Mitch Steele part one

The first part of my interview with Mitch Steele, former brewer at Anheuser Busch. This covers his time studying at UC Davis, working at a winery,  his first brewing job at the San Andreas brewpub and his move to Anheuser Busch.

Adnams hops in 1913

Quite a few different types of hops were employed at Adnams. Seven in total, four of them English and four foreign. All from either the 1911 and 1912 harvests. So nothing ridiculously old.

All of the beers, other than X Ale, contain at least three types of hops. With BS and Tally Ho both having five different types.

A majority of the English hops were from Worcester, the rest either from Kent or not specified. Nothing unusual about that, as Kent and Worcester were two of the largest producers of hops. And producers of top-quality hops.

It’s interesting that few of the foreign hops were sourced from the USA. Which was by far the largest supplier of hop imports to the UK. Rather, the foreign hops mostly come from Central Europe. Namely Saaz and Württemberg. Regions well known for good quality hops.

Saaz is, in fact, the second most common type of hop. Appearing in all the beers, other than the two Mild Ales. And it also appears as a dry hop in BLB and Tally Ho. It’s a sign of the high regard of UK brewers for Saaz that it was being used as a dry hop. 

Adnams hops in 1913
Beer	Style	hop 1	hop 2	hop 3	hop 4	hop 5	dry hop 1	dry hop 2
X	Mild Ale	Eng 1911	Eng 1912
XX	Mild Ale	B n B	Wür 1911	Wo 1912
BLB	Pale Ale	Wo 1912	Sz 1912	Kt 1911			Sz 1912	Wo 1912
PA	Pale Ale	Sz 1912	Wo 1912	Kt 1911
BS	Stout	Wür 1911	Or 1911	Wo 1912	Sz 1912	Kt 1911
DS	Stout	Wür 1911	Wo 1912	Sz 1912
Tally Ho	Old Ale	Wür 1911	Or 1911	Wo 1912	Sz 1912	Kt 1911	Sz 1912	Wo 1912
Key:
Wür. = Württemberg
Wo = Worcester
Eng = English
Or = Oregon
Kt = Kent
Sz = Saaz
Source:
Adnams brewing record Book 1 held at the brewery.

 

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1913 Adnams X Ale

Moving forward in time a couple of decades, we find a new version of X Ale. Which looks very much like a modern Mild. And is not very typical of the style pre-WW I.

A gravity of just 1033º was low even for a Mild Ale brewed way out in the sticks. Even a very high degree of attenuation leaves it not much over 3.5% ABV

Simple is an understatement when it comes to the recipe. Just base malt, sugar and caramel colouring. And really just one type of base malt. I can’t imagine that it was a very full-bodied beer. That’s about all I can say. I assume that the caramel had a dark colour as it was called “tintose”.

Two types of hops. Worcester from the 1911 harvest and English from 1912. Hopped at a puny rate of 3.75 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt.

My guess is that a Mild like this would have been consumed just a couple of days after racking. 

1913 Adnams X Ale
mild malt	5.75 lb	84.31%
glucose	1.00 lb	14.66%
caramel 5000 SRM	0.07 lb	1.03%
Fuggles 105 mins	0.33 oz
Fuggles 60 mins	0.33 oz
Fuggles 30 mins	0.33 oz
OG	1033
FG	1005.5
ABV	3.64
Apparent attenuation	83.33%
IBU	13
SRM	23
Mash at	151º F
Sparge at	165º F
Boil time	105 minutes
pitching temp	60º F
Yeast	WLP025 Southwold

 

Adnams sugars in 1913

Sugars are always fun. At least in this case there are no weird proprietary sugars. Many of which leave me totally stumped.

The total sugar content is a little on the high side at 16% to 18%. While the average sugar usage for whole country was 13% in 1913. 

No. 1 invert appears in both the Pale Ales and Tally Ho. It’s exactly the type of sugar that you would expect in Pale Ales, being very light in colour

The darker beers – the two Mild Ales and the Stouts – contain rather large amounts of glucose. So, half invert. A bit surprising, as it would have been very pale in colour. And would have lightened the colour, especially in the quantities used.

Counteracting that, there’s a very dark sugar, CDM (Caramelised Dextro-Maltose) in both Stouts. Dextrin not being very readily fermentable, this would have added body as well as colour.

The final sugar type is Tintose. Which, judging by its name and the tiny quantities used, was a type of caramel. It appears in both the Mild Ales and Tally Ho. 

