Let's Brew Wednesday – 1946 Fullers PA

I thought I’d go for a full-on austerity Bitter. And what better beer than Fullers PA. Because it demonstrates nicely the arc of Pale Ales.

Let’s go back in time a little. To 1887. When Fullers PA was still called IPA. Then it was the strongest of Fullers Pale Ales at 1060º. They brewed four Pale Ales is in all, with quite small differences in gravity between them, just 10 points between the strongest and weakest. A bit like some cask breweries today, it looks.

By the 1950’s, PA and X Ale were the only Fullers beers still around that had been brewed in the 19th century. But PA paid a price for its longevity. Its gravity was greatly reduced. As its gravity dropped, it gradually squeezed out all the Pale Ales below it.

But when gravity restrictions were relaxed in the early 1950’s, some breweries grasped the chance to brew a stronger Bitter again. Fullers was one. But instead of restoring some of PA’s strength they introduced a new Bitter, SPA (presumably standing for “Special Pale Ale”). A beer whose name was later changed to something more familiar: London Pride.

PA had been downgraded from top dog to second fiddle. When An even stronger Bitter, ESB, was introduced, poor old PA was down to third in the pecking order.

Here are the 19th-century Pale Ales:

Fullers Pale Ales in 1887 - 1888
Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	hops lb/brl
IPA	1059.6	1018.0	5.50	69.77%	3.28
XK	1057.1	1016.1	5.42	71.84%	2.84
AK	1053.5	1014.7	5.13	72.54%	2.66
AKK	1049.9	1014.7	4.65	70.56%	2.53
Source:
Fullers brewing records held at the brewery,

And the 1950’s ones.

Fullers Pale Ales in 1959
Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	hops lb/brl
LP	1043.2	1011.6	4.17	73.06%	1.10
PA	1032.2	1008.9	3.09	72.48%	0.82
Source:
Fullers brewing records held at the brewery,

You’ve probably already noticed the simplicity of post-war recipes. This is no exception. Just pale malt, sugar and flaked barley. In normal times the latter would have been replaced by flaked maize. But that was unavailable during the war. And in a wartime attempt to save some of the energy used in malting, brewers had been ordered to use flaked barley. It turns up in pretty much every recipe in this period. Even those of brewers like Whitbread who used no adjuncts pre-war.

That’s about all I have to say. So here’s the recipe:

1946 Fullers PA
pale malt	6.00 lb	77.42%
flaked barley	1.25 lb	16.13%
no. 2 sugar	0.25 lb	3.23%
glucose	0.25 lb	3.23%
Fuggles 90 min	0.75 oz
Fuggles 60 min	0.75 oz
Fuggles 30 min	0.75 oz
OG	1034.6
FG	1010.8
ABV	3.15
Apparent attenuation	68.79%
IBU	32
SRM	4
Mash at	154º F
Sparge at	168º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	62º F
Yeast	WLP002 English Ale