Saint Mars of the Desert interview (video)

I chat with Dann and Martha about brewing in the USA and Yorkshire. And pissing on your own chips.

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1897 Fremlin IPA

And here we finally are at the top of the Pale Ale tree. It’s been a long climb, but worth it.

You might be a little confused by this beer. As it actually looks like an IPA is “supposed to”: over 6% ABV and hopped to hell. By this time, you’ve probably realised that most of the IPAs brewed in the UK didn’t fit that profile. Other than the ones brewed in Burton.

The recipe is generally similar to the other Pale Ales. Except that the adjunct is flaked wheat. Why was that? For head retention? Possibly. But wouldn’t the same be desirable in all the other Pale Ales, too?

Once again, the sugar is a combination of No. 2 invert and dextro-maltose. Which I’ve consolidated to all No. 2 invert.

Pretty sure that this was a Stock Ale. Nine to twelve months with Brettanomyces is my guess. 

1897 Fremlin IPA
pale malt	9.50 lb	70.37%
flaked wheat	0.75 lb	5.56%
No. 2 invert sugar	3.25 lb	24.07%
Fuggles 120 mins	2.00 oz
Goldings 90 mins	4.00 oz
Goldings 60 mins	2.00 oz
Goldings dry hops	1.50 oz
OG	1069
FG	1018
ABV	6.75
Apparent attenuation	73.91%
IBU	101
SRM	12
Mash at	148º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	120minutes
pitching temp	58º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1099 Whitbread ale

 

Fullers sugars in 1910

Quite a few different sugars. Five in all. Considerably more than malts. Most of the sugars were some sort of invert.

Let’s start with the numbered inverts. No. 2 appears in both the Pale Ales and the Strong Ale. No. 1 or No. 2 are the sugars you would expect to see in Pale Ales, as they are relatively light in colour. The darker No. 3 was the obvious choice for Mild Ale. Especially at a time when the style was becoming darker.

The Special dark invert that turns up in the two Black Beers sounds like it might be something like No. 4 invert. That is, a very dark type of invert sugar. The quantity used in Porter and Stout is very large, almost a quarter of all the fermentable material.

I’ve no idea what trivert is. Other than suspecting that it’s some sort of invert. And that it was pale in colour.

I assume that the caramel was being used mostly for colour correction, as it appears in all Fullers beers, including the pale ones.

Overall, the sugar content is quite high, averaging over 18%. With Burton Old (BO) the only beer with less than 10%. While in the Black Beers it’s over 25%.

Fullers sugars in 1910
Beer	Style	no. 2 sugar	no. 3 sugar	Special dark invert	Pale Trivert	caramel	total sugar
X	Mild		8.75%		10.00%	0.65%	19.39%
AK	Pale Ale	5.25%			7.88%	0.20%	13.33%
PA	Pale Ale	8.94%			5.96%	0.16%	15.06%
P	Porter			24.06%		2.92%	26.98%
BS	Stout			24.06%		2.92%	26.98%
BO	Strong Ale	8.13%				0.41%	8.54%
	Average						18.38%
Source:
Fullers brewing record held at the brewery.

 

 

 

Fullers grists in 1910

We’ll now take a look under the bonnet of these beers.

Most of the beers contained only a single malt: base pale malt. Which is pretty much what you’d expect for the period. A time when crystal malt was unknown in Pale Ales and by no means universal in Mild Ales.

Obviously, you can’t brew Porter or Stout without some sort of roast. Fullers went for the classic London combination of brown and black malt. The roast malts making up a hefty 16% of the total.

There’s quite a bit of variation in the malt content. From just under 70% in the Black Beers to 87% in the Strong Ale.

Every beer received a small dose of flaked maize. Nothing odd there. By this point, flaked maize was by far the most popular adjunct and flaked rice had been pretty much abandoned.

In the first decade of the 20th century, Oatmeal Stout was all the rage. Fullers must have joined in the craze. Hence the tiny quantity of oats. The brewing records don’t make clear what form they were in. Probably flaked. Adding a minute quantity of oats to a Stout parti-gyle to be able to legally market some of it as Oatmeal Stout was a typical trick of London brewers. 