Adnams sugars in 1913
Beer	Style	no. 1 sugar	glucose	CDM	Tintose	total sugar
X	Mild Ale		15.84%		0.99%	16.83%
XX	Mild Ale		17.41%		0.97%	18.38%
BLB	Pale Ale	16.00%				16.00%
PA	Pale Ale	9.30%				9.30%
BS	Stout		14.16%	3.54%		17.70%
DS	Stout		13.11%	3.28%		16.39%
Tally Ho	Old Ale	15.53%			0.64%	16.16%
Source:
Adnams brewing record Book 1 held at the brewery.

 

Systems of taxation

How beer is taxed can have a big impact on what gets made.

A couple of examples.

In the system introduced in the UK in 1880 (and in effect for moe than a century) tax was based on the OG of the wort before fermentation. This gave brewers a huge incentivbe to throw in all sorts of crap, including beer returned from pubs. As this stuff was tax-free. When half of the retail price of a pint was duty, 5% per barrel tax-free could add up to a lot of money.

The US flat-rate tax system has also distorted the market. However strong your beer, you pay the same tax. In ost countries, the tax is in some sort of proportion to the amount of alcohol in a beer. A flat-rate tax is an incentive to brew stronger beer. As the production costs of a 5% and a 9% beer aren't very different. But drinkers won't be happy paying the same price for the weaker beer.

In my chat with Chris Flaskamp, I discovered Chile has another way to tax beer. One not based on alcohol content. It's at 21:47.

 

For those who can't be arsed to look at the video, the Chilean system is simply based on the price. As craft beer is more expensive, its brewers pay more tax than the big boys. Not very faif.

Adnams adjuncts in 1913

All the beers except for X Ale contain an adjunct of some sort. In most cases, that’s flaked maize. In quite small quantities, 7% at most. Which is less than the 8.5% average for the whole country. 

Both Stouts contain oats. It’s not clear from the brewing records exactly what form those oats are in. I’m guessing that it’s probably flaked oats. Obviously, they’re there so that some could be marketed as Oatmeal Stout. Unlike at some breweries – I’m looking at you London – there’s more than a nominal amount. Maybe even enough to have an impact on the character of the beer. 

Adnams adjuncts in 1913
Beer	Style	oats	flaked maize	total adjuncts
X	Mild Ale			0.00%
XX	Mild Ale		6.53%	6.53%
BLB	Pale Ale		6.00%	6.00%
PA	Pale Ale		6.98%	6.98%
BS	Stout	5.31%		5.31%
DS	Stout	4.92%	2.46%	7.38%
Tally Ho	Old Ale		4.66%	4.66%
Source:
Adnams brewing record Book 1 held at the brewery.

 

Chris Flaskamp interview

Chris Flaskamp, of Tübinger brewery, based in Pirque just outside Santiago in Chile, discusses brewing in South America. Touching on the problems of setting up a brewery, buying equipment, access to market and the possibility of Chile's own beer styles.

Adnams malts in 1913

And what went into these beers? Let’s take a look. Starting with the malts.

There are four of them in total. Which is more than you see at many breweries. There are two base malts: pale malt for the Pale Ales and Tally Ho; medium malt for the Mild Ales and Stouts. Not sure what medium malt was. I’m guessing it was something like mild malt, based on which beers it was used in.

You may have noticed that crystal malt doesn’t show up very often in the recipes in this book. It really wasn’t very common before WW I. Occasionally turning up in Mild Ales and Stouts. At Adnams, it was used in the stronger Mild and Tally Ho. An interesting choice there. 

The final type is black malt. Which, unsurprisingly, is found in the two Stouts. Which have the simplest of Stout grists, consisting of just base malt and black malt. Unlike London, where Stout grists always included brown as well as black malt. 

Adnams malts in 1913
Beer	Style	pale malt	medium malt	black malt	crystal malt	total malt
X	Mild Ale		83.17%			83.17%
XX	Mild Ale		68.56%		6.53%	75.09%
BLB	Pale Ale	78.00%				78.00%
PA	Pale Ale	83.72%				83.72%
BS	Stout		69.03%	7.96%		76.99%
DS	Stout		68.85%	7.38%		76.23%
Tally Ho	Old Ale	27.95%	46.58%		4.66%	79.18%
Source:
Adnams brewing record Book 1 held at the brewery.

