Dutch Bokbier 2026 (part one)

A couple of times in the past I attempted to blind taste all a seasons's Bokbiers. What fun that was. Well, not really, given how horrible some of them were. I doubt I'll ever attempt that again.

It being the season, I trolled down my Local Dirk van den Broek to pick up a few examples. A bit of a disappointing selection. Only five. Three of them from Grolsch. One from Heineken and one from AB Inbev. All beers from global brewers, then.

I'm kicking off with Grolsch Herfstbok, their original Bokbier. I don't have high hopes for this. I wouldn't usually buy it, because it's way too sweet. Or at least has been all the times I've tasted it in the past. 

Here I go. It smells a bit oxidised, if I put my beer-judging hat on. A bit of fruit, too, which is OK.  Very sweet in the mouth. Some dark fruit flavours and even a touch of liquorice. It finishes a bit harshly bitter and with an odd metallic taste. It has some good features, in a rather disjointed whole. Not my thing. And the finish is quite unpleasant.

While Dolores finishes off the Hefstbok, I've moved on to another Grolsh offering, Winterbok.

It smells very differnt from its sibling. Spicy. No surprise, as it is spiced. Cinnamon, I think, dominates. Mmm. Lots of cloves in the mouth and lots of herbal bitterness. Unlike Herfstbok, there's not much sweetness. I like it more than Herfstbok. ThoughI suspect that all the spices would get annoying after a glass or two.

I may as well get on with the third Gulpener beer, Dunkel Weizenbock. Which, interestingly, has the name of the beer in German.

Spicy aroma. Mostly cloves, which I suppose is from the wheat beer yeast. Quite wheaty in the mouthg with more spice. Easily the best of the three. And one I don't think they brewed themselves. I seem to remember that their Weizen was brewed somewhere in Germany.

That's enough Bokbier for today. Time for some whisky. 

Youngs boiling and fermentation in 1945

Processes to finish.

We’ll start with the boil. It was shorter for both the Mild Ales and Pale Ales. Down to 1.5 hours for the former and 1.75 hours for the latter. That’s 15 minutes less for each. Presumably, the time was reduced to save fuel.

There’s no real change in the fermentation temperatures.

Pitching temperature is around 58º F and the maximum temperature around 67º F. Nothing to see there, really.

The average length of fermentation is a little bit shorter. About half a day. Nothing really massive.

Overall, there’s not a huge difference between Young’s beers in 1945 and those in 1943. Which, in a way, is impressive achievement of UK wartime planning. That they could keep up the strength and quantity of beer brewed. 

Youngs boiling and fermentation in 1945
Beer	Style	boil time (hours)		Pitch temp	max. ferment-ation temp	length of fermen-tation (days)
A	Mild	1.5	1.5	59º F	66.75º F	6
X	Mild	1.5	1.5	58º F	66.5º F	7
PA	Pale Ale	1.75	1.75	58º F	68º F	7
PAB	Pale Ale	1.75	1.75	59º F	67.25º F	7
	Average	1.63	1.63	58.50º F	67.13º F	6.75
Sources:
Young's brewing records held at Battersea Library, document numbers YO/RE/1/13.

 

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)

 

Beers I really miss, part 2: Branik 12º Dark

I was lucky enough to visit Prague a few times in the mid-1980s. Before capitalism returned and fucked everything up.

The pubs were wonderful. Multi-roomed and very atmospheric. There was only one negative feature: most only sold one draught beer. Every now and then, I'd come across a pub with Staropramen 10º and 12º on tap. But that was about it as far as multi-tap pubs went.

A downside to this was that most pubs opted for a Pale Lager. Either 10º or 12º. I was told that in earlier times, most pubs had served both Pale and Dark Lager. WHen pubs switched to a single draught beer, it was the dark one tghat was axed.

Other than in brewpub U Fleku, draught Dark Lager was pretty rare in Prague. But there was one little place, in the Old Town close to Charles Bridge, that had Branik 12º Dark Lager on draught. What a great place to find by chance.

Because that beer was wonderful. The classic Prague Dark Lager. Not too sweet, full and well-balanced. In short, a great drinking beer.  Inviting gulp after gulp, pint after pint.

