Beer Guide to the 1970s (part thirty-one)

Yes, I'm still slowly trundling my way through the breweries of the 1970s. I've almost got to the end of the alphabet. At least, for the independent breweries. Once they're done I'll move onto the homebrew pubs.

None of this trio is still open. No great loss, some might say, as none of them produced much cask beer. Not me, however. Plenty of breweries switched back to cask. Something a closed brewery couldn't do. And, while Vaux didn't make much cask, some of its subsidiaries, such as Darley, did.


Tollemache & Cobbold
Ipswich,
Suffolk.

Founded:    1746
Closed:            2003
Tied houses:    380

Formed by the merger of two Ipswich breweries in 1957, Tolly Cobbold (as it was usually known) was one of the largest independent breweries in East Anglia. Their tied houses were mostly in Suffolk and Cambridgeshire with two in Norfolk. The Tollemache brewery closed in 1961. Bought by Ellerman Shipping Lines in 1977, who sold them on to the Barclay Brothers in 1983. Brewing stopped in 1989 but restarted after a management buyout. Later bought by Ridley and closed for good in 2003. Their beers didn’t have the best reputation. Only a third of their tied pubs sold cask beer.

beer	style	format	OG	description
Best Bitter	Pale Ale	draught	1034	distinctive flavour
Cantab	Pale Ale	draught	1041	sweet
Mild	Mild	draught	1030	Dark Mild
Old Strong	Old Ale	draught	1047	rich and fruity, winter only
Tollykeg	Pale Ale	keg
Husker	Lager	keg
Light Bitter Ale	Pale Ale	bottled		well hopped, agreeable flavour
Tolly Ale Export	Pale Ale	bottled		stronger but similar
Cardinal Ale	Pale Ale	bottled		strongest
Tolly Royal Barley Wind	Barley Wine	bottled
Dark Brown Ale	Brown Ale	bottled		dry
Cobnut	Brown Ale	bottled		sweet
Double Stout	Stout	bottled		medium sweet

Thos. Usher
Edinburgh,
Scotland.

Founded:    1817
Closed:            1981
Tied houses:    200

A subsidiary of Vaux, who purchased them in 1959. They were sold to Allied Breweries in 1980 and closed a year later. Their tied estate spread from Inverness to the English border. As they produced no cask, obviously  I never tried their beer.

beer	style	format	OG	description
Export	Pale Ale	keg
Special Gold Tankard	Pale Ale	keg		equivalent of a Keg Heavy
Light	Pale Ale	keg		darker
Norseman Lager	Lager	keg
Golden Export	Pale Ale	bottled		strong and slightly sweet
Pale Ale	Pale Ale	bottled		lower gravity, medium dark
Brown Ale	Brown Ale	bottled		dark and sweet, like bottled Mild
Sweet Stout	Stout	bottled
Golden Lager	Lager	bottled

Vaux
Sunderland,
Tyne & Wear.

Founded:    1837
Closed:    1999
Tied houses:    700

One of the largest independent brewers, Vaux’s tied estate was mostly concentrated in the Northeast of England, though they also had a presence west of the Pennines. Only a small percentage of their pubs sold cask beer. Though, when you could find the beer in cask form, it was pretty good.

beer	style	format	OG	description
Samson	Pale Ale	draught	1042.3	well flavoured, not sweet at all
Sunderland Best Bitter	Pale Ale	draught	1040	light and hoppy
Pale Ale	Pale Ale	draught		equivalent of a Light Mild
Mild	Mild	draught	1030.2	thin and almost black
Gold Tankard	Pale Ale	keg	1040.6	strong
Silver Tankard	Pale Ale	keg		medium gravity and darker
Norseman Lager	Lager	keg	1038.7
Special Export	Pale Ale	bottled	1044.3	strong
5 Star Strong Ale	Pale Ale	bottled		brewed at Caledonian
Light Brown Ale	Brown Ale	bottled	1032	medium sweet
Double Maxim	Brown Ale	bottled	1043.9	strong
Export	Pale Ale	bottled
Sweet Stout	Stout	bottled
Norseman Lager	Lager	bottled

Water 1850 - 1880

The best water, according to Loftus, was hard spring water from chalky soils, such as that at Burton. He did warn that hard water worts required a higher pitching temperature than worts brewed with soft water. (Source: "The Brewer" by William Loftus, 1856, page 33.)

