Tuesday 22 December 2020

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1869 Barclay Perkins KKKK

As we're getting close to the holiday season, here's a typical Krimble beer: a super-strong Stock Ale.

Biggest boy in the Stock Ale club was the might KKKK. Not a beer for the fainthearted. And not one you’d drink half a dozen pints of.

Though you wouldn’t have chance to drink it for much longer, as it was dropped in 1871. It did make a comeback in the 1920s, when it was a winter seasonal special. Its gravity of 1079º was pretty strong for a draught beer in the interwar period.

Very little of the original KKKK was ever brewed. 1869 was the peak year, with just 1,062 barrels brewed out of a total Ale production of 104,384 barrels.

Nothing very exciting about the grist, again. Though there are, at least, two types of base malt, one from Hertfordshire and one from Sussex. The hops were all from the most recent harvest and were a combination of East Kents and Mid-Kents.

Complete insanity is the only way I can describe the hopping rate. Just shy of 10 lbs per barrel. An insanely large amount, likely to clog the copper just with the pure vegetal mass.

1869 Barclay Perkins KKKK
Mild malt 24.25 lb 100.00%
Goldings 90 min 7.00 oz
Goldings 60 min 7.00 oz
Goldings 30 min 7.00 oz
Goldings dry hops 1.50 oz
OG 1107
FG 1025
ABV 10.85
Apparent attenuation 76.64%
IBU 181
SRM 9
Mash at 156º F
Sparge at 190º F
Boil time 90 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.




2 comments:

Phil said...

A 10% stock ale, so something like what we'd call a barleywine - but the hopping! What on earth would it taste like?

Anonymous said...

I've made a couple of other strong ales from his recipes. Not as much hops as this, but still a lot. After sitting for 6+ months (I didn't add Brett) they were not at all harsh -- I think English hop varieties just don't have the edge you get from newer varieties.