P1 B was a Burton Pale Ale with a long pedigree, having been brewed since 1877. It was Truman’s equivalent of Bass Red Triangle and, originally, was exclusively a bottled beer. Sometime in the late 1950s and early 1960s it was introduced in keg form, playing the role of Truman’s premium Keg Bitter.
I’m not sure why they were brewing it on Brick Lane while their Burton brewery was still open. Maybe they were just preparing for closure by shifting some brands to London.
The recipe is very different from the other Pale Ales. There’s no crystal malt and no flaked barley. But, in addition to the cane sugar, there was another sugar called WSI.
There were two types of Kent hops from the 1968 harvest, plus another of English hops pf unspecified vintage. The hopping is very light at just 4 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt. That’s the same as the Mild and 1.4 lbs per quarter less than in the other Pale Ales.
I remember the shiny font for this beer, with a portrait of Ben, just like on the label. Being totally brainwashed by the Trots at CAMRA HQ, I never foe a second considered trying it.
| 1969 Truman Ben Truman | ||
| pale malt | 9.25 lb | 86.05% |
| pearl barley | 1.00 lb | 9.30% |
| cane sugar | 0.50 lb | 4.65% |
| Fuggles 90 mins | 0.50 oz | |
| Fuggles 60 mins | 0.50 oz | |
| Fuggles 30 mins | 0.50 oz | |
| OG | 1047 | |
| FG | 1010 | |
| ABV | 4.89 | |
| Apparent attenuation | 78.72% | |
| IBU | 18 | |
| SRM | 4 | |
| Mash at | 153º F | |
| Sparge at | 170º F | |
| Boil time | 90 minutes | |
| pitching temp | 64º F | |
| Yeast | Wyeast 1099 Whitbread ale | |
You could always buy some of my older books. I guarantee they are dead good.
I've never seen pearl barley in a recipe before.
ReplyDeleteMy mum was very contemptuous of pearl barley. If she wanted to express disdain for someone else's cooking she would say 'she puts pearl barley in her stew' as if that was the ultimate condemnation.
Ben Truman at 1047og looks quite respectable for its day. I never tried it either, though a friend of mine claimed to be a Ben Truman fan.
I am not a robot.
ReplyDeleteBut it is getting harder and harder to get past the robot detector.
Interesting writeup. I live in the US and had never heard about Ben Truman, and looked up this article which fills in a bunch of details.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.beerguild.co.uk/news/the-return-of-ben-truman-1st-anniversary-of-trumans-return-to-east-london-brewing/
The only times I ever knowingly drank Ben Trumans on keg in the 1970s was at a particular night club in the Docks in Cardiff where my mate was a bouncer. It was a huge place with a ballroom sized dance floor and the only beers on tap were Truman and Ben Truman. I've always wondered why two similar beers and what's the difference?
ReplyDeleteNow I can see that the very low IBU was the reason I thought that it was pisswater, as it was far less hoppy then the local Brains brews such as SA. However it certainly got the ravers (and the bouncers) busy so that accounts for it.
A London beer in Cardiff? Well with the M4 recently completed, and in kegs, why not just truck it over to Cardiff, three hour run and guaranteed huge sales on the weekends.
Isn’t 18 IBU too low to be a bitter.
DeleteOscar
In the 1960s, Truman’s brewed a variety of keg beers (including Truman’s Keg Bitter and Truman’s Trukeg Bitter); but, as far as I know, there wasn’t a keg version of Ben Truman until Ben Truman Export Draught was introduced in the 1970s (1973, I think) to replace Titan Keg.
ReplyDeleteBen Truman Export was later introduced by Watneys to replace Watneys Red.
ReplyDelete