Let's Brew Wednesday - 1942 Barclay Perkins KK

The two world wars. Not that pleasant for those caught up in them, but a godsend for me. Loads and loads of material.

In case your memory is a Swiss cheese like as mine, I'll remind you that this is part of the public bar price list series. It will include every one of Barclay Perkins draught beers from the middle years of  WW II. Stylistically, this is a personal favourite: KK. Or, as the average punter would have called it, Burton.

I've been poking around in Whitbread's late 19th-century brewing records of late. After a couple of decade's worth, I've stared getting a feel for the qualities of each beer quality (they didn't call them styles back then). For K Ales, it's the hopping that stands out. Lots and lots of good quality hops. Even more than in their Pale Ale.

Of course, that's only logical. K Ales were Keeping or Stock Ales, meant to be matured for many months before sale. For Victorian brewers it was simple. The longer a beer was to be kept, the more heavily you hopped it. The right level of hopping was essential to keep a beer sound without refrigeration. That's the reason for the heavy hopping in British beers in the 19th century. It was all to do with the antiseptic qualities of hops, not flavour.

Today's beer is from a later period. By the middle of the 20th century, true Stock Ales had all but disappeared. Running Ales dominated. This KK is no exception. It wouldn't have been kept for any great length of time before consumption. A couple of weeks at most. During the war years, probably less than that. But, although no longer required for its preservative effect, heavy hopping was still a characteristic of Burton. Wartime hop shortages, however (about which I'll be posting more this week), had driven down the hopping rates of all types. KK remained more heavily hopped than Barclay Perkins Bitter, XLK.

I must write a longer piece on K Ales in general and Burton in particular. I'm still amazed at how quickly it was forgotten as a style. How could that have happened? Will it ever make a comeback? It would be great if it did. I'd certainly drink it down the pub. Hoppy, strong Mild is sort of what it is.Surely that would fit in with modern taste?





On that optimistic note, it's over to Kristen . . . . .

Barclay Perkins - 1942 - KK
General info: With this beer you would think the 'KK' stands for double kitchen sink! There are so many different types of malts and adjuncts. A definite mish-mash of ingredients for such a low gravity beer. Butt loads of hops really make this hop forward and reminiscent of a modern day IPA without the gravity.
Beer Specifics			Recipe by percentages
Gravity (OG)	1.043		3.4% Torrefied Barley			9% Flaked Rye
Gravity (FG)	1.012		3.1% Amber malt			3% Pilsen
ABV	4.13%		1.4% Brown Malt			6% Flaked Maize
Apparent attenuation	72.09%		4.6% Crystal malt			8% invert no2
Real attenuation	59.06%		30% Mild malt			0% 0
IBU	51.5		31.5% English pale malt			1.5Caramel
SRM	41
EBC	80.9		Mash	90min@151°F		0.97qt/lb
				90min@66.1°C		2.04L/kg
Caramel to add	32srm
			Boil	1.5 hours
	Homebrew @ 70%				Craft @ 80%
Grist	5gal		19L		10bbl		10hl
Torrefied Barley	0.28	lb	0.127	kg	15.13	lb	5.85	kg
Amber malt	0.25	lb	0.115	kg	13.71	lb	5.30	kg
Brown Malt	0.12	lb	0.053	kg	6.35	lb	2.46	kg
Crystal malt	0.37	lb	0.169	kg	20.17	lb	7.79	kg
Mild malt	2.44	lb	1.111	kg	132.38	lb	51.15	kg
English pale malt	2.56	lb	1.167	kg	139.00	lb	53.71	kg
Flaked Rye	0.73	lb	0.333	kg	39.72	lb	15.34	kg
Pilsen	0.24	lb	0.111	kg	13.24	lb	5.11	kg
Flaked Maize	0.49	lb	0.222	kg	26.48	lb	10.23	kg
invert no2	0.65	lb	0.296	kg	35.30	lb	13.64	kg
					441.49
Hops
Goldings 4.5% 90min (38bu)	1.95	oz	55.2	g	120.68	oz	2.916	kg
Goldings 4.5% 30min (13bu)	0.96	oz	27.2	g	59.44	oz	1.436	kg
Goldings 4.5% dry hop	0.79	oz	22.3	g	48.82	oz	1.180	kg
Fermentation	68°F /20°C
Yeast	Nottingham ale yeast
	1028 London Ale Yeast  - WLP013 London Ale Yeast
Tasting Notes: Hop resin and spice. Citrus and deep toasty malt. Toasted biscuits covered in caramel. A bit of figgy raisins and grain husk. Very dry with a mouth filling hop flavor and the resins continue through the finish.

