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.