Then back came capitalism. All the Prague breweries were sold off as a job lot. And came into the hands of Bass Charrington. It was obvious most of the breweries would close. I think only Staropramen remains of the four or five breweries.

The Branik brand lives on, but 12º Dark was dropped years ago. Even while the brewery was still open. A sad loss, as far as I'm concerned. It wasn't the fanciest of beers. Just a reliable, tasty, everyday drink. The type of beer that should be treasured, but seldom is.

 

Youngs hops in 1945

A very short post today. I hope that you aren't too disappointed. I have a good excuse. Sorry, reason. I'm currently in Peru. At least, assuming my travel has gone well.

Every time I go on a trip, I have to queue up nine or ten blog posts. I'm writing this almost two weeks in advance. One of seven posts that I've written today. I can be very diligent when I need to be. Tomorrow I'll be recording a few videos to tide my YouTube channel over while I'm away. How did I ever fit in a full-time job?

Anyway, time to get on with the actual post. All eight sentence of it. Enjoy. 

Continuing with the hops, there’s not a huge amount to report.

Just the two types of hops in every beer. Both English, of course. Kent from the 1943 harvest and Sussex from 1944. Fairly fresh, then. Pretty much the same as in earlier war years. And that’s about all I can string out of this meagre information. Sorry about that. 

Youngs hops in 1945
Beer	Style	hop 1	hop 2
A	Mild	Kent 1943	Sussex 1944
X	Mild	Kent 1943	Sussex 1944
PA	Pale Ale	Kent 1943	Sussex 1944
PAB	Pale Ale	Kent 1943	Sussex 1944
Sources:
Young's brewing records held at Battersea Library, document numbers YO/RE/1/13.

 

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)

 

Youngs adjuncts and sugars in 1945

Now we'll see what replaced that 5% or so of malt. Flaked barley accounts for about 2%. It's about the same for both the Mild and Pale Ale parti-gyles.

The other 3%-odd is taken by sugar. In the case of the Milds, it's all extra No. 3 invert. For the Pale Ales, it's either No. 1 or a combination of No. 1 and No. 3. Nothing hugely odd about that. Other than the Pale Ales sometimes having some No. 3. A sugar that's meant for Mild Ales, really.

With the malt extract, there's no change. It's still around 3%. 

Youngs adjuncts and sugars in 1945
Beer	Style	flaked barley	malt extract	no. 1 sugar	no. 3 sugar	caramel	total sugar
A	Mild	15.79%	3.01%		10.53%	0.75%	14.29%
X	Mild	15.91%	3.79%		9.09%	0.76%	13.64%
PA	Pale Ale	14.37%	2.99%	8.38%	2.40%		13.77%
PAB	Pale Ale	14.37%	2.99%	10.78%			13.77%
	Average	15.11%					13.87%
Sources:
Young's brewing records held at Battersea Library, document numbers YO/RE/1/13.

 

Beers I really miss, part 1: bottle-conditioned Guinness

When you've been drinking as long as I have, there are inevitably favourite beers that have fallen by the way. In this series, I'll be documenting the ones whose loss is particularly affecting.

Where else could I start, other than with bottle-conditioned Guinness? Perhaps, the keenest loss of all. Because it was such a wonderful beer.

In the UK in 1970s, only a handful of beers were still bottle-conditioned. Guinness, one of the biggest-selling bottled beers, was amongst their number. Which, on the face of it, you wouldn't have expected.

There was a reason Guinness had stuck with bottle-conditioning. In Ireland, they didn't bottle mostly of their Stout themselves. Much of it was performed by publicans or retailers. Tiny operations with primitive equipment. May were effectively hand-bottling. They just weren't able to filter or force-carbonate. Once most bottling was taken in-house, the days of bottle-conditioning were numbered.

Getting to the beer, it was such wonderful stuff. Roasty, without being harsh. With a lovely fine-beaded head. And, lurking in the background, a subtle, bur perceptible, lactic twang. The origin ow which was a big secret. Rumour was that Guinness deliberately soured some beer, pasteurised it and then blended it into the main wort. Presumably to mimic the effect of ageing.

