Lets's Brew - 1944 Barclay Perkins BS

We're still in 1944. As no-one has insisted that I stop yet. Not that I pay any attention to readers' requests.

In the early 19th century, I’m sure that BS stood for “Brown Stout”. By the 1940s, while the brew house designation remained BS, it was marketed as “Best Stout”. Whatever. It was Barclay Perkins main Stout brand.

From wartime price lists, I know that Best Stout was both a bottled and draught product. On draught, it was in the same price class as Burton, 1s 5d per pint. And about as strong a draught beer as you’d find.

It has a relatively complex grist, with three malts and roast barley. The latter is an interesting one. London brewers generally preferred black malt. But, in this case, it seems that Barclay Perkins was using it as the unmalted grain portion of the grist. A clever one, that. Their other beers all contained flaked barley.

What I love about the Barclay Perkins logs is that they list the hop variety. Unlike most other breweries. Meaning that I know for certain all the kettle hops were Fuggles and the dry hops EKG. The latter being from the 1944 harvest, while the other were from 1941 and 1943. As this beer was brewed in December, the kettle hops were quite old.

1944 Barclay Perkins BS
mild malt	6.00 lb	59.26%
brown malt	0.50 lb	4.94%
amber malt	1.00 lb	9.88%
crystal malt 60 L	0.50 lb	4.94%
roast barley	1.00 lb	9.88%
No. 3 invert sugar	1.00 lb	9.88%
caramel 1000 SRM	0.125 lb	1.23%
Fuggles 90 mins	1.00 oz
Fuggles 60 mins	0.50 oz
Fuggles 30 mins	0.50 oz
Goldings dry hops	1.00 oz
OG	1044.5
FG	1017.5
ABV	3.57
Apparent attenuation	60.67%
IBU	26
SRM	32
Mash at	143º F
After underlet	147º F
Sparge at	165º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	60º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1099 Whitbread ale