Parti-gyling in WW II

I'm back with my current favourite topic of WW II. Not really my favourite by choice. It's just what I'm currently researching and writing about. Trying to cross the lats t's in my "Blitzkrieg!" manuscript. 

I'm also half-way through cooking Sunday dinner and a bit rushed for time. Knowing how lethargic I'll be after stuffing myself with roast chicken and stuffing, the lazy-arse option is to nick a bit of the manuscript I haven't posted yet.

Talking of the manuscript, I'm pretty pleased with it. Despite its immense length. Who knows how many readers are as equally fascinated by the minutiae of wartime brewing as I am. Not that it matters. The point isn't to sell as many copies as possible, but to write the book I'd want to read.

I just checked the chicken. It needed a little more liquid. Which, today, is in the form of an Imperial Stout I brewed in 1993. Surprisingly well carbonated, considering. Though that was probably due to whatever the infection was lurking in the bottle. Sort of drinkable despite that. Not really oxidised, but quite acidic and funky.

I'll head off and finish the cooking now while you have the thrill of learning about parti-gyling.

A technique much loved by many British breweries was parti-gyling. It involved blending multiple, and different strength, worts created during the mashing process after they had been boiled separately. The blending was usually performed in the fermenting vessels.

One of its main advantages was that it allowed brewers to produce multiple beers from a single brew. Also, to produce small batches of beer economically on equipment with a much larger brew length. A great example of this is Fullers Old Burton Extra, of which rarely more than ten barrels was brewed, despite their equipment having a capacity of over 400 barrels.

Four beers were produced: two Mild Ales (X and XX) and two Burton Ales (BO and OBE). Without parti-gyling, the two small batch beers – BO and XX – would have been totally uneconomical on the kit Fullers had.

Scottish brewers were particularly keen on the technique. Most had a single recipe from which they produced three different-strength Pale Ales and a Strong Scotch Ale.

Fullers parti-gyle 8th November 1939
	BO		XX		X		OBE
	barrels	OG	barrels	OG	barrels	OG	barrels	OG
1st wort	113.5	1077.6º	14.75	1077.6º	102.25	1077.6º	8.75	1077.6º
2nd wort	51	1009.5º	14	1009.5º	187.5	1009.5º	0	1009.5º
hop sparge	2.5	1002.8º	1.25	1002.8º	10.25	1002.8º	1	1002.8º
together	167	1055.6º	30	1042.6º	300	1032.4º	9.75	1069.9º
Source:
Fullers brewing record held at the brewery

Just off to pop the Yorkshire puds in the oven. See you soon.

Heineken grists in 1939

Heineken had two basic types of grist: one for the pale beers and another for the dark ones. 

The pale grist was 80% pilsner malt and 20% rice. I’m not sure the exact form the rice took. It could have been flaked, simply ground into flour, or it could have even been in the form of syrup. The brewing record isn’t very specific. I’m guessing that its purpose was twofold, to lighten the body and colour and to save money. The slightly darker Export Pils also contained a very small amount of “kleurmout” (“colour malt”).

The short-lived Meibier was unusual in having a grist of 100% pilsner malt.

The grists for the darker beers were much more complex and, with the exception of Donker Lagerbier, adjunct-free. Three types of coloured malt were used: kleurmout, broeimout and caramelmout.

Kleurmout was a type of dark roasted malt similar to black malt. Caramelmout was a type of crystal malt. Nothing too complicated there. Broeimout is a different matter. Literally “heating malt”, it had a specific method of production.

“In the case of broeimout, there is no cooling during the germination process, so that the temperature rises quite high and the flour body dissolves a great deal. Due to the higher germination temperature, it is not necessary to kiln at a high temperature. The colour of the malt darkens due to the germination heat alone to about 30 - 40 EBC. However, broeimout cannot be 100% of the grist, as many enzymes have been destroyed by the higher temperatures. Amber malt is sometimes also called broeimout, but this does not always necessarily the case.” 

In addition, a small amount of “kleur”, a type of caramel, for extra colour.