Fullers grists in 1910
Beer	Style	pale malt	brown malt	black malt	total malt	flaked maize	oats	total adjuncts
X	Mild	74.05%			74.05%	6.56%		6.56%
AK	Pale Ale	80.76%			80.76%	5.91%		5.91%
PA	Pale Ale	81.59%			81.59%	3.35%		3.35%
P	Porter	53.38%	10.53%	5.26%	69.17%	3.01%	0.85%	3.85%
BS	Stout	53.38%	10.53%	5.26%	69.17%	3.01%	0.85%	3.85%
BO	Strong Ale	87.40%			87.40%	4.07%		4.07%
	Average				77.02%			4.60%
Source:
Fullers brewing record held at the brewery.

 

Fremlin BB 1st Oct 1897 mashing scheme

And how were these beers mashed? In a fairly complicated way is the short answer.

It’s fairly typical of mashing practices in England. The process begins with a small amount of hot water to warm the mash tun. This was followed by an infusion mash, with 18 minutes of mashing.

There was then an underlet with a small amount of hotter water. After which the mash was left to stand for almost two hours.

The process ended with four sparges at descending temperatures.

All of Fremlin’s beers were mashed in a similar way. With the exception of Pilsner, which had a decoction mash. 

Fremlin BB 1st Oct 1897 mashing scheme
operation	barrels	strike heat	mash time	stand time	tap heat
heat tun	4	180º F			148º F
mash	43	160º F	18 mins		153º F
underlet	3	180º F		117 mins	158º F
sparge 1	13	175º F
sparge 2	13	170º F
sparge 3	24	165º F
sparge 4	48	160º F
Source:
Fremlin brewing record held at the Kent Archives, document number U3555/2/F/Bx2/1/22.

 

Let's Brew - 1897 Fremlin PA L

We’re still not finished climbing the Pale Ale tree. Now we have the London version of PA.

Which, as you should have noticed by now, means slightly stronger and more heavily hopped than the standard version. This beer is no exception.

No adjuncts this time around. Just base malt (half made from English barley and half from Californian) and two types of sugar. As usual, No. 2 invert and dextro-maltose. Which I’ve consolidated into just No. 2.

Only two types of hops here. Both English from the 1897 season.

With both a relatively high gravity and level of hopping, I’m sure this was aged. Nine to twelve months is my guess. 

1897 Fremlin PA L
pale malt	8.50 lb	72.34%
No. 2 invert sugar	3.25 lb	27.66%
Fuggles 120 mins	1.50 oz
Goldings 90 mins	3.00 oz
Goldings 60 mins	1.50 oz
Goldings dry hops	1.25 oz
OG	1061
FG	1019
ABV	5.56
Apparent attenuation	68.85%
IBU	79
SRM	11.5
Mash at	147º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	57º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1099 Whitbread ale

 

Boddington 2nd Dec 1901 mashing scheme

We’ll finish with mashing. Which was a pretty simple process at Boddington. Much simpler than at most English breweries. Where the minimum was an infusion mash, underlet and a couple of sparges.

Interestingly, the brewing record does include columns for an underlet, which are filled in with just dashes. Presumably, at one time they had used an underlet but had discontinued the practice.

In this example, there’s just a single infusion with a strike heat of 160º F, followed by a rest of two hours. The process was completed with three sparges at descending temperatures. 

Boddington 2nd Dec 1901 mashing scheme
operation	barrels	strike heat	rest	tap heat
mash	70	160º F	2 hours	150º F
sparge 1		168º F
sparge 2		164º F
sparge 3		160º F
Source:
Boddington brewing record held at Manchester Central Library, document number M693/405/125.

 

Garton's sugar (part two)

More about Garton's super-duper new type of brewing sugar, dextrine-dextro-laevulose. It just rolls off the tongue, doesn't it?

We'll kick off with an explanation of its properties.

