Truman (Burton) adjuncts and sugars in 1939

Truman’s malt percentage was a good bit higher than the average. In 1939 that was was 78.35% malt, 5.9% unmalted grains and 15.75% sugar.  As a consequence of the high amount of malt, that of other fermentable materials was inevitably lower.

Though it was slightly more complicated. The percentage of unmalted adjuncts was higher than the average, but that of sugar considerably lower. To be honest, I was surprised that the average for adjuncts was as low as 5.9%. Closer to 10% is what I’ve mostly seen in brewing records.

But there is an explanation for this. While pretty much every brewer used sugar, not everyone used adjuncts. Yes, they were common, but there were some large breweries – such as Whitbread – which used none. During the war all brewers were forced to adopt adjuncts and as a consequence for the final years of the war adjunct usage increased to around 10%. While at the same time sugar usage fell to around 10%.

While it wasn’t uncommon for brewers to employ three of four types of sugar, Truman only used one. Plus caramel occasionally.  It’s a bit tricky knowing exactly where the caramel was used.  I can see from materials totals in the logs that they used more than is listed. I assume this was caramel added at racking time for colour adjustment.

It’s hard to tell if all their beers included the same type of invert, as the description of it is pretty vague. In the recipes which follow I’ve guessed at different numbered inverts. Who knows if my guesses are correct or not.

It’s interesting that the two strong Stock Ales contain no adjunct and a smaller percentage of sugar than most of the others.

Truman (Burton) adjuncts and sugars in 1939
Beer	Style	OG	flaked maize	invert sugar	caramel	total sugar
X	Mild	1030.2	7.38%	9.02%		9.02%
X "Dark"	Mild	1028.5	5.26%	8.19%	2.34%	10.53%
X "Light"	Mild	1030.2	8.26%	9.17%		9.17%
XX	Mild	1035.5	7.38%	9.02%		9.02%
XX "Dark"	Mild	1033.8	5.26%	8.19%	2.34%	10.53%
XX "Light"	Mild	1035.5	8.26%	9.17%		9.17%
No. 7	Mild	1041.3	7.26%	8.06%		8.06%
Pale1	Pale Ale	1053.5	7.96%	4.42%		4.42%
Pale1 B	Pale Ale	1053.5	7.96%	4.42%		4.42%
Pale2	Pale Ale	1047.4	9.18%	5.10%		5.10%
XXX	Strong Ale	1048.2	7.38%	9.02%		9.02%
B3	Ale	1056	9.18%	5.10%		5.10%
R4	Ale	1052.9	9.18%	5.10%		5.10%
Stock 1	Stock Ale	1105.3		4.65%		4.65%
Stock 2	Stock Ale	1088.6		4.65%		4.65%
Source:
Truman brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/C/339.