Heineken grists in 1939
Date	Beer	Style	pilsner malt	kleur mout	broei-mout	caramel mout	rice	litres kleur
26th Dec	Do	Donker Lagerbier	69.70%	0.90%	6.00%	3.40%	20.00%	20
11th Dec	Li	Licht Lagerbier	80.39%				19.61%
12th Dec	Exp	Pils	79.83%	0.17%			20.00%
6th Dec	P	Pils	80.00%				20.00%
7th Dec	Bei	Münchener	89.22%	0.98%	5.88%	3.92%		28
18th Jan	Mei	Meibier	100.00%
7th Aug	Bok	Bok	94.00%	1.00%	3.00%	2.00%		15
Sources:
Heineken brewing records held at the Amsterdamse Stadsarchief, document numbers 834 - 1758 and 834 - 1759.

 

Let's Brew - 1939 Heineken Beiersch

One of Heineken’s first Lagers, Beiersch simply means “Bavarian” in Dutch. It was presumably intended to be a Much type of Dark Lager. Although it was called Beiersch in the brewhouse by 1939 it was being marketed as Münchener.

With a slightly higher OG than Pils, it was their strongest year-round beer. Not that they brewed it that often – only 15 times in the whole of 1939. A volume of just 4435 hl out of a total of 299,053 hl brewed (in the Rotterdam brewery).

The grist is surprisingly complicated with no fewer than four malts. In addition to the base pilsner malt there’s caramel malt, broeimout (“heating malt”) which is a type of amber malt, and kleurmout (“coloured malt”) which is a type of black malt. There’s also some caramel.

There was a single type of Hallertau hops from the 1938 harvest. Not a huge amount of them, though. Which is pretty typical of Heineken’s beers of this period. If I’ve interpreted the brewing record correctly, most were added fairly late in the boil. 

1939 Heineken Beiersch
pilsner malt	10.25 lb	87.83%
caramel malt 60 L	0.50 lb	4.28%
amber malt	0.67 lb	5.74%
carafa III	0.125 lb	1.07%
caramel 1000 SRM	0.125 lb	1.07%
Hallertau 90 mins	0.25 oz
Hallertau 60 mins	0.25 oz
Hallertau 30 mins	0.50 oz
OG	1051
FG	1013
ABV	5.03
Apparent attenuation	74.51%
IBU	12
SRM	18
Mash double decoction
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	48º F
Yeast	WLP830 German Lager

Mash in at 35º C (95º F)	5 minutes
Warm whole mash to 52º C (126º F)	20 minutes
Rest whole mash at 52º C (126º F) (protein rest)	15 minutes
Draw off first mash and without a rest bring to the boil	30 minutes
Boil first mash	10 minutes
The rest of the mash remains at 52º C (126º F)	40 minutes
Mash at 70º C (158º F)	25 minutes
Rest whole mash at 70º C (158º F) (saccharification rest)	30 minutes
Draw off second mash and without a rest bring to the boil	15 minutes
Boil second mash	10 minutes
Mash at 76º C (169º F) and mash out	20 minutes

Heineken (Rotterdam) output in 1939

Having access to every single page of Heineken's wartime brewing records means I can do all sorts of fun stuff. Like trawling through them recording every gyle: beer, batch size and OG.

This give me access to all sorts of interesting and useful data. Like exactly how much of each beer they brewed in a year. Getting hold of that information was my main motivation. But I also get to see how much beer they brewed month-by-month and its average OG.

I'm dead glad that I did. It's revealed some unexpected insights. The first being how much the quantity they brewed varied from month to month. In November they brewed over 35,000 hl, but in August fewer than 11,000 hl. That's a huge difference. Far larger variation than I've ever seen at a UK brewery. And a very different pattern

At Whitbread, the summer was the peak brewing season, with the greatest amount brewed in July, followed by August. It was the exact opposite at Heineken, with those two months being the slackest. I know why Whitbread brewed more in the summer - people drank more beer during warmer weather. But why would Heineken brew less then? Could it be because, if they were lagering for any length of time, beer had to be brewed months in advance?

Second surprise was the average OG. 11.2º Plato is 1044.86 in SG.Not a huge amount greater than the UK average of 1041.02 (1937). I would have expected a continental brewery's average to be quite a bit higher than the UK's.