Faulkner said that there were basically two types of water: hard and soft. Hard water had quantities of calcic sulphate and sodic chloride dissolved in it. Soft water, on the other hand, only contained sodic carbonate. (Source: "The Art of Brewing" by Frank Faulkner, 1876, page 4.) Hard water, especially that of Burton which contained very large quantities of calcic sulphate produced beer that would keep well without low attenuation and which would clear easily. (Source: "The Art of Brewing" by Frank Faulkner, 1876, pages 4-5.)

In earlier times brewers had preferred one type of water, either hard or soft, for brewing any beer. It was now realised that the best water de[pended on the type of beer being brewed. "Such a water [Burton water] is admirably suited adapted for pale ale brewing; but it is not naturally fitted for obtaining the full round flavour we desire to find in stouts; and thus London porters have long been noted, not on account of any superior skill in arrangement of grist proportions, or conduct of the brewing operations, but because London waters (taken in connection with the fact that sodic carbonate is present in them) tend to dissolve much more malt than a hard water is capable of doing, of the different matters that, while mitigating against long keeping qualities, constitute the fulness or roundness on palate so necessary for certain beers; and so we begin to see, I trust, wht London is a great brewing centre for porters, and Burton for pale ales; for it is almost needless to point out why pale beers are so rare in London, when you consider the extractive properties of sodic carbonate existing in a watery solution." (Source: "The Art of Brewing" by Frank Faulkner, 1876, page 5.)

Faulkner didn't hold with artificial hardening or softening water. He argued that by adapting mashing and fermentation regimes brewers could compensate for any deficiences in their brewing water. (Source: "The Art of Brewing" by Frank Faulkner, 1876, page 6.)
 

Beer Guide to the 1970s (part thirty)

An unusual trio this time out. As all are still very much in operation.

Two brewers from Yorkshire who, despite their small number of pubs, managed to achieve national fame. The other, the last survivor of the decent-sized breweries who once called Blackburn their home. All three had a good reputation for their beers  in the 1970s. And mostly still do.


Timothy Taylor
Keighley,
Yorkshire.

Founded:    1858
Closed:            still open
Tied houses:    28

One of only a handful of surviving small breweries in Yorkshire, Timothy Taylor was, just as today, well-loved. Their small tied estate was mostly concentrated in Keighley and the surrounding area. I was really excited when they were one of the first to reintroduce Porter. Only to be incredibly disappointed by beer which was far too sweet. Unsurprisingly, as it turned out to be based on a Sweet Stout recipe.

beer	style	format	OG	description
Best Bitter	Pale Ale	draught	1037.1	pleasant
Golden Best/Bitter	Mild	draught	1033.4	Light Mild
Landlord	Pale Ale	draught	1042	full-bodied
Mild	Mild	draught	1033.4	Dark Mild
Ram Tam	Old Ale	draught	1042	Landlord with caramel
Porter	Porter	draught	1043	Disappointingly sweet
Special Pale Ale	Pale Ale	bottled
Blue Label	Pale Ale	bottled
Landlord	Pale Ale	bottled
Northerner No. 1	Brown Ale	bottled		dark
Black Bess	Stout	bottled	1043	medium sweet

Theakston
Masham,
Yorkshire.

