Saturday, 10 May 2025

Let's Brew - 1912 Crowley L

A Crowley Family Ale label featuring a drawing of a crow's head.
Before you ask, I’ve no idea what “L” might stand for. Light doesn’t seem to make any sense. Nor does London. Those two being the usual meanings of “L” in beer names.

Digging around in the newspaper archives, I’ve found a beer called LFA. Which, along with AK, is described as a Family Ale. There’s a note which says: “LFA is an Ale similar to the above [AK] but lighter, and suitable for summer use.”  The price implies a beer of no more than 1040º. So it can’t be this beer.

Putting the question of the name out of the way, this is a slightly stronger version of AK, being parti-gyled with it. For questions about the recipe, look at the AK I posted earlier.

As you’ll soon see, Crowley had two sets of Pale Ales. This one, which was composed of AK and L, was darker and a bit less heavily hopped. Leaving them with five Pale Ales with a gravity spread of just 16º. Seems a bit of an overkill to me.

1912 Crowley L
pale malt 10.50 lb 92.31%
No. 3 invert sugar 0.875 lb 7.69%
Fuggles 120 mins 1.00 oz
Fuggles 90 mins 1.00 oz
Goldings 30 mins 1.00 oz
Goldings dry hops 0.25 oz
OG 1051
FG 1014
ABV 4.89
Apparent attenuation 72.55%
IBU 37
SRM 9
Mash at 150º F
Sparge at 170º F
Boil time 120 minutes
pitching temp 59º F
Yeast Wyeast 1275 Thames Valley ale


 

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