Heineken (Rotterdam) output and average OG by month
month	year	hl	grav. Points	average OG
Jan	1939	33,594	383,843.9	11.4
Feb	1939	30,712	350,098.1	11.4
Mar	1939	21,793	237,043.0	10.9
Apr	1939	21,178	232,720.9	11.0
May	1939	21,015	230,321.8	11.0
Jun	1939	29,354	329,148.0	11.2
Jul	1939	12,968	138,059.7	10.6
Aug	1939	10,887	129,107.3	11.9
Sep	1939	26,980	301,120.3	11.2
Oct	1939	34,986	395,410.6	11.3
Nov	1939	35,207	393,956.5	11.2
Dec	1939	20,379	232,225.5	11.4
Total		299,053	3,353,056	11.2
Source:
Heineken brewing records held at the Amsterdamse Stadsarchief, documents number 834 - 1758 and 834 - 1759.

Whitbread Ale output by month
month	year	barrels
Jan	1939	29,574
Feb	1939	30,114
Mar	1939	35,865
Apr	1939	39,817
May	1939	36,053
Jun	1939	42,091
Jul	1939	44,130
Aug	1939	40,878
Sep	1939	37,476
Oct	1939	33,246
Nov	1939	35,365
Dec	1939	39,100
Total	1939	443,709
Source:
Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/01/103.

Heineken (Rotterdam) output by beer in 1939
Beer	OG	hl	%
Bok	17.2	1,713	0.57%
Mei	15.2	2,163	0.72%
Bei	12.5	4,435	1.48%
Do	8.9	26,429	8.84%
Li	8.9	41,036	13.72%
P Exp	11.8	43,004	14.38%
P	11.8	180,273	60.28%
total		299,053
Sources:
Heineken brewing records held at the Amsterdamse Stadsarchief, documents number 834 - 1758 and 834 - 1759.

Heineken beers in 1939

Heineken had a pretty simple range at the start of WW II: a pale and a dark full-strength Lager, a pale and a dark Schankbier-strength Lager, an export Pils and a Bok. With the standard Pils being by far their biggest seller, accounting for around two-thirds of their production.

The Pils was pretty typical for the style. A touch under 12º Plato, and 4.7% ABV. Though, if you look at interwar labels, the strength is given as 5% ABV. (Holland was unusual in having the ABV listed on beer labels in the interwar period.) Yet it was always really 4.7% ABV. I assume they were exploiting the tolerance for error allowed on the ABV to the maximum. A trick still performed by large breweries today.

The hopping rate of the Pils at 0.2 kg per hl is lower than you might expect for a hop-accented beer. It’s the equivalent of around 4.5 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt and 0.75 lbs per barrel. To put that into context, in the same year Barclay Perkins Standard Mild, X Ale, was hopped at 7 lbs per quarter of malt and 0.95 lbs per barrel.

Heineken’s other full-strength Lager, Beierische, was obviously intended to be in the Munich style. It actually pre-dated their Pils, having been one of their first bottom-fermented beers. By the late 1930s its popularity had faded and it was brewed in modest quantities.

Beierische was lightly stronger than Pils both in OG and ABV. It was even more lightly-hopped than Pils, though that was in keeping with the intended style. I’m not sure what colour scale they were using. Based on the colour of the Pils, it looks about the same as old Lovibond or EBC, so about double SRM. Which would make it a little on the pale side for a Münchener.

Licht Lagerbier look much like a light version of Pils. Session Pils, I suppose you could call it. The hopping rate per 100 kg of malt is a little bit higher than that of the Pils, but roughly similar. As you would expect, the colour was a little paler.

Donker Lagerbier was more lightly hopped, but of the same strength as its pale sibling. The colour being the same as Beierische.

Export Pils was much the same as the standard beer, just being a little hoppier. In fact, it was the most heavily hopped of all their beers.

Finally, there’s Bok, a seasonal beer only available in the Autumn. It must have had a reasonable amount of lagering. The example in the table was brewed at the beginning of August but wouldn’t have been on sale for at least another two months. It was by far the strongest beer of the range at 7% ABV. Which is why this is one of the last brews for several years. It wasn’t ever brewed during the occupation. It has the lowest hopping rate per 100 kg of malt of all their beers.

