Saturday 3 July 2021

Let's Brew - 1914 Barclay Perkins XLK (trade)

Thinking you might be bored with WW II recipes, here's one from WW I.

XLK came in two versions, “trade” being the draught version.

This was Barclay Perkins Ordinary Bitter and was produced in considerable quantities. It was first introduced in the 1880’s, which was quite late.  Initially, only a draught version was brewed.

The grist is typical for the period: around 75% base malt, with the rest made up of flaked maize and brewing sugar. Barclay Perkins started using unmalted adjuncts just about as soon as it was made legal in 1880. Initially, they employed flaked rice, but they swapped to flaked maize in 1899.

The hops are all English: Mid-Kent (1913), East Kent (1913), Worcester (1912 CS) and Mid-Kent Goldings (1912 CS); Worcester (1912 CS) dry hops. Note that all the hops that weren’t from the most recent season had been kept in a cold store (that’s what the CS means).

1914 Barclay Perkins XLK (trade)
pale malt 7.50 lb 73.17%
flaked maize 0.75 lb 7.32%
No. 2 invert sugar 1.00 lb 9.76%
glucose 1.00 lb 9.76%
Fuggles 120 mins 1.25 oz
Fuggles 90 mins 1.00 oz
Goldings 30 mins 1.00 oz
Goldings dry hops 0.50 oz
OG 1050
FG 1013
ABV 4.89
Apparent attenuation 74.00%
IBU 41
SRM 6
Mash at 152º F
Sparge at 170º F
Boil time 120 minutes
pitching temp 59.5º F
Yeast Wyeast 1099 Whitbread Ale


This recipe, and many others, can be found in Armistice,  my wonderful book on brewing in WW I.






 



 


 

5 comments:

Michael Foster said...

Do you have a post about the legalization of unmalted adjuncts? I didn't know these were ever outlawed--was it that anything unmalted was illegal before 1880 (i.e. including unmalted barley), or was it that adjuncts were illegal? I'd love to learn more.

Ron Pattinson said...

Michael Foster,

anything unmalted, other than sugar, was illegal before 1889. It was even illegal to have any raw grains on the brewery premises, other than oats to find the horses.

RusM said...

You wouldn't happen to have any pre-WW1 dark mild or mild recipes would you? This is a style I've recently become interested in and my googling led to your blog. Love the content will be bookmarking this page!

Mike in NSW said...

https://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2009/11/free-mash-tun-act.html

[The decline in production of vatted Stock Ales and Stouts was further accelerated by this change in the law.]

Ron, was this one of the reasons for breweries to scramble to buy tied houses? With a move away from expensively brewery-matured stock beers they could save heaps by shifting the maturing of the new running beers onto the landlords?

Kevin said...

RussM There used to be a search tool at the top of the page but I don't see it anymore but if you scroll down however past the bookstore offerings - past the videos - the my blog list and under the blog archive you will find a list of labels. There are many, many articles about mild on the site. It is kind of Ron's specialty. You might find the biggest concentration of recipes by clicking the link for March Mild Month and Mild Month. Ron also has a book or two on nothing but mild.