Cairnes Single Stout hops

Over to the hops. At the start of the period, Cairnes used exclusively foreign hops in their Single Stout. Either from Oregon or Belgium. That all changed in the middle of the year.

When English hops appear. There were still Oregon hops, but they were getting older as they all remained from the 1915 harvest. The reason is obvious: imports of American hops dried up. Once the war was over, large quantities of fresher American hops came into the mix. Though there were still some English hops used.

Let’s see how Fullers use of hops compared.

There’s a similar pattern to at Cairnes, where new foreign hops disappear in 1916. Though, in this case, rather than American hops they were Belgian and Germany. After that, it’s all English hops until after war’s end. When lots of French and American hops appear.

“MK”, obviously, stands for Mid-Kent. Not really sure what “B” means. I can’t think of a type of hops that starts with the letter “B”, other than Belgian.

Cairnes Single Stout hops 1914 - 1923
Date	Year	hop 1	hop 2	hop 3	hop 4
1st Jan	1914	Oregon 1912	Belgium old
1st Sep	1914	Oregon 1913	Oregon no date	Oregon 1912
7th Jan	1915	Oregon 1913	Oregon 1913	Oregon 1907
2nd Oct	1916	Oregon 1915	English 1915	Poperinge 1915
3rd May	1917	Oregon 1915	English 1916
7th Jun	1917	Oregon 1915	English 1916
1st Nov	1917	Oregon 1915	English 1916
3rd Jan	1918	Oregon 1915	English 1916
2nd May	1918	Oregon 1915	English 1916
3rd Oct	1918	Oregon 1915	English 1916	English 1917
3rd Feb	1919	Oregon 1915	English 1917
2nd Oct	1919	English 1917	English 1918	Pacifics no date
1st Jan	1920	Oregon 1918	English 1917	English 1918	old Pacifics
15th Apr	1920	Oregon 1918	English 1918
4th Oct	1920	Oregon 1918	Oregon 1919	English 1919
3rd Oct	1921	Oregon 1918	Oregon 1919	English 1919	English 1920
2nd Feb	1922	Sonoma 1920	English 1917	English 1920
1st Jan	1923	English 1921	English 1921	English 1921
Sources:
Cairnes brewing records held at the Guinness archives, document numbers GDB/SUB/0022 and GDB/BR17/1257.

 

Fullers Porter hops 1914 - 1925
Date	Year	hop 1	hop 2	hop 3	hop 4	hop 5
18th Nov	1914	MK 1913	Poperinge 1913	Hallertau 1912	Farnham 1913	Tolhurst 1914
17th Feb	1915	Poperinge 1913	B 1913	MK 1913	Tolhurst 1913
2nd Jun	1916	Tolhurst 1915	MK 1914	Farnham 1914
4th Aug	1916	Tolhurst 1915	MK 1914	B 1914	old hops
12th Apr	1917	MK 1915	B 1915
9th Aug	1917	No. 2 B 1915	Tolhurst 1916	MK 1916
5th Jan	1918	MK 1916	Tolhuirst 1916
19th Apr	1918	Farnham 1916	MK 1916
14th Jan	1919	MK 1917	Poperinge 1914
10th Feb	1920	Alsace 1917	Alsace 1919	Sonoma 1916	Oregon
16th Jun	1925	Pacifics 1922	English 1923	English 1924
Source:
Fullers brewing records held at the brewery.

 

Cairnes Single Stout sugars 1914 - 1923

Moving on to the sugars, this is where Fullers and Cairnes really diverge. At the start of the war, Cairnes Single Stout had a little under 9% sugar, in the form of glucose. In 1916, that disappears in 1916, and for the rest of the war there’s no sugar at all. Sugar does reappear in 1920, but only in the form of caramel.

Things at Fullers were way, way more complicated. Over the war years, they employed seven different types of sugar. Though in any single brew there were never more than three.

The most popular sugars were glucose and something called Special Dark. I’m guessing that the latter was some sort of dark invert sugar. The quantity used was pretty high at the start and the end of the period covered by the table. I assume restrictions on the supply of sugar was responsible for the drastic reduction in the quantity during the war years.

At Fullers, the proportion of sugar in the grist was far higher than at Cairnes. Starting at over 25%. Even in the most difficult later war years, the amount never fell lower than 6.5%. And for most of the time was well over 10%.

Fullers also used way more caramel, varying between 3% and 7.5%. While at Cairnes it went from zero to a maximum of 2%.

While at Cairnes, even at the start of the war, sugar was less than 10% of the grist. From 1916 on, that was reduced to zero. And, other than caramel, no sugar was used after WW I. 

