Shepherd Neame grists in 1956

Time to look at what went into Shepherd Neame’s beers in 1956. What fun that’s going to be.

Let’s kick off with their Pale Ales. Because they’re the simplest. Just pale malt and the merest hit of malt extract. All-malt beers were extremely rare in Britain in the 20th century. I’m trying to think of any others I’ve come across, but am stumped. Just about every beer, other than Guinness, contained some sugar.

Do you see what else is missing? Crystal malt. Most Milds and Brown Ales would have contained some. This is the fun of looking at new breweries. Every so often there are real surprises. Like the malts Shep’s used. Who would have guessed that the four would be pale malt, black malt, wheat malt and oat malt? There’s only one dark malt and that was only used in one beer.

Talking of which, the black malt wasn’t mashed to the Stout but added during the boil. There’s a very good reason for that: the Stout was parti-gyled with BA. The first wort was used for BA and the second wort, which had the black malt and all the sugar added to it, formed the majority of the Stout. Robert Younger did something similar. Presumably they were forced to brew this way due to low demand for Stout. They didn’t need as much as a full brew length.

The Strong Ales, Brown Ales and – weirdly – LDA – all have the same recipe and were parti-gyled together. They contain about 19% sugar, which is towards the high end. 15-20% was pretty normal. No. 3 is what you would expect. No idea what Wortex is, other than a type of proprietary sugar.

The hops all came from their own gardens.

Shepherd Neame grists in 1956
Beer	Style	OG	pale malt	black malt	wheat malt	malted oats	no. 3 sugar	malt extract	caramel	Wortex	UKCS	cane	hops
Br	Brown Ale	1026.3	76.51%		4.03%		13.42%	0.67%		5.37%			Kent
DB	Brown Ale	1029.4	76.51%		4.03%		13.42%	0.67%		5.37%			Kent
MB	Mild	1030.2	88.11%				5.59%	0.70%			5.59%		Kent
LDA	Pale Ale	1029.4	76.51%		4.03%		13.42%	0.67%		5.37%			Kent
BB	Pale Ale	1030.2	98.63%					1.37%					Kent
BA	Pale Ale	1032.4	98.63%					1.37%					Kent
PA	Pale Ale	1035.5	98.63%					1.37%					Kent
SXX	Pale Ale	1039.3	98.63%					1.37%					Kent
SS	Stout	1026.3	74.07%	11.11%		3.70%		1.23%	4.94%			4.94%	Kent
AA	Strong Ale	1044.3	76.51%		4.03%		13.42%	0.67%		5.37%			Kent
ESXA	Strong Ale	1052.6	75.50%		3.97%		13.25%	0.66%		6.62%			Kent
Source:
Shepherd Neame brewing record held at the brewery.