It was a classic. One of the best beers in the world. And then it was gone.

Will it ever return? I doubt it. Though I'm sure Guinness are perfectly capable of doing so. There's just no incentive for them to. 

Anothre new country: Peru

Just about done here in Peru. Been a great time. Met some really cool new people, reconnected with some old friends. Drank far too much pisco.

As I've already bored you with, one of the reasons I do all this crazy travelling (that's a quote from Dolores) is all the social aspects. In this trip didn't disappoint in that respect. 

The high altitude that I feared didn't work out as bad as I feared. As long as I didn't walk up any hills or carry any weight. The alien landscapes,  amazing food and lots of pisco more than made up for that.

I'm going to travel as long as I have those few last breaths in my body. 

Can't write any longer. About to go out to drench my stomach in a few last pisco sours. 

Youngs malts in 1945

On with the malts.

The malt content is down, on average by over 5%, dropping from almost 76% to 71%. Which is interesting. We'll see in a minute what replaced that 5% of malt.

There's one malt fewer than in 1943, enzymic malt having been dropped. Presumably on account of supply problems. As Youngs reintroduced it after the war.

Other changes to the grists are the combinations of base malts. In the Mild parti-gyle, the percentage of mild malt was increased at the expense of pale malt. While in the Pale Ale parti-gyle, some of the PA malt was replaced by mild malt. Again, I assume that these changes were to do with supply problems rather than a choice of the brewer. 

Youngs malts in 1945
Beer	Style	pale malt	mild malt	PA malt	crystal malt	total malt
A	Mild	11.28%	49.62%		9.02%	69.92%
X	Mild	11.36%	50.00%		9.09%	70.45%
PA	Pale Ale		17.96%	53.89%		71.86%
PAB	Pale Ale		17.96%	53.89%		71.86%
	Average					71.02%
Sources:
Young's brewing records held at Battersea Library, document numbers YO/RE/1/13.

 

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)

 

Youngs beers in 1945

We’re going to finish this review of Young’s beers in WW II with a look at the final war year. A glance literally at the end of the war, well, at least the war in Europe, as all of these beers were brewed in May 1945.

There are now only four beers, XXX being missing. Though that is because of the time of year these beers were brewed. XXX was only brewed from October to March. There was also a Brown Ale which seems to have been the Mild Ale with added primings.

It may be a surprise to see that the gravities of all their beers are the same as in 1943. But it's true. All the gravity reductions came in the first three years of the war. Quite the opposite of WW I. Where all the gravity cuts happened in the last half of the war.

The rates of attenuation are broadly similar to 1943 and hence the alcohol content is pretty much the same. Nothing really to report on that front.

There's a slightly lower hopping rate per quarter (336 lbs) of malt for the Mild Ales. Falling from around 4.5 lbs to 4.25 lbs. Not a huge drop. While for Pale Ales, it held steady at 5.5 lbs per quarter. 

Youngs beers in 1945
Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
A	Mild	1026.9	1006.1	2.75	77.35%	4.13	0.47
X	Mild	1028.9	1005.3	3.13	81.79%	4.17	0.50
PA	Pale Ale	1042.8	1008.9	4.49	79.29%	5.41	0.94
PAB	Pale Ale	1031.8	1008.3	3.11	73.87%	5.41	0.71
Sources:
Young's brewing records held at Battersea Library, document numbers YO/RE/1/13.

 

Youngs X Ale boiling and fermentation 1939 - 1945

Finally, we come to processes. They’re always fun.

Both coppers were boiled for 1.75 hours at the beginning of the war. You might find it odd that some of the brews in 1941, 1942 and 1943 were boiled for two hours. That’s because these were parti-gyles which included XXX.

A change came in 1944, when the time was reduced to one and a half hours. Where it was to remain for decades. I assume the reduction was to save fuel. It’s something which happened at most breweries.

As with PA, there was a reduction in the pitch temperature right at the start of the war. Dropping from 60º F to 58º F. Where it remained for the duration. Nothing much to say about that. Other than to wonder what the reason for the reduction was.

There’s much more inconsistency in the maximum fermentation temperature, ranging from 63.25º F to 67.25º F. Pretty randomly. Mostly it’s around 65º F to 66º F. Which is fairly cool. 68º F to 70º F was more typical.