Kristen’s Version:
Here we go, a few more new things. You’ll see I carried on with the ‘bu’ count in each hop addition so one doesn’t need to recalculate. I’m also adding an ‘advanced’ mashing schedule which is below. You may follow the simple single infusion above or the more advanced mashing techniques verbatim from the brewing log. Since the backlash against the ‘what color really was caramel’ thing, I’ve decided to include the number of EBC you need to add with caramel. So, its left to you to add the caramel by your own calculations or leave it out. This way will ensure that each persons beer can be specified down to the type of caramel, lot number, day of production, location, weather and feelings of the producer at the time. Use as you will. I’m also breaking things down into ingredients and processes. Feed back as usually is great. Post or email me directly. Education_director@bjcp.org.

Ingredients

Grist - I’ve made this one with and without mild malt. I prefer it with but it’s a pain to find most times and it really doesn’t add that much.  This one does very well with Maris Otter which is pretty much my non-bready UK pale malt of choice. Amber and brown malt are mandatory. www.northernbrewer.com has mild, amber and brown malt and will ship anywhere for a flat rate. You UK guys can get all of them at http://www.brewuk.co.uk. I was referred to them by a buddy so if somewhere else has them, use whatever you’d like. The crystal malt, as always, is the 75L stuff…right about there anyway. I do prefer terrified barley over flaked stuff in nearly every instance as its more elegant and less doughy. The exception would be Guinness-type stouts. At 4% its really not going to make a massive difference here. That being said, the rye is pretty important that it’s the malted type. Nearly 11% does come through and I find that I get more of a spicy ‘rye’ flavor from the malted version than the duller rye from the flaked. I’ve used rye chops also and it worked great but you need to cereal cook it which adds more than you really need to do. Either way, make sure you don’t leave the rye out. Lager malt. Drop it and just add more pale malt. Do note that every low percent ingredient you cut out and replace it can really start making large changes to the whole recipe. Invert No2 does lend a unique ‘fruity’ character but if you haven’t made this before the golden syrup does very well in its place. Use it if you can get it easy or make it. If not, do your best. That goes for pretty much everything in perpetuity throughout the universe, over and over, until the end of time, when it comes to these recipes. Plan ahead. Do your best. That’s all. Don’t lose the forest for the trees. We are trying our best to recreate each recipe to the best of our ability.

Hops - Tonnes of very fresh Goldings. Any Golding’s will do. I used a Nugget hops for the bittering, Brewer’s Gold for the finishing and some home grown Golding’s for the dry hop. The biggest difference you’ll see is if you swap out high AA% hops for the bittering as the extra ‘greenery’ of the low AA% adds a lot to the flavor profile of the beer.

Yeast – For these K-type beers I really like the White Shield strain as it gives a very nice mineral profile, a good dose of fruit and no butter. Dries out well also.

Processes

Advanced Mash – BP at this time did a simple 2-3 step mash. Dough in near the rest temp for about 30min. Another infusion by underlet (search Barclay Perkins) and then a sparge (165F/74C) that was usually quite long. I’ve done both ways, single vs advance, and the advanced just made the sparge much easier and the beer dry out a bit more. You are left up to find the hot liquor temperature needed on your system to achieve the temperatures below.

Mash	ºF	ºC	Time
Dough in	147	64	30
Underlet	152	67	90

Adjuncts in WW II

Adjuncts. For some bizarre reason, a topic close to my heart. We're still with that fascinating article from "Wallenstein Laboratories Communications". A great source, if only because I've not seen anyone else use it.

I particularly like the way some of the measures forced on brewers balanced each other out. Gravities fell, but the amount of adjuncts was reduced.

"Wartime Adjuncts

Those breweries which previously had difficulties resulting from nitrogen deficiency have had their problems complicated by war conditions. This has been the case especially since the introduction of flaked barley and oats as part of the grist.  Prior to that, the effect of lowered gravities was often offset by reducing the proportion of malt adjuncts.

The perennial need for economy in shipping space for the purpose of bringing in food to England has led, among other things, to the use of barley flour in bread. One consequence of this was pressure, very strong pressure, from the Ministry of Food to get the brewing industry to replace 10 per cent of its barley with oats. Already flaked barley was being used by many brewers as a  wartime device. Actually the barley so flaked was usually of good malting quality and simply could not be malted because of labor difficulties. It probably also saved fuel. By the use of flaked barley as a malt substitute, the extract provided was over and above that available from the restricted supplies of malt and sugar. With the release of barley for other uses by the Food Ministry, flaked oats and not flaked barley were slated for future use, although malted oats are being preferred in a few cases.

