Barclay Perkins Lagers 1925 - 1934 (part two)

As promised, we're now going to take a closer look at the ingredients and brewing techniques of Barclay Perkins' Lagers.

We'll start by running our eyes quickly over the recipes for the three different Lagers. There have several striking features. All three are quite different. And the differences in recipe also entailed a difference in brewing technique, which we'll get to later.

Draught Lager had the simplest grist: 100% lager malt. At least I think it's lager malt. Until 1932 the base malt was supplied by Schwills, whom I believe was a German maltster. I'm pretty sure this was lager malt. After that, some of the base malt was supplied the English maltster Taylor. I'm not sure whether this was lager malt or just plain pale malt.

Export, in addition to lager malt, contained 23% grits. Which seems odd; given that the other Lagers were all malt. I can only conclude that the reason for its use was connected with flavour or some other attribute of the finished beer.

Dark had the most complicated grist, containing crystal malt and either black malt or roast barley in addition to lager malt. The percentage is quite low so presumably the beer wasn't unduly roasty. Switching between black malt and roast barley was typical of Barclay Perkins. They also swapped around between the two in their Porter and Stout recipes. The resulting beer was about 40 EBC, 20 SRM. This probably doesn't resemble a German Dark Lager of the period, which would more than likely have been coloured with Sinamar.

All three beers used the same hop combination at any given time, though what that combination was would vary from year to year. The one constant was Saaz, sometimes in combination with Goldings or another English hop, at others with German hops such as Hallertau or Tettnang.

You've probably guessed what the difference in brewing technique was that the ingredients dictated: a cereal mash. That was required for the Export which used grits. The technique is one I have practical experience of, because Dann of Pretty Things used it when brewing No. 1 Scotch Ale, an event I witnessed. The cereal mash started at the same time as the doughing in of the main mash at 120º.  The grits were mashed at 160º F with 2.5 quarters of lager malt for 20 minutes, then boiled for 5 minutes. This was then added back to the main mash, much as a decoction would be, raising the temperature to 158º F. Steam further raised the temperature of the main mash to 170º F, where it stayed for 30 minutes when there was a small underlet of near boiling water. After 30 minutes the first wort was run off, followed by sparges at 175º F and 170º F.

The mashing scheme for Dark was by definition different, as there were no grits in the grist. The lager malt was doughed in with water at 123º F. It was left to stand for an hour and 15 minutes, during which time the rakes were turned on a couple of times. A combination of steam and an underlet with water at 212º F, raised the mash temperature to 145. At this point the coloured grains were added to the mash and the temperature raised with steam to 170º F. Then there was a second underlet at 212º F and the mash was left to stand for 30 minutes before the first wort was run off. There were then sparges at 175º F and 170º F.

That's quite a complicated scheme and not a decoction but a step mash. However, some of the wort was boiled. 16 barrels of bright wort were boiled for 3 hours and then pumped to join the rest of the wort in the copper. It says in the notes that this boil was for caramelisation.

The scheme for Draught was the same as for Dark, but without the coloured malt addition.

Scanning the logs I've just noticed something else: the hop additions. Barclay Perkins are about the only brewery I've come across that properly recorded these details. The Dark had 18 lbs of Saaz in the hop back, 35 lbs Saaz 10 minutes before flame out, 13.5 lbs English hops were boiled for an hour and another 13.5 lbs for half an hour.

Next time we'll be looking at Barclay's Lagers during WW II.

