Beer Guide to the 1970s (part thirty-four)

I told a lie when I said that I was done with independent brewers. I missed some of the new brewers. Especially ones founded after 1977. I'm putting that right now. here will likely be a few more posts to document them all.

Many of the new outfits were pretty ephemeral, lasting no more than a handfull of years. Two of this set had more longevity, clocking in more than 20 years. I'd been intrigued to know which new brewery has stuck around the longest.


Archer
Swindon,
Wiltshire.
Founded:    1979
Closed:            2009
Tied houses:    0

Here’s the new brewery I’m best acquainted with. When I lived in Swindon in the 1980s, I spent many a happy hour in the Glue Pot, an Archer tied house in Swindon’s Railway Village. I thought their beers were prey good. And also in the malty Southwestern style. They didn’t have a bad run, lasting 30 years.

beer	style	format	OG	description
Archer's Best Bitter	Pale Ale	draught	1040
Crusader	Pale Ale	draught	1050

Blackawton
Blackawton,
Devon.
Founded:    1977
Closed:            2001
Tied houses:    0

An early new brewer. Moved to Washourne in 1981. Typical of the first rash of new breweries, they initially only brewed a Bitter.

beer	style	format	OG	description
Blackawton Bitter	Pale Ale	draught	1040	hoppy, well-rounded

Bourne Valley
Andover,
Hampshire.
Founded:    1978
Closed:            1985
Tied houses:    0

I’m surprised that I can remember this brewery, given that it was around for such a short space of time. So I’m guessing that I did try their beer at a festival. Bought by the Hampshire Brewery.

beer	style	format	OG	description
Andover Ale	Pale Ale	draught	1040	hoppy and distinctive
Wallop	Old Ale	draught	1055	strong and dark

 

Recycled beer

There was a dinosaur in the living room of 1970s UK brewing. In the form of recycled beer.

Brewing records only tell so much. Mostly what goes on in the brew house. That was never the end of things. Most of the horrors occurred later. Around packaging time. Beers were left to roam free-range during fermentation. Then came the rack. Sorry, racking.

I take the piss out of Watney for all the returned crap that they mixed into their beers. Didn't that make their beer rubbish? But I only know that because I've seen their internal quality control document. Which shows 10% of "stuff" added to most beers after fermentation.

Due to the tax system in the UK, adding crap on which there was effectively no tax made a huge deal of sense. Financially. The brewers weren't so keen. Derek Prentice told me of the effort it took to stop Fullers trying to recycle beer, even when it made no real financial sense any more.  After the introduction of brewery-gate taxation.

Why a dinosaur? Well, that's what I am and it's bigger than an elephant, Also like me. It's because pretty much everyone was up to blending in various types of rubbish. Even when brewing the beers I loved, like Tetley's Mild. Which, according to the brewery's Specifications Manual, could be up to 12.5% "stabilised beer".

Let's not kid ourselves. There was a lot of recycled beer in the pints we so happily slurped back in the 1970s. Whether it happened at the pub or in the brewery, you were lucky if it was the first time around for all of the beer in your glass. In a Tetley's pub with handpumps, it might be as little as 80%.

And still I loved it.

Keg beer was harder to fiddle with in the retail phase. That didn’t dodge all the dodgy brewing practices.

A former Watney’s brewer relates just how bad it could get:

“That was the problem with Watney beers at The Whitechapel Brewery all the ullage was pumped up into the old wooden Porter vessels 3 x 500 brls each.”
Dr Mike Cowbourne.

Doesn’t that sound lovely?

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1878 Murphy Porter

Here we have the first result of my visit to the archives in Cork last year. It's taken a while. But, hopefully, it'll be worth it.

Murphy’s records are so much fun. Because they’re split across brewing books and fermentation books. With the former not even including the OG. Matching up entries from the two books is a royal pain in the arse.

The vast majority of the beer Murphy brewed was Porter. And it looks very much like a London Porter, in terms of gravity. Though not in terms of grist. As, unlike London brewers, Murphy didn’t use any brown malt. Instead, going for simple pale and black malt. Along with some sugar.

Talking of the sugar, I’ve no idea of the type. I’m also not totally sure of the quantity. I’ve assumed that it’s given in hundredweights. Bu, given malt is listed in barrels rather than quarters, I’m not totally sure.

I’m equally vague about the hops. All I know for certain is that here were two types. Only the growers name is given. My guess is that they were all English.

1878 Murphy Porter
pale malt	7.75 lb	72.63%
black malt	0.67 lb	6.28%
No. 3 invert sugar	2.25 lb	21.09%
Fuggles 100 mins	2.00 oz
Fuggles 60 mins	2.00 oz
Fuggles 30 mins	2.00 oz
Fuggles dry hops	0.75 oz
OG	1052.5
FG	1010.5
ABV	5.56
Apparent attenuation	80.00%
IBU	63
SRM	28.5
Mash at	152º F
Sparge at	176º F
Boil time	100 minutes
pitching temp	59º F
Yeast	WLP004 Irish Stout