Let's Brew Wednesday - 1909 Lees U (Exhibition Brew)

I’m not sure which exhibition this was brewed for. Brewers’ Exhibition? It doesn’t specify in the brewing record.

How does it differ from the standard version of U? Not much. It’s 6º of gravity stronger. And there’s a bit more sugar. That’s about it. As with standard U, there’s no indication of the sugar type. No.2 is just a conservative substitute from me.

The hops were English from the 1907 and 1908 harvests. Along with Oregon from 1907. Only problem is, no quantities are given. I’ve just used the same hopping rate as for standard U. I hope that’s right. 

1909 Lees U (Exhibition Brew)
pale malt	5.75 lb	71.88%
flaked maize	1.125 lb	14.06%
No. 2 invert sugar	1.125 lb	14.06%
Cluster 70 min	0.33 oz
Fuggles 30 min	0.33 oz
Fuggles 15 min	0.33 oz
OG	1038
FG	1005
ABV	4.37
Apparent attenuation	86.84%
IBU	12
SRM	6.5
Mash at	154º F
Sparge at	168º F
Boil time	70 minutes
pitching temp	61º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1318 London ale III (Boddingtons)

 

Let's Brew - 1910 Lees Bitter

One beer which hasn’t dropped much in gravity is the Bitter. Which is just 2º lower in gravity than in 1884.

It’s pretty much a full-strength Pale Ale. Maybe a few degrees weaker than a top-class London version.

The grist is fairly similar to the two Mild Ales: pale malt, maize and sugar. Though in rather different proportions. There’s a lot more sugar, which here is around 14%. I wonder if that’s to keep the colour as pale as possible? That’s certainly something that happened.

The hopping rate is much heavier than in the Mild Ales. No surprise there. It’s 7.75 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt compared to around 3 lbs. 

The hops themselves were the same as in the Mild Ales: Two types of English hops and one Württemberg, all from 1908 and Californian from 1907. 

1910 Lees Bitter
pale malt	9.75 lb	82.42%
flaked maize	0.33 lb	2.79%
No. 2 invert sugar	1.75 lb	14.79%
Fuggles 125 min	1.25 oz
Fuggles 60 min	1.25 oz
Hallertau 30 min	1.25 oz
Cluster dry hops	0.125 oz
OG	1055
FG	1016
ABV	5.16
Apparent attenuation	70.91%
IBU	44
SRM	8
Mash at	153º F
Sparge at	166º F
Boil time	125 minutes
pitching temp	61º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1318 London ale III (Boddingtons)

 

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1910 Lees XXXP

In this set of beers, there is a Stout. Not a particularly strong one, but a Stout all the same.

This one does have quite a complicated grist, with new fewer than four malts. Pale, brown, crystal and black. Which is pretty complicated for a provincial Stout. Especially interesting is the inclusion of brown malt. Something that was mostly limited to London by this point. All the coloured malts leave the beer pretty dark.

The quantity of flaked maize is much smaller than in the other beers. There’s so little, in fact, that you can’t help but wonder what the point was.

Only two types of hops this time. Both of them English from the 1907 harvest. 

1910 Lees XXXP
pale malt	6.50 lb	50.98%
brown malt	1.75 lb	13.73%
crystal malt 60 L	1.75 lb	13.73%
black malt	1.25 lb	9.80%
flaked maize	0.25 lb	1.96%
No. 2 invert sugar	1.250 lb	9.80%
Fuggles 120 min	0.75 oz
Fuggles 60 min	0.50 oz
Fuggles 30 min	0.50 oz
OG	1059
FG	1019
ABV	5.29
Apparent attenuation	67.80%
IBU	21
SRM	47
Mash at	152º F
Sparge at	168º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	61º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1318 London ale III (Boddingtons)

 

Let's Brew - 1910 Lees K

The other Mild at Lees, K, was rather less feeble than U. Though it was still 8º down in gravity since 1884.

There’s not a great deal to the grist. Two types of pale malt, a tiny amount of black malt (“for colouring”), flaked maize and sugar. The latter being rather vaguely described. Once again, I’ve plumped for No. 2 invert. Which is my default sugar, when brewers couldn’t be arsed to note down what it actually was.

Four types of hops: two English and one Württemberg from the 1908 season and Californian from 1907.  Again, not the freshest. But there are enough of them to achieve a reasonable level of bitterness. 

