Let's Brew - 1886 Barclay Perkins XX Ale

Just like last Saturday, I'm providing some relief from the constant barrage of Heineken and WW II stuff. With a recipe from my barely-started book, "Free!".

19th-century Mild Ales can confuse the hell out of people. Especially stronger ones, like this. Pale, hoppy and pretty strong. What exactly makes it a Mild Ale, then? The simple fact that it was sold without any ageing, just a couple of weeks, at most, after being brewed.

XX was considerably more heavily hopped than X Ale: 12 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt, compared to 8 lbs. In fact, the hopping rate was the same as for PA and XLK, Barclay’s two Bitters.

The malt bill couldn’t be simpler, just a single type of pale malt. There’s really nothing at all to discuss there.

Equal quantities of East Kent and Worcester hops, both from the 1885 harvest, made up the hops. As this beer was brewed in May, the freshest hops you could get.

Sadly, Barclays didn’t brew this beer for much longer. Like most other large London brewers, by around 1900 they’d slimmed down to brewing just a single Mild Ale. This batch was brewed on their small kit and consisted of a mere 50 barrels. While X Ale was often brewed 1,000 barrels at a time.

1886 Barclay Perkins XX Ale
pale malt	17.75 lb	100.00%
Fuggles 120 mins	4.00 oz
Goldings 30 mins	4.00 oz
Goldings dry hops	1.00 oz
OG	1076
FG	1023
ABV	7.01
Apparent attenuation	69.74%
IBU	82
SRM	6
Mash at	150º F
Sparge at	165º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	60º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1099 Whitbread ale

 

Heineken's first Lager

Yes. Yet more Heineken shit. Going a bit further back this time. Back to when they were just starting to switch from top to bottom fermentation.

It's unusual to have a review of the first appearance of a beer. Especially one that's become as big as Heineken. Though it isn't quite what tou might assume.

"Mr Gerard A. Heineken, the owner of the Hooiberg, one of the oldest breweries in our city, is one of those industrialists, to whose entrepreneurial spirit and energy the young Amsterdam owes great thanks. He develops a useful branch of industry in Amsterdam, which was rightly proud of its brewers in earlier times, and by honoring the taste of the day and brewing Bavarian beer, he has given the Dutch the opportunity to purchase an excellent folk drink, brewed on their own soil. Last night, at his request, a few hundred residents of the town came to taste the new brew, which was excellent. It is proverbially difficult to judge the taste of others, but if the public wants to know the subjective opinion of a hundred Amsterdammers regarding this new Bavarian beer, then we can say that it is a spicy, clear, very tasty drink, which seemed to us to combine the good qualities of Viennese beer with those of Bavarian beer. "May this beer soon become generally known, and refresh thousands!" Wished one of the guests at the Vyfhoek. We share this wish, and hope that Heineken's Bavarian will soon be as well known in the Netherlands, as Guinness's Porter in Ireland, as Bass's Ale in England."
Algemeen Handelsblad 24-02-1870.

Sadly, Heineken is now better known in England that Bass Ale.

Why not what you might have assumed? Because this wasn't a Pilsner, but a beer called Beiersch. Which means Bavarian in Dutch. That is, a dark Lager in the Munich style. In the early days of Lager expansion, it wasn't Pilsner, but Vienna and Munich Lagers which were all the rage. Hence the reference to those two types of beer in the article.

At one point, Heineken brewed both a Munich and a Vienna Lager. Sadly, I've no details for the latter, as it was dropped before the earliest brewing records I've seen. All I've seen are labels.

Something other than Heineken

Only kidding. Of course it's more Heineken stuff. Lots of crumbs of knowledge for me to peck away at.

Lagering times is today's topic. Did I mention before that there wasn't much about them in the records? That's not totally true. There are a few details and dates. Annoyingly, no temperatures are given. My guess us that the lagering tanks would have been filled with the wort at the temperature where fermentation ended. That is 5º-6º C. Then slowly cooled to around freezing.