Barclay Perkins Lagers 1925 - 1934
Date	Year	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	black malt	crystal malt	lager malt	grits	roast barley	hops	colour
16th Apr	1925	Dark	Dunkles	1057.6	1020.1	4.96	65.10%	1.45%	17.39%	81.16%			Saaz, East Malling and Pacific hops	88
4th Feb	1926	Dark	Dunkles	1057.4	1019.0	5.08	66.90%	1.45%	17.39%	81.16%			Saaz and English hops	84
12th May	1927	Dark	Dunkles	1057.5	1020.2	4.93	64.87%	1.45%	17.39%	81.16%			Saaz, British Columbia and Golding hops.	80
6th Jan	1928	Dark	Dunkles	1057.2	1020.7	4.83	63.81%	1.45%	17.39%	81.16%			Saaz and Golding hops.	80
13th Jan	1928	Dark	Dunkles	1057.3	1020.4	4.88	64.40%	1.45%	17.39%	81.16%			Saaz and Golding hops.	84
7th Aug	1930	Dark	Dunkles	1057.3	1019.4	5.01	66.14%		17.39%	81.16%		1.45%	Saaz and Tettnang hops.	88
15th Aug	1930	Dark	Dunkles	1057.3	1020.2	4.91	64.75%		17.39%	81.16%		1.45%	Saaz and Tettnang hops.	88
7th Aug	1931	Dark	Dunkles	1057.4	1019.7	4.99	65.68%		18.87%	79.25%		1.89%	Saaz and Tettnang hops.	84
11th Jul	1932	Dark	Dunkles	1057.3	1021.0	4.80	63.35%		18.87%	79.25%		1.89%	Saaz and Hallertau hops.	84
12th Sep	1932	Dark	Dunkles	1057.3	1021.3	4.76	62.83%		18.87%	79.25%		1.89%	Saaz and Hallertau hops.	86
24th Jul	1933	Dark	Dunkles	1057.5	1016.7	5.40	70.96%		18.87%	79.25%		1.89%	Saaz hops.	84
9th Apr	1934	Dark	Dunkles	1057.5	1020.8	4.86	63.83%		18.87%	79.25%		1.89%	Saaz hops.	88
28th May	1934	Dark	Dunkles	1057.5	1020.8	4.86	63.83%		18.87%	79.25%		1.89%	Saaz hops.	80
9th Sep	1935	Dark	Dunkles	1057.6	1019.0	5.11	67.05%		18.87%	79.25%		1.89%	Saaz hops.	86
7th Jul	1932	Draught	Lager	1043.5	1013.6	3.96	68.74%			100.00%			Saaz and Hallertau hops.	11.5
19th Jul	1932	Draught	Lager	1043.4	1013.2	4.00	69.59%			100.00%			Saaz and Hallertau hops.	12
10th Jul	1933	Draught	Lager	1043.4	1010.4	4.37	76.04%			100.00%			Saaz hops.	12
14th Mar	1934	Draught	Lager	1043.4	1011.1	4.27	74.42%			100.00%			Saaz hops.	13
4th May	1934	Draught	Lager	1043.2	1011.7	4.17	72.92%			100.00%			Saaz hops.	11
7th Sep	1935	Draught	Lager	1043.5	1010.1	4.41	76.69%			100.00%			Saaz hops.	11
1st Apr	1925	Export	Export	1050.5	1014.1	4.82	72.08%			76.92%	23.08%		Saaz, East Malling and Pacific hops	14
3rd Feb	1926	Export	Export	1050.6	1015.4	4.66	69.57%			76.92%	23.08%		Saaz and English hops	13
16th May	1927	Export	Export	1050.7	1013.8	4.88	72.78%			76.92%	23.08%		Saaz, British Columbia and Golding hops.	12
11th Jan	1928	Export	Export	1050.2	1014.6	4.71	70.92%			76.92%	23.08%		Saaz and Golding hops.	10
22nd Jul	1930	Export	Export	1050.2	1012.1	5.04	75.90%			76.92%	23.08%		Saaz and Tettnang hops.	12
13th Aug	1930	Export	Export	1050.3	1012.3	5.03	75.55%			76.92%	23.08%		Saaz and Tettnang hops.	10
5th Aug	1931	Export	Export	1050.4	1010.7	5.25	78.77%			76.32%	23.68%		Saaz and Tettnang hops.	11
12th Jul	1933	Export	Export	1049.4	1009.5	5.28	80.77%			76.32%	23.68%		Saaz hops.	10.5
21st Mar	1934	Export	Export	1049.5	1011.6	5.01	76.57%			76.32%	23.68%		Saaz hops.	9.5
2nd May	1934	Export	Export	1049.4	1011.1	5.07	77.53%			76.32%	23.68%		Saaz hops.	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.