Wednesday, 10 July 2024

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1914 Cairnes 2d Ale

We’re now just a few weeks after the outbreak of WW I. And Cairnes are still producing a Mild Ale. Albeit a cheap, low-gravity one.

The gravity is pretty weedy for a beer of the period. Even for a cheap Mild Ale. Assuming 2d is the price per pint, in London you’d have got a beer of around 1050º for that amount.

It’s a pretty simple recipe. Just one malt, one adjunct and one sugar. There’s really very little to it at all. Though around a quarter of the pale malt was made from Californian barley. The rest being Irish.

Given the extremely pale colour, it wouldn’t surprise me I some caramel was added for colour correction.

The hops were split 50-50 between Oregon and English, both from the 1913 harvest. 

1914 Cairnes 2d Ale
pale malt 5.00 lb 66.67%
flaked maize 1.00 lb 13.33%
glucose 1.50 lb 20.00%
Cluster 120 mins 1.25 oz
Fuggles 60 mins 0.75 oz
Fuggles 30 mins 0.50 oz
OG 1038
FG 1012
ABV 3.44
Apparent attenuation 68.42%
IBU 44
SRM 3
Mash at 152º F
Sparge at 170º F
Boil time 120 minutes
pitching temp 58.5º F
Yeast Wyeast 1084 Irish ale


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

OK, I admit it, I'm a yank and milds still confuse me. Looking at this recipe --- very pale color, highly hopped (BU/GU > 1), mashed fairly cool --- I would assume this is a bitter if all I had to go on were the recipe. Yet it's listed (I assume) as a mild in the brewing records.

Other than maybe the price, what distinguishes this from a typical bitter? How can I tell the difference from just the recipes?

Jonathan

Anonymous said...

Seems quite bitter compared to the mild ales of the 1940’s onwards.
Oscar

Anonymous said...

I wonder if people asked for this as a pint of Cairnes or a pint of mild, or I guess even a pint of tuppence?