Let's Brew Wednesday - 1915 Noakes LBA

Just a year into the war, British beers hadn’t changed that much, at least not in terms of strength.

LBA looks very much like the type of beer that was often called AK. A Light Bitter. As the name, which I’m sure was Light Bitter Ale, implies. In modern parlance, an Ordinary Bitter. Quite light in alcohol and body, but still quite bitter.

There’s not much to the grist, just pale malt and sugar with tiny amount of rice. I’m not really sure what the sugar type is. In the ingredient list, it’s down as No. 1 invert. In another part where it details the sugar additions to the copper, it’s called No. 3. No. 1 makes more sense, so I’ve gone with that.

Some of the hops are from the 1915 crop, but most are from 1914. I’ve knocked the quantities down a little accordingly. I’ve no idea of where they were from, other than that they were all English. My guess would be from Kent, as that wasn’t far away. But the brewery was very close to the Southwark hop market so they could have been from anywhere.

In addition to the 30 cwts. of No.1 invert sugar in the copper, there’s 15 cwts. of No. 3 which are described as “heading”, presumably meaning it was used for priming. This sugar raises the effective OG by 10 points, to 1055º.

1915 Noakes LBA
pale malt	6.00 lb	61.16%
flaked rice	0.06 lb	0.61%
No. 1 invert sugar	2.50 lb	25.48%
No. 3 invert sugar	1.25 lb	12.74%
Fuggles 120 mins	1.25 oz
Goldings 90 mins	1.25 oz
Goldings 30 mins	1.25 oz
Goldings dry hops	1.00 oz
OG	1055
FG	1015
ABV	5.29
Apparent attenuation	72.73%
IBU	50
SRM	7
Mash at	153º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	61º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1099 Whitbread Ale