Founded:    1827
Closed:            still open
Tied houses:    16

A very small rural brewery, Theakston gained national recognition through Old Peculier, which was an early cult classic cask beer. Which prompted them to buy the former Carlisle State brewery. A much larger plant than their original brewery. They were bought by in 1984 Matthew Brown, who were in turn purchased by Scottish and Newcastle in 1987. Returned to the ownership of the Theakston family in 2003.

beer	style	format	OG	description
Best Bitter	Pale Ale	draught	1038
Old Peculier	Old Ale	draught	1060.3
Light Mild	Mild	draught	1032.5	Light Mild
Dark Mild	Mild	draught	1032.5	Dark Mild
Pale Ale	Pale Ale	bottled	1031.5
Export	Pale Ale	bottled		darker and stronger
Old Peculier	Old Ale	bottled
Brown Ale	Brown Ale	bottled	1031.2	medium sweet

Thwaites
Blackburn,
Lancashire.

Founded:    1807
Closed:            still open
Tied houses:    380

Blackburn was lucky enough to have two major regional breweries in Thwaites and Matthew Brown. As well as a Whitbread plant, the former Duttons brewery. Thwaites was one of the few brewers still making both Mild and Best Mild. The latter being very highly regarded. With good reason, as it was excellent.

beer	style	format	OG	description
Bitter	Pale Ale	draught	1036	distinctive flavour
Mild	Mild	draught	1031	darkish Mild of the Lancashire type
Best Mild	Mild	draught	1033	sweeter
Starkeg	Pale Ale	keg	1036	keg Bitter
Dannykeg	Mild	keg	1033	keg Best Mild
East Lancs	Pale Ale	bottled
Big Ben	Old Ale	bottled		strong dark beer
Old Dan Nips	Barley Wine	bottled	1074.6	extra strong dark beer
Green Top	Brown Ale	bottled
Danny Brown	Brown Ale	bottled		sweet Brown Ale

 

Let's Brew - 1906 Drybrough XXX Stout

Finally, a Stout worthy of the name. With a gravity well north of 1070º. Which is Double Stout strength. At least in London.

Recipe details you can find above in the X Stout entry.

This batch of XXX was packaged into 24 hogsheads, 15 kilderkins and 15 firkins. Quite an odd mix of cask sizes there. With nothing going into barrels, just larger and smaller sizes. Not sure what that tells us. But I thought I’d share it with you.

Given the strength, at least some of it might have been aged. For maybe 12 2to 18 months. That might explain why some was racked into hogsheads.
 

1906 Drybrough XXX Stout
pale malt	11.50 lb	69.38%
black malt	0.40 lb	2.41%
flaked rice	1.25 lb	7.54%
flaked maize	0.875 lb	5.28%
No. 1 invert sugar	0.40 lb	2.41%
No. 2 invert sugar	0.50 lb	3.02%
No. 4 invert sugar	0.40 lb	2.41%
honey	0.50 lb	3.02%
caramel 500 SRM	0.75 lb	4.52%
Fuggles 120 mins	0.75 oz
Cluster 120 mins	1.25 oz
Fuggles 90 mins	2.00 oz
Goldings 30 mins	2.00 oz
OG	1077
FG	1015
ABV	8.20
Apparent attenuation	80.52%
IBU	72
SRM	37
Mash at	148º F
Sparge at	167º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	61º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

 

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Malt 1850 - 1880

Brewers were still obliged by law to use malt as their source of fermentable material. Faulkner reckoned that, if this restriction hadn't applied, a great quantity of raw grain would have been used. (Source: "The Art of Brewing" by Frank Faulkner, 1876, page 9.) As we'll see in the next chapter, the use of unmalted grain was adopted by many, though not to the extent that Faulkner had feared.

The great variety of malting systems employed meant that finished malt also varied greatly. Brewers didn't always take this into account. "it is not difficult to understand why the beers at a single brewery vary so, when different malts are experimented with; for, of course, a different mashing temperature, time of standing, &C, are necessary, according to whether the malt in use happens to be well or badly made, friable or steely; and yet how seldom do we see this in practice; on the contrary, the same system of mash appears to be considered equally suitable for all sorts and kinds of malt." (Source: "The Art of Brewing" by Frank Faulkner, 1876, page 10.)