Now my Invention consists in the employment in brewing of what I term dextrine-dextro-laevulose, or dextro-saccharum, containing a substantial proportion of dextrine with any desired proportion of fermentable sugar, and which will therefore impart a less sweet and also a fuller drinking character to the beer without the necessity of departing from the methods ordinarily practised of mashing the malt and boiling the wort. The dextrine-dextrose and the invert sugar of which the said dextrine-dextro-laevulose is composed are either blended together in the process of brewing, or, as I prefer, blended at any stage of their manufacture after neutralization, so as to constitute a merchantable article, the manufacture of which forms part of my Invention.
Letters patent, 27th March 1876, N° 1311, page 2.

Basically, you didn't have to mess around changing your mashing scheme when using this type of sugar. As the unfermentable dextrine would maintain the body. You could add the deextrine and invert sugar separately, but Garton's product was simpler to use.

Now, it describes how to make this amazing product.

I conduct the manufacture of the dextrine-dextro-laevulose in two separate processes. First, I convert amylaceous substances (preferably rice) in the manner herein-after explained, whereby I obtain as much dextrine as possible. I then invert cane sugar, using acid in both cases, and after neutralizing each I blend the two together in the required proportions at any subsequent stage of the manufacture, or in the process of brewing, as already mentioned.

For converting the rice I at first employ heat and acid in the usual way, but afterwards maintain the heat so long only as any traces of starch remain, and I neutralize the solution when two equivalents of dextrine and one equivalent of sugar are formed, so as to produce as nearly as practicable a solution containing 67 per cent. of dextrine and 33 per cent. of sugar, calculated upon the dry extract. In inverting the cane sugar the well known method by the aid of dilute sulphuric acid is adopted.
Letters patent, 27th March 1876, N° 1311, page 2.

The two elements were produced separately. The dextrine was made first from unmalted grains and then mixed with invert sugar. With the proportions two-thirds dextrine to one third invert.

The rival product of dextrine-maltose is now described.

I am aware that it has been proposed to manufacture and employ in brewing as a substitute for malt a substance called “dextrine-maltose,” which is said to be composed of about 33 per cent. of ordinary dextrine and 67 per cent. of maltose (containing a further quantity of dextrine soluble in alcohol), being a compound body supposed to possess the same constituents as obtained from malt by an ordinary mashing process; but the substance which I employ differs essentially from the so-called dextrine-maltose, and the processes I adopt are quite distinct. The dextrine-maltose is obtained by carrying the conversion far beyond the point at which I stop to avoid any further transformation of dextrine into glucose, and I supply the required extra amount of fermentable sugar by a separately prepared invert sugar, as herein-before explained.
Letters patent, 27th March 1876, N° 1311, page 2.

Basically, I think Mr. Garton is saying how his product is better than silly old dextrine-maltose.

How was the wonder product used?

I vary the proportions of inert sugar to suit the brewing of different kinds of beer, preferring to use a sufficient quantity of the dextrine-dextrose to give at least 10 per cent, of dextrine.

In some cases, more particularly for low quality beers and porter, instead of manufacturing dextrine-dextro-laevulose, as herein-before described, I use dextrine prepared by torrefaction in the usual way, taking care that it is quite free from starch, and I employ it in combination with a suitable proportion of invert sugar, the two being blended together in the course of manufacture or in the process of brewing.
Letters patent, 27th March 1876, N° 1311, page 2.

So about 10% of the sugar should be dextrine. Meaning you'd need to use a fair bit of standard invert along with the dextrine-dextro-laevulose.
 

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1897 Fremlin BA L

The London variant was the strongest of the various BAs. Exactly what you would expect. The most heavily hopped, too. Also, predictable.

Only three elements to the grist: pale malt, No. 2 invert and dextro-maltose. The base malt being half from Californian and half from English barley. Bit boring, aren’t they, these Fremlin recipes?

Just two types of copper hops, both English from the 1897 harvest. With half added in the middle of the boil.

This looks like a semi-Stock Pale Ale to me with a couple of months of secondary conditioning. 

