Barclay Perkins Lagers 1925 - 1934 (part one)

Here are the first results of my last archive harvesting trip to London. Lots of lovely details of Barclay's Lager.

First let's take a look at the types of Lager Barclay Perkins brewed. In the 1920's, they brewed just two: Export and Dark.  Both had pretty respectable gravities for the period. Between 1925 and 1930 the average OG of beer brewed in Britain was about 1043º*). Dark and Export, at 1057 and 1050 respectively, were both well above the average.

A third Lager, romantically called Draught, appeared in 1932. That they could justify brewing a draught beer as well as bottled ones is an indication of the success of Barclay's Lager. As is the increase in the batch size of Dark and Export from 1932 onwards. In the case of dark, from 65 to 105 barrels, for Export from 125 to 200 barrels. It's worth pointing out that far more Export was brewed than Dark. Its batches weren't just larger, there were more of them. Draught Lager was weaker and closer to average gravity.

I've included tables of foreign Lagers for comparison purposes. A bit of compare and contrast never goes amiss.

It's easiest to find a comparable beer with Barclay's Dark. I'm pretty sure Münchener was the style they were aiming for. The Barclay's beer has an OG at the top end of the German examples. The FG is pretty similar to the German beers, as is the attenuation of around 65%. Barclay's Dark seems to match the specifications of the Munich style quite well.

Barclay's Export also looks similar to its German equivalent, this time from Dortmund. Though this time it's at the bottom end of the German range in terms of OG. The FG's match up pretty well, too, roughly between 1010º and 1014º. The attenuation is also pretty similar at 75-80%.

This is where it gets tricky as I'm not sure what style Draught is aiming for. If I hadn't seen the hopping rate, I might have said Pilsener.  But it's not very well hopped, falling between Dark and Export in terms of hops per quarter. It seems to match best with a German Lagerbier or a Danish Lager, though I'm not sure that I'd want to read too much into that.

The hopping rate is quite modest for all the Lagers. In 1924/25, these were Barclay's hopping rates:

beer	lbs hops/qtr
X Ale	6
XLK (Ordinary Bitter)	7.5
PA	9
KK	9
KKK	14
Export Brown Stout	14
Russian Stout	16
Source:
Barclay Perkins brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number ACC/2305/01/611

You can see that the most highly hopped Lager, Export, only had the same level of hopping the least highly hopped top-fermenting beer.

The boil times are short compared to those of Barclay's other beers. Their Pale Ales and Milds were boiled for 2.25 and 2 hours. Their Porter, Stouts and K Ales were all boiled for more than 2 hours.

Unsurprisingly, the fermentations were much cooler than for their top-fermenting beers, which were pitched at 60-63º F and rose to 70-73º F. The logs from the 1920's indicate that they used Carlsberg yeast harvested from earlier brews. Later logs just say which previous gyle the yeast had been harvested from. It may well still have been Carlsberg yeast. I wonder if they were also culturing it, as was common in larger continental breweries.

Next time we'll be looking at grists and mashing techniques. Lots more surprises there.