Grain for malting was piled into stacks and left to "sweat" for a minimum of 2 to 3 months. The first stage of the process was "steeping", where the grains were soaked in plenty of water for two to three days. After the water had been drained off, the grains were put into a frame called a "couch". After 26 hours heat was generated as germination began. The grain was spread thinly on the floor to stop it overheating and to allow germination to progress. After six days, the grain was sprinkled with water to further encourage germination. The grains began to sprout and after about 14 days, to prevent further growth of the plant, they were dried in a kiln to produce finished malt.

These were the types of malt available:

Pale malt: Slow drying in the kiln over four days gave this malt its pale colour and boosted the sugar content. Good pale malt gave a yield of 76 to 84 pounds of extract per quarter. (Source: "The Brewer" by William Loftus, 1856, page 37.)

Porter, black or patent malt. Roasted in a cylinder in a similar way to coffee at a temperature of 370º to 450º. Its main use was to colour Porter and Stout. The quality and colour of this malt were very variable. Some maltsters used low-quality barley in its preparation, resulting in almost charred grains with poor solubility, flavour and colour. Good quality black malt was made from the best malt and had a chocolate brown colour.

Brown malt. This was prepared in a similar way to pale malt, up until the end of the kilning process. The grain was spread in a thickness of 2 inches (50mm), sprinkled with water and the heat quickly raised by adding beech or birch wood to the fire. Brown malt yields was 15 to 20% less fermentable material than pale malt. The average extract from brown malt was 62 pounds per quarter. (Source {just the last sentence}: "The Brewer" by William Loftus, 1856, page 63.)

Blown malt. This was a variation of brown malt. Moist grain was spread about half an inch thick on a wire kiln. They were heated at a very high temperature whilst being constantly turned, until the grains suddenly increased in size. The fuel used was fern, straw or wood.  The yield from blown malt was 18 to 25% less than from pale malt.
(Source: "The Brewer" by William Loftus, 1856, pages 15-20.)
 

Yule Logs!!!!!!!!!!

Yes,I could be arsed again this year.If a little late. To publish a new edition of my Christmas book, Yule  Logs! I could even be bothered to produce a new  cover.

It's the same format as always: no words, just 30 images of brewing records. This time,spanning 1805 to 1984, with one record from every year inbetween. New this year are several Irish logs.

One day it will be a valuable  collector's item, as only a handful are printed each year.

Get your copy now!

Beer Guide to the 1970s (part twenty-nine)

Yet another set of three breweries from the 1970s. I'm gradually churning through them. Again, only one of them is still brewing.

And we have another example of a respected brewery that was fucked by Greenall Whitley. Who caused more destruction in the brewing world than some of the Big Six. And what happened after taking over and closing so many breweries? They just exited brewing to become a short-lived pub company.


Samuel Smith
Tadcaster,
Yorkshire.

Founded:    1757
Closed:            still open
Tied houses:    280

Sam Smith was a bit of a funny one. On the one hand, they were committed to cask beer. And to wooden casks. However, the latter commitment led them to discontinue all cask beer except Old Brewery Bitter. In my first year of university, (1975-76) I drank a shitload of their Bitter in the student union bar. A lovely beer. Then, in the summer of 1976, they had yeast problems and the beer was never the same again.

beer	style	format	OG	description
Old Brewery Bitter	Pale Ale	draught	1039.9	malty
Light Mild	Mild	draught	1031.8
XXXX Best Mild	Mild	draught		Dark Mild
Strong Ale	Strong Ale	draught
Super Bitter	Pale Ale	keg
Special Mild	Mild	keg
Super XXXX	Mild	keg
Super Strong Ale	Strong Ale	keg
Sovereign Bitter	Pale Ale	keg
Alpine Lager	Lager	keg	1036.1	brewed under licence
Taddy Light	Pale Ale	bottled
Taddy Bitter	Pale Ale	bottled		more bitter than the Light
Sovereign Pale Ale	Pale Ale	bottled		strong
Old Samson	Old Ale	bottled
Taddy Golden Ale	Barley Wine	bottled
Taddy Nut Brown Ale	Brown Ale	bottled	1035.9	medium sweet
Alpine Lager	Lager	bottled

Simpkiss
Brierley Hill,
West Midlands.

