Let's Brew - 1903 Binnie XXX Porter

Showing wonderful inconsistency, in most of the brewing records this beer was named DBS – presumably Double Brown Stout. But I’m pretty sure that they are the same beer.

The gravity certainly looks like a Stout rather than a Porter. A Double Stout is particular. Nothing unusual there.

What about the recipe? Well, it’s a bit interesting. In that, additionally to pale and black malt, there’s also some amber malt. Which pops up sometimes in London Stouts, but not much elsewhere. Notably, there’s no sugar and no adjuncts.

Three types of hops: Bavarian, Kent and “Betd.”, all from the 1903 crop. No idea what that last one was. So I’ve just gone with the first two.

Here’s the big question: was this aged? Hard to say, as the hopping rate isn’t that high. My guess would be no more than a couple of months.

1903 Binnie XXX Porter
pale malt	14.25 lb	78.62%
amber malt	2.125 lb	11.72%
black malt	1.75 lb	9.66%
Hallertau 90 min	1.50 oz
Fuggles 30 min	1.50 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.50 oz
OG	1075
FG	1029
ABV	6.09
Apparent attenuation	61.33%
IBU	28
SRM	44
Mash at	152º F
Sparge at	175º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	61º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

 

 

Let's Brew - 1903 Binnie 54/- Bitter

Binnie weren’t the most consistent when it came to naming their beers in the brewhouse. This was also called 54/- IPA, IPA and plain old 54/-. How confusing is that?

The recipe is pretty similar to that of Best Bitter. Except that there’s flaked maize instead of flaked rice. Not sure why. It does seem to be fairly random, with some brews using flaked rice. Maybe it was just whatever they had to hand.

The hops are, again, equal quantities of Kent, Bavarian and Californian. And no spent hops. At the same rate – 6 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt – as Bitter Beer.

No ageing for this beer, either. 

1903 Binnie 54/- Bitter
pale malt	9.75 lb	88.64%
flaked maize	1.25 lb	11.36%
Cluster 90 min	0.75 oz
Hallertau 60 min	0.75 oz
Fuggles 30 min	0.75 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.25 oz
OG	1046
FG	1019
ABV	3.57
Apparent attenuation	58.70%
IBU	33
SRM	4
Mash at	152º F
Sparge at	175º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	62º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

 

 

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1903 Binnie Bitter Beer

The weakest of Binnie’s Pale Ales looks remarkably like a modern English Ordinary Bitter.  Other than maybe being a little too pale. It’s very weak for a pre-WW I Bitter.

Just two ingredients in the mash tun. Pale malt and flaked rice. The latter was quite popular in the early days of the Free Mash Tun Act. Before eventually losing out to flaked maize in the popularity stakes.

The hopping is much heavier than in the Shilling Ales, as you would expect. Exactly double, to be precise, at 6 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt. Though that’s a good bit less than the 10 lbs per quarter Whitbread used in its Pale Ales. Also, there are no spent hops, as in the Shilling Ales.

Definitely no ageing for this beer. Too weak, too few hops.

1903 Binnie Bitter Beer
pale malt	7.75 lb	91.18%
flaked rice	0.75 lb	8.82%
Cluster 90 min	0.67 oz
Hallertau 60 min	0.67 oz
Fuggles 30 min	0.67 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.25 oz
OG	1036
FG	1013
ABV	3.04
Apparent attenuation	63.89%
IBU	32
SRM	3.5
Mash at	152º F
Sparge at	175º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	64º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

 

 

 

Let's Brew - 1905 Binnie 100/- Ale

What style would I call this? Shilling Ale, I guess. As it doesn’t really fit in with any modern style.  And, unlike 80/-, there isn’t a modern beer with the same name. Which, I suppose, at least removes any risk of confusion.

Compared to 80/-, it has an extremely complicated grist. With all of three different ingredients. Two of which are sugar. The brewing record lists one as “sugar” and the other “Sacc.” The latter being an abbreviation of saccharum, another word for sugar. I’ve assumed than Sacc is invert sugar and the other raw cane sugar. Only one type of pale malt this time, though.

Only two types of hops this time. Well, three if you count the spent hops, which make up almost a third of the total. The rest are Kent and Bavarian, with far more of the latter.

I imagine that the FG would have fallen a bit before consumption. Though not enough to stop it being very sweet. Full of malty goodness, I suppose. The hopping is far too low for any ageing longer than a couple of weeks.

1905 Binnie 100/- Ale
pale malt	12.75 lb	87.93%
No. 2 invert sugar	0.875 lb	6.03%
raw cane sugar	0.875 lb	6.03%
Hallertau 90 min	0.67 oz
Hallertau 60 min	0.67 oz
Fuggles 30 min	0.67 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.25 oz
OG	1068
FG	1034
ABV	4.50
Apparent attenuation	50.00%
IBU	21
SRM	7
Mash at	154º F
Sparge at	180º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	61º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

 

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1903 Binnie 80/- Ale

We're back with Binnie again. As I try to process the results of my Glasgow archive run into recipes for my next book. This is recipe number 366, in case you're interested.

I’ll make this clear from the start: this beer has no connection with modern 80/-. This is a Shilling Ale, the original type of Scottish Ale, more akin to an English Mild. While modern 80/- is a type of Pale Ale.

No complication in the grist, which is just 100% pale malt. Though there are two types of pale malt, 3.