1897 Fremlin BA L
pale malt	8.00 lb	74.42%
No. 2 invert sugar	2.75 lb	25.58%
Fuggles 120 mins	1.33 oz
Goldings 90 mins	2.67 oz
Goldings 60 mins	1.33 oz
Goldings dry hops	1.00 oz
OG	1055
FG	1015.5
ABV	5.23
Apparent attenuation	71.82%
IBU	67
SRM	10.5
Mash at	149º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	58º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1099 Whitbread ale

 

Garton's sugar (part one)

Many thanks to Eric from Butcher's Tears for sending me a Garton's patent. Which explains what the sugar was used by Boddington and described simply as "Garton".

The patent kicks off with some general discussion about the sugar used in brewing.

William Garton, of the Town and County of Southampton, Brewer. “Improvements in Brewing, and the Preparation of a Material to be Employed THEREIN."

It has been usual for some time past to employ as a substitute for a portion of the malt used in the brewing of beer a prepared sugar known in the trade as saccharum.

This saccharum is chiefly manufactured from cane sugar by the well known processes of inverting with an acid at certain temperatures; but in consequence of its highly vinous and fermentable character, and the absence of dextrine, the malt used in conjunction with it has to be manipulated in such a way as to retain a larger proportion of dextrine than is usually left by the ordinary methods of brewing, and difficulties arise in effecting this result in some breweries, and the beer produced has in some cases too sweet a flavour, and in others it attenuates too freely.
Letters patent, 27th March 1876, N° 1311, page 1.

It's good to have confirmed that saccharum was invert sugar. As well as the method of its manufacture using acid.

There was also a second method using the starch from grains.

The article is also manufactured partly from amylaceous substances and partly from cane sugar by a combined process, that is, acid is employed to convert the starch to dextrine-dextrose, when the temperature is reduced and cane sugar added to the acid solution, and as it is necessary to defer the neutralization for several hours to insure a proper inversion of the cane sugar, a further conversion of the rice product takes place and the dextrine cannot be kept intact, consequently this combined process only supplies an inappreciable amount of dextrine to the dextrose and invert sugar produced, therefore almost the same results as those above named are caused.
Letters patent, 27th March 1876, N° 1311, page 1.

Invert was sometimes combined with straight glucose.

Sometimes ordinary glucose is mixed with invert sugar in brewing, but owing to the small quantity of dextrine it contains the objection before referred to is not overcome, and although the mixture gives a heavier final gravity to the beer this is due to the presence of inert bodies, which impart an undesirable bitter flavor.
Letters patent, 27th March 1876, N° 1311, page 1.

Next time we'll discuss dextrine-dextro-laevulose. Won't that be fun?
 

Boddington boiling and fermentation in 1901

A couple of processes now. Boiling and fermentation.

Starting with boiling. Interestingly, most of the beers only had a single wort.  Which was definitely not typical. You would usually only see that in two circumstances. First, at breweries where the brew length was short. Second, when a batch size was very small.

The boil lengths are sort of middling at mostly two hours plus. About 1.5 hours is the minimum you would see around this time. In this case, the boils are probably a bit longer as there’s only one wort. And some of the boil would be to concentrate the last runnings.

Very consistent is how I would describe the pitching temperatures. Which only vary by 0.5º F. 60º Fis pretty much a standard pitching temperature. Though for stronger beers you would expect it to be a little lower.

There’s nothing odd about the maximum temperatures, which are all around 70º F. Generally, a little higher for the stronger beers. As you would expect.

Around a week for primary fermentation was fairly typical. Some brewers did manage to run their weaker beers through in four or five days.

Boddington boiling and fermentation in 1901
Beer	Style	boil time (hours)		Pitch temp	max. fermen-tation temp	length of fermen-tation (days)
TA	Table Ale	1.83		60º F	68º F	5
X	Mild	2		60º F	68º F	7
XX	Mild	2	2.17	60º F	69º F	7
XXX	Mild	2.5	2.25	60.5º F	69º F	7
XXXX	Mild	2.33		60.5º F	70º F	7
AK	Pale Ale	2.08		60º F	69º F	7
IPA	IPA	2.25		60º F	69º F	7
S	Stout	2.25		60º F	69º F	7
DS	Stout	2.25		60º F	70º F	7
BB	Strong Ale	2.75		60º F	72º F	7
Source:
Boddington brewing record held at Manchester Central Library, document number M693/405/125.

