What is Broyhan?

Another one of my little videos, this time looking at Broyhan, for centuries the most popular beer style in North Germany. Now, it's just a memory. At least, the original style.

 

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1909 Maclay PI 60/-

We’ve now arrived at Maclay’s top-of-the-range Pale Ale, 60/-. How ironic that this was the only one of Maclay’s Pale Ales to survive WW I and WW II. And end up being the most watery beer they produced.

For a brewery’s most expensive Pale Ale, it’s not all that strong. In London, the strongest Pale Ales were around 1060º. This is more like the strength of a second-string London Pale Ale. Interesting, that. A not particularly great rate of attenuation leaves this not much over 4.5% ABV. Which isn’t much more than a post-WW II Best Bitter.

There’s not much to say about the recipe, this being parti-gyled with the PI 54/- we’ve already looked at. The grist consisting just of pale and amber malt, grits and Greenock sugar. It’s quite an untypical recipe for Scotland, where just pale malt, flaked maize and sugar was more usual.

As always with Maclay, there were loads of hops. . Hallertau from the 1905, Hallertau and 1907 seasons; Californian from 1907, Farnham from 1908 and Worcester from 1905.

I doubt that this was aged more than a couple of weeks.

1909 Maclay PI 60/-
pale malt	7.00 lb	63.64%
amber malt	0.25 lb	2.27%
grits	2.50 lb	22.73%
No. 2 invert sugar	1.25 lb	11.36%
Cluster 120 min	0.75 oz
Hallertau 60 min	0.75 oz
Fuggles 30 min	1.50 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.50 oz
OG	1051
FG	1016
ABV	4.63
Apparent attenuation	68.63%
IBU	38
SRM	7
Mash at	147º F
after underlet	152º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	63.5º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

 

 

London Strong Burton Ale 1880 - 1899

We’re moving on now to the stronger types of London Burton Ale here. A beer which was usually called KKK within the brewhouse.

One of the strongest types brewed in London, the quantities made were quite modest. In 1890, Whitbread brewed just 6,000 barrels of KKK out of a total of 381,000 barrels. Of which 210,000 barrels was X Ale.  Which is what most Londoners were drinking.

These beers are pretty much beefed-up versions of KK. Sometimes, like at Whitbread, being parti-gyled with KK. When brewed single-gyle, the hopping was often heavier in KKK.

Like KK and X Ale, KKK began down the path of darkness in the final decades of the 19th century. Who really knows why they became darker?

Though of a lower gravity, beers of the type continued to be brewed after WW I. Fullers Old Burton Extra being a good example.

Let’s take a look at some real examples.

As you can see in the table, the gravity averages about 14º higher than the weaker type of Burton Ale. And about 0.75º ABV stronger, at 8% ABV. There isn’t a huge variation across the three beers, with all being around 1090º.

The final gravities do vary more, ranging from 1025º to 1033º. Though these should be taken with a pinch of salt, as these are the gravities at the end of primary fermentation. After a long secondary Brettanomyces fermentation the true final gravity would have been much lower. And hence the degree of attenuation considerably higher.

The hopping rate, unsurprisingly, is very high. Averaging 14 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt. About 2lbs per quarter more than the standard-strength Burtons. It’s even higher than the rate for London Stock Pale Ales, which is 13 lbs per quarter.

As with the standard beers, the Truman examples were brewed in Burton rather than London. However, as they were specifically for sale in the capital, I think they belong here. 

London Strong Burton Ale 1880 - 1899
Year	Brewer	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
1881	Whitbread	KKK	1089.2	1032.7	7.48	63.35%	14.13	5.84
1891	Whitbread	KKK	1087.3	1033.0	7.18	62.18%	14.07	5.70
1886	Barclay Perkins	KKK	1088.0	1024.9	8.34	71.67%	17.64	6.62
1887	Truman (Burton)	S3	1092.8	1027.7	8.61	70.15%	11.33	5.00
1897	Truman (Burton)	CS 3	1090.6	1027.7	8.32	69.42%	12.79	5.00
	Average		1089.6	1029.2	7.99	67.35%	13.99	5.63
Sources:
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/047 and LMA/4453/D/01/057.
Barclay Perkins brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number ACC/2305/1/583.
Truman brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers B/THB/BUR/11 and B/THB/C/327.