Wednesday, 6 August 2025

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1901 Truman (Burton) Ale

A Truman's Not Brown Ale label featuring a drawing of an eagle.
As we enter a new century, what has happened to Truman’s weakest Mild Ale? Well, surprisingly, it has the same gravity as in 1883. But there have been some changes.

The grist has become a little more complicated with the addition of a little sugar.  I’ve no idea what type of sugar, as there’s no indication of any kind in the brewing record. I’ve just guessed No. 2 invert. There were four types of base malt, two made from English barley and two from Californian. With the latter making up around a quarter of the total.

The hopping is way heavier than in 1883. Which is pretty obvious when you look at the calculated IBUs. The hops themselves were all English, one from the 1900 harvest and the other two from 1899.

As this was the weakest Truman’s Mild Ale, there’s no way this got any older than a couple of weeks before being drunk. 

1901 Truman (Burton) Ale
pale malt 11.25 lb 97.15%
No. 2 sugar 0.33 lb 2.85%
Fuggles 150 mins 1.25 oz
Fuggles 60 mins 1.25 oz
Fuggles 30 mins 1.25 oz
OG 1051
FG 1012
ABV 5.16
Apparent attenuation 76.47%
IBU 45
SRM 5.5
Mash at 150º F
Sparge at 170º F
Boil time 150 minutes
pitching temp 59.5º F
Yeast WLP013 London Ale (Worthington White Shield)

 

 

8 comments:

Julian P said...

your malt weights are out by a factor of 10

Anonymous said...

it appears that the amount of base malt needs to be increased in order to reach the ABV

Anonymous said...

Should that be 11 lbs of pale malt?

Anonymous said...

Er, is this correct . . . just 1.25 lbs of malt and a bit of sugar?

A Brew Rat said...

While it may be Truman's weakest mild ale, there has to be more pale malt than 1.25 lbs. to get an OG of 1.051. Typo?

Bro-in-law said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ron Pattinson said...

There was a 1 missing. The correct weight is 11.25 Lbs.

Anonymous said...

Interesting that the hopping rate had increased from 1883, thought it would have gone the other way?

Oscar