As you read this, I should be sitting on Ipanema beach, sipping on a caipirinha. Or three. Or four. Don't pity me, I should survive.
On a more prosaic note, stuff from the Tetley's specifications manual again. Quite likely stuff that might be of interest to someone other than a technician.
Because today we'll be looking at the recipe and production process. The sort of stuff that's a lot more accessible that different forms of nitrogen and their relevance.
First a look at the grist. Which is pretty simple. You might have twigged this from the fact that the malt specifications only include two types: ale and lager. There are only five elements. Three of them types of sugar and another an adjunct.
Here we go:
| 3. EXTRACT DERIVATION (%) | |
| a) White Malt | 75 - 80 |
| b) Torrified Barley | 5 - 10 |
| c) T3000 or LPW | 10 - 15 |
| d) S.G.T. | |
| e) Caramel | Small, variable |
| Source: | |
| Tetley Beer and Malt Specifications, 1985, beer page 3. | |
Interesting that the base is described white malt and not standard pale malt. The question is: why? Because they were after a really pale colour? Then why add caramel? I suppose to hit exactly the colour that they wanted.
The torrified barley I assume is there to help head retention. Which was really good on both Tetley's Mild and Bitter. Though being served through an economiser probably helped.
A search on the sugar types - T3000, LPW and S.G.T. - didn't turn up anything. Leaving me totally in the dark as to what they might be. Nothing very dark, I'm sure, given the pale colour of the finished beer.
Next, we'll look at the brewing liquor:
| 5. LIQUOR | |
| a) Source | Town/Borehole Mixture (2 : 1 Ratio) |
| b) Treatment | H2SO4, Auto-Injection (Variable) |
| c) Filtration (borehole only) | Sand filtered but not chlorinated |
| Source: | |
| Tetley Beer and Malt Specifications, 1985, beer page 3. | |
I'm slightly surprised that they were still using well water at this late a point. Albeit only one third of the total. Even odder is the treatment with sulphuric acid. I assume that it's some form of Burtonisation, aiming to get sulphur into the water.
That's enough for today. Mashing next time.
Amazing source where did you find it?
ReplyDeleteThom Farrell,
ReplyDeletePaul Spencer sent it to me. The document is absolute gold.
Ah the economiser drip back system!! Having lived in Cardiff where creamy topped Brains beers were almost exclusively served through economiser hand pumps, and having drunk a lot of Tetley Bitter up north where the system was used, I was quite happy with the resulting pints in a high volume pub.
ReplyDeleteWhen CAMRA was becoming really trendy my local Brains pub started putting on a cask of SA on the counter, gravity fed.
The resulting pint with no head and suspicious fizziness was given the thumbs down as it just didn't taste like Brains, more like one of those Pommy London brews. So it didn't last too long.
However one more quiet pub that I visited half way up Mt Caerphilly had an unmarked handpump. On asking what beer was that, the barman said "beer for shandies".
Oh, what brand would that be?
"Bloody beer for shandies. Just told you".
OK.