Wednesday 8 April 2020

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1942 Barclay Perkins KK

What a difference a couple of years have made. Both in terms of recipe and strength. The gravity is down 8º and several new ingredients have been added.

New amongst the five types of malt are amber, rye and lager. Which makes in a typical mid-war beer, where they were using anything that happened to be available. And you end up with complicated recipes like this one. It looks like the kind of recipe overenthusiastic newbie home brewers come up with.

Flaked barley was the adjunct of the day in 1942. No surprise to see that. But torrefied barley is more unusual. Barclay Perkins threw it into all their beers in 1942. The usual reason for its use is to improve head retention. Was it trying to mask other faults in the beer?

I’m pretty sure all the hops were Fuggles. But I can’t be sure, as I didn’t get the whole record in my photograph. Annoyingly, the bits that are missing have the details of the hops. But as all their other beers at the time got all Fuggles, I’m guessing that was the case here, too.

I do know for certain that the dry hops were East Kent Goldings from the 1940 season.

The recipe is very different to that from before the war.


1942 Barclay Perkins KK
mild malt 5.75 lb 56.79%
amber malt 0.75 lb 7.41%
crystal malt 60 L 0.50 lb 4.94%
malted rye 0.75 lb 7.41%
lager malt 0.25 lb 2.47%
flaked barley 0.50 lb 4.94%
torrefied barley 0.50 lb 4.94%
No. 3 invert sugar 1.00 lb 9.88%
caramel 2000 SRM 0.125 lb 1.23%
Fuggles 105 mins 0.75 oz
Fuggles 90 mins 0.75 oz
Fuggles 30 mins 0.75 oz
Goldings dry hops 0.25 oz
OG 1044.5
FG 1012
ABV 4.30
Apparent attenuation 73.03%
IBU 27
SRM 18
Mash at 147º F
After underlet 152º F
Sparge at 165º F
Boil time 90 minutes
pitching temp 59.5º F
Yeast Wyeast 1099 Whitbread Ale

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