Someone asked me this question the other day: "What was the difference between K Ales, X Ales and Pale Ale?" It's a good question. Unfortunately, there isn't a simple answer.Firstly, what year you're talking about is of vital importance. Just like X Ales, K Ales underwent considerable changes over the years. So there's no one single answer to that question. Rather there are several.
"So are you going to give us all those answers?"
"No."
"Some of the answers?"
"No."
"Any of the answers?"
"No. Not yet."
First I have to put the evidence together. This is part one.Of the evidence.
| Barclay Perkins K Ales 1869 - 1910 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Year | Beer | OG | FG | ABV | App. Attenuation | lbs hops/ qtr | hops lb/brl | lbs hops | qtrs malt | dry hops (oz / barrel) | pale malt | amber malt | crystal malt | SA malt | white malt | no. 2 sugar | caramel | other sugar | flaked maize | flaked rice |
| 1869 | KK | 1084.5 | 1013.6 | 9.38 | 83.90% | 14.34 | 5.73 | 2438 | 170 | 0.00 | 85 | 85 | ||||||||
| 1870 | KKK | 1093.1 | 1016.5 | 10.13 | 82.27% | 18.45 | 7.99 | 2768 | 150 | 0.00 | 150 | |||||||||
| 1870 | KKKK | 1106.1 | 1017.0 | 11.79 | 83.98% | 18.89 | 9.11 | 1020 | 54 | 0.00 | 180 | |||||||||
| 1870 | KK | 1079.2 | 1012.5 | 8.83 | 84.22% | 18.27 | 7.24 | 2302 | 126 | 0.00 | 180 | |||||||||
| 1891 | KKK | 1085.0 | 1021.6 | 8.39 | 74.58% | 14.75 | 5.43 | 3967 | 269 | 0.00 | 180 | 9 | 50 | 30 | ||||||
| 1891 | KK | 1075.0 | 1020.2 | 7.25 | 73.04% | 15.17 | 4.91 | 3579 | 236 | 0.00 | 156 | 6 | 50 | 24 | ||||||
| 1891 | KKK | 1085.0 | 1017.7 | 8.90 | 79.14% | 14.34 | 5.52 | 3958 | 276 | 0.00 | 168 | 12 | 66 | 30 | ||||||
| 1891 | KKK | 1085.0 | 1023.8 | 8.09 | 71.97% | 14.09 | 5.37 | 4510 | 320 | 0.00 | 210 | 10 | 65 | 35 | ||||||
| 1891 | KK | 1074.0 | 1018.8 | 7.30 | 74.55% | 14.23 | 4.51 | 4339 | 305 | 0.00 | 197 | 13 | 60 | 35 | ||||||
| 1892 | KK | 1074.0 | 1021.1 | 7.00 | 71.55% | 14.22 | 4.61 | 4338 | 305 | 0.00 | 197 | 13 | 60 | 35 | ||||||
| 1899 | KK | 1075.0 | 1020.5 | 7.21 | 72.67% | 13.54 | 4.16 | 4196 | 310 | 0.00 | 210 | 70 | 1 | 30 | ||||||
| 1900 | KK | 1073.0 | 1019.4 | 7.09 | 73.44% | 14.03 | 4.20 | 4349 | 310 | 0.00 | 141 | 69 | 70 | 2 | 30 | |||||
| 1906 | KK | 1074.0 | 1023.8 | 6.64 | 67.81% | 13.97 | 4.20 | 4303 | 308 | 12.00 | 210 | 70 | 2.25 | 28 | ||||||
| 1906 | KK | 1073.0 | 1022.2 | 6.73 | 69.64% | 13.99 | 4.13 | 4310 | 308 | 12.00 | 210 | 70 | 2.25 | 28 | ||||||
| 1906 | KK | 1073.0 | 1020.5 | 6.95 | 71.92% | 14.00 | 4.20 | 4311 | 308 | 12.00 | 131 | 79 | 70 | 2.25 | 28 | |||||
| 1909 | KK | 1073.0 | 1021.1 | 6.87 | 71.16% | 14.00 | 4.25 | 2156 | 154 | 8.00 | 75 | 5 | 28 | 32 | 1 | 14 | ||||
| 1909 | KK | 1073.3 | 1022.2 | 6.77 | 69.77% | 14.00 | 4.23 | 3613 | 258 | 8.00 | 36 | 9 | 135 | 54 | 2 | 24 | ||||
| 1909 | KK | 1073.0 | 1021.1 | 6.87 | 71.16% | 14.04 | 4.26 | 2162 | 154 | 8.00 | 103 | 5 | 1 | 32 | 14 | |||||
| 1910 | KKK | 1087.3 | 1026.3 | 8.07 | 69.86% | 14.00 | 5.33 | 2940 | 210 | 12.00 | 136 | 8 | 48 | 2 | 18 | |||||
| Source: | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Barclay Perkins brewing records | ||||||||||||||||||||
I have to admit that this is a bit of an experiment. I'm not sure if the above table is suitable for a blog post. I'd be interested in your comments.
No insightful analysis today. Just the first shovel of dirt in my data heap. More to come soon.
And I got to mention Barclay Perkins again.
It also depends on what brewery you're looking at. Many apologies if this pre-empts what you're going to say later, Ron, but Barclay Perkins, and apparently some of the other big London brewers, seem to have had their own rather idiosyncratic take on what KK meant, compared to smaller brewers in and around London, who seem usually to have used KK, when they had a beer called that in their lists, to mean a medium-to-light bitter ale with an OG or 1050 to 1055. A Gordon and Co of The Brewery, Lyndhurst Road, Peckham, sold KK pale ale at 1 shilling 2 pence a gallon, implying an OG of around 1055, while EJ and C Healey of King Street, Watford, Hertfordshire in 1898 brewed KK family bitter ale, for 1s a gallon (perhaps 1050 OG), KIK light dinner ale at 1s 2d, KKK India Pale Ale for 1s 4d (1060 OG?) and KKKK India Pale Ale Extra at 1s 8d (probably somewhere between 1080 and 1090). Mann's in the East End brewed stock ales called KKKK and KKK, quite possibly similar to Barclay Perkins's KKK, but a Mann's advert from 1898 also shows KK medium bitter ale at 10 shillings 6 pence a firkin (say 1050 OG) and K light bitter ale at 9s 6d a firkin (maybe 1045 OG). The Tadcaster Tower Brewery in Yorkshire sold KKK "Old Tom" at 15s a firkin, which must have been around 1090 OG. So, KK - WTF?
ReplyDeleteMartyn, it's true that different breweries used K's to mean different things. So sometimes Bitter or even Light Mild.
ReplyDeleteIt makes sense if you see how these designations developed. Pale Ales are in effect a type of Stock Ale.
In London, K came to mean a dark, Strong Ale. It's interesting that in both the Whitbread and Truman Gravity Book KK is always used to designate Burton, no matter what the brewery might have called it. The same way X is always used to designate Mild and PA Bitter. Whitbread called Barclay Perkins standard Bitter PA, even though it was actually called XLK.