 

Let's Brew - 1893 Cannon KK

Playing Best Bitter to AK’s Ordinary Bitter was KK. Which is quite confusing. As, in London, KK meant a Stock or Burton Ale.

It has a pretty decent gravity. Not quite a full-strength Pale Ale though. It’s a few degrees light for that. But also highly-attenuated, leaving it 6.5% ABV.

It’s another very simple recipe. With only a single type of malt. Hard to spin many words out of that. Dum-dee-dum. Let’s move on.

A whole two types of hops, both Worcester. From the 1892 and 1893 harvests.

My guess is that it was a semi-stock beer. Aged for maybe three months. 

1893 Cannon KK
pale malt	13.50 lb	100.00%
Goldings 90 min	2.25 oz
Goldings 30 min	2.25 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.25 oz
OG	1058
FG	1009
ABV	6.48
Apparent attenuation	84.48%
IBU	58
SRM	5
Mash at	151º F
Sparge at	164º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	58º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1099 Whitbread ale

 

I've been at this game a while

Blogging. Almost 20 years. So many posts.

I realised just how many when searching for a photo to use in a video. Pretty sure that I took it when at Fullers for a vertical tasting of Vintage Ale. I couldn't remember which year it was. But it shouldn't be too difficult. Should it?

How wrong I was. Despite having some things that I thought were easily searchable, no luck. I even tried just looking through a list of my posts in 2008. Still couldn't find it. Filtering on the label "Fullers" and just trawling through the long list thankfully worked out.

(Just to prove the point I've just spent five minutes trying to find the page again.)

The page didn't have the photo I was after, however. Which is a shame. As searching my photos is a nightmare. At least the older ones. Those from 15 years ago or more. Which, again, is a sign of how long I've been in this game.

I've not got bored of it yet. Despite the stupefyingly dull nature of much of mt material. And the drudge of daily posts.

When will I stop?

2036. 

Hoping I'll still be alive then. 

Adnams beers in 1913

As a country brewery, Adnams gives us a good impression of what was happening outside the UK’s great metropoli.

With just seven beers, Adnams range was quite small. But well spread across different styles, there being two Mild Ales, two Pale Ales, two Stouts and one Old Ale.

The Mild Ales are, compared to the big cities, piss weak. X Ale looks very much like a post-WW II Mild, with its gravity just a shade over 1030º. Putting that into context, a London X Ale of the time was around 1050º. It must have been quite a shock for country folk visiting London

The two Pale Ales fall nicely into the Ordinary and Best Bitter slots. And, unlike the Mild Ales, are close in gravity to the equivalent London beers. Though the rate of hopping is much lower. Whitbread’s Pale Ales of the time received between 9 and 12 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt. Compared with just 6.5 lbs at Adnams.

Not quite sure why they brewed two Stouts at such similar gravities. Even the stronger of the two is well short of being Double Stout strength. It’s not even strong enough to really count as a Stout at all and has a gravity barely higher than a London Porter.

Named beers were very rare before WW I. Especially one that had been around as long as Tally Ho. Which had been brewed since at least 1879.

Both the Milds and Bitters show a high degree of attenuation. Only Tally Ho is below 70% apparent. But doubtless that would have increased during the long secondary fermentation that I’m sure it underwent before consumption. 

Adnams beers in 1913
Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	dry hops (oz / barrel)
X	Mild Ale	1033.0	1005.5	3.64	83.33%	3.73	0.54
XX	Mild Ale	1039.0	1007.0	4.23	82.05%	3.83	0.65
BLB	Pale Ale	1044.0	1007.0	4.89	84.09%	6.44	1.22	7.06
PA	Pale Ale	1056.0	1010.0	6.09	82.14%	6.53	1.54	7.56
BS	Stout	1055.0	1014.0	5.42	74.55%	4.19	1.08
DS	Stout	1060.0	1014.0	6.09	76.67%	4.91	1.34
Tally Ho	Old Ale	1081.0	1025.0	7.41	69.14%	6.21	2.25	10.50
Source:
Adnams brewing record Book 1 held at the brewery.

 

Interview with John Keeling

Yet another crappy video I've uploaded to YouTube.

 This time I'm talking to John Keeling, the highly-respected former head of brewing at Fullers. 

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1893 Cannon Table

Most of Cannon’s beers were brewed single-gyle. Though, occasionally, X was parti-gyled with Table.