Flaked barley and oats have been manufactured by a process involving crushing, wetting, cooking wet up to 300-500°F and finally drying. Neither the germs nor the husks are removed. The enzymes are destroyed, but the starch is only slightly gelatinized. Neither of the flaked materials has presented serious technical difficulties. For the most part brewings have been normal, the change-over from flaked barley to flaked oats being scarcely noticeable in the breweries which had been using the former. Perhaps the chief problem has been concerned with securing a proper mixture of malt and oats in the grist, and special devices have been introduced for this purpose. Grinding times have had to be increased. Some brewers use ordinary raw oats which must be finely ground for them in a flour mill. Careful mixing with the malt grist is still necessary. Since flaked or raw oats yield only about two-thirds as much extract as malt, almost 15 per cent is needed to replace 10 per cent of barley in the grist. Apart from this, flaked oats are more bulky than malt, so that brewers who have already been using their mash tuns to full capacity need an occasional extra brew in some cases.

One advantage which has resulted from the use of flaked oats is that the considerable quantity of husk contributed has improved and hastened drainage of the wort from the mash tun and has thereby compensated largely for the loss of the bold-husked California malts no longer available. Flaked barley is less serviceable in this respect. Very few, if any, British brewers use a mash filter, and the time taken to sparge and drain mash tuns is a serious item in the day's brewing, that with labor shortages and blackout difficulties.

As might be expected, the British infusion system of mashing with typical English malt results in bringing only one tenth or less of the nitrogen in flaked oats into solution. Troubles anticipated from the lack of yeast nutrients in present-day, low-gravity worts have been rendered even more likely by the substitution of oats for malt or flaked barley. There already have been reports of such troubles. A few brewers have complained that the draught beers do not fine (when isinglass finings are added to the beer in cask) so easily since the inclusion of the oats, while many others have been gratified to observe no difference. A slight change in flavor has been noted by most brewers when as much as 15 per cent of the grist is composed of oats. This change is usually described as a dryness or slight loss of character, but it is so small as to pass almost without comment in the trade.

British brewers use malts of diastatic power 25° to 45° Lintner, which must seem incredibly low to the American brewer. Nevertheless, these malts are able to digest the increased amounts of non-malted adjuncts such as these flaked materials. No doubt the steady improvement in English barley, resulting from research and judicious buying in the trade during the past twenty years or so, has helped. The crops of the 1938 and 1939 seasons were excellent, those of 1940 and 1941 not so good. The chief objection to the 1942 crop was the generally low extract obtained from the malts, yet the diastatic power of these malts was as a rule high. Perhaps this has helped the digestion of flaked oats and ground, unflaked oats this year. Of course, it is the alpha-amylase of the malt that is mainly concerned, and the Lintner values normally determined in Great Britain tell us little directly of this.
"Wallenstein Laboratories Communications, December 1943, Volume VI, number 19" pages 155 - 156.

The government were very keen to get brewers to use oats. Partly because of a bumper crop in 1942. Also, I suppose, because barley was easier to slip unnoticed into bread. I wonder if the flaked barley that makes up 20% of the grist of modern Guinness was of malting quality? Somehow I doubt it.

See there's another example of measures balancing each other out. The husks of oats made up for the loss of husky Californian malt in the grist. See, there's another reason for the use of malt made from foreign barley in British beers. The coarser husks helped mash-tun drainage. Using raw oats seems a bit weird. Especially as brewers couldn't grind it themselves to the required flour. And wouldn't flour be likely to cause a stuck mash?

We also learn of the effect of these substitutions on the finished beer. Dryness. I can understand that. But what does "slight loss of character" mean? Blander, less flavoursome? It's surprising how little impact 15% oats appear to have made. Though I know brewers weren't very keen on using oats. But they're a conservative bunch often, brewers. Perhaps it was just prejudice rather than real objections. It would be nice to have the opinion of ordinary drinkers on the effect of oats on their favourite. Maybe they were happy enough at having a beer at all to worry about any changes in flavour.

Raw materials in WW II

We're back in WW II again. With that very informative article from Wallenstein Laboratories Communications.

This time it's a quick overview of the situation with raw materials.

"Raw Materials

Broadly speaking, these problems of manufacturing have arisen from the attempt to brew as much beer as in prewar times, from greatly reduced quantities of the usual raw materials. Importation of barley, corn (maize) and hops has ceased, while the use of rice is prohibited and that of sugar considerably restricted. At the same time, home-grown supplies of brewing quality have not correspondingly increased. The quantities of such available supplies are limited by the Ministry of Food, which issues them under special license. Furthermore the Ministry of Agriculture regulations Wave the effect of prohibiting any increase in the acreage under hop cultivation, although a small increase, about 800 acres (i.e., about four per cent of existing acreage) has been allowed as a result of strong representations by the Brewers' Society.