Cairnes Single Stout grists 1914 - 1923
Date	Year	pale malt	roast barley	flaked maize	glucose	caramel
1st Jan	1914	74.45%	6.50%	9.93%	8.82%	0.30%
1st Sep	1914	70.03%	7.74%	13.34%	8.89%
7th Jan	1915	71.37%	7.22%	12.69%	8.72%
2nd Oct	1916	79.62%	7.11%	13.27%
3rd May	1917	79.62%	7.11%	13.27%
7th Jun	1917	87.83%	6.84%	5.32%
1st Nov	1917	87.83%	6.84%	5.32%
3rd Jan	1918	86.70%	6.88%	6.42%
2nd May	1918	91.17%	6.74%	2.10%
3rd Oct	1918	93.33%	6.67%
3rd Feb	1919	93.33%	6.67%
2nd Oct	1919	85.42%	7.46%	7.12%
1st Jan	1920	89.05%	7.66%	3.30%
15th Apr	1920	87.33%	7.37%	5.29%
4th Oct	1920	81.76%	8.54%	9.28%		0.41%
3rd Oct	1921	95.33%	3.91%			0.76%
2nd Feb	1922	76.04%	10.18%	12.64%		1.13%
1st Jan	1923	89.36%	8.51%			2.13%
Sources:
Cairnes brewing records held at the Guinness archives, document numbers GDB/SUB/0022 and GDB/BR17/1257.

Fullers Porter sugars 1914 - 1925
Date	Year	glucose	invert	Special Dark	cane sugar	Dark Trivert	Porteris	caramel	total sugar
18th Nov	1914	11.34%		12.60%				3.30%	27.25%
17th Feb	1915	3.83%				9.56%		2.91%	16.30%
2nd Jun	1916						15.84%	6.15%	21.99%
4th Aug	1916			4.90%				3.85%	8.75%
12th Apr	1917	3.44%		6.89%				3.59%	13.92%
9th Aug	1917			1.25%	1.25%			3.92%	6.42%
5th Jan	1918			2.35%	2.35%			3.69%	8.39%
19th Apr	1918	8.59%		4.30%	8.59%			4.42%	25.90%
14th Jan	1919	5.69%	5.69%					7.57%	18.94%
10th Feb	1920				6.92%			4.89%	11.81%
16th Jun	1925			13.50%				4.80%	18.31%
Source:
Fullers brewing records held at the brewery.

Cairnes Single Stout grists 1914 – 1923

A Cairnes Special Export Irish Stout label

Back to work, eh? Looking at all the the nutty bolty stuff.

I always try to have a purpose behind all my posts. Usually, that's a book. Either it's part of my research for a book, an excerpt or a recipe that's going into a book. Which is where the Irish material I'm going through throw up a problem. What book is it going in?

The most obvious - and simple - solution would be to start a book called "Ireland!". That would make a lot of sense. But I'm not going to do it. No, not just to be awkward or contrary. I don't feel that I know enough to start on it. My mind is full of unanswered questions about Irish brewing. Far too early to be confident about writing a book about it.

Perhaps I'll feel differently when I've finished going through all the brewing records I photographed earlier this year. Or maybe not. I only got about halfway through the Murphy's records. And I wouldn't mind looking at the ones of Beamish & Crawford, too.

Before I started writing my series of books on UK brewing, I'd already completed a huge amount of the research. All that was left, was filling in a few holes. Nothing that affected the overall picture. I'm far away from that situation when it comes to Ireland.

If you can remember my earlier question, stuff like this is being stored as a future update. In this case, to "Armistice!". Not totally sure where I'd put it. I'm sure I'll be able to find some way of hammering it in. Ireland probably deserves its own chapter, at least. With the restrictions being different there.

Now let’s look at what went into Cairnes Single Stout.  It’s not particularly complicated. Especially when we compare it with Fullers Porter.

Only three elements graced the mash tun: pale malt, roast barley and flaked maize. Which is pretty minimal. And the last of those three wasn’t omnipresent, disappearing for a while in 1918 and 1919. The quantity used having already been drastically reduced.

Interestingly, the percentage of malt increased quite a lot in 1917, coinciding with the reduction and then elimination of flaked maize. This was presumably a reaction to supply difficulties with maize as the German U-boat campaign hotted up.

The proportion of roast barley remained very constant at around 7%, other than for a bit of a wobble in the early 1920s, when it dropped as low as 4% and then shot up to 10%. Not sure why that was.

Looking at Fullers grists, there are some similar patterns. Though their recipes were way more complicated.

There were three malts, the classic London combination of pale, brown and black malt. Though the total amount is similar to at Cairnes, starting at around 70%, rising to a peak of over 90% in 1917.  This was presumably in response to restrictions in supply of maize and sugar.

Which brings us to flaked maize. It kicks off the war at a much lower level than at Cairnes, just a little under 3%. And, just as at Cairnes, it disappears in the later war years.

The other adjunct, oats, appears in tiny quantities, purely for legal purposes so that some of the Stout it was parti-gyled with could be sold as Oatmeal Stout. The larger quantities which appear in 1918 were in the form of oat husks. Not sure if they would get any extract out of those. But why else would they be used?