 

Boddington hops in 1901

Hops to finish. Quite a lot of different types. But not very many details, sadly.

About half the beers had four types of hops. Three English and one Californian. The other half had five types. The extra type also being English.

The only beer for which I have details of the hops’ vintage is TA. Which was brewed in 1902. And a majority of the hops are on the old side. As Boddington had pretty much the same hops in all their beers, using old hops wasn’t exclusive to TA, Meaning the other beers in the table probably also contained hops of varying ages. 

Boddington hops in 1901
Beer	Style	hop 1	hop 2	hop 3	hop 4	hop 5
TA	Table Ale	English 1898	English 1899	English 1900	English 1901	Californian 1900
X	Mild	English	English	English	Californian
XX	Mild	English	English	English	English	Californian
XXX	Mild	English	English	English	Californian
XXXX	Mild	English	English	English	English	Californian
AK	Pale Ale	English	English	English	Californian
IPA	IPA	English	English	English	English	Californian
S	Stout	English	English	English	Californian
DS	Stout	English	English	English	English	Californian
BB	Strong Ale	English	English	English	Californian
Source:
Boddington brewing record held at Manchester Central Library, document number M693/405/125.

 

Let's Brew - 1897 Fremlin BA C

Looking very similar to BB is the country version of BA. It has the same gravity, and identical hopping. Only the grist is slightly different. Though it is the same as the standard version of BA.

Which is pale malt, flaked barley and No. 2 invert sugar. Nothing very exciting there. And very much like most of their other Pale Ales.

Loads of different types of hops again. Six in total, all English, from the 1896 and 1897.

I don’t expect that this was aged for more than a couple of weeks. 

1897 Fremlin BA C
pale malt	6.75 lb	71.05%
flaked barley	0.50 lb	5.26%
No. 2 invert sugar	2.25 lb	23.68%
Fuggles 135 mins	0.875 oz
Goldings 105 mins	1.75 oz
Goldings 75 mins	0.875 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.50 oz
OG	1048
FG	1013
ABV	4.63
Apparent attenuation	72.92%
IBU	52
SRM	9
Mash at	150º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	135 minutes
pitching temp	60º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1099 Whitbread ale

 

Boddington grists in 1901

Time to look at what went into these beers. Which, it turns out, wasn’t a whole lot.

Only two types of malt were employed: pale and black. That’s pretty minimal. Especially as only three beers – the two Stouts and the Strong Ale – contained black malt. And, even in those, the quantity is pretty small. There’s not really anything else to say about the malts.

Similarly, there were just two types of sugar: Garton and invert. Both of which are pretty vague descriptions. And pretty similar, as Garton was a producer of invert. I did wonder if they were different names for the same thing. Until I came across beers that included both.

In general, the malt content is very high. Over 90% in most cases. And there are no adjuncts of any type. Which, as you’ve probably noticed, wasn’t very typical. By 1900, most breweries had taken advantage of the opportunity to use unmalted grains given by the 1880 Free Mash Tun Act.

Boddington grists in 1901
Beer	Style	pale malt	black malt	Garton	invert	total sugar
TA	Table Ale	91.30%		8.70%		8.70%
X	Mild	92.86%		7.14%		7.14%
XX	Mild	91.58%		8.42%		8.42%
XXX	Mild	88.89%			11.11%	11.11%
XXXX	Mild	93.75%			6.25%	6.25%
AK	Pale Ale	90.70%			9.30%	9.30%
IPA	IPA	91.84%			8.16%	8.16%
S	Stout	86.98%	1.97%	5.52%	5.52%	11.05%
DS	Stout	85.86%	1.42%	9.54%	3.18%	12.72%
BB	Strong Ale	91.13%	0.19%		8.68%	8.68%
Source:
Boddington brewing record held at Manchester Central Library, document number M693/405/125.