Primings (part two)

More fun stuff on 19th-century primings. A topic I'm sure you find just as fascinating as I do.

The problem with using lour, was that the slow fermentation it provoked, didn't heavily carbonate the beer quickly enough. for that you needed sugar.

"The use of flour does not, however, commend itself to many, since it is apt to lead to the slow generation of gas in place of that high condition that is considered so essential, so the popular plan at the present time is to introduce a prepared solution of sugar, either perfectly quiescent or brought into a state of incipient fermentation a few hours previous to the shipment of the beer. This operation would be costly if the sugar so used was not taken into account when calculating original gravity; it is customary therefore to fix upon a certain quantity of sugar solution to be added per barrel, and then reducing the brewing gravity of the beer so that the final addition of sugar brings it up to standard."
"The Theory and Practice of Modern Brewing" by Frank Faulkner, 1888, page 269.

Of course, the canny brewer would lower the OG of his beer to take into account the primings added later. And, naturally, duty would be paid on the primings.

"The best variety of sugar to use seems to be either dextrin-maltose or some pure saccharine. A boiling-hot solution is made, cooled, and added to each cask, the ordinary quantity being some three gallons per barrel of a gravity corresponding to 1,150, those desiring very rapid condition inducing a quiet fermentation in the strong sugar solution by adding a small weight of yeast. It will be evident that such a solution requires constantly making afresh, and it is well even then to treat it with salicylic acid to prevent any deterioration. To admit of its use it is necessary to keep the black beer in stock more or less quiet, since it is not customary to add this form of dressing before the beer is required for use, very rapid fermentation immediately following its addition.

I need hardly say that if this heading has been treated with a little yeast, or if a little malt flour be added with it, it puts an end at once to all possibility of flatness, while the degree of condition that results may be increased or diminished at will by varying the quantity of sugar heading employed, or the proportion of flour or yeast that is added with it."
"The Theory and Practice of Modern Brewing" by Frank Faulkner, 1888, pages 269-270.

By "pure saccharine" I assume Faulkner means pure sucrose. Which is a bit of a surprise. I suppose it's just easily, and fully, fermentable. Dextrin-maltose is an odd one if you wanted to get beer into condition quickly, as it's not that easily fermentable. It's more like what you'd expect to be added to a beer undergoing a long, slow secondary conditioning.

1145-1150º was the gravity of the primings Barclay Perkins used in the interwar years.

Let's Brew - 1923 Cairnes Bitter Ale

After WW I, Cairnes continued to brew their Bitter Ale, albeit 10º weaker than in 1914.

Compared to a London Ordinary Bitter of the time, it’s rather on the weak side. They would weigh in at 1045-1048º and 4.5% ABV. While the Cairnes version, with its poor rate of attenuation, wasn’t much over 3% ABV.

Like the black beers, there’s only one type of malt. Irish pale malt, to be precise. In addition, there’s a small quantity of “flakes”, which I’ve assumed to be flaked maize. Though it could also have been flaked rice.

The brewing record is also fairly vague about the sugar, which is simply described as “saccharum”. My guess is that it was some type of invert sugar. I’ve plumped or No. 2 invert. I suppose it could have been one of the other inverts. There’s also a tiny amount of caramel for colour correction.

One again, there are two types of English hops, both from the 1922 harvest. 

1923 Cairnes Bitter Ale
pale malt	7.50 lb	84.75%
flaked maize	0.67 lb	7.57%
No. 2 invert sugar	0.67 lb	7.57%
caramel 1000 SRM	0.01 lb	0.11%
Fuggles 120 mins	1.00 oz
Fuggles 60 mins	1.00 oz
Goldings 30 mins	1.00 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.25 oz
OG	1040
FG	1016
ABV	3.18
Apparent attenuation	60.00%
IBU	38
SRM	6.5
Mash at	147.5º F
After underlet	156º F
Sparge at	168º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	58.25º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1084 Irish ale

Primings (part one)

By the end of the 19th century, there were clear regional variations in Porter and Stout. While, in London, brewers stubbornly clung to the use of brown malt, those outside the capital opted or simpler grists, often just pale and black malt.

Without the same mass-market or Black Beers which existed in London, provincial brewers needed to turn them around quickly. And that meant using "heading" to bring them into condition quickly. This heading could either be in the form of flour or a sugar solution. The latter being what we would now call primings.

"Country black beers.
I now come to the country as a whole, for outside London and Dublin the production of black beer is carried on in no very distinct manner; some brewers softening water, some using sugar, others employing malt-flour, and sugar solutions for heading purposes, and most falling back upon some definite preservative agent to prevent early deterioration. As a rule, country brewers have no very heavy demand for their black beers, and they have to brew them accordingly— i.e., if for immediate sale, and if prompt draught can be relied upon, country brewers imitate, to a certain extent, the example set them by Londoners, using sugar as a portion of the extract, raw sugar solution as the heading.

On the other hand, the majority, bound to produce an article of some stability, and one that will only come into condition after considerable storage, strictly adhere to entire malt brewings with low initial temperatures of mash, comparatively brief standing periods, fermentations progressing with free range of heat, racking their beer sometimes as high as third of original gravity. Finally, they employ some definite kind of heading, either introducing it at the racking stage, or at period of shipment. Many different varieties of heading have found favour, some of them being substances easily fermentable, others practically wort in a state of fermentation, or when in the state of dry flour forming, as we may suppose, the food of ferments.

Quite recently it has been suggested that flour only acts in the sense of being the store-house of so much air; but this view seems hardly correct in face of the act that the addition of flour to black beer undoubtedly leads to secondary fermentation, more or less prolonged in character, and I think there is no doubt that the crude albuminous matters of raw or malted grain become slowly modified into yeast-forming material when placed in a fluid undergoing fermentation.
"The Theory and Practice of Modern Brewing" by Frank Faulkner, 1888, pages 268-269.

Faulkner also mention a couple of other methods. First, the old-fashioned method. Which was to rack the beer with plenty of remaining fermentable materials and rely on a long, slow secondary fermentation to produce the required level of condition.

Or you could add fermenting wort. Which the Gerrmans would call "kraeusening". This was a process favoured by many Irish brewers.

Ancient beer

Or, at least, pretty old beer. Though, come to think of it, I've drunk beer that was almost twice as old.

There is now in the possession of Mr. James Scott, of Braintree, a bottle, containing part of a hogshead of beer brewed in the year 1741, by Edmund Sally, Esq. of Market Downham, Norfolk, intended to be drunk at the christening of his first-born, which was a son. A part of this beer was bottled and deposited in a vault — there to remain until the father’s death, which happened about 12 years since, at the good old age of 87 - At that time 20 bottles of the liquor were found, and, notwithstanding the length of time it had been brewed, was in high perfection. — Essex Herald.
Public Ledger and Daily Advertiser - Monday 23 June 1828, page 3.

It sounds like a beer brewed by a member of the minor gentry at his own residence. Such people were known for brewing strong beer and sometimes letting it age for decades. Because, well, they could afford to, not having the same financial pressures as a commercial concern.

And when their heir was born, it was common for such gentry to brew a Majority Ale. That is a beer to be drunk when the heir came of age at 21. This is slightly different as it's a Christening Ale. I wonder why some was hoarded away in a vault? Was it purposefully let until after the father's death?

Incidentally, the numbers don't add up. If the father was 87 in 1816, that would mean he was born in 1729 and just 12 years old when his son was born.

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.