Cairnes Single Stout grists 1914 - 1923
Date	Year	pale malt	roast barley	flaked maize	glucose	caramel
1st Jan	1914	74.45%	6.50%	9.93%	8.82%	0.30%
1st Sep	1914	70.03%	7.74%	13.34%	8.89%
7th Jan	1915	71.37%	7.22%	12.69%	8.72%
2nd Oct	1916	79.62%	7.11%	13.27%
3rd May	1917	79.62%	7.11%	13.27%
7th Jun	1917	87.83%	6.84%	5.32%
1st Nov	1917	87.83%	6.84%	5.32%
3rd Jan	1918	86.70%	6.88%	6.42%
2nd May	1918	91.17%	6.74%	2.10%
3rd Oct	1918	93.33%	6.67%
3rd Feb	1919	93.33%	6.67%
2nd Oct	1919	85.42%	7.46%	7.12%
1st Jan	1920	89.05%	7.66%	3.30%
15th Apr	1920	87.33%	7.37%	5.29%
4th Oct	1920	81.76%	8.54%	9.28%		0.41%
3rd Oct	1921	95.33%	3.91%			0.76%
2nd Feb	1922	76.04%	10.18%	12.64%		1.13%
1st Jan	1923	89.36%	8.51%			2.13%
Sources:
Cairnes brewing records held at the Guinness archives, document numbers GDB/SUB/0022 and GDB/BR17/1257.

Fullers Porter grists 1914 - 1925
Date	Year	pale malt	brown malt	black malt	total malt	flaked maize	oats	total adjuncts
18th Nov	1914	53.88%	11.34%	3.78%	69.00%	2.84%	0.91%	3.75%
17th Feb	1915	60.25%	12.91%	6.46%	79.62%	3.59%	0.49%	4.08%
2nd Jun	1916	52.53%	12.51%	8.76%	73.80%	3.75%	0.46%	4.21%
4th Aug	1916	60.06%	14.71%	11.03%	85.80%	4.90%	0.55%	5.45%
12th Apr	1917	58.54%	13.77%	8.61%	80.92%	5.16%		5.16%
9th Aug	1917	67.38%	14.97%	11.23%	93.58%			0.00%
5th Jan	1918	61.66%	14.09%	10.57%	86.33%		5.29%	5.29%
19th Apr	1918	45.10%	11.28%	8.05%	64.44%		9.67%	9.67%
14th Jan	1919	59.73%	12.80%	8.53%	81.06%			0.00%
10th Feb	1920	59.66%	12.97%	9.08%	81.70%	6.48%		6.48%
16th Jun	1925	64.15%		8.44%	72.59%	8.44%	0.66%	9.10%
Source:
Fullers brewing records held at the brewery.

 

 

Boiling Stout between the wars

I expected to see boil times shortening in the later war years as brewers tried to reduce their coal usage. Which was something they had agreed with government.

No evidence of that at all at Fullers:

Fullers Brown Stout boiling 1910 - 1920
Date	Year	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)
10th Aug	1910	1.5	1.75
18th Nov	1914	1.5	1.75
17th Feb	1915	1.5	2.25
9th Jun	1916	1.5	1.75
17th Jan	1917	1.5	1.75
26th Aug	1919	1.5	1.5
10th Feb	1920	1.5
Source:
Fullers brewing records held at the brewery.

While Courage only reduced their boil times after all the nastiness was over.

Courage Double Stout/Stout boiling times 1914 - 1920
Date	Year	Beer	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)
21st Oct	1914	Double Stout	2	2	1
10th Mar	1915	Double Stout	1.5	2	1
22nd Sep	1915	Double Stout	2	2	1
1st Dec	1915	Double Stout	2	2	1
10th May	1916	Double Stout	2	2	1
3rd Jan	1917	Double Stout	2	2	1
24th Oct	1917	Double Stout	2	2	1
16th Jan	1918	Double Stout	2	2	1
2nd May	1918	Stout	2	2	1
2nd Jul	1919	Stout	1.5	1.5	1
1st Oct	1919	Stout	1.5	1.5	1
21st Jan	1920	Stout	1.5	1.5	1
Sources:
Courage brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers ACC/2305/08/247, ACC/2305/08/248, ACC/2305/08/249, ACC/2305/08/250 and ACC/2305/08/251.

That’s another theory kicked into touch. Hang on. Let’s take a look at Whitbread. 

Whitbread London Stout boiling times 1914 - 1920
Date	Year	Beer	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)
17th Mar	1914	London Stout	1.75	1.75
12th Jul	1915	London Stout	1.75	1.75
15th Nov	1916	London Stout	1.5	1.75
21st Oct	1918	London Stout	1.5	1.5
23rd May	1919	London Stout	1.5	1.5
9th Jan	1920	London Stout	1.5	1.75
Sources:
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/09/108, LMA/4453/D/09/110, LMA/4453/D/09/111, LMA/4453/D/09/112 and LMA/4453/D/09/113.

Pretty clear that Whitbread reduced their boil times by 15 minutes in the middle of the war. And then bounced them back a bit after hostilities ended. At least one brewery cut down on their boiling, then. 

This is an excerpt my book "Stout!"

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