Saturday 8 December 2018

Let's Brew - 1939 Barclay Perkins IPA

Another recipe for the beer-style purists: a Watery English IPA.

It's not an official style yet, but I'm sure it will be soon. I keep pushing it like crazy, and everyone listens to me, don't they?

Maybe not. On with the several obsessions in one go beer.

Just a few months before WW II kicked off, in June 1939, this Barclay’s IPA rolled out of the Park Street Brewery. Well, probably not roll, more clink out. It was an exclusively bottled beer.

IPA (bottling) as it appear on the records, was apparently quite a new beer, only appearing in the early 1930s. A revved up version of the older XLK (bottling), which had an OG of 1039º. The two, obviously, were parti-gyled together.

The recipe for Barclay’s Perkins Pale Ales hadn’t changed much since the mid-1920s. Pale malt, PA malt, flaked maize and invert sugar. Originally No. 2, but sometime after 1936 that changed to No. 3.

The hopping is reasonable, with mostly hops from the most recent season. The third from the 1937 season had been kept in a cold store, so wouldn’t have deteriorated much. Barclay Perkins usually dry-hopped their Pale Ales, except those intended for bottling.

Sad to think this is the precursor to watery post-war Light Ale.


1939 Barclay Perkins IPA
pale malt 7.00 lb 73.61%
flaked maize 1.00 lb 10.52%
No. 3 invert sugar 1.50 lb 15.77%
caramel 1000 SRM 0.01 lb 0.11%
Fuggles 150 mins 0.75 oz
Fuggles 60 mins 0.75 oz
Goldings 30 mins 0.75 oz
OG 1044
FG 1013.5
ABV 4.03
Apparent attenuation 69.32%
IBU 29
SRM 11.5
Mash at 150º F
After underlet 154º F
Sparge at 170º F
Boil time 150 minutes
pitching temp 150º F
Yeast Wyeast 1099 Whitbread ale

2 comments:

Dan Klingman said...

Interesting that a 4% ABV/29 IBU beer is called an IPA. You are correct when you say a beer is what the brewer calls it.

Mike Hoover said...

Would a 1/2 ounce of perhaps Carafa III be an close equivalent to substituted for the caramel 1000?