The length of fermentation is much the same as for PA. Namely, seven or eight days. Though some are a little shorter at five, six or even four days.

Just for fun, I’ve included the dropping time. Which was between one and a half and two days. Which is the same as for PA, pretty much. For some context, at Fullers they usually dropped within 24 hours. 

Youngs X Ale boiling and fermentation 1939 - 1945
Date	Year	boil time (hours)		Pitch temp	max. fermen-tation temp	length of fermen-tation (days)	dropped after (hours)
18th Oct	1939	1.75	1.75	60º F	68º F	8
17th May	1940			58º F	63.25º F	5
2nd Dec	1940	1.75	1.75	58º F	65.25º F	8
30th Apr	1941	2	2	59º F	66º F	7
6th May	1941	2	2	58º F	65.5º F	8	37
24th Oct	1941	1.75	1.75	58º F	65.5º F	7	38
4th May	1942	1.75	1.75	58º F	64.75º F	7	37
8th Jul	1942	2	2	58º F	65.5º F	6	41
19th Oct	1942	2	2	58º F	65º F	8	41
5th May	1943	2	2	58º F	64º F	7	36
28th Apr	1944	1.5	1.5	58º F	65º F	5	40
5th May	1944	1.5	1.5	58º F	63.5º F	6	37.5
20th Oct	1944	1.5	1.5	58º F	66º F	7	41
2nd Jul	1945	1.5	1.5	58º F	66.75º F	5	37.75
4th Jul	1945	1.5	1.5	58º F	67.25º F	4	46
Sources:
Young's brewing records held at Battersea Library, document numbers YO/RE/1/8 YO/RE/1/9 YO/RE/1/10, YO/RE/1/11, YO/RE/1/12, YO/RE/1/13 and YO/RE/1/14.

 

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)

 

What is air pressure Lager?

 My look at the wonderful air-pressure served Lager of Czechoslovakia. The way their Lager should be served.

 

Youngs X Ale hops 1939 - 1945

Hops next. The most obvious feature is that all the hops were English, even at the start of the war.

Unlike some brewers, Youngs did record the region their hopes came from. Which, in the majority of cases, was either Kent or Mid-Kent. That makes sense, Kent being the closest hop region to the brewery. The rest came from either Worcester or Sussex. The former the second-largest hop region and the latter also close to London.

Once the war started, it’s no surprise that there were no foreign hops as imports had come to a halt. The only foreign hops knocking were old ones, imported before the start of the war. Though, to be fair, Youngs had used exclusively English hops before the war.

The hops are generally pretty fresh. All are from either the most recent harvest of the one before. With some of the older hops having been cold-stored. (That’s what the “CS” stands for.)

Most surprising is the occasional use of spent hops. A practice Youngs definitely hadn’t indulged in pre-war.  Though its use was restricted to the Mild Ales. The Pale Ales always received all fresh hops. 

Youngs X Ale hops 1939 - 1945
Date	Year	hop 1	hop 2	hop 3
18th Oct	1939	Kent 1937 CS	Kent 1938
17th May	1940	Worcs 1939	Kent 1938
2nd Dec	1940	Kent 1939	Kent 1938 CS
30th Apr	1941	Sussex 1940	spent
6th May	1941	Sussex 1940	spent
24th Oct	1941	Mid-Kent 1939 CS	Mid-Kent 1941
4th May	1942	Worcs 1941	Mid-Kent 1941	spent
8th Jul	1942	Worcs 1941
19th Oct	1942	Kent 1941	spent
5th May	1943	Kent 1942	Kent 1941
28th Apr	1944	Mid-Kent 1942	Kent 1943
5th May	1944	Kent 1942	Kent 1943
20th Oct	1944	Kent 1943
2nd Jul	1945	Kent 1944	Kent 1944
4th Jul	1945	Kent 1944
Sources:
Young's brewing records held at Battersea Library, document numbers YO/RE/1/8 YO/RE/1/9 YO/RE/1/10, YO/RE/1/11, YO/RE/1/12, YO/RE/1/13 and YO/RE/1/14.