The pattern is fill the tank, leave it open for a few days, seal it up and finally let the pressure increase. That pressure coming from the continued fermentation while lagering. Fermentation must have occurred as the eventual FG is a good bit lower than at the end of primary fermentation. All, with the exception of Export Pils, lost more than 2º Plato during secondary fermentation.

Is lagering really a secondary fermentation? I suspect not, technically. As it's really a continuation of primary. Who gives a toss about that, really? I've certainly more worthwhile quibbles to waste my time on.

Yet another table showing that fall in gravity I mentioned a short while ago.

Heineken 1935 secondary fermentation
Beer	Racking gravity Plato	FG Plato	Fall Plato
Münchener	6.4	4.0	2.4
Pils	6	3.4	2.6
Export Pils	4.5	2.8	1.7
Bok	8.2	5.6	2.6
Source:
Heineken Brouwjournalen van de proefziederij, 1935 - 1957 held at the Amsterdamse Stadtsarchief, document number 1785-1792.

The lagering times are pretty reasonable. Around 10 weeks for the Piseners and for Münchener more than 17 weeks. Just a shame that there are no examples of the two Lagerbiers. I'd love to know how long they were lagereed.

That's enough fun for today. I've some more numbers that need fiddling with. Though,  as it's not raining, I may nip out for a quick walk and read of Private Eye. That night happen to take me past Ton Overmars. Where I may as well check if they've refilled the shelf with Abt.

Pilsener 11th Jul 1935 Lagering
Step	Date
Filled	20th July
Sealed	24th July
Pressurised	29th July
Tapped	30th Sept
Tasted	26th Oct
Total days	72
Source:
Heineken Brouwjournalen van de proefziederij, 1935 - 1957 held at the Amsterdamse Stadtsarchief, document number 1785-1792, page 20.

Export Pils 18th Jul 1935 Lagering
Step	Date
Filled	26th July
Sealed	28th July
Pressurised	5th Aug
Tapped	1st Oct
Tasted	26th Oct
Total days	67
Source:
Heineken Brouwjournalen van de proefziederij, 1935 - 1957 held at the Amsterdamse Stadtsarchief, document number 1785-1792, page 20.

Münchener 2nd Jul 1935 Lagering
Step	Date
Filled	10th July
Sealed	11th July
Pressurised	15th July
Tapped	9th Dec
Tasted	9th Dec
total days	122
Source:
Heineken Brouwjournalen van de proefziederij, 1935 - 1957 held at the Amsterdamse Stadtsarchief, document number 1785-1792, page 11.

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1935 Heineken Pils

I was so happy when Peter Symons pointed me at Heineken’s pilot brewery records. Because they contain all the process details missing from the main brewery records. All the really good stuff: decoction, hop additions, fermentation profile and lagering times. Making this one of my most accurate recipes.

The grist is pretty simple, consisting of just pilsner malt and rice. Not a great deal you can say about that. I assume that the rice was at least partially included to keep the body and colour light. The rice was mashed in separately, but there wasn’t a cereal mash. As you’ll see in the mashing scheme below.

A single type of hops was used, Leitmeritz from the 1934 season. Leitmeritz is the German name for the Czech town of Litoměřice. The hops grown there were similar to Saaz, which is what I’ve specified in the recipe.

Pitched at 45º F, the temperature rose to a maximum of 50º F, before falling back gradually to 43º F.  Primary fermentation lasted a total of 9 days. Lagering lasted just over two months – a total of 72 days. 

