Drakes, the other pub on the way, is open. And has Harveys Best. Unfortunately, there’s also a jam session. Which I fear is going to damage my hearing. The only way to get away from it, is to leave. After just one pint.

Up the hill to my hotel. Walking along the busy main roads. Fuck there’s a lot of cars here. They make walking such fun.

The hotel doesn’t have ITV +1. I only catch the last 10 minutes of Latvia against England. Damn.

Still, there is the hotel whisky to put me to sleep.



Drakes
9 Fairmeadow, 
Maidstone ME14 1JP.
https://drakescorkandcaskmaidstone.co.uk/