It looks to me like a classic Stock Pale Ale. Though, surprisingly, the hopping rate is lower than in AK, 10lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt compared to 12.5 lbs.
Unlike BA, there is sugar in the grist. Rather less than in AK, but still accounting for 14% of the fermentable material. For once, all the base malt is made from English barley. Quite unusual, that.
As usual, multiple hops were used: Farnham from the 1884 harvest, Bavarian from 1884 and English from 1883. That around two-thirds were Farnhams, the classiest and most expensive hops is an indication of how posh a beer this was.
Being a Stock Pale, it would have undergone a secondary fermentation of 12 months in trade casks.
| 1885 Kirkstall PA | ||
| pale malt | 10.75 lb | 86.00% |
| No. 1 invert sugar | 1.75 lb | 14.00% |
| Hallertau 120 mins | 2.25 oz | |
| Goldings 60 mins | 2.25 oz | |
| Goldings 30 mins | 2.25 oz | |
| Goldings dry hops | 1.00 oz | |
| OG | 1061 | |
| FG | 1016 | |
| ABV | 5.95 | |
| Apparent attenuation | 73.77% | |
| IBU | 82 | |
| SRM | 7 | |
| Mash at | 154º F | |
| Sparge at | 175º F | |
| Boil time | 120 minutes | |
| pitching temp | 58º F | |
| Yeast | Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire Ale Timothy Taylor | |
As I currently understand, brewer's at that time mixed malted barley, malt substitutes and sugar in a way to get to the right nitrogen level that would create a brilliant beer. This is described in this paper: https://ia800708.us.archive.org/view_archive.php?archive=/22/items/crossref-pre-1909-scholarly-works/10.1002%252Ffedr.19060034001.zip&file=10.1002%252Fj.2050-0416.1896.tb00087.x.pdf
ReplyDeleteFor this beer, they might have used the premium version of pale malt that was grown on soil that provided lower nitrogen content in the malt. That way they didn't need to blend with foreign barley. Also the higher sugar content will have helped.
What is the smallest abv stock ale that you know of? I am curious as to the alcohol range of ales that went through the brett secondary fermentation. Also, would these smaller ales be blended with the fresh versions?
ReplyDeletethank you
Hey Ron, were the dry hops added to the cask at the beginning of secondary aging process? So the beer would be aging on hops through out that 12 month maturation?
ReplyDelete@ts: As far as I know, all strengths existed as keeping ales and as runnings ales. The lowest strength keeping ale would be AK at 1.050. The alcohol usually played no role in the keeping, the characteristic recipe change was the increased hopping (about 30% more hops).
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure about ales, but porters were definitely blended by the publican on request of the drinker.
@Anonymous: Yes, the dry-hopping was for the whole maturation period. Just as nowadays dry-hops are added to cask ales, only that nowadays all our ales are served "mild".