What is Table Beer?

 Another of my little videos. This one is about the most watery type of UK beer: Table Beer.

 

London Strong Burton Ale hops 1880 - 1899

Logically, now we come to the hops. All of which are reasonably fresh.

A majority of the beers have multiple types of hops, mostly English. Sadly, the region of origin is only mentioned in the Barclay Perkins records. Where they were all from Kent. At least the English ones. There were also some Bavarian hops.

American hops – which were used in huge quantities in the UK in the late 19th century – only appear in the Whitbread examples. That so many fresh, English hops were used is a sure sign that these were expensive beers.

London Strong Burton Ale hops 1880 - 1899
Year	Brewer	Beer	hop 1	hop 2	hop 3
1881	Whitbread	KKK	American 1881	English 1880	English 1881
1891	Whitbread	KKK	English 1890	English 1891	American 1890
1886	Barclay Perkins	KKK	Bavarian 1886	EK 1886	MK 1886
1887	Truman (Burton)	S3	English 1886
1897	Truman (Burton)	CS 3	English 1896	English 1896
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.

 

 

London Strong Burton Ale adjuncts and sugars 1880 - 1899

There’s not much more in the way of adjuncts and sugars. 

Barclay Perkins KKK is the only adjunct beer, with just shy of 10% flaked rice. Which is a surprise, as, by the 1890s, adjuncts had become fairly common in English brewing. Usually in the form of flaked maize. Occasionally rice, as in this case.

Every beer, with the exception of the 1897 Truman example, contains some sugar. The proportion varying between around 10% and 15%. Averaging about 11%.

Unfortunately, the type of sugar mostly isn’t specified. Probably some sort of invert, in most cases. I wouldn’t like to guess exactly which exact type. Quite likely No. 2 invert, as in the case of Barclay Perkins KKK. No. 3 is also a possibility, especially in the beers from the 1890s. 

London Strong Burton Ale adjuncts and sugars 1880 - 1899
Year	Brewer	Beer	flaked rice	no. 2 sugar	other sugar	total sugar
1881	Whitbread	KKK			15.25%	15.25%
1891	Whitbread	KKK			13.41%	13.41%
1886	Barclay Perkins	KKK	9.60%	16.00%		16.00%
1887	Truman (Burton)	S3			9.30%	9.30%
1897	Truman (Burton)	CS 3				0.00%
	Average					10.79%
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.

 

Let's Brew - 1909 Maclay Table Beer 28/-

Now here’s a real oddity: a 20th-century Table Beer. The type had been pretty common at the start of the 19th century. However, when it disappeared as a tax category in 1830, it quickly disappeared from England. While in Scotland, in continued to be brewed. Albeit in quite modest quantities.

In Edwardian Britain a beer of under 2% ABV, such as this one, was pretty much treated as non-alcoholic. In England, no-one was brewing a beer this week in 1909.

For a Scottish beer, the grist is incredibly complex. With three malts: pale, amber and black malt. Something that you wouldn’t see at any other Scottish brewery, other than in Stout. As you’ll see in a moment, the Mild Ales have pretty much the same recipe. Making this essentially a type of very weak Mild.

There are no fewer than six types of hops. Hallertau from the 1905, 1906 and 1907 vintage; Californian from 1907, Farnham from 1908 and Worcester from 1905. 

1909 Maclay Table Beer 28/-
pale malt	3.00 lb	63.16%
amber malt	0.125 lb	2.63%
black malt	0.125 lb	2.63%
grits	1.00 lb	21.05%
No. 2 invert sugar	0.50 lb	10.53%
Cluster 120 min	0.25 oz
Hallertau 60 min	0.25 oz
Fuggles 30 min	0.50 oz
OG	1022
FG	1007
ABV	1.98
Apparent attenuation	68.18%
IBU	16
SRM	8
Mash at	146º F
after underlet	154º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	63º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

 

What is 4d Mild Ale?

Yet another video. This time looking at the most watery of Mild Ales.

 

London Strong Burton Ale malts 1880 - 1899

Time to take a look at the ingredients. Starting with the malts.

There aren’t a great number of them. Just three, two of them base malts.

All but one have a base of standard pale malt. The exception being the 1881 Whitbread example, which uses SA malt. Which is a type of malt which produces a wort with a higher proportion of less readily-fermentable sugars. Something desirable in a beer which would undergo a long secondary fermentation. Note that it is one of the beers with the lowest degree of attenuation.

The only coloured malt is a small quantity of brown malt in the 1891 Whitbread beer. That is significant. As it’s around the time when Mild Ale and Burton Ale started to darken in colour. By the time WW I rolled around, they would fairly dark brown.