1910 Lees K
pale malt	8.25 lb	79.29%
black malt	0.03 lb	0.29%
flaked maize	1.00 lb	9.61%
No. 2 invert sugar	1.125 lb	10.81%
Cluster 120 min	0.50 oz
Fuggles 60 min	0.50 oz
Fuggles 30 min	0.50 oz
OG	1049
FG	1010
ABV	5.16
Apparent attenuation	79.59%
IBU	22
SRM	7
Mash at	153º F
Sparge at	166º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	61º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1318 London ale III (Boddingtons)

 

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1909 Lees U

I would really love to know what the “U” stood for. It’s not a name I’ve seen used by anyone else.

The passage of a couple of decades have seen some significant changes to U. The gravity has fallen by 10º to just 1032º. Which is pretty damn watery for a pre-WW I beer. Now I’ve strayed outside London, I’ve noticed some Mild Ales which look very much like ones from after WW II.

The grist is still pretty simple. Just pale malt, flaked maize and sugar. Though, this time, there are three different types of pale malt. As is often the case in older records, it’s very vague about the sugar. Simply describing it as “sugar”. As a conservative guess, I’v gone with No. 2 invert.

Not quite as many types of hop as in 1884, just four. Two English, one Bavarian and one Californian, all from the 1907 harvest. A bit on the old side, then. Which is reflected in the low (calculated) IBU count. 

1909 Lees U
pale malt	5.25 lb	76.36%
flaked maize	1.00 lb	14.55%
No. 2 invert sugar	0.625 lb	9.09%
Fuggles 65 min	0.67 oz
Hallertau 30 min	0.33 oz
OG	1032
FG	1005
ABV	3.57
Apparent attenuation	84.38%
IBU	12.4
SRM	5
Mash at	153º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	65 minutes
pitching temp	60.5º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1318 London ale III (Boddingtons)

 

Let's Brew - 1884 Lees Porter

I’m quite surprised to see that Lees were still brewing a Porter in 1884. It’s in this period that Porter was starting to become rare outside London.

It’s a good bit weaker than versions from the capital, which had gravities in the high 1050ºs. And were over 5% ABV. The hopping is also much lighter, with London Porters normally weighing in at over 50 IBU (calculated).

Like many Porters and Stouts from outside the capital, Lees Porter had a simple grist of just pale and black malt. Along with an unspecified type of sugar. There’s also half a packet of something called “black juice”. No idea what that was. Possibly a type of caramel.

There are also 3 lbs of something called “Glycyrrhlize” which seems to be another word for liquorice. It appears to have been added to the copper. Liquorice is an ingredient which crops up now and again in Porter and Stout after 1880, when it became a legal ingredient.

Two types of hops were employed. “Ba” from 1878 and “foreign” with no vintage specified. Not the best quality hops. But I suppose, in a Porter hop, hop character wasn’t that important. 

1884 Lees Porter
pale malt	7.75 lb	86.54%
black malt	0.875 lb	9.77%
No. 2 invert sugar	0.33 lb	3.69%
Strisselspalt 180 min	0.75 oz
Hallertau 60 min	0.75 oz
Hallertau 30 min	0.75 oz
liquorice	0.10 oz
OG	1040
FG	1008
ABV	4.23
Apparent attenuation	80.00%
IBU	25
SRM	30
Mash at	148º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	180 minutes
pitching temp	60.5º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1318 London ale III (Boddingtons)

 

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1884 Lees Bitter

Interestingly, Lees called this beer Bitter in the brew house and not Pale Ale. Which is what it would have been called in most breweries.

It’s a little bit weaker than a London Stock Pale Ale, but not by much. So was this a stock Pale Ale? I’m genuinely not sure. My guess would be no, but I can’t be sure. Despite the gravity and heavy hopping.

The grist is pretty simple. Just one type of pale malt and an undefined type of sugar. The pale malt came from Newark, from the Gilstrap maltings, to be precise. I’ve guessed No. 2 sugar, just to hedge my bets.

As a Pale Ale, you’d expect the hopping to be heavy. And it is: 19 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt. That’s right up there in IPA territory.

There were lots of different hops. Seven in total. Three English – Farnham, Worcester and Kent, all from the 1883 harvest. American, also from 1883, “Chams” 1882 from 1882, and “Bur” from 1882 and 1883. Not sure where those last ones were from.