Barclay Perkins Lagers 1925 - 1934
Date	Year	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	boil time (hours)	Pitch temp	max. fermen-tation temp	length of fermen-tation (days)	colour
16th Apr	1925	Dark	Dunkles	1057.6	1020.1	4.96	65.10%	4.64	1.29	1.5	48.5º		14	88
4th Feb	1926	Dark	Dunkles	1057.4	1019.0	5.08	66.90%	4.64	1.26	1.5	48º		12	84
12th May	1927	Dark	Dunkles	1057.5	1020.2	4.93	64.87%	4.64	1.26	1.5	48º		15	80
6th Jan	1928	Dark	Dunkles	1057.2	1020.7	4.83	63.81%	4.64	1.24	1.5	48º		15	80
13th Jan	1928	Dark	Dunkles	1057.3	1020.4	4.88	64.40%	4.64	1.23	1.5	48º		15	84
7th Aug	1930	Dark	Dunkles	1057.3	1019.4	5.01	66.14%	4.64	1.25	1.5	48º		15	88
15th Aug	1930	Dark	Dunkles	1057.3	1020.2	4.91	64.75%	4.64	1.27	1.5	48º		15	88
7th Aug	1931	Dark	Dunkles	1057.4	1019.7	4.99	65.68%	4.68	1.18	1.13	48º		15	84
11th Jul	1932	Dark	Dunkles	1057.3	1021.0	4.80	63.35%	4.68	1.22	1.33	51º		12	84
12th Sep	1932	Dark	Dunkles	1057.3	1021.3	4.76	62.83%	4.68	1.24	1.33	48º		15	86
24th Jul	1933	Dark	Dunkles	1057.5	1016.7	5.40	70.96%	4.68	1.18	1.5	48.5º		16	84
9th Apr	1934	Dark	Dunkles	1057.5	1020.8	4.86	63.83%	4.68	1.27	2.17	46º	52.5º	11	88
28th May	1934	Dark	Dunkles	1057.5	1020.8	4.86	63.83%	4.68	1.19	1.5	46º	53º	12	80
9th Sep	1935	Dark	Dunkles	1057.6	1019.0	5.11	67.05%	4.68	1.15	1.5	46º	55.5º	15	86
7th Jul	1932	Draught	Lager	1043.5	1013.6	3.96	68.74%	5.49	1.01	1.08	48º		15	11.5
19th Jul	1932	Draught	Lager	1043.4	1013.2	4.00	69.59%	5.49	0.97	1.67	49.5º		15	12
10th Jul	1933	Draught	Lager	1043.4	1010.4	4.37	76.04%	5.47	0.94	2	48.5º		12	12
14th Mar	1934	Draught	Lager	1043.4	1011.1	4.27	74.42%	5.47	0.99	2	45º	52.5º	13	13
4th May	1934	Draught	Lager	1043.2	1011.7	4.17	72.92%	5.47	0.99	2	45.5º	53º	11	11
7th Sep	1935	Draught	Lager	1043.5	1010.1	4.41	76.69%	5.47	0.95	2	46º	56º	13	11
1st Apr	1925	Export	Export	1050.5	1014.1	4.82	72.08%	6.54	1.31	1.5	48º		15	14
3rd Feb	1926	Export	Export	1050.6	1015.4	4.66	69.57%	6.00	1.20	1.5	48º		15	13
16th May	1927	Export	Export	1050.7	1013.8	4.88	72.78%	6.00	1.24	1.5	48º		15	12
11th Jan	1928	Export	Export	1050.2	1014.6	4.71	70.92%	6.00	1.26	1.5	48º		15	10
22nd Jul	1930	Export	Export	1050.2	1012.1	5.04	75.90%	6.00	1.21	1.5	47.5º		13	12
13th Aug	1930	Export	Export	1050.3	1012.3	5.03	75.55%	6.00	1.22	1.5	48º		15	10
5th Aug	1931	Export	Export	1050.4	1010.7	5.25	78.77%	6.00	1.16	1	48º		15	11
12th Jul	1933	Export	Export	1049.4	1009.5	5.28	80.77%	6.00	1.19	2	48º		13	10.5
21st Mar	1934	Export	Export	1049.5	1011.6	5.01	76.57%	6.00	1.14	2	46º	52.5º	14	9.5
2nd May	1934	Export	Export	1049.4	1011.1	5.07	77.53%	6.00	1.11	2	46º	52º	10	10
Sources:
Barclay Perkins brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers ACC/2305/1/638, ACC/2305/1/640 and ACC/2305/1/641.

Foreign Lagers 1930 - 1935
Year	Brewer	country	Beer	Style	OG	FG	colour	ABV	App. Atten-uation
1930	average of 4 samples	Germany	Dunkles Münchener	Dunkles	1055.2	1018.6	3.5	4.69	65.15%
1930	strongest sample	Germany	Dunkles Münchener	Dunkles	1056.9	1020.4	3.9	4.72	62.92%
1930	weakest sample	Germany	Dunkles Münchener	Dunkles	1053.6	1016.4	3	4.82	68.27%
1935	Löwenbräu, Munich	Germany	Dark Lager	Dunkles	1055.0	1020.8		4.42	62.18%
1930	average of 14 samples	Germany	Export Dortmunder	Export	1054.0	1012.2	0.73	5.39	76.44%
1930	strongest sample	Germany	Export Dortmunder	Export	1057.2	1014.3	0.84	5.58	73.85%
1930	weakest sample	Germany	Export Dortmunder	Export	1051.2	1009.4	0.66	5.08	80.88%
1930	average of 15 samples	Germany	Lagerbier	Helles	1048.2	1011.0	0.72	4.78	76.25%
1930	strongest sample	Germany	Lagerbier	Helles	1050.5	1012.2	0.78	4.99	74.96%
1930	weakest sample	Germany	Lagerbier	Helles	1045.4	1006.5	0.59	5.10	85.07%
1932	Beck	Germany	Bier	Lager	1051.0	1009.6	6.5	5.40	81.18%
1934	Tuborg	Denmark	Lager	Lager	1044.7	1013.4		4.05	70.02%
1934	Wiibroes Bryggeri	Denmark	Lager	Lager	1043.0	1012.4		3.97	71.16%
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001.
"Van Brouwerij tot Bierglas" by F. Kurris, Doetinchem, 1948, pages 26-27

* Brewers' Almanack 1928, p. 110.