Let's Brew Wednesday - 1953 Ben Truman

It seems a while since we last had a Let's Brew post. And, yet again, this isn't Wednesday. But I think you're going to enjoy today's beer, an early version of Ben Truman.

Ben Truman is a good example of the type of stronger Pale Ale that many breweries introduced after WW II. It was heavily advertised by Truman in the 1950's and designed to compete with beers like Bass and Double Diamond.

Two different strengths were produced, the stronger one being bottled. I'm not sure if it ever appeared in cask-conditioned form. There was deinitely a keg version, which was still knocking around when I drank in the Tenterden in Bromley by Bow in the late 1970's. Not that I ever tried it. I didn't drink keg, if I could avoid it. That it no longer exists in any form, says much about how much British brewing has changed in recent decades. From national brand to the great slop bucket in the sky in half a lifetime.

This is how Andrew Campbell described Ben Truman in the mid 1950's:

"As we write, an intensive advertising campaign is in course to establish their beer Ben Truman as a national beer. Of similar strength to Bass, Double Diamond, and Worthington, it is a good solid beer, with a strong flavour. "
"The Book Of Beer" by Andrew Campbell, 1956, pages 204-205.

This beer wasn't brewed at the original Truman brewery on Brick Lane but it their Burton outpost, built in the late 19th century specifically to brew Pale Ale. Some London brewers were reluctant to attempt Pale Ale brewing in London and had them made in areas with more suitable water. Truman had a brewery in Burton, Courage had one in Alton, Hampshire.

That's it from me. I'll just hand you over to Kristen . . . . .

Truman - 1953 - Ben Truman
General info: Premium ale! Oh yeah, sounds awesome right!? Many people still above ground on this planet have actually drunk this beer. My granddad, for one, would drink it from time to time and never had anything really nice, or bad, to say about it. He always called it the 'Working Mans' Bass. I don't know about that but I do know that this beer is absolutely typical of the day’s type of 'Premo' ale. Looks quite a lot like the Bass ale recipe in fact.
Beer Specifics			Recipe by percentages
Gravity (OG)	1.051		78.2% English Pale malt			2.2% Invert No1
Gravity (FG)	1.009		12.6% Mild malt			0.4% Caramel
ABV	5.65%		0.6% Crystal 75L			0%
Apparent attenuation	82.69%		5.9% Flaked Maize
Real attenuation	67.74%
IBU	33.9		Mash	120min@149°F		1.20381962864721qt/lb
SRM	11			120min@65°C		2.52L/kg
EBC	21.7
			Boil	1.5 hours
	Homebrew @ 70%				Craft @ 80%
Grist	5gal		19L		10bbl		10hl
English Pale malt	7.56	lb	3.442	kg	410.10	lb	158.45	kg
Mild malt	1.22	lb	0.555	kg	66.14	lb	25.56	kg
Crystal 75L	0.06	lb	0.028	kg	3.36	lb	1.30	kg
Flaked Maize	0.57	lb	0.259	kg	30.87	lb	11.93	kg
Invert No1	0.22	lb	0.099	kg	11.76	lb	4.54	kg
Caramel	0.04	lb	0.019	kg	2.30	lb	0.89	kg
	9.669		4.402		524.52352
Hops
Fuggle 5.5% 90min	1.11	oz	31.4	g	68.65	oz	1.659	kg
Fuggle 5.5% 30min	0.54	oz	15.4	g	33.73	oz	0.815	kg
Fermentation	74°F /23.3°C
Yeast	Nottingham ale yeast
	1968 London ESB Ale Yeast  - WLP002 English Ale Yeast
Tasting Notes: Grainy pale malt with hints of biscuits and caramelized sugar. Much lighter tasting than the color would indicate.  Lots of apples and pears with a bit of corn which leads directly into a touch of hop astringency adding a little dryness to the finish that is exaggerated by the hop bitterness.

Ingredients and technique

Grist & such
Lots of typical British ‘ESB’ ingredients. A few different pale malts, a good portion of mild malt, flaked maize and invert sugar. Nearly all the color comes from the very little bit of crystal malt and caramel colorant.

Hops
The hops weren’t all that old nor that young. Average of about 1.5 years or so. There are hops from all over the UK in this beer. Nothing specific, for once, as to the variety of hop so lets just go with a nice Fuggle. We use Goldings for some many things, right?

Mash & Boil
Very simple mash with two infusions and a long sparge and a 1.5 hour boil. Nothing fancy, just functional.

Fermentation, Conditioning & Serving
This is where everything kinda goes pear-shaped with the ‘normal’ practices. The fermentation temperature averages are very high. The cool it down a good way but then let it ramp very high for an English ale of this sort and then crash it. This is one of the first beers that we’ve done that was made for bottling. Aim for about 2.3 volumes of CO2 using either corn sugar or glucose syrup and around 1 million cells/ ml of beer. Serve at cellar temp into a snappy Nonic glass.

Gyling & Blending
If the other stuff went off the reservation then the gyling and blending of this simple beer really falls off a cliff. A party-gyle of no less than 7 separate gyles of which there are 4 basic strengths. One has to weight the results with such an extensive technique and see if there is difference enough to dedicate the amount of time to do the technique. In this case, it is not. A single infusion is good enough for this recipe as indicated.