As regards barley, the Government does not publish the facts, but it is generally considered that such acreage in 1942 rose to about 66 per cent above that in 1938. There are no indications of any further increase this year. If the brewer secured his full share of the increased crop, it would offset the loss of imported barleys. But he does not. Last season, from January onwards, the Ministry of Food bought by order one third of the barley on the market for milling purposes. Presumably something similar will happen this season.

From time to time, other factors have restricted the output of beer by introducing a bottleneck at some stage in production. About a year ago there was danger of such a bottleneck in the malting industry, in which an acute shortage of skilled labor had for some time been making itself felt. The use of flaked barley was introduced mainly to conserve the diminishing supplies of malt. But there had also been grave losses resulting from bomb damage to many maltings and their stocks. It so happens that the much-bombed areas of East Anglia are the chief barley growing and malting country."
"Wallenstein Laboratories Communications, December 1943, Volume VI, number 19" pages 153 - 154.

Point one: "the attempt to brew as much beer as in prewar times" is a big deviation from the policy in WW I. Then temperance elements in the government tried to reduce as much as possible the amount produced of all alcoholic drinks. A policy not based on reason, but blind prejudice. In WW II the approach was much more pragmatic. A good supply of beer was seen as vital for morale. Pubs played a vital role as a forum to discuss what was happening in the war.

WW I had taught the authorities much about dealing with problems in food supply. Whereas in WW I government only really stepped in after 1916, halfway through the war, in WW II they acted immediately. It was assumed the law would be long and food supplies threatened. This week, a programme on the TV showed aerial footage of London just after the end of WW II. Parks and other open spaces are filled with allotments. It's a indication of the organisation and determination to use every resource fully.

I'd noticed the flaked barley turning up in recipes and wondered why that was. It never occurred to me that it might be due to problems in the malting industry. I knew barley had been used in bread, but hadn't realised how much more barley had been grown during the war years. Britain hadn't been self-sufficient in malting barley since the early 19th century.


If 800 acres is 4% of the total, that makes about 20,000 acres in all dedicated to hops. That's a big reduction from 100 years earlier. In 1848, there were 49,000 acres of hops. But it reflects the way the British brewing industry became dependent on foreign supplies of hops in the second half of the 19th century.

There's still lots more fun to be squeezed from this dirty old mop. Next instalment: more detail on wartime grists. See you then.

Mild Bitter Ale

It sounds like an oxymoron. How can a beer be both a Bitter and Mild at the same time?

Understanding the vocabulary of the past is crucial. The term Mild Bitter Ale is an excellent example of this. In this context "mild" means nothing more than "unaged". It should be recalled that the original 19th-century Pale Ales were Stock Beers. Brewed and then aged for long periods before sale. Remember that article of bottling in the 1860's? Pale Ale was matured for 9 months in cask before being bottled.

Later in the the 19th century a new type of Pale Ale or Bitter Beer emerged. Lighter in gravity than Stock Pale Ales and intended for rapid consumption. A variety of names were used, though ones like AK, Family Ale, Luncheon Ale and Dinner Ale were common. Some, like AK, were mostly draught beers. Others, like Family Ale and Dinner Ale, were usually bottled. There were sold much younger, after just two to four weeks*.

"Now beer can be made to vary greatly in its quality according to the way in which this process of brewing has been carried on. Of course, the stronger the wort the more sugar, and the more alcohol as the result of fermentation. But you may carry the fermentation up to various points. You may make, at first, a sweet beer or ale by stopping the fermentation, but which eventually shall become very strong by age and fermentation. Such are our sweet ales, and ales that get strong by keeping. By carrying on the fermentation you may exhaust all the sugar, and by using malt free from gum you get a clear pale ale, and by adding a larger quantity of hops, our pale bitter ales are produced. The fermentation of these ales being over, they can be sent to a distance: hence the practice of sending such ale to India. They are, however, generally strong ales, on account of the completeness of their fermentation, and are objectionable on that account. I find that our ordinary bottled pale ale contains more alcohol than hock, claret, or Moselle wines, and as much as Burgundy.

The brewing of the pale and bitter ales for the Indian market has led to a great change in public taste for beer, and milder pale and bitter ales are extensively brewed for domestic consumption. My own conviction is, that an immense benefit has accrued from this, as the strong and sweet ales formerly drunk were objectionable on many accounts. In the first place, they caused a greater consumption of alcohol than was beneficial; and in the next place, the sugar became a source of disorder and disagreement in the stomach. The increased quantity of hop also secures in the mild bitter ales a tonic effect which is very beneficial. For habitual consumption in families the mild bitter ale, with not more than half an ounce of alcohol in the pint, is to be commended above all others.

