tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5445569787371915337.post4719945861164812815..comments2024-03-28T13:20:29.156-07:00Comments on Shut up about Barclay Perkins: Barclay Perkins Burton Ale quality 1922 - 1924Ron Pattinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03095189986589865751noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5445569787371915337.post-10624209765639267842014-02-15T15:20:27.925-08:002014-02-15T15:20:27.925-08:00Well Rob, yes. Burton Ale was a stored ale but hi...Well Rob, yes. Burton Ale was a stored ale but historically not a "beer" (vs. ale), not a pale ale or a porter/stout. Bitterness that was too pronounced would be "out of style", to use a modern term.<br /><br />If a taster in this group was 65, and I'd think plum assignments like writing this book were reserved to the senior of the firm, he would have remembered Burton Ale in the 1880's - still plenty early to ensure the beer was historically accurate. <br /><br />The tech team knew their stuff, the formulations are often lapidary, but you can tell.<br /><br />Gary<br /><br />Gary Gillmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5445569787371915337.post-55518142772690216182014-02-14T11:26:26.519-08:002014-02-14T11:26:26.519-08:00"rather bitter" is a negative in burton ..."rather bitter" is a negative in burton ales?Robhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07290967499580060041noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5445569787371915337.post-44214095434527935422014-02-14T09:41:52.991-08:002014-02-14T09:41:52.991-08:00Brilliant, bright, almost bright, not quite bright...Brilliant, bright, almost bright, not quite bright, even hazy would today all be very acceptable. The bright line (sorry!) is between those and "thick" and "cloudy". London Murky, if anything like its presumed inspirations here, is cloudy or thick, not any of the other adjectives.<br /><br />It is understandable that a big and established concern like Whitbread would seek maximum clarity in its beers, like Watney achieved say, hence all the studied sub-sets of clarity for its chemists. But if London Murky was presented to them as the norm for a part of the industry, I think they would have been taken aback. Last night I had a Toronto area beer called Durham ESB on cask. It was lightly hazy but not murky or cloudy as most of the beers others were drinking were. Perhaps Whitbread, with its hyper-attentiveness to the desirability of maximum brightness, would call that "hazy" and people might think today the beer was deficient, but it was very good bitter indeed, not an APA style by the way, but quite English in taste. In a word, anything short of unqualified brightness (and preferably brilliance) was probably to the Whitbread technical team something like the impossibility of being a little pregnant. <br /><br />The 1920's, and presumably extrapolated, clarity issue therefore, unless a specific table would show a high proportion of terms like cloudy, turbid, muddy or thick, may be more apparent than real.<br /><br />GaryGary Gillmannoreply@blogger.com