Wednesday 12 September 2018

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1921 Barclay Perkins PA

PA, Barclay’s flagship Pale Ale, disappeared in the middle of the war. And didn’t return until 1921. I suspect that, initially at least, it was a beer destined purely for export.

I say that for a couple of reasons. First, it was produced in tiny quantities: this batch was just 27.5 barrels. Secondly, in some of the records from a little later it specifically says “PA export”. When a domestic version of PA did return, that had an OG of 1052.6º.

The recipe is extremely simple: pale malt and No. 1 invert sugar. Which is another reason this beer shouts export at me: classy ingredients. The grist is slightly more complicated than it appears from the recipe, part of the base being PA malt, the best-quality type of pale malt.

The hops continue the classy theme: East Kent from the 1921 crop, Mid Kent from 1920 and Saaz, also from 1920. All had been kept in a cold store. The dry hops are East Kent (1921).

It looks very much like the domestic PA from 1914. That too was brewed from just pale malt and No. 1 invert sugar. Though the proportion of malt is higher here, and the hopping a little less heavy.



1921 Barclay Perkins PA
pale malt 11.75 lb 90.32%
No. 1 invert sugar 1.26 lb 9.68%
Fuggles 150 mins 1.50 oz
Saaz 90 mins 1.50 oz
Goldings 60 mins 2.00 oz
Goldings dry hops 0.50 oz
OG 1059.5
FG 1018
ABV 5.49
Apparent attenuation 69.75%
IBU 60
SRM 6
Mash at 149º F
Sparge at 172º F
Boil time 150 minutes
pitching temp 58º F
Yeast Wyeast 1099 Whitbread Ale

5 comments:

Lee said...

Looks a corker!

A Brew Rat said...

That recipe looks really, really good. 2.5 hour boil! Was that common for Barclay Perkins pale ales? I understand that Pilsner Urquell used to simmer their wort for 3 hours, rather than use a roiling boil. I wonder if Barclay Perkins did the same?

Ron Pattinson said...

Brew Rat,

between 2 amd 2.5hours, depending on the beer.

CBabe said...

Surprisingly low attenuation for a beer mashed at such a low temperature with 10% sugar in the grist. Is the classy PA malt responsible (maybe it had lots of unfermentables from a high kilning temperature) or was the yeast low attenuating?

Ian said...

I'm not an expert on historical English yeast (or historical yeast in general) but in my experience with English yeast ~70% is not uncommon.