Only the 1897 Truman beer is 100% malt. Though the malt content is pretty high in all but Barclay Perkins KKK., averaging 87%. 

London Strong Burton Ale malts 1880 - 1899
Year	Brewer	Beer	pale malt	SA malt	brown malt	total malt
1881	Whitbread	KKK		84.75%		84.75%
1891	Whitbread	KKK	84.92%		1.68%	86.59%
1886	Barclay Perkins	KKK	74.40%			74.40%
1887	Truman (Burton)	S3	90.70%			90.70%
1897	Truman (Burton)	CS 3	100.00%			100.00%
	Average					87.29%
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.

 

Young’s AA

At the rear of the wartime brewing books, there’s a table recording the wholesale price of each beer in every month of the year. Frustratingly, some of the beers don’t appear in the actual brewing records.

A couple of Stouts are easily explained away. Most likely blends of Porter and Stout. AA is rather trickier. As its gravity doesn’t match any of the beers in the records. And there’s nothing obvious it could be a blend of. Watered-down PAB, the weaker of the two Pale Ales, perhaps? There was no way to know.

As for the name, Amber Ale was my best guess. Oh, and that it was a bottled beer. In the table, draught beers are to the left, bottled ones to the right. That’s all I had. That is, bugger all.

Until today. When I was looking at the wholesale price table at the back of the 1943-1944 brewing book. Where there’s this note:

"New ratio 5.5 PAB - 4.5 A for AA." 

Now it all makes sense. It probably was called Amber Ale, given that it was a mix of Mild and Pale Ale. PAB had a gravity of 1031º +1º of primings for draught versions. While A, the weaker of the two Mild was just 1026º, again with an 1º of primings. With the AA blend 1030º.

Mix a watery Pale Ale with an even more watery Mild Ale and what do you get? A pretty watery Amber Ale. Much like mixing Light Ale and Brown Ale, really. Or a bottled version of Mild and Bitter mixed.

I wonder if anyone else made a similar beer? Just had a look in my giant table of gravities. There were a few other breweries making something called Amber Ale in the 1930s and 1940s. Mostly a bottled beer of fairly modest gravity. Though there were a few stronger ones. None from London, mind. 

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.

 

What is Gose?

I explain the history of a rare survivor of Germany's pre-Lager beer culture.

 

London Burton Ale boiling and fermentation 1880 - 1899

Process time now. Specifically, boiling and fermentation.

What about the boiling? Well, it’s a mixed bunch. The two Truman beers have very long boils. And lots of them. In total, they’re boiled for twelve hours. The Barclay Perkins example is not quite as bad, with boils of two and three hours.

The Whitbread and Fullers beers have rather shorter boils, mostly under two hours. Which is more typical for the period. Though beers of this strength, when brewed single-gyle, required some length of boil to concentrate the later wort.

As you would expect for beers of this gravity, the pitching temperature is mostly below 60º F. The only exception being the Barclay Perkins example, which was pitched at 60º F.

There’s a big variation in maximum fermentation temperatures. With the Fullers and Barclay Perkins beers are both well over 70º F. While the Truman examples are both just under 70º F. Which is a more typical maximum temperature.

Nothing very unusual about the length of fermentation. Which is between seven and nine days in all cases. About what you would expect for beers of this strength. 

London Burton Ale boiling and fermentation 1880 - 1899
Year	Brewer	Beer	boil time (hours)				Pitch temp	max. fermen-tation temp	length of fermen-tation (days)
1892	Barclay Perkins	KK	2	3			60º F	73.5º F	7
1881	Whitbread	KK	1.75	2.25			56º F		8
1897	Fullers	XXK	1.5	1.75			57º F	76º F	8
1887	Truman (Burton)	C5 R	3	3	3	3	56º F	69º F	8
1887	Truman (Burton)	S5	3	3	3	3	56º F	69º F	9
	Average		2.25	2.6	3	3	57º F	71.9º F	8
Sources:
Barclay Perkins brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number ACC/2305/1/587.
Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/01/047.
Fullers brewing record held at the brewery.
Truman brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/BUR/11.

 

London Burton Ale hops 1880 - 1899

Finally, we come to the hops. Which were mostly English. And mostly pretty fresh. With only one more than one year old.

There are two types of German hops, Hallertau and Bavarian. Which were types that were quite well regarded by UK brewers. The other foreign hops were American. Which were also well liked by UK brewers, but for a different reason. Because they were cheap.

Where specified, all but one of the English hops came from Kent. The exception being one lot of Worcester hops. Given how large the percentage of English hops which came from Worcester and Kent, it’s no real surprise that’s where the hops came from. 