1935 Heineken Pils
pilsner malt	9.25 lb	80.43%
flaked rice	2.25 lb	19.57%
Saaz 120 mins	0.33 oz
Saaz 60 mins	0.50 oz
Saaz 20 mins	0.75 oz
OG	1050
FG	1013
ABV	4.89
Apparent attenuation	74.00%
IBU	13.5
SRM	3
Mash double decoction
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	45º F
Yeast	WLP830 German Lager

Pilsener mashing scheme
step	duration (minutes)
Mash in at 51º C (124º F)	20
Mash in rice at 33º C (91.5º F)	5
Draw off first decoction and raise to 70º C (158º F)	45
Raise decoction to 100º C (212º F)	15
Boil first decoction	15
Rest whole mash at 66º C (151º F)	75
Draw off second decoction and raise to 100º C (212º F)	15
Boil second decoction	15
Mash at 75.5º C and mash out (168º F)	5
Sparge at 75.5º C (168º F) and rest	60
Draw off main wort	55
Draw off second wort	90
Total time	415
Source:
Heineken Brouwjournalen van de proefziederij, 1935 - 1957 held at the Amsterdamse Stadtsarchief, document number 1785-1792, page 19.

Still more ridiculous Heineken detail

Well, that was a busy weekend. Pub on Saturday, roast dinner preparation on Sunday, as well as the IPA talk. Time for me to relax a little. Ant what better way  to relax than looking at Heineken's brewing processes in ridiculous detail. It's now the turn of primary fermentation

What strikes me is how generally similar it us to a UK top-fermentation. The temperature slowly rises in the first half of the, peaks, and then falls back to slightly below pitching temperature at the end. The only real difference is that the temperatures are all a good deal colder. And that the fermentation takes a few days longer. In the UK 5 or 6 days was typical, while all Heineken's beers took around 9.

It's a shame that there's no record of what happened in the lagering tanks. There must have been a fermentation because the finishing gravities were: Beiersch 4º Plato, Pils 3.4º Plato and Bok 5.6º Plato. The Pils seems to have been lagered about 2 months. I'm not so sure about the length for the other beers, though it does look as it was longer for Beiersch, possibly more than 4 months. 

Annoyingly, lagering is the one part of the process which isn't properly documented. I assume that the beer was slowly cooled to around zero. The tanks were bunged at a certain point implying that it was allowed to condition naturally.

I was going to head out for a walk but it's absolutely pissing it down. The tropical-style rain we've started getting quite frequently. Just as well Amsterdam never floods.

Beiersch 2nd Jul 1935 Primary Fermentation
Date	Time	Cellar temperature	wort temperature	gravity (Plato)	% attenuation
2nd July	19	6.8	7	13.1
3rd July	7	5.9	7.3
	17.25	7.4	7.4
4th July	7	5.8	8	12.2	7
	18	6.4	8.2
5th July	7	5.8	9	10.7	18
	17.5	6.6	9.5
6th July	7	5.6	10.3	8.7	34
	17	6.2	9.6
7th July	9	5.6	9.7	7.3	45
	17	6.4	9.6
8th July	7	5.7	9.3	6.8	48
	17.5	6.4	9.1
9th July	7	5.4	8.8	6.6	50
	17.5	5.8	8.5
10th July	7	5.3	6.1	6.4	51
Source: Heineken Brouwjournalen van de proefziederij, 1935 - 1957 held at the Amsterdamse Stadtsarchief, document number 1785-1792, page 11.

Pilsener 11th Jul 1935 Primary Fermentation
Date	Time	Cellar temperature	wort temperature	gravity (Plato)	% attenuation
11th July	17	7.5	7	12.2
12th July	7	5.7	7.2
	18	3.2	7.6
13th July	7	6.2	8	11.6	5
	13	5.4	8.2
14th July	9	5.2	8.8	10.3	16
	17	5.6	9.2
15th July	7	5.7	10	8.6	30
	17	5.5	9.7
16th July	7	5.5	10	6.7	45
	17	6	9.6
17th July	7	5.5	9.6	5.6	54
	17	5.5	9.7
18th July	7	5.3	9.2	5	59
	18	7.2	9.2
19th July	7	5.8	9	4.6	62
	18	6.6	8.6
20th July	7	5.4	6	4.4	64
Source: Heineken Brouwjournalen van de proefziederij, 1935 - 1957 held at the Amsterdamse Stadtsarchief, document number 1785-1792, page 20.

