Wartime didn’t removed the need for London pubs to have something a bit stronger and darker. Especially in the dark winter months. Ones which were even darker with the blackout.
Burton was the beer. One whose name confused the hell out of me for a long time. Weirdly, I have an East German book from the 1970’s which correctly describes Burton Ale. Radical.
Fuller’s Burton remains the sort of souped-up Mild I wish I had available in my youth. You jammy London bastards. I was going to say that you’d cruelly dropped then before my time in the capital. Then I recall Winter Warmer. The last London Burton Ale.
Were they brewing loads of BO? No, obviously. But a reasonable amount. This parti-gyle was split, in barrels, 82, 58 and 241 between BO, XX and X, respectively.
Not far away from 5% ABV – happy days, if you can find BO.
| 1942 Fullers BO | ||
| pale malt | 8.50 lb | 81.93% |
| flaked barley | 1.50 lb | 14.46% |
| glucose | 0.25 lb | 2.41% |
| caramel 1000 SRM | 0.125 lb | 1.20% |
| Fuggles 90 min | 1.00 oz | |
| Fuggles 30 min | 0.75 oz | |
| Goldings dry hops | 0.50 oz | |
| OG | 1044.5 | |
| FG | 1008 | |
| ABV | 4.83 | |
| Apparent attenuation | 82.02% | |
| IBU | 23 | |
| SRM | 12.5 | |
| Mash at | 148º F | |
| After underlet | 152º F | |
| Sparge at | 168º F | |
| Boil time | 90 minutes | |
| pitching temp | 61.5º F | |
| Yeast | WLP002 English Ale | |
This recipe is one of 553 in my recently-released BlitzKrieg!, the definitive book on brewing during WW II.
The second volume contains the recipes. But not just that. There are also overviews of some of the breweries covered, showing their beers at the start and the end of the conflict.
Buy one now and be the envy of your friends!
A good Burton is a very fine thing, and even a bad Burton can be pretty memorable. Once when I was quite young I got a pint of Young's Winter Warmer in (what I realise now was) terrible condition - a kind of malt soup, with flecks of yeast instead of pearl barley; I remember thinking "eh, this is the good stuff, don't brew 'em like this any more...". I didn't think much else for the rest of the day as I remember.
ReplyDeleteSouped-up milds you could have had in your youth...
ReplyDeleteHow about Theakstons OP, Youngers no 3, Taylors Ram Tam, I'm sure they could all have been obtained in Leeds or not so far away.