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

If it weren’t for the fact that Tennant brewed a weaker Pale Ale called Light Dinner Ale, I would have guessed that this was their Light Ale. The gravity is certainly in the Light Ale range.

One thing I don’t understand: why is it branded as Lion Pale Ale? It’s not as if a Lion was their trademark, as it was for some other breweries, such as Matthew Brown or Camerons. It’s got me stumped. Unless, like Rock Ale, it’s a brand acquired from another brewer.

The grist is a little different from their draught Pale Ales. Principally in not containing any lactose. The other little idiosyncrasies like enzymic malt and malt extract are present, however. And there’s some crystal malt. At least I think there is.

The records of many of the beers have a cryptic entry, below and apart from the rest of the grist. In the case of this beer, it says “90 gal. N of E crystal”. It made no sense to me. Gallons implies something liquid to me. What the hell was liquid crystal?

I only twigged today when I looked further through my photos. In particular, a Glucose Stout record. Where something described as “N of E crystal” appears in the grist. It does mean crystal malt then. And that’s volume gallons. They’re measuring it in gallons often because it isn’t a round number of bushels. At least that’s my guess.

I’ll be publishing corrected recipes for the other Tennant beers.

Nothing much else to say. Other than that there were 2 cwt. each of SBS and CWA, which I’ve added to the No. 2 invert.

1956 Tennant's Lion Pale Ale
pale malt	4.25 lb	60.41%
crystal malt 60 L	0.33 lb	4.69%
enzymic malt	0.125 lb	1.78%
flaked maize	1.00 lb	14.21%
malt extract	0.33 lb	4.69%
No. 2 invert sugar	1.00 lb	14.21%
Fuggles 90 mins	0.25 oz
Goldings 90 mins	1.50 oz
Goldings 40 mins	0.25 oz
Goldings 20 mins	0.25 oz
OG	1034
FG	1009
ABV	3.31
Apparent attenuation	73.53%
IBU	34
SRM	6
Mash at	146º F
Sparge at	165º F
Boil time	145 minutes
pitching temp	60º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1099 Whitbread ale