London porter, of which prodigious quantities are consumed daily in this metropolis, is coloured with the black malt. It contains about three quarters of an ounce of alcohol in the pint, and more sugar and less hops than the pale ales. It is, however, miserably drugged in the public-houses. Its strength is reduced by water, and its qualities are brought up again by treacle, liquorice, and salt, and various narcotic agents are added to make up for the loss of alcohol. To such a condition has the porter-drinking population been brought that they do not know genuine porter when they drink it, and having acquired a taste for this wretched substitute, they reject the unadultereated article.

Stout is only a stronger form of porter. Good draught stout contains about one ounce and a half of alcohol in the pint.

All beers, ales and porters may be bottled; and this is done before the active fermentation is over, so that this process engenders in the bottles liquid a quality of carbonic acid gas, which converts the stouts and porters which contain a great quantity of gum into one mass of froth. It is not so common in pale ale, but here it is not uncommon to lose half the ale by its seething over the glass when poured from the bottle.

Bottled ales are generally stronger than those on draught; and with some persons the frothing state of the beer seems to agree better than the less lively condition of that from the cask. It is the same with wines and water; and carbonated waters and effervescing wines have the same recommendation.

I have not time to dwell on the varieties of beers, ales and porters sold in this country. But they differ very much; and the impossibility of brewing the same beer in two different districts is an interesting fact. One of the most remarkable facts of this sort is the generally acknowledged excellence of the Burton beers. Now it appears there is only one condition at Burton that causes its beer to differ from all others, and that is, the presence in the water of a certain quantity of sulphate of lime. My friend, Dr. Letheby, has pointed out that this is the real cause of the success of the pale ale breweries of Burton. He says, such water will not extract the saccharine and albuminous matters of malt so fully as others, and that this is desirable in the manufacture of pale ales. I would, however, bear my testimony to the great intelligence and care with which the great pale ale breweries are conducted at Burton-on-Trent. Such prevision and intelligence brought to bear on the minutest details of a great manufactory, cannot fail to be productive of the best results."
"On food" by Edwin Lankester, 1864, pages 221 - 224

The author splits Pale Ales into two groups: the strong type and the light type. The strength of the former is "on account of the completeness of their fermentation". Or the very high degree of attenuation. We've seen Bass and Allsopp Pale Ales that were 85% to 90% attenuated. Their gravities weren't necessarily that high - mostly 1060 to 1070 - but the very high attenuation left some over 7% ABV.

These are Whitbread's two Pale Ales of about the same period. PA (Pale Ale) and FA (Family Ale):

Whitbread Pale Ales in 1872
Year	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Attenu-ation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	Pitch temp	pale malt	sugar	total
1872	PA	1059.6	1016.1	5.75	73.02%	14.17	4.25	58º	78.26%	21.74%	100.00%
1872	FA	1051.2	1011.6	5.24	77.30%	10.09	2.44	58º	84.83%	15.17%	100.00%
Sources: Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives Document: LMA/4453/D/01/038

I wonder why the author considers light Pale Ales so much healthier than sweet Ales (I assume he means Mild Ale)? It's not just the greater amount of alcohol the latter contained: "the sugar became a source of disorder and disagreement in the stomach". What the hell does that mean. Funny he considers sugar bad for the stomach, but a high level of CO2 good. I can't see that myself. But it fits in with what another author wrote about bottled beer, claiming the carbonation made it better for those with delicate stomachs. Personal experience tells me the opposite is true.

Porter is, once again, accused of being routinely adulterated. Whether or not this was true, it was obviously generally believed to be. I guess we'll have to wait until my time machine is fully operational to discover if this was just slander. And it's confirmed that Stout is indeed just a stronger form of Porter.

The author correctly identified the high calcium sulphate content of Burton water as the secret behind the success of the PAle Ales brewed there. I wonder when this was first discovered? I need to dig around in more books.



* "Minutes of evidence taken before the Departmental committee on beer", 1899, pages 190-191.

Very old Worthington Burton Ale

It's a funny old book, Barnard's "Noted Breweries of Great Britain and Ireland". Much of it is detailed descriptions of the physical forms of breweries. Little is said of the beers brewed within them. Except for the odd remark about how particularly fine this or that brewery's AK is. But occasionally there's more detail.

In this case, rather a lot more detail. Age, that's what it's all about. It was the age of this particular beer - around 100 years - that made it the subject of such detailed study.