Heineken beers in 1939
Date	Beer	Style	OG Plato	FG Plato	ABV	App. Atten-uation	kg hops/ 100 kg	hops kg/hl	colour
26th Dec	Do	Donker Lagerbier	8.91	2.31	3.50	74.75%	1.10	0.13	15
11th Dec	Li	Licht Lagerbier	8.96	2.36	3.50	74.35%	1.37	0.16	4
12th Dec	Exp	Pils	11.86	2.93	4.80	76.16%	1.50	0.23	6
6th Dec	P	Pils	11.91	3.18	4.70	74.21%	1.33	0.20	5
7th Dec	Bei	Münchener	12.59	3.33	5.00	74.51%	0.98	0.17	15
7th Aug	Bok	Bok	17.14	4.44	7.00	75.36%	0.80	0.19	15
Sources:
Heineken brewing records held at the Amsterdamse Stadsarchief, document numbers 834 - 1758 and 834 - 1759.

 

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1939 Heineken Pils

I just couldn't resist. I've cracked and am adding a few Heineken recipes to "Blitzkrieg!". This is recipe number 532.

After WW I, Pils became firmly established as Heineken’s favourite beer, accounting for around two-thirds of its output.

While originally Heineken had brewed all-malt, they seem to have got used to using adjuncts during WW I, when they had little option due to material shortages. Between the wars rice was their preferred adjunct.

Other than that, there’s nothing really to the recipe, just a lot of pilsner malt. Though there were five types of that. Including one made from Kenyan barley.

I’m not really sure what the hops ere, other than that there were three types, two from the 1938 harvest and one from 1939. Two are described as “A” and one as “R”.

Note that the ABV is below the 5% printed on the label.

1939 Heineken Pils
pilsner malt	8.75 lb	79.55%
flaked rice	2.25 lb	20.45%
Strisselspalt 90 mins	0.25 oz
Strisselspalt 60 mins	0.50 oz
Hallertau 30 mins	0.75 oz
OG	1048
FG	1012
ABV	4.76
Apparent attenuation	75.00%
IBU	16
SRM	3
Mash double decoction
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	48º F
Yeast	WLP830 German Lager

This is the mashing scheme:

Mash in at 35º C (95º F)	5 minutes
Warm whole mash to 52º C (126º F)	20 minutes
Rest whole mash at 52º C (126º F) (protein rest)	15 minutes
Draw off first mash and without a rest bring to the boil	30 minutes
Boil first mash	10 minutes
The rest of the mash remains at 52º C (126º F)	40 minutes
Mash at 70º C (158º F)	25 minutes
Rest whole mash at 70º C (158º F) (saccharification rest)	30 minutes
Draw off second mash and without a rest bring to the boil	15 minutes
Boil second mash	10 minutes
Mash at 76º C (169º F) and mash out	20 minutes

 

 

 

Slow progress

A bit like the Allies in Normandy in the initial weeks after the D-Day landings, I've got a bit bogged down. In my case it's Heineken's brewing records rather than the bocage that'd slowing me down.

To be honest, what I'm researching - brewing in the Netherlands during the war - is an optional extra to my book "Blitzkrieg!".  Whose subject is really brewing in the UK during WW II. Leaving out the short Dutch section wouldn't really affect the core of the book. But it's still going.

Partly, because it would be a shame not to use material that's just lying there waiting to be picked up, sorted into some sort of order and squeezed into lovely tables. Mostly, however, because it shows what was happening on the other side of the fence. Over on the dark side. Allowing for some comparing and contrasting of the problems facing brewers.

As the relevant brewing books have been digitised by the Amsterdamse Stadsarchief, I've the luxury of having every page and every brew at my fingertips. The downside being that I've a shitload of material to sift through.

The pre-war stuff was a doddle. They only produced six beers and every batch was pretty much identical. Not so after 1940. The reason there's so much work is the same reason that "Blitzkrieg!" contains over 500 recipes. Wartime problems caused incessant tinkering. In strength, materials used, hopping rates. Constant change. Recording every single tweak is a right pain in the arse. It's taking me forever to get through 1942.