Bok 5th Aug 1935 Primary Fermentation
Date	Time	Cellar temperature	wort temperature	gravity (Plato)	% attenuation
5th Aug	18.5	7	6.9	17.3
6th Aug	7	5.8	7.8
	17.5	7.8	7.4
7th Aug	7	5.9	8.1
	19.5	5.7	7.9
8th Aug	7.5	6.8	8.6	14.5	16
	17.5	7.8	9
9th Aug	7	5.2	10.2	12.6	27
	17	6	10.5
10th Aug	7	5.4	7	10.2	41
	13	5.8	7.2
11th Aug	-	-	-
12th Aug	7	4.8	7.1	8.4	52
	17	5.4	7.2
13th Aug	7	4.7	4.5	8.2	53
Source: Heineken Brouwjournalen van de proefziederij, 1935 - 1957 held at the Amsterdamse Stadtsarchief, document number 1785-1792, page 59.

Even more Heineken tedium

It's another busy day. Sunday dinner won't cook itself. I'll quickly bash this off while the oven is warming up. 

Today we're looking at Heineken's boiling schemes. Of all the essential processes involved in brewing, hop additions are some of the post poorly recorded. Other than a few Barclay Perkins records from between the wars, I've almost no information. Which is why I was dead happy to find Heineken's pilot brewery records had full hopping details.

Oddly enough, the standard records which have almost nothing about process do note the hop charges. Just not the timings.

What's unusual is that a very high proportion of the hops were added late in the boil, a mere 20 minutes before the end. And very few hops were added early in the boil. Presumably creating beers with a fair amount of hop aroma but little in the way of bitterness.

Got to leave you now. Time for the beef to go into the oven.

Pilsener 11th Jul 1935 Boil
Time	kg	%
120 mins	1	25.00%
60 mins	1.3	32.50%
20 mins	1.7	42.50%
Total	4
Source:
Heineken Brouwjournalen van de proefziederij, 1935 - 1957 held at the Amsterdamse Stadtsarchief, document number 1785-1792, page 19.

Beiersch 2nd Jul 1935 Boil
Time	kg	%
120 mins	0.5	16.67%
60 mins	1	33.33%
20 mins	1.5	50.00%
Total	3
Source:
Heineken Brouwjournalen van de proefziederij, 1935 - 1957 held at the Amsterdamse Stadtsarchief, document number 1785-1792, page 10.

Bock 15th Aug 1935 Boil
Time	kg	%
120 mins	0.6	24.00%
60 mins	0.8	32.00%
20 mins	1.1	44.00%
Total	2.5
Source:
Heineken Brouwjournalen van de proefziederij, 1935 - 1957 held at the Amsterdamse Stadtsarchief, document number 1785-1792, page 19.

More dull stuff avout Heineken in the 1930s

I keep finding reasons to delay finishing "Blitzkrieg!". It is complete. All but the small section on brewing in the Netherlands during the war are done. But I keep finding more information. And requesting the archive digitises more Heineken records.

You can request five documents per month. I used up my monthly ration this week. All on records of the pilot brewery. One in particular I'm keen to take a look in: 1944-46. I've currently no information later than 1943. I'm dead excited. Though patience is requires. Three to six weeks the process takes.

A couple of days later, I learnt Peter Symons had requested some of the same documents. He's been pointing me at various documents from the Heineken archive that he's already had digitised. Between the two of us, we should get through the interesting ones pretty quickly. Then move on to the Amstel stuff.

I can't take too long over this.  Got to be down the pub, well, brewery, quite soon for my Saturday afternoon pints with mates. The highlight of my unemployed week.  I'm not going to bang on too long about this double decoction. I want to line my stomach with some lunch before this afternoon session. Andrew chews his way through pints disturbingly quickly. I always drink faster when I'm with him.

