Wednesday 19 January 2011

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1919 Barclay Perkins X

Sorry for the slight delay with this one. I needed to check some stuff.

Ah. WW I. What fun it was. I remember the dates for the war sometimes being 1914-1919 on some war memorials. Counting the armistice as a ceasefire, not the final end of hostilities. That makes this a sort of WW I beer.

It definitely is in some respects. Wartime restrictions on gravity had been relaxed, but not removed. Hang on . . . I've got them somewhere.

There you go:


Price control 1917-1921
Price Oct 1917 Apr 1918 Feb 1919 Jul 1919 Apr 1920
2d


<1019
3d

<1022 1020-1026 <1019
4d <1036 <1030 1023-1028 1027-1032 1020-1026
5d 1036-1042 1030-1034 1029-1034 1033-1038 1027-1032
6d

1035-1041 1039-1045 1033-1038
7d

1042-1049 1045-1053 1039-1045
8d

>1050 >1054 1045-1053
9d



>1054
Sources:
The Brewers' Almanack 1928 pages 100 - 101.
"The British Brewing Industry 1830-1980"


The beer below was brewed 26th May 1919, so the middle column applies. At 1036.5, it was at the lower end of the 6d gravity range. It was party-gyled with Ale 4d. That had a gravity of 1029.4  . . . . just over the maximum for a 4d beer. Naughty Barclay Perkins.

Onto the details of this beer. It's a transitional one. A year later, the OG of Barclay Perkins X was 1043. Where it would stay for quite a while. Ironically - given the claims that the demise of Porter was caused by dark malts being restricted in WW I - this beer contains pale, brown and amber malt. Before the war, it had been just pale and amber. After the war, pale, amber and crystal.

Crystal malt. I should say something about that. I've not seen much of it used until after WW I.




Now it's Kristen time . . . . . . .





Barclay Perkins - 1919 - X
General info:  The older X recipes usually feature all amber, black and brown malt. The ‘later’ old ones feature a lot of sugars. This one, is a cross between the old and the newer. Amber and brown malt and a good deal of dark invert. Nearly half of the color comes from the addition of the caramel colorant. This beer was absolutely a beer for the masses. This single batch of beer was nearly 36,000 gallons alone!
Beer Specifics

Recipe by percentages
Gravity (OG)
1.037

31.9% English pale malt 1
3.8% Brown malt
Gravity (FG)
1.014

32.6% English pale malt 2
13.4% Invert No3
ABV
3.07%

8.2% Amber malt
0.6% Caramel colorant
Apparent attenuation
62.85%

9.4% Flaked maize
0%
Real attenuation
51.49%







IBU
12.9

Mash
120min@154°F
0.92qt/lb

SRM
20


120min@68°C
1.92L/kg

EBC
39.5










Boil
1.25 hours













Homebrew @ 70%
Craft @ 80%
Grist
5gal
19L
10bbl
10hl
English pale malt 1
2.26
lb
1.029
kg
122.67
lb
47.40
kg
English pale malt 2
2.31
lb
1.053
kg
125.49
lb
48.48
kg
Amber malt
0.58
lb
0.266
kg
31.66
lb
12.23
kg
Flaked maize
0.67
lb
0.304
kg
36.20
lb
13.99
kg
Brown malt
0.27
lb
0.123
kg
14.71
lb
5.68
kg
Invert No3
0.95
lb
0.432
kg
51.48
lb
19.89
kg
Caramel colorant
0.64
oz
18.2
g
2.15
lb
0.83
kg





384.36



Hops








Goldings 4.5% 90min
0.47
oz
13.2
g
28.91
oz
0.699
kg
Goldings 4.5% 30min
0.23
oz
6.5
g
14.20
oz
0.343
kg









Fermentation
67°F /19.4°C















Yeast
Nottingham ale yeast

1028 London Ale Yeast  - WLP013 London Ale Yeast 









Tasting Notes:
Lady fingers, toasted wheat bread and caramel. A good dose of stone fruits with a crisp tannic dryness on the end. Very smooth and easy to drink. Much more character than the gravity would suggest.

xxxx

4 comments:

Rob Sterowski said...

I presume by lady fingers you mean those sponge cookie things, not okra ...

Kristen England said...

hahah yes, the 'sponge' jobbies that are used in tiramisu, etc. I didn't know okra was called lady fingers...sweet lord how did it get that name!

Anonymous said...

Questions concerning Mild Ale:
1st: It's far from a brewery log source, but Clive la Pensée in The Historical Companion to house-brewing wrote that (Mild)"traditionally they were brewed only with pale malt. The storage time was very short and the addition of dark malt covers the cloudiness and so mild ale fell victim to the clear beer brigade" Possible?

Also, do you know how much cost a pint of X ale (+-1.075) in 1830's?

Thanks!

Ron Pattinson said...

ealusceop, up until about 1880, X Ale was all pale malt and a bit of sugar. After that you see No.3 sugar being used. But no really dark malts. I've only seen stuff like brown malt appear in Mild recipes during WW I.

Both K Ales and X Ales seem to have gradually darkened in the last couple of decades of the 19th century. Mild wasn't cloudy, at least not the stuff brewed by big brewers. They'd known how to fine beer since at least 1700.

Why did Mild go dark? I'm not sure. It could be that a darker colour was associated with greater strength. And the end of the 19th century is when glass came into common use as a drinking vessel. At least in London.

The there are brewing sugars. They make it much easier to hit an exact colour. This is also the time when the range of sugars available to brewers was expanding.

After 1920, when Porter was on its last legs, I can also imagine that publicans would have wanted a dark, cheap beer to throw all the slops in.

All this is just conjecture. I'm not claiming that this is what really happened, just making a few observations.

About 2.5d.