Let's Brew - 1956 Tennant's Lion Brown Ale

I imagine this beer must have been one of Tennant’s biggest sellers in bottle. Brown Ale was all the rage in the 1950’s.

Like Tennant’s other recipes, it has a bit of everything in the grist. A couple of types of malt, flaked maize, sugar and caramel. The colour mostly deriving from the latter. The brewing record handily records the beer’s colour. Handy, because it means I could work out what colour the caramel needed to be to get the correct colour.

Once again, there are two proprietary sugars, SBS and CWA, which I’ve interpreted as simply more No. 2 invert.

Bizarrely, this Brown Ale is more bitter than Tennant’s draught Bitters. Though the poor degree of attenuation must have left plenty of residual sweetness. It’s odd that while BB, Best Bitter and Queen’s Ale all contain lactose, this beer doesn’t. Despite Brown Ale being a style where lactose was sometimes present, unlike Bitter.

1956 Tennant's Lion Brown Ale
pale malt	4.00 lb	57.60%
crystal malt 60 L	0.25 lb	3.60%
enzymic malt	0.25 lb	3.60%
flaked maize	1.75 lb	25.20%
malt extract	0.07 lb	1.01%
No. 2 invert sugar	0.50 lb	7.20%
caramel 2000 SRM	0.125 lb	1.80%
Fuggles 95 mins	1.00 oz
Goldings 95 mins	0.25 oz
Fuggles 40 mins	0.25 oz
Goldings 20 mins	0.25 oz
OG	1031
FG	1010
ABV	2.78
Apparent attenuation	67.74%
IBU	26
SRM	20
Mash at	148º F
Sparge at	165º F
Boil time	95 minutes
pitching temp	60º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1099 Whitbread ale