Let's Brew Wednesday - 1959 Fullers Nourishing Stout

It wasn’t until the late 1950s that Fullers finally got around to changing P to NS in the brewhouse. Even though the beer had been marketed as Nourishing Stout for more than a decade.

It was unusual in being the only beer in Fullers range that wasn’t parti-gyled. Which probably made it quite uneconomical to brew. It was produced in batches of a little over 100 barrels in a brewhouse with a normal brew length of 300-500 barrels. 100 barrels was probably about the minimum amount the equipment could cope with.

The recipe hasn’t changed a great deal since 1949. There are still three malts: pale, black and crystal.  The sugars remain PEX (for which I’ve substituted No. 2 invert), Special Dark (No. 4 invert) and two types of caramel: London caramel and Carmeline.

From Whitbread Gravity Book analyses for Nourishing Stout, I can see that it wasn’t tinkered with after primary fermentation. Some breweries added lactose at racking time.

The hops were Worcester Fuggles from the 1958 crop and Goldings varieties from 1957.

1959 Fullers Nourishing Stout
pale malt	3.00 lb	44.44%
black malt	0.75 lb	11.11%
crystal malt 60 L	0.50 lb	7.41%
flaked maize	0.50 lb	7.41%
No. 2 invert	0.250 lb	3.70%
No. 4 invert	1.250 lb	18.52%
caramel 2000 SRM	0.50 lb	7.41%
Fuggles 90 min	0.75 oz
Fuggles 30 min	0.50 oz
Goldings Varieties 30 min	0.25 oz
OG	1031.5
FG	1011.5
ABV	2.65
Apparent attenuation	63.49%
IBU	22
SRM	54
Mash at	145º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	61º F
Yeast	WLP002 English Ale

This recipe appear in my new wonderful book about brewing after WW II:

http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/austerity/23181344