"Before leaving this most interesting department of the brewery, we saw and tasted a sample of what is probably the oldest beer in the world, being no other than a strong ale brewed by Worthington, in the latter days of the last century to commemorate the birth of the late Mr. Wm. Worthington. This extraordinary beer owes its preservation to the lucky accident of having been built up in the vault of an old building, where it was found some years ago during the progress of alterations. The antiquated style and venerable appearance of the bottle itself quite bore out what was told us as to the age of the contents. When the cork was drawn, an agreeable ethereal odour diffused itself through the room, reminding one of the bouquet of a very old Madeira. The beer has maintained its colour and is perfectly sound, but it has so far lost its character as a beer as to puzzle those who are not in the secret of its true nature. Its prevailing characteristic is the extraordinary bouquet we have already referred to. Occasionally, strange to relate, a bottle is opened which is still charged with gas, and in which the yeast cells of the sediment still retain a certain amount of vitality. This beer is so entirely unique, and is of so interesting a nature, that we venture to append its analysis and the scientific report upon it with which we were favoured.

ANALYSIS OF OLD STRONG ALE.

Specific gravity at 60° F.	1030.45
Original specific gravity	1110.38
Percentage of alcohol by weight	8.7

On evaporation, in order to expel the alcohol, the solid residue was found to have the following composition:—

Fermentable maltose	32.55
Malto-dextrm	9.32
Dextrin	17.61
Albuminoids	12.64
Optically inactive carbohydrates, ash, etc.	27.88
	100

When the results of the analysis were calculated upon the total solids originally present before fermentation, the following numbers were obtained :—

	Percentage.
Fermented matter	59.98
Fermentable maltose	13.02
Malto-dextrin	3.72
Dextrin	7.05
Undetermined	16.23
	100

Determination of Acidity.

	Percentage.
Volatile acid, chiefly acetic, but with a trace of formic	0.1404
Fixed acids, calculated as lactic acid	0.4691
Total acid per cent, on beer	0.6095

The alcoholic distillate possessed in a marked degree the curious bouquet of the original beer; and since, on redistillation with a little barium hydrate the second distillate was quite free from the Madeira-like odour referred to above it was evident that the bouquet was attributable to the presence of volatile compound ethers (ethereal salts). The development of the characteristic bouquet of old wines is due to the presence of compound ethers, which may be looked upon as combinations of the fatty acids and alcohol with the elimination of water. Berthelot, many years ago, devised a simple method for the determination of the compound ethers of wine, consisting in digestionon of the distillate containing the ethers with a given amount of decinormal soda solution, and determining the amount of soda used up by the acid of the compound ether, a correction, of course, being applied for the free acid present in the distillate. This method applied to the old beer gave the following results, the numbers being expressed as percentages of alcohol present as compound ethers:—

	Per Cent.
Alcohol present as volatile compound ethers in the old beer	0.0315
Alcohol present as volatile compound ethers in  a strong ale of eighteen months old	0.0175

Although the amount is actually small, it is seen to be much in excess of the ethers in a comparatively young, strong ale, and quite sufficient to account for the powerful bouquet."
"Noted Breweries of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. 1" by Alfred Barnard, 1889 pages 434 - 436.

A beer that was more than 100 years old, in corked bottles, yet some retained their carbonation. That's pretty incredible. Most corked bottles of Harvey's Imperial Stout had lost theirs after just a couple of years. Bricked up in a cellar and forgotten. It's surprising how often that's happened. Fifteen years back I drank a Crombé Kriek that was more than 40 years old. Same story: left in a forgotten cellar.

The description of the beer's flavour is intriguing. Like very old Madeira. So, just the odd touch of oxidation.I like the way that they attempted to track down the chemical source of the Madeira flavour. I wonder if the volatile ethers really were responsible?

"The beer has maintained its colour" fascinating. But what colour was that? It would be nice to know. At one time strong Burton Ales were dark in colour. I wonder if this one was. I don't suppose we'll ever know now.

The level of acidity is pretty high at 0.61%. Fresh, sound beer is 0.04% or so. Lambiek is over 1%.

Low-nitrogen barleys in WW II

We're back with the Wallenstein Laboratories Communications article about brewing in wartime Britain.

This section explains why British barley was mostly low in nitrogen and why Californian 6-row barley had been so popular before the war.