Heineken Pilsener was mashed very differently to their Münchener, which had one more decoction. The heating and boiling of the decoction were shorter. While the saccharification rest at 66º C was far longer. The two just about balanced each other out and the whole process was only 5 minutes shorter, despite there being one fewer decoction.

The shorter boils make sense. They'd have been wary of darkening the wort. Not sure about the reason for longer rest.

That's enough about decoction. I'm thinking about my sandwich. Dolores made meatballs. Always dead good. This batch are particularly nice.

 

Pilsener 11th Jul 1935
step	duration (minutes)
Mash in at 51º C (124º F)	20
Mash in rice at 33º C (91.5º F)	5
Draw off first decoction and raise to 70º C (158º F)	45
Raise decoction to 100º C (212º F)	15
Boil first decoction	15
Rest whole mash at 66º C (151º F)	75
Draw off second decoction and raise to 100º C (212º F)	15
Boil second decoction	15
Mash at 75.5º C and mash out (168º F)	5
Sparge at 75.5º C (168º F) and rest	60
Draw off main wort	55
Draw off second wort	90
Total time	415
Source:
Heineken Brouwjournalen van de proefziederij, 1935 - 1957 held at the Amsterdamse Stadtsarchief, document number 1785-1792, page 19.

Reminding you of the mega IPA event tomorrow. Where I'll be doing my talking thing.  Among with some other blokes.

Informative and fun, I hope.

This Sunday there's a bug IPA event with Vinnie Cilurzo, Mike Karnowski and Mitch Steele. Plus me giving a talk on the history of the style. You can find more details and register for the event here:

https://www.crowdcast.io/e/IPA-Past-Present-Future/register

Let's Brew - 1886 Barclay Perkins PA

You're probably bored shitless by WW II and Heineken, so here's a complete change of pace. A Bitter from the 19th century. A recipe which will feature in my book after "Blitzkrieg!". A book which, although I haven't officially started it yet, already runs to over 16,000 words.

Barclay Perkins were very late to the Pale Ale game. While London rivals Whitbread had introduced their version in 1865, Barclays waited until the 1880s to follow suit. I’m not sure why it took them so long. Perhaps, like Courage, they took their Pale Ale from another brewery which had the right water profile for the style.

By Barclay Perkins’ standards, the batch size was tiny. Brewed on their small plant, it was of a mere 97 barrels. While X Mild Ale was bashed out 1,000 barrels at a time and even the powerful Stock Ale KKK was brewed in batches of 700 barrels. It demonstrates how much of a niche product Pale Ale was at the time.

The effect of the 1880 Free Mash Tun is clear to see in the grist, where there’s unmalted grain in the form of flaked rice. In the early days of adjuncts, this seems to have been a popular choice. Though later most brewers switched to maize. Rice does make sense for a Pale Ale, however, as lightness of both body and colour were highly desirable characteristics.

Two types of East Kent hops, one from the 1884 harvest, the other from 1885 were employed, along with Worcesters, also from 1885. The dry hops weren’t recorded for the is brew, however they were in one 15 years or so later and I’ve used that figure. Which, at 12 ozs. per barrel, was rather a lot.

1886 Barclay Perkins PA
pale malt	9.00 lb	73.47%
flaked rice	1.50 lb	12.24%
No. 1 invert sugar	1.75 lb	14.29%
Fuggles 105 mins	2.00 oz
Goldings 60 mins	2.00 oz
Goldings 30 mins	2.00 oz
Goldings dry hops	1.50 oz
OG	1058
FG	1013
ABV	5.95
Apparent attenuation	77.59%
IBU	75
SRM	6.5
Mash at	150º F
Sparge at	160º F
Boil time	105 minutes
pitching temp	60º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1099 Whitbread ale