Let's Brew Wednesday - 1923 Cairnes Double Stout

Looking much more Stout-like is the Double Stout. For a start, it has the classic interwar draught London Stout gravity of 1055º. Come to think of it, that’s also the gravity of interwar Guinness Extra Stout.

The recipe is basically the same as for Single Stout.  Unsurprisingly, as this batch was in a parti-gyle with Single Stout. Interestingly, while usually some of the pale malt was made from foreign barley – usually from Chile or California – here it was all Irish barley. 10% roast barley would have made for a pretty roasty beer.

Other than the caramel, this was probably pretty close to the grist of Guinness Extra Stout of the period. Which almost certainly wasn’t accidental, Guinness being the market leader in Ireland.

Two types of English hops were employed, both from the 1922 season. The combination of quite decent hopping and lots of roast barley must have resulted in quite a bitter beer. Despite the high finishing gravity. 

1923 Cairnes Double Stout
pale malt	11.50 lb	88.46%
roast barley	1.25 lb	9.62%
caramel 2000 SRM	0.25 lb	1.92%
Fuggles 120 mins	1.00 oz
Fuggles 60 mins	1.00 oz
Goldings 30 mins	1.00 oz
OG	1055
FG	1022
ABV	4.37
Apparent attenuation	60.00%
IBU	40
SRM	42
Mash at	146º F
After underlet	156º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	59.5º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1084 Irish ale

Montevideo suggestions

I'm going to be in Montevideo 22nd to 25th July. Does anyone have any beery recommendations or the city? 

It will be my first visit to Uruguay and I've absolutely no idea what the beer scene there is like. I know, I could search the internet. But I'm an extremely busy person.

A new local?

As planned, we gave Soundgarden a try on Saturday.

The weather being rather nice, we arranged to meet up earlier, at 15:30. Why? Because we wanted to sit outside where there's limited space. Best to turn up just after opening time.

Andrew, Alexei and me were almost on time. I blame the kids or that. I was ready to leave home before 3 PM. Traffic was a nightmare, too. Which is why we took the no. 17 rather than the no. 2 tram.

Mikey and Lucas were already sitting outside. Freshly-poured beers in front of them. Just as well we got here early as most of the tables are already occupied. Soon the kids have brought me a bottle of La Chouffe.

Soundgarden is slightly unusual as it backs directly onto a canal. Which gives it a nice view. And also means that customers can arrive by boat. Which is exactly what happened not long after we got there. How cool is that?

Unlike the garden itself. Which was pretty warm. Too warm for my liking. And with almost no shade. That's a mark against the pub.

The inside was totally empty. Which meant I could take lots of nice photos without people getting in the way. I won't bother trying to describe how it looks. I'll let the photos do the talking.

So how did our evaluation go? Well, the beer is more expensive than Checkpoint Charlie. On the other hand, the spirits are cheaper. The music is pretty good. But that's also true of Checkpoint Charlie. The ouside space is, overall better at Soundgarden.

Not a whole lot to choose between the two pubs, really. But it's all about feeling. Where feels right? Where do we feel at home?

It's too early to say yet. More trials are needed. Like next Saturday.



Soundgarden
Marnixstraat 164-166,
1016 TG Amsterdam.
https://www.cafesoundgarden.nl

More about Cairnes beers in 1923

The hops are, well, pretty dull. All the beers contained the same ones. Two different types of English hops, both from the 1922 season. So, pretty fresh. From 1924 onwards, Cairnes used large quantity of American hops in the form of “Oregons”. And, later in the decade, some Saaz, too. Which is the sort of mix often seen at English breweries.

Let’s take a look at some of the processes. Namely boiling and fermentation.

I’m surprised that the boil times are as two hours. Which is the same as they were in 1914. Mostly, WW I saw boil times reduced as brewers tried to reduce their consumption of coal.

The pitching temperatures are all just a little shy of 60º F, which is the “standard” temperature. What are unusual are the low maximum temperatures of 63-64º F. More usual would to somewhere around 70º F. They must have been actively cooling the wort for most of the fermentation. Presumably with attemperators.

Those relatively cool fermentation temperatures may explain why the process took longer than a more usual six or seven days.  

Cairnes hops in 1923
Beer	Style	hop 1	hop 2
Bitter Ale	Pale Ale	English 1922	English 1922
Strong Ale	Strong Ale	English 1922	English 1922
Single Stout	Stout	English 1922	English 1922
Double Stout	Stout	English 1922	English 1922
Source:
Cairnes brewing record held at the Guinness archives, document number GDB/BR17/1257.

Cairnes boiling and fermentation in 1923
Beer	Style	boil time (hours)		Pitch temp	max. fermen-tation temp	length of fermen-tation (days)
Bitter Ale	Pale Ale	2		59º F	63º F	9
Strong Ale	Strong Ale	2	2	59º F	63.5º F	9
Single Stout	Stout	2		59.25º F	63.5º F	9
Double Stout	Stout	2	2	59.5º F	64º F	9
Source:
Cairnes brewing record held at the Guinness archives, document number GDB/BR17/1257.