The batches were pretty small. Around a dozen barrels, compared to 50 barrels for other beers. And it wasn’t brewed as often, either. Clearly the market for it was quite small. I’m guessing mostly – or totally – consumed at home. I don’t think pubs would usually sell a beer this weak in the 19th century.

It has the same achingly simple recipe as X. Just one type of base malt. Along with two types of hops, Californian and East Kent, both from the 1891 season.

Given its low gravity, this would have been drunk within a few days of racking.

1893 Cannon Table
pale malt	5.75 lb	100.00%
Cluster 90 min	0.625 oz
Goldings 30 min	0.625 oz
OG	1025
FG	1007
ABV	2.38
Apparent attenuation	72.00%
IBU	23
SRM	3
Mash at	153º F
Sparge at	165º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	62º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1099 Whitbread ale

 

Lucky fucker

I can't really complain. I'm a jammy git. Born at a good time.

After WW II, families like mine profitted from, well, the war. Better wages, social benefits.

My mother's family were clever. But the early death of her father in the 1830s meant grammar school wasn't an option. Couldn't afford it.

When my mother was widowed in the 1970s, me and my brother had free school uniforms, free school meals. Grammar school was still an option. I didn't pay to go to university. I was paid to go. I didn't realise how lucky I was. It seemed normal And part of progress.

Won't say that all the modern world is crap. Some modern technology is incredible empowering. Being creative is easier than ever, in some ways. 

I can fulfill my John Bull printing set dreams. Publish my own books. Anything I want. And someone might even buy them.

(Maybe just as well I couldn't publish back in the 1970s. There's a reason I burned my teenage poetry. Fuck me. If I had published that.)

Got to live in a beautiful part of a beautiful city. Before xenophobes complicated that. And accommodation here got too expensive.

Waved a very happy farewell to work at 63. Just wish it had been a decade or so earlier.

Still wish I was 18. So much I still want to do. 

Derek Prentice and brewing in the 1970s part 4

The last part of my interview with Derek Prentice. Discussing keg, tank and cask beer, continuous fermentation, parti-gyling, underlet mashing, craft beer and old beer styles, Truman Barley Wine, Burton Ale, Truman Tap Bitter, the end of Truman. Covering both the 1970s and 1980s.

Fullers X March 10th 1910 mashing scheme

Just one process left. And that’s mashing. In my spreadsheet of details extracted from brewing records I don’t include anything about mashing. Why? Because what breweries recorded varies enormously. And is difficult to summarise in a couple of columns.

Fullers were one of the better breweries when it came to noting down mashing details

It’s pretty much a classic underlet process. Where there’s an initial infusion mash at 149º F, followed by the addition of a smaller quantity of water introduced from below. This raised the temperature by 4º F.

At some point after the underlet “Saccharum Liquor”, that is a sugar solution, was added to the mash. This is rather odd, as sugar was usually added at the boiling stage.

The process was completed by a sparge at 168º F to 168º F.

A majority of English brewers used a method something like this. The ability to perform an underlet mash being the main reason for retaining internal rakes in the mash tun.

Fullers X March 10th 1910 mashing scheme
operation	barrels	strike heat	initial heat	mashed (mins)	stood (mins)	tap heat
mash	97	159º F	149º F	60	30
underlet	21	175º F	153º F			148º F
Saccharum Liquor	19
sparge	169	168º F
		165º F				152º F
Source:
Fullers brewing record held at the brewery.

 

Derek Prentice and brewing in the 1970s part 3

The third part of my talk with Derek Prentice about brewing in the 1970s, Talking about about keg and cask beer, primings, maltings, hop varieties, mashing and dropping system of fermentation.

My YouTube channel

You might have noticed that I've posted a few videos on YouTube over the last couple of days. There will be more to follow.

It's part of my drive to document and preserve. Initially, it's mostly material that I acquired for my book on the 1970s, "Keg!". I conducted several Zoom interviews Which I think are worth making public. Especially as the interviewees are all past retirement age. And won't be around forever.

I'm particularly keen on recording Derek Prentice's recollections of more than half a century in brewing. Despite my urging, Derek shows no interest in writing his memoirs. But he's happy to be interviewed and share his memories. I already have around two hours of video. And plan to record several more. Covering his time at Youngs and Fullers.

My intention is to assemble as much video as I can, documenting the last 50 or 60 years of UK brewing. The stuff that normally doesn't get recorded and rarely makes its way into books. Creating what I hope will be a useful source for future historians.

I welcome suggestions for people to interview. I already have around a dozen names, which should keep me going for a while.
 

