Light Ale adjuncts in the 1970s

Adjuncts. There are bound to be loads, aren’t there? Surprisingly, no. Two – from Adnams and Eldridge Pope – contain none at all.

The UK’s favourite adjunct, flaked maize, only turns up in half of the beers. And in pretty small amounts in two of those. The exception being the beer from Fullers.

Flaked barley, which was forced on brewers during WW II, fell out of use a couple of years into peace. Basically, as soon as flaked maize became available again, brewers reverted to that. Which makes its appearance at the end of the 1960s quite unusual. Not sure why they might have preferred it over maize.

But with pearl barley things get much weirder. It seems an odd thing to put into beer. I’m only used to it in soup or stew. Did they grind it up first? In its usual form, it doesn’t look like you’d extract much from it in the mash tun. 

Light Ale adjuncts 1968 - 1984
Year	Brewer	Beer	flaked maize	flaked barley	pearl barley	total adjuncts
1977	Adnams	LBA				0.00%
1971	Boddington	Bod	2.41%			2.41%
1984	Eldridge Pope	BAK				0.00%
1968	Fullers	LA	14.52%			14.52%
1972	Shepherd Neame	LA	3.28%			3.28%
1969	Truman	LK		2.42%	7.97%	10.39%
Sources:
Adnams brewing record held at the brewery.
Boddington brewing record held at Manchester Central Library, document number M693/405/134.
Eldridge Pope brewing record.
Fullers brewing record held at the brewery.
Shepherd Neame brewing book held at the brewery, document number 1971 H-5O5.
Truman brewing record held by Derek Prentice.