Saturday, 5 January 2019

Let's Brew - 1939 Fullers P

I got all excited when I spotted a beer called P in Fullers brewing records from the 1950s. Wow, they’d been brewing a Porter that late. Making them probably the last London brewer to produce one. However, all was not what it appeared.

P had indeed been Fullers draught Porter. But at some point between the wars it was transformed into a bottled beer called Nourishing Stout, retaining the brew house name P.

P turns up in the earliest Fullers records I’ve photographed, from 1887, when its OG was 1053.5º. By 1914, that was down to 1048.6º.  Obviously, WW I knocked that down further.

The grist is only a little more complicated than Fullers other beers. In addition to pale malt and flaked maize, there’s also black malt and a tiny amount of oats. The latter is presumably so they could sell some as Oatmeal Stout.

No. 4 invert is my substitution for something called Special Dark. I’ve not much clue about what that might be like, other than dark in colour. No. 4 was made for Stouts so seems like a good substitution guess.

Fullers didn’t bother listing hop varieties or growing region, so all I know is that they were English and from the 1938 harvest. I’ve guessed Fuggles. It’s pretty heavily hopped, giving a surprisingly high 39 (calculated) IBUs.


1939 Fullers P
pale malt 6.00 lb 68.73%
black malt 0.67 lb 7.67%
flaked maize 0.67 lb 7.67%
flaked oats 0.06 lb 0.69%
No. 4 invert sugar 1.00 lb 11.45%
caramel 2000 SRM 0.33 lb 3.78%
Fuggles 120 mins 1.50 oz
Fuggles 30 mins 1.50 oz
OG 1038.5
FG 1014
ABV 3.24
Apparent attenuation 63.64%
IBU 39
SRM 44
Mash at 147º F
After underlet 150º F
Sparge at 170º F
Boil time 120 minutes
pitching temp 62º F
Yeast WLP002 English Ale

2 comments:

Dan Klingman said...

Interesting that even with the black malt and No. 4 invert that caramel was needed for color. Was that in the records or did you add to get the color right?
Speaking of caramel, I had a Modelo Negra the other day and that's all I tasted.

Ron Pattinson said...

Dan Klingmann,

there are in fact two types of caramel in the original: carameline and London caramel.