Let's Brew - 1893 Cannon AK 10d

I have so many AK recipes now. It’s so wonderful. 

This is a pretty typical example: light, in both senses of the word. A pretty high degree of attenuation must have left it pretty dry. As well as a relatively high, for the OG, alcohol content.

I am struggling to see how this differs from X in any significant way. Slightly lower OG, slightly higher hopping rate. Hardly enough for them to be in different styles.

Excitement on the recipe front. There are two whole malts. One unnamed, the other called “Queen St.”. That being the address of the brewery, I assume that they malted it themselves.

Two types of hops, both Worcester, one from 1892 and one from 1893.

No ageing. 

1893 Cannon AK 10d
pale malt	10.50 lb	100.00%
Goldings 90 min	1.33 oz
Goldings 30 min	1.33 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.25 oz
OG	1045
FG	1007
ABV	5.03
Apparent attenuation	84.44%
IBU	34
SRM	4
Mash at	153º F
Sparge at	165º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	58º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1099 Whitbread ale

 

Central Europe in 2008: Budvar

Some video of the Budvar brewery in 2008 that I'd forgotten about. And never used because I didn't know how to nail all the bits together.

Derek Prentice and brewing in the 1970s part 2

I've just published the second part of my interview with Derek Prentice. Lots of good stuff about takeovers, brewery closures and dodgy brewing practices in the 1970s.

Fullers boiling and fermentation in 1910

Processes now. Starting with boiling and fermentation.

With the exception of X and BO, all the beers had two coppers.

Nothing very odd about the boiling process. Mostly, the boil length was in the range of 1.5 to 2 hours. Which was fairly typical. The only exception is BO, where the boil lasted 2.75 hours. Presumably some of that time was to concentrate the wort.

The fermentation temperatures are equally unexceptional, in the 60º F to 70º F range. I’m not finding much to say here, am I? 

Around a week for primary fermentation was pretty standard, too. Fullers used the dropping system of fermentation. I thought it would be interesting to include when the beers were dropped to the settling square.  There doesn’t seem to be much consistency to it, varying between 20 and 70 hours. 

Fullers boiling and fermentation in 1910
Beer	Style	boil time (hours)		Pitch temp	max. fermen-tation temp	length of fermen-tation (days)	dropped after (hours)
X	Mild	2		59º F	69º F	7	20
AK	Pale Ale	1.75	2	60º F	68.5º F	8	70
PA	Pale Ale	1.75	2	59.5º F	69º F	8	46
P	Porter	1.5	1.75	60º F	66.5º F	6
BS	Stout	1.5	1.75	59.5º F	69º F	6
BO	Strong Ale	2.75		60º F	70º F	9	60
	Average	1.88	1.88	59.7º F	68.7º F	7.3	49.0
Source:
Fullers brewing record held at the brewery.

 

Derek Prentice interview part 1

The first part of my interview with legend Derek Prentice is now available. Lots of good stuff about brewing at Truman in the 1970s.

Fullers hops in 1910

All that’s left in terms of ingredients are the hops. Which are always fun. Where will they be from? Because just before WW I the UK was importing bucketloads of hops. From pretty much every country that grew them.

Sure enough, every beer contained some Oregon hops. Mostly not very fresh at three years old. Oddly enough only the two Black Beers got relatively fresh ones. Perhaps because their nasty flavour would be masked by all the roast.

Nothing very exotic about the other hops. Which were all English. Mostly from Kent. Which makes sense, as it was right on Fullers doorstep. Where specified, these were from a combination East Kent and Mid-Kent.

These hops were fresher than the Oregons, none being more than two years old. And quite a lot being from the most recent season.

Every beer received four types of hops, other than X. Which only had three. Multiple hop types was pretty standard at the time. 

Fullers hops in 1910
Beer	Style	hop 1	hop 2	hop 3	hop 4
X	Mild	Oregon 1907	MK 1909	EK 1908
AK	Pale Ale	Oregon 1907	English 1908	MK 1909	EK 1908
PA	Pale Ale	Oregon 1907	??? 1909	MK 1909	EK 1908
P	Porter	Oregon 1909	English 1908	EK 1908	EK 1909
BS	Stout	Oregon 1909	English 1908	EK 1908	EK 1909
BO	Strong Ale	Oregon 1907	English 1908	MK 1908	MK 1909
Source:
Fullers brewing record held at the brewery.