Low-nitrogen barleys

This yeast trouble has been increasingly aggravated in recent decades by the tendency to use barley of very low nitrogen content. The new hybrid barleys which command by far the greater part of the British brewing market — Plumage-Archer and Spratt-Archer — have been selected, propagated, grown and manured with the object, among others, of reducing the nitrogen content of the grain. The reasons for this procedure are to be found in the brewers' fear of bacterial and of protein instability arising from the use of malt of high nitrogen content. Under the British system of brewing, a nitrogen content of upwards of 1.6 to 1.7 per cent of the moisture-free grain would be regarded as high in many quarters. Barleys as low as 1.2 to 1.3 per cent are commonly obtainable. Furthermore the low-nitrogen barleys normally have a better appearance and yield more extract, for which reasons they are more highly valued.

The result has been that farmers have been aiming over a period of years at producing a low-nitrogen barley in order to compete successfully for the high competitive prices obtainable for such barley. Very much of the malting barley grown here today is of this type, but the conditions of brewing are not always such that malt made from low-nitrogen barley is the right type to use. In some breweries and for some beers the grists, type of yeast and fermentation technique used may be ideally suited for these malts; in others, malt of higher nitrogen content might better be employed.

In normal times almost all British brewers use flaked corn or sugar as a malt adjunct. The former helps to give a paler and brighter beer; the latter aids clarification. Both adjuncts, however, reduce the proportion of yeast nutrients such as nitrogen, "bios" and minerals in the wort. The disappearance of the corn and reduction of sugar, and their replacement by malt extracts improved yeast nutrition until the effect of lowered gravities came into operation. The net result in most breweries has probably been that the one effect just counterbalanced the other.

In general, undernourishment of the yeast has not appeared in those breweries where it was not experienced before the war. Tolerably good yeast crops can be skimmed from worts of even the lowest original gravity, 1030 and slightly less. But in a few breweries yeast weakness is worse than ever. Lower gravities mean proportionally less nutriment per cc, but the yeast increase (including that which ultimately settles to the bottom of the fermenting vessel), is not proportionately less. Taken by itself, a very low original gravity leads to a markedly reduced top crop available for skimming, and to slight undernourishment of the yeast. In time the latter effect is cumulative.

While this trouble was widespread even before the war, there were means for overcoming it then that are not available now. For example, when yeast trouble was aggravated by a season's home barley which gave poor modification, resort could be had to certain imported barleys, notably Bohemian, which are normally rich in nitrogen yet modify easily. The blending of malts made from California six-rowed barleys was almost invariably practiced as it helped to mask the seasonal fluctuations in homegrown barleys. Admittedly many British brewers have discovered as a result of wartime conditions, that they can brew successfully without California malt, a practice which they would not have followed otherwise. Their philosophy generally is not to risk experiments where results are already satisfactory. Nevertheless, this degree of latitude in the freedom to reject an unsuitable homegrown barley after a bad season and purchase an imported barley in its place enabled the brewer to steer a successful course before the war. Now this is denied him.

There is normally less home-grown barley of good malting quality than is needed to meet the demand, so that some less satisfactory material is malted and used. In England most malt is not made by the brewer himself, but by a maltster who sells it. The latter naturally tries to buy barley of low nitrogen content which will malt easily. The brewer whose yeast is liable to undernourishment is more than ever in trouble today under these conditions. To brew the low-gravity beers he needs barleys of higher nitrogen content, but which modify well, and he cannot always get such as there is not enough to go around.
"Wallenstein Laboratories Communications, December 1943, Volume VI, number 19" pages 154 - 155.

I'd never realised that Plumage-Archer and Spratt-Archer had been deliberately manipulated to give them a low nitrogen content. (Plumage-Archer is the variety Fullers used in Past Masters XX.) I suppose it makes sense, if you expected to have Californian and other foreign barley available. If you knew cheap, high nitrogen barley could be found, it was logical to keep the nitrogen content of British barley low.

Another strange effect of the war was the increase in the proportion of malt in the grist. The flaked maize used in brewing had been imported. When the war began, the supply was cut off. The amount of sugar available for brewing was also reduced as it was diverted for other uses.

"In normal times almost all British brewers use flaked corn or sugar as a malt adjunct." This is often ignored by those trying to impose on the past their own ideas of what it should have been. Sugar in particular has been an integral part of British brewing since the 1860's. I've recently been collating information from Whitbread's brewing records of the late 19th century. This is a good one. Guess which of these beers contained sugar and which didn't: X Ale, PaAle Ale, KK (Stock Ale) , KKK, Porter, SS (stout) and SSS? The two cheapest beers - X Ale and Porter - were the only two that were all-malt. The sugar was in the more expensive beers.

It's funny what is reflected in the brewing records and what not. I knew all about the changes in ingredients. But the problems with yeast health I'd been totally unaware of. That's what makes this article so useful. It adds an extra layer of detail.