Founded:    1934
Closed:            1985
Tied houses:    17

On of the surviving small breweries in the Black Country, Simpkiss brewed beers which were well-liked. That is, until they were bought by Greenall Whittley. Who not only immediately closed them, but threw away all the beer in the fermenters. The bastards.

beer	style	format	OG	description
Best Bitter	Pale Ale	draught	1038	well hopped with a good flavour
Mild	Mild	draught	1034	Dark Mild
Old Ale	Old Ale	draught	1050	October to March
Keg Bitter	Pale Ale	keg		introduced in 1972, distinctively flavoured
Extra Special Bitter	Pale Ale	bottled		bottled Best Bitter
Old Ale	Old Ale	bottled		winter only
Nut Brown	Brown Ale	bottled

South Wales & Monmouthshire United Clubs
Pontyclun,
Mid-Glamorgan

Founded:    1919
Closed:            1989
Tied houses:    350 clubs

One of three surviving club breweries in the 1970s. Later in the decade the name was changed to the Crown brewery. The cask beers were also sold in tank form. Which is what many clubs wanted. They merged with Buckley in 1989 and stopped brewing. I can’t recall ever drinking their beers.
 

beer	style	format	OG	description
CPA Clubs Pale Ale	Pale Ale	draught	1033	hoppy  and bitter
SBB Special Best Bitter	Pale Ale	draught	1036	light and pleasant
Crown Keg Beer	Pale Ale	keg		pasteurised
Clubs Amber	Pale Ale	bottled		Light Ale
Clubs Special	Pale Ale	bottled		stronger
Clubs Extra	Pale Ale	bottled		strongest
Clubs Brown Ale	Brown Ale	bottled		sweetish

 

A new book

Sadly, not one of my exciting ones. but an assemblage of travel reports. Imaginatively called "Tour! Vol. V".

I realised that  I hadn't published a book in 2024. Time to get my finger out and finish this book off. Which was really just creating a cover and uploading to Lulu. After a bit of proof reading. It's taken me the best  part of today. Despite the text already being complete.

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1906 Drybrough XX Stout

Next branch on the strength tree is, logically enough, XX Stout. That’s assuming they were all marketed as Stout. Given the low strength of X and XX, they could have been presented as Porters. Except the style was stone dead in Scotland. And Scottish brewers were already making feeble Stouts, something they would take to extremes after WW II.

I can’t recall seeing an English Stout as weak as this before WW I.

I’ll not repeat a discussion of the recipe. Consult the entry for X, XX’s parti-gyle, chum, above.

XX was mostly racked into relatively small casks. In this case: 4 butts, 3 barrels, 74 kilderkins and 24 firkins. In contrast, PI 60/-, a Pale Ale of similar strength, mostly went into larger casks. For example: 35 hogsheads, 60 barrels, 11 kilderkins and 6 firkins.

My guess is that the 4 butts were for bottling. Which is why some was putt into such a large cask.  Smaller casks tended to be preferred by private customers. Families who bought casks to drink at home. At least in England. Not sure if that was the case in Scotland, too.
 

1906 Drybrough XX Stout
pale malt	6.00 lb	66.23%
black malt	0.25 lb	2.76%
flaked rice	0.75 lb	8.28%
flaked maize	0.50 lb	5.52%
No. 1 invert sugar	0.25 lb	2.76%
No. 2 invert sugar	0.33 lb	3.64%
No. 4 invert sugar	0.25 lb	2.76%
honey	0.33 lb	3.64%
caramel 500 SRM	0.40 lb	4.42%
Fuggles 120 mins	0.33 oz
Cluster 120 mins	0.67 oz
Fuggles 90 mins	1.00 oz
Goldings 30 mins	1.00 oz
OG	1042
FG	1012
ABV	3.97
Apparent attenuation	71.43%
IBU	45
SRM	27
Mash at	148º F
Sparge at	167º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	61º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale