Let's Brew - 1943 Shepherd Neame AK

Here’s what I would call a minimum gravity beer. No matter how low the gravity of a beer, you always paid a minimum of what qwas due on an OG of 1027º. You almost never see a beer weaker than that, just because it made no economic sense.

There had been a change in the grist since the start of the war. An enforced one, I believe. Flaked barley was pushed by the government as a replacement adjunct for flaked maize. Or, in the case of brewers like Shepherd Neame that hadn’t used adjuncts before the war, some of the malt.

How can I make this beer sound nice? It’s very low OG, highly attenuated and very lightly hopped. It’s also very pale. Doesn’t sound that inspiring, does it? But I suppose drinkers were just happy to get any beer during the war. It wasn’t unusual for pubs to run out of beer. This would have been better than nothing. Just about. You weren’t going to get very pissed, though.

All I know about the hops is that they were from the 1939, 1941 and 1942 harvests. Though only 16 lbs. of the 112 lbs. of hops were from the receent season. The rest were fairly evenly split bewtween 1939 and 1941.

It's been a while since I published an AK recipe. I reckon if I keep plugging away I might eventually get it recognised as an official style.

1943 Shepherd Neame AK
pale malt	5.75 lb	91.41%
flaked barley	0.50 lb	7.95%
malt extract	0.04 lb	0.64%
Fuggles 120 mins	0.25 oz
Goldings 60 mins	0.25 oz
Goldings 30 mins	0.25 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.13 oz
OG	1027
FG	1005
ABV	2.91
Apparent attenuation	81.48%
IBU	11
SRM	3
Mash at	153º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	62º F
Yeast	a Southern English Ale yeast