Looking at the OG, I’d have guessed that this was Truman’s draught Burton Ale for their London trade. Except all the analyses I have of Truman Burton are around 1048º. And R4 turns up far too seldom in the brewing logs to be as popular a beer as Burton Ale. It’s all rather a mystery.
As is where exactly many of Truman’s Burton beers were sold. The Pale Ales, obviously, were sold in their London estate. But what about all the Milds? I doubt they were served in the capital. Most likely they were consumed in the tied houses Truman ran in the Midlands. But R4 – what was its target market?
Sadly, the Whitbread Gravity Book isn’t much help. It almost exclusively concentrates on the beers Truman sold in London. Very frustrating.
The recipe of R4 is closer to the Pale Ales than the Milds, lacking crystal malt and having lower percentage of high-dried malt. The hops were all English, from the 1937 and 1938 harvests. No. 3 invert is my guess. The log only specifies invert, not the exact type.
| 1939 Truman R4 | ||
| pale malt | 8.00 lb | 70.05% |
| high dried malt | 1.75 lb | 15.32% |
| flaked maize | 1.00 lb | 8.76% |
| No. 3 invert sugar | 0.67 lb | 5.87% |
| Fuggles 90 mins | 0.75 oz | |
| Fuggles 60 mins | 0.75 oz | |
| Goldings 30 mins | 0.75 oz | |
| OG | 1053 | |
| FG | 1014 | |
| ABV | 5.16 | |
| Apparent attenuation | 73.58% | |
| IBU | 26 | |
| SRM | 11 | |
| Mash at | 152.5º F | |
| Sparge at | 160º F | |
| Boil time | 90 minutes | |
| pitching temp | 59.5º F | |
| Yeast | Wyeast 1028 London Ale (Worthington White Shield) | |
What malt would one substitute for high dried malt? Amber, Munich, modern brown malt? Something else?
ReplyDeleteIan B,
ReplyDeleteI'd go with dark Munich as that has diastatic power.