1884 Lees Bitter
pale malt	12.75 lb	98.08%
No. 2 invert sugar	0.25 lb	1.92%
Fuggles 190 min	2.50 oz
Fuggles 60 min	2.50 oz
Goldings 30 min	2.50 oz
Goldings dry hops	1.50 oz
OG	1057
FG	1018.5
ABV	5.09
Apparent attenuation	67.54%
IBU	92
SRM	5.5
Mash at	148º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	190 minutes
pitching temp	61º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1318 London ale III (Boddingtons)

 

Let's Brew - 1884 Lees K

There was also a stronger Mild at Lees. With an equally enigmatic name as its weaker sibling U.

This one is very similar in strength to a London X Ale. And relatively dark. Though I’m not totally sure about the colour, as I don’t really know how much black malt was used. The quantity is given as two “canfulls” I’ve guessed that to be about half a quarter. I could well be wrong.

Usefully, the type of sugar is given in the brewing record. Two types, actually. Not that it helps me much. As I’ve no idea what they are. “Audax” and “Burnel” (I think). The second sounds like a manufacturer’s name.

There are lots of hops. An awful lot of hops. Nine types in total. Ba 1878, Ba 1882, Chams 1882, Bur 1882}, Russ 1882, Light 1883, Poperinge 1883, Sussex 1883, Kent 1883. Not sure where they’re all from, though there seem to be quite a few foreign hops. 

1884 Lees K
pale malt	12.50 lb	95.57%
black malt	0.25 lb	1.91%
No. 2 invert sugar	0.33 lb	2.52%
Strisselspalt 180 min	1.50 oz
Hallertau 60 min	1.25 oz
Fuggles 30 min	1.25 oz
OG	1057
FG	1017
ABV	5.29
Apparent attenuation	70.18%
IBU	44
SRM	15
Mash at	149º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	180 minutes
pitching temp	61º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1318 London ale III (Boddingtons)

 

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1884 Lees U

The earliest Lees brewing is, er, rather idiosyncratic. Where sometimes really important is simply left out. Which makes interpreting them and creating recipes rather challenging.

It’s interesting to stray outside London and see the strength of beers in the provinces. U, Lees base-level Mild, is a good bit lower in gravity than an equivalent London beer. Where an X Ale was in the high 1050ºs

The recipe is simple enough. Just pale malt with a touch of black malt and sugar. And no adjuncts. Which is interesting. While sugar seems to have become pretty universal after the 1880 Free Mash Tun Act, it seems to have taken a while for brewers to pick up adjuncts.

There were lots of hops. Six types in all. Of varying vintages. Two types of "Ba" (Bavarian?) from the 1878 season, German from 1882, Russian from 1882, Dutch from 1883 and Poperinge from 1883. 

1884 Lees U
pale malt	9.25 lb	95.48%
black malt	0.1875 lb	1.94%
No. 2 invert sugar	0.25 lb	2.58%
Strisselspalt 150 min	0.75 oz
Hallertau 60 min	0.75 oz
Hallertau 30 min	0.75 oz
OG	1042
FG	1009
ABV	4.37
Apparent attenuation	78.57%
IBU	25
SRM	12
Mash at	149º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	150 minutes
pitching temp	61.5º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1318 London ale III (Boddingtons)

 

War in brewing records

For the most part, brewing records note the details of a specific brew. With, perhaps, details of the weather that day. But, occasionally, the outside world intrudes on the cosy industrial documentation.

I came across this one yesterday. In a Young's brewing record. (PA, it you're interested. Which was 4.5% ABV. I doubt that there was anywhere else in Europe you could have found a beer that strong on that date.)

VE Day was a big deal. Especially in London, which had been under attack for virtually the whole of the war. VE Day represented a return to normality. Even though the war ewith Japan continued. AT least there was no longer a need for the blackout.

Going back a couple of years, on 9th September 1940, a brew of Porter and several Stouts noted:

Air Raid Warnings:_
5:15 p.m. to 6:25 p.m.
AND 8:40 p.m. to 5:45 a.m.

This was the fag end of the Battle of Britain and the start of the Blitz. Look at how long those warnings were. Around ten hours in total. That must have been both disruptive and scary.
 
A few months later, things were even worse for Boddington in Manchester. Their brewery suffered sever damage

"BIG AIR RAID ON MANCHESTER
ON NIGHTS OF DEC 23RD & 24TH
BREWERY BADLY DAMAGED
BY FIRE & EXPLOSIVES
ALL BEER IN F.V.S & R.S.S
SPOILT
RAN AWAY"

The damage was so bad, that the next brew was around 9 months later, on 25th August 1941. 

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.

 

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.

 

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.