Let's Brew - 1924 Barclay Perkins KKK

A very appropriate recipe for this time of year, as KKK - and later KKKK - was effectively Barclay's Christmas beer.

I’m shocked that Barclay Perkins brewed their stronger Burton Ale, KKK, after WW II. Though it was a fairly modest batch of 118 barrels, brewed on their small kit. Even more surprisingly, it’s only 5º weaker than pre-war.

The recipe is very similar to that of KK, but with one big difference – there’s no flaked maize. Pale and SA malt form the base again. As usual, I’ve substituted mild malt for the latter. Rather than BS like KK, KKK uses plain old No.2 invert.

All the hops were Goldings: Mid-Kent from the 1922 and 1923 harvests and East Kent from 1932, all cold stored. The dry hops were also 1923 cold-stored East Kents. There were also rather a lot of hops, as it used the pre-war rate of 14 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt.

There’s no indication in the brewing record as to whether KKK was aged. But, this was brewed in August. Not exactly the month you’d imagine drinking a beer this strong. My guess is that this was a winter seasonal. Probably the precursor of KKKK, which appeared later in the 1920s.

1924 Barclay Perkins KKK
pale malt	4.00 lb	23.02%
mild malt	10.50 lb	60.43%
crystal malt 60 L	1.00 lb	5.76%
No. 2 invert sugar	1.75 lb	10.07%
caramel 1000 SRM	0.125 lb	0.72%
Goldings 135 mins	3.25 oz
Goldings 60 mins	3.25 oz
Goldings 30 mins	3.25 oz
Goldings dry hops	1.00 oz
OG	1082
FG	1028
ABV	7.14
Apparent attenuation	65.85%
IBU	106
SRM	20
Mash at	150º F
Sparge at	164º F
Boil time	135 minutes
pitching temp	58º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1099 Whitbread Ale

This recipe is in my two new books, Strong! vols. 1 & 2 and Strong! vol.2.