Up until June 1941, the war hasn't had much impact at Heineken. But from then on, it all goes downhill very quickly. Pils from 41.5% ABV to 3.2% ABV. A couple of months later, it's down to 2.8% ABV. In June of 1942, things turn really bad. Most Pils is just 1.4% ABV, though some is still brewed at 2.8% ABV and there's the occasional full-strength batch, presumably for the Germans.

And Pils was Heineken's strong beer. The other beers they continued to brew were all just 1.4% ABV. Watery stuff, indeed.

I should be able to drag myself through all the records this week. Unless I get distracted by Homes Under the Hammer or Come Dine with Me.

AK hops after WW II

We really are done with AK after this post. I promise. Unless I'm too lazy to write a recipe for Wednesday. Which is definitely a possibility. Especially as I'm investing do much time in Heineken's wartime records.

Lots and lots of English hops is the short overview.  Along with a few Styrians and one lot of Californian. That's no surprise. From the 1950s the UK was pretty much self-sufficient in hops. No need to import any. It seems to have almost completely ended hop imports from the USA.

About all you see in the first couple of decades after WW II are European hops. Quite often Styrian. Presumably because they were cheap. Quality hops like Hallertau and Saaz also crop up a little.

Between 1946 and 1965 only in three years, 1956, 1959 and 1961 were insufficient hops grown to cover domestic needs.

Hops: home production and imports 1946 - 1965
Year ended 31st Dec.	Estimated Produce	Imports: Less Re-Exports	Exports: British Hops	Consumption Years ended 30th Sept. following	surplus British hops
	Cwts.	Cwts.	Cwts.	Cwts.	Cwts.
1946	257,451	29,243	35,056	217,759	39,692
1947	289,908	7,716	31,661	231,470	58,438
1948	273,584	4,561	29,135	233,168	40,416
1949	250,406	900	42,301	232,979	17,427
1950	368,313	269	84,027	229,106	139,207
1951	321,824	626	107,738	228,512	93,312
1952	282,349	502	76,620	225,569	56,780
1953	272,593	1,015	64,762	216,841	55,752
1954	246,748	3,075	51,323	217,716	29,032
1955	256,821	5,836	49,049	218,820	38,001
1956	184,170	6,416	40,746	215,114	-30,944
1957	267,677	8,848	38,635	208,870	58,807
1958	302,640	5,441	42,352	226,371	76,269
1959	222,768	6,007	34,291	234,611	-11,843
1960	248,195	8,172	12,220	234,611	13,584
1961	204,306	19,235	24,914	226,437	-22,131
1962	266,812	16,489	16,070	234,611	32,201
1963	276,384	10,063	21,790	226,437	49,947
1964	252,398	12,624	24,181	226,565	25,833
1965	258,727	12,961	19,474	237,356	21,371
Sources:
1955 Brewers' Almanack, page 63.
1971 Brewers'Almanack, page 54

During the 1950s hip imports were minimal, though they did start to increase in the 1960s, they still amounted for well under 10% of the hops used in UK brewing.

AK hops after WW II
Date	Year	Brewer	Beer	hop 1	hop 2	hop 3	hop 4	hop 5
22nd Jan	1946	Shepherd Neame	AK	English 1942	English 1944	English 1945
15th Jul	1947	Shepherd Neame	AK	English 1943	Kent 1945	Kent 1946
19th Mar	1952	Strong	SAK	Worcs 1951	Kent 1950	Kent 1950	Kent 1951	Kent 1951
3rd Jan	1964	Eldridge Pope	BAK	Kent 1962	Worcs 1962	Sussex 1962	Styrian 1962
6th Jan	1967	Eldridge Pope	BAK	Kent 1965	Worcs 1965	Worcs 1965	Californian 1965	Styrian 1965
17th May	1982	Eldridge Pope	BAK	English	English	English	Styrian
27th Jun	1984	Eldridge Pope	BAK	English	English	English	English	Styrian
Sources:
Strong brewing record, number 79A01-A3-3-27.
Eldridge Pope brewing record.
Shepherd Neame brewing record held at the brewery.