Adnams beers in 1914

We’re moving on to 1914 in our death march across the frozen tundra of Adnams brewing records. I very important year in the history of British brewing.

What’s even better, most of the beers we’ll be looking at were brewed in August, just when WW I was breaking out. British beer would never be the same again. Though for the first couple of years, higher taxes excepted, it was very much business as usual. Unlike in WW II, when the impact was almost immediate.

Confession time: I’m pretty sure at least one beer is missing, PA. It was in the 1913 logs and I can’t imagine it had been discontinued. But I know that it wasn’t brewed very often, probably the least often of all their beers. I assume that I’ve just missed it.

One other point. I had been going to say that I’d noticed these cryptic little entries in the racking part of the record. Then I saw what they were. I thought they were doing the magically conjuring up different beers at racking time thing. But it’s actually quite simple and comprehensible. They were creating XXXX by blending XX and Tally Ho. Something similar happened with BLB, which was transformed into PA.

Here are example entries:

The XXXX blend has an effective OG of about 1049º and the PA blend 1048º.

I suppose it’s time for a table. First the most important specs:

Adnams beers in 1914
Date	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	dry hops (oz / brl)	Pitch temp	max. fermen-tation temp	length of fermen-tation (days)
6th Aug	BLB	Pale Ale	1044	1007	4.89	84.09%	7.00	1.34	10.55	60º	69.25º	7
11th Aug	BS	Stout	1055	1013.5	5.49	75.45%	5.86	1.43	0	60º	67.75º	7
22nd Dec	DS	Stout	1065	1016.6	6.40	74.43%	6.97	2.11	3.97	60º	69.5º	8
5th Aug	Tally Ho	Old Ale	1082	1029.5	6.95	64.02%	5.92	2.21	11.94	60.25º	72º	7
11th Aug	X	Mild Ale	1033	1005.5	3.64	83.33%	4.38	0.58	0	60º	66.25º	8
7th Aug	XX	Mild Ale	1042	1008	4.50	80.95%	4.20	0.73	0	60º	69.5º	7
Source:
Adnams brewing records.

It’s an odd range of beers in some ways. Way more Tally Ho was brewed than I would have expected. It must have sold quite well, even taking into account some was used for blending. In fact it’s the second most brewed beer after XX (which was getting on for half of the brews).

At the other end of the scale there’s X, a totally puny beer for the period. I’m shocked to see something that weak. XX is pretty weak, too. Only the XXXX blend is approaching the gravity of a London X Ale. If I think of BS as really being a Porter, it’s gravity makes more sense. While DS is about right for a base level Stout.

BLB looks like a classic Light Bitter with a gravity in the mid-1040’s. But hopped pretty decently, especially in terms of dry hops. More than half a pound per barrel is a lot. Four ounces would be more typical for a beer of this gravity.

The attenuation of some of the beers is very high. In fact, only Tally Ho has a rather low degree of attenuation.

Compare and contrast time, again using Whitbread:

Whitbread beers in 1914
Date	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	Pitch temp
6th Oct	X	Mild	1055.1	1017	5.04	69.16%	5.95	1.35	60º
24th Jun	2PA	Pale Ale	1054.2	1019	4.65	64.91%	9.00	2.10	58.5º
8th Oct	FA	Pale Ale	1048.5	1015	4.43	69.06%	9.84	2.07	58.5º
7th Oct	PA	Pale Ale	1061.1	1021	5.31	65.63%	8.91	2.39	58.5º
6th Oct	IPA	IPA	1049.9	1015	4.61	69.92%	10.97	2.39	58.5º
6th Nov	KK	Stock Ale	1072.7	1024	6.44	66.99%	11.02	3.41	57º
6th Nov	2KKK	Stock Ale	1078.0	1026	6.88	66.66%	11.02	3.66	57º
6th Nov	KKK	Stock Ale	1082.0	1028	7.14	65.85%	11.02	3.85	57º
30th Apr	P	Porter	1053.0	1016	4.89	69.79%	5.55	1.21	61º
10th Aug	Exp S	Stout	1065.4	1012	7.06	81.64%	13.01	3.94	57º
30th Apr	LS	Stout	1054.7	1016	5.12	70.74%	5.55	1.25	61º
1st Apr	SS	Stout	1081.9	1022	7.93	73.15%	8.23	2.94	57º
19th Aug	SSS	Stout	1096.1	1035	8.09	63.59%	8.45	3.52	57º
Sources:
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/079, LMA/4453/D/01/080, LMA/4453/D/09/108 and LMA/4453/D/09/1094.

You can see that the hopping was heavier in London: 5.5 lbs per quarter for Porter and weak Stout, 6lbs for AX Ale, 8lbs for strong Stouts, 9lbs for Pale Ales, 11 lbs for Stock Ales. While at Adnams BLB and DS were the most heavily hopped at just 7 lbs per quarter. The mild Ales had just over 4 lbs per quarter.

Whitbread’s one Mild is stronger than even Adnams XXXX. While all their Pale Ales are stronger than even Adnams PA blend. Only Tally Ho, as strong as Whitbread’s strongest Stock Ale is really up to scratch.

Next time we’ll be looking at the grists.