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