Let's Brew - 1939 Tetley K

Three Milds, a Strong Ale and a Bitter. Tetley’s range wasn’t huge when WW II kicked off. Note that they didn’t brew a Stout of any description. Which is odd, given that it was still a popular style in bottled form. I suppose they must have supplied their tied houses with another brewery’s Stout.

K had been around since at least 1868, though the early versions were very different. They had a similar gravity to the 1939 version, but were extremely lightly hopped. I really don’t know what style you’d call it. Then in the 1880s it was transformed into their second-string Pale Ale, with pretty decent hopping. Though, at 10 lbs per quarter of malt (336 lbs), still well short of PA’s 16 lbs. WW I killed off PA and K continued as Tetley’s sole Pale Ale.

With an OG in the high 1040º’s, K would have counted as a standard Bitter between the wars. It probably retailed for 7d per pint, in a public bar.

There’s not much to the recipe: pale malt and sugar. The latter being something called ARC. No idea what that was so I’ve substituted No. 1 invert. The malt was half English, half Californian.

The hops were slightly different from their other beers: all Kent from the 1937 and 1938 harvest, most kept in a cold store.

1939 Tetley K
pale malt	7.50 lb	75.00%
No. 1 invert	2.50 lb	25.00%
Fuggles 120 mins	0.75 oz
Fuggles 90 mins	0.50 oz
Goldings 30 mins	0.50 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.50 oz
OG	1047.5
FG	1011.6
ABV	4.75
Apparent attenuation	75.58%
IBU	22.5
SRM	7
Mash at	155º F
Sparge at	165º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	62º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire Ale