Two V's

This ad has been appearing on my blog in Holland:

Because of the election (one of the ones I can't vote in) coming up. Annoying. I try to keep this a politics-free zone. The odd mention of Stalin excepted.

Andrew's advice: "Don't trust a party with two V's."

Lexie's: "Chips for the poor." 

Two V's. Conjours up an image in my mind.

A Kentish Hopyard (part three)

Today's the last instalment on the article "A Kentish Hopyard". It covers that most strange phenomenon: betting on the hop duty.

"Judge Maule, who drank porter to "reduce my wits to the level of counsel's," might have modified this obiter dictum, if he had known all the stirring Borough betting associations which cling to the Barley Bride in her course from the blossom to the pewter. "The pavement near the Town Hall," says a writer, "was the Tattersall's of these peripatetic philosophers ; and every hop county sent its speculative contingent on a Monday. They would meet at ten o'clock and bet till one ; then fly to Mark Lane, and have another bet or two there, amongst the corn-stands. If the May-fly came, speculation would begin about the 30th of the month, and be at its hottest in July. Fully a hundred and fifty men would have books on the crop; and the great brewers would send their commissioners to back or lay against the duty. They always looked upon Tattersall's with contempt, on the short and not unreasonable ground that 'if you back the duty it always comes out fair ; but a horse may tumble down, or be squared, or a thousand things.' And who can gainsay their preference ? Year after year the names of Kenward, Harriman, Monk, Clements, Goble, Trimmer, &c, ruled the market; and those did best who always made Kent their guide. Father and son often follow the same trade. There is a story of a father remonstrating with his first-born upon the practice, and offering to settle £100 ayear on him if he would leave it off. 'That would never do, father,' was the reply: 'I win £200 a-year off you." And 'I'll bet you £50 you don't,' was the rejoinder. Those who 'backed the duty' (i.e. to be over a certain amount) won seven years out of ten, and their loss was the most provoking when, in 1855, they braced themselves up to back £400,000, and it only fell £2000 short of it. One great hop factor always laid against the duty, and was only on the right side twice in twenty years. He was a good man for the farmer, as the more he laid against the duty, the more he 'rose the price' of hops. He always speculated, as a factor, for a short crop; so much so, that when others were backing £100,000 duty unlimited, he would be laying against £60,000 unlimited, and trusting to his double pull to get through. With a less daring outlay, the system might have answered, as what was lost in bets might have been more than made-up by sale commissions. On one occasion, when a great grower had a large quantity of hops to sell, he laid two factors £500 each, when hops were at £5 10s., that they did not reach £7 per cwt. The knowledge of the bet sent up the market, and thus the grower dropped £1000, and yet won £500 on the transaction by the enhanced price of his hops. One man's losses alone have been known to reach £30,000 in a year ; and one annus mirabilis saw a factor leave off with £60,000, a triumph which he celebrated by a dinner worthy of Apicius, and half-guinea whist points after. Hop-bettors generally whetted their tusks each Monday with a rubber at whist on the railway journey to town, and the dinner-table was also a favourite 'Change. They would bet upon anything, and one of them was once so uplifted by good cheer and loyalty, that he laid £100 to £1, before the cloth was drawn, on the taking of Sebastopol.

"The crop of 'Sixty was a wretched one, and it is a cherished tradition of the Borough, that a speculator, who did not believe the signs of the times, bought largely at £7 per cwt., and held till they were down at 25s. The most careful men seldom opened their mouths on Monday, unless they had first-rate information, or had made a Kentish journey of observation the week before, and determined to back their judgment; and one first-class judge would make £5000 a-year this way, by almost invariably backing the duty. The great secret was always proclaimed on November 5th in the Gazette. On December 1st the bettors met to compare books, and I O Us for the losses were handed over, made payable for New Year's day; but five per cent, was always deducted for ready money payments. Old speculators yearn for those days once more, and Guy Fawkes only seems like the wan ghost of a duty they adored. Some of them tell tales, which lengthen at each repetition like the sea-serpent, of the smashing blows which were dealt against the duty by their metallic heroes, and the equally daring defence; and regard the Borough as a very Waterloo in which they fought and 'bled.' "
"The Gentleman's magazine, 1868, Volume 1", 1868, pages 536 - 538.

I realise now, checking the dates, that the article was behind the times. Hop duty was abolished in 1862, putting an end to this bizarre form of speculation.

Hops are a very variable crop to this day. Unsuitable weather and disease can drastically reduce of the crop, causing the price to rise sharply. There were huge fluctuations in the price of hops during the 19th century. Betting for or against the duty seems to have been a method of mitigated the risks involved in the trade. And it was fairer than gambling on horses.