Fullers AK grists 1887 - 1920

Following on from my last post about Fullers AK, I thought it would be educational to take a look at the grists over the years.

Though the younger home brewers amongst you might find the malts a bit disappointing. Or malt, rather. As there's nothing other than pale malt. Sorry, but that's just how UK Pale Ales were. Very simple, malt-wise. It was quite a bit later - really post - WW II - before crystal malt became common in Pale Ale.

There's surprisingly little change in the malt content over the years. It's mostly aroud 80%, except for in the later war years. When it went both above and below that level. The real changes over the years were in the other 20%. Especially in the sugars, where both the types and quantities moved around a fair bit.

The percentage of flaked maize rose until the late war years, when it briefly fell to zero. This was all to do with availability. As all maize was imported, the German U-boat campaign had a huge impact on its supply. As it did on the types of sugar available to brewers, as certain becames were diverted to food production.

The proportion of flaked maize remained around the 10% level during the interwar years. As we'll see in more detail in a later post.

Fullers AK grists 1887 - 1920
Date	Year	OG	pale malt	flaked maize	no. 2 sugar	caramel	glucose	other sugar
21st Apr	1887	1049.6	79.81%					20.19%
3rd Aug	1897	1049.9	77.96%					22.04%
20th Oct	1902	1046.3	76.42%	2.58%		0.15%		20.85%
14th Mar	1910	1045.0	80.04%	5.93%	5.93%	0.19%		7.91%
18th Mar	1910	1044.9	80.76%	5.91%	5.25%	0.20%		7.88%
20th Nov	1914	1044.3	81.67%	6.05%	6.05%	0.18%	6.05%
2nd Jul	1915	1044.5	80.08%	6.36%	6.78%		6.78%
1st Jun	1916	1043.9	81.36%	5.08%	6.78%		6.78%
12th Jan	1917	1041.8	83.11%	6.08%	5.41%		5.41%
1st Nov	1917	1035.9	94.48%	5.35%		0.17%
11th Apr	1918	1026.1	74.94%		12.49%	0.08%	12.49%
15th Apr	1919	1026.0	79.67%	4.88%	6.50%	0.28%	8.67%
19th Jun	1919	1028.2	79.20%	6.89%	6.89%	0.14%	6.89%
27th Aug	1919	1030.5	74.15%	8.08%	8.81%	0.16%	8.81%
11th Feb	1920	1030.6	79.78%	13.50%	3.27%	0.17%	3.27%
Source:
Fullers brewing records held at the brewery