London Burton Ale hops 1880 - 1899
Year	Brewer	Beer	hop 1	hop 2	hop 3	hop 4	dry hops
1892	Barclay Perkins	KK	Hallertau 1891	EK 1891
1881	Whitbread	KK	Bavarian 1881	USA 1881	English 1880	English 1881
1897	Fullers	XXK	MK 1895	EK 1896			EK 1896
1887	Truman (Burton)	C5 R	Worcester 1886	Calif. 1885	Kent 1885
1887	Truman (Burton)	S5	English 1886
Sources:
Barclay Perkins brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number ACC/2305/1/587.
Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/01/047.
Fullers brewing record held at the brewery.
Truman brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/BUR/11.

 

This is XXXX Ale

I explain 1832 Truman XXXX Ale. One of my favourite beers of all time. And a wonderful example of an extra-strong Mild Ale.

 

Let's Brew - 1909 Maclay PI 54/-

Maclay didn’t content themselves with brewing one watery Pale Ale. They also had a slightly less watery one, in the form of 54/-. 

With a gravity of 1041º, it’s very weak for a pre-WW I Pale Ale. Though, obviously, not as bad as 42/-. A fairly poor level of attenuation leaves it under 3.5% ABV. At a time when pretty much everything brewed in London was over 5% ABV.

The grist is very much the same as that of 42/-. Which is pale and amber malt, grits and a sugar called Greenock. There’s a bit less amber malt and a few more grits. But nothing significant.

There’s a whole load of hops again. Hallertau from the 1905, Hallertau and 1907 harvests; Californian from 1907, Farnham from 1908 and Worcester from 1905. 

1909 Maclay PI 54/-
pale malt	5.50 lb	61.97%
amber malt	0.125 lb	1.41%
grits	2.25 lb	25.35%
No. 2 invert sugar	1.00 lb	11.27%
Cluster 120 min	0.50 oz
Hallertau 60 min	0.50 oz
Fuggles 30 min	1.00 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.25 oz
OG	1041
FG	1015
ABV	3.44
Apparent attenuation	63.41%
IBU	27
SRM	6
Mash at	147º F
after underlet	152º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	61.5º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

 

London Burton Ale adjuncts and sugars 1880 - 1899

There’s not much in the way of adjuncts. Only the Barclay Perkins example contains any at all: flaked rice. Which wasn’t the commonest type of adjunct, being on the expensive side. All the other beers are adjunct-free.

There are a few more sugars. And every beer contains one. Just the one. Sadly, in most cases the exact type isn’t specified in the brewing record. The exception being Barclay Perkins, where the sugar was No. 2 invert.

The percentage of sugar varies quite a bit, from 6.5% to 21%. The latter being well above the national average of around 10% in 1895. 

London Burton Ale adjuncts and sugars 1880 - 1899
Year	Brewer	Beer	flaked rice	no. 2 sugar	other sugar	total sugar
1892	Barclay Perkins	KK	12.28%	14.04%		14.04%
1881	Whitbread	KK			15.25%	15.25%
1897	Fullers	XXK			20.80%	20.80%
1887	Truman (Burton)	C5 R			6.49%	6.49%
1887	Truman (Burton)	S5			7.69%	7.69%
	Average					12.86%
Sources:
Barclay Perkins brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number ACC/2305/1/587.
Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/01/047.
Fullers brewing record held at the brewery.
Truman brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/BUR/11.

 

 

London Burton Ale malts 1880 - 1899

We should take a look at the ingredients. Loads? Not really. I could even have squeezed them into one table. Instead, I’ve strung them out into a massive two tables.

No example contained more than two malts. And a couple just one.

Whitbread’s KK stands out in having SA rather than pale malt as its base. SA malt produced more less-readily fermentable sugars, which was handy when you wanted to leave plenty of food for the Brettanomyces in a secondary fermentation.

Only two coloured malts poke their heads out: crystal and brown malt. The latter is a very London thing. Most breweries wouldn’t have had it lying around. Only in London, where it was still an essential ingredient in Porter and Stout.

Quite a lot of malt, generally. Almost 85%, on average. But these were expensive beers. Where you would expect less skimping on ingredients.

London Burton Ale malts 1880 - 1899
Year	Brewer	Beer	pale malt	SA malt	brown malt	crystal malt	total malt
1892	Barclay Perkins	KK	69.12%			4.56%	73.68%
1881	Whitbread	KK		84.75%			84.75%
1897	Fullers	XXK	76.64%		2.55%		79.20%
1887	Truman (Burton)	C5 R	93.51%				93.51%
1887	Truman (Burton)	S5	92.31%				92.31%
	Average						84.69%
Sources:
Barclay Perkins brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number ACC/2305/1/587.
Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/01/047.
Fullers brewing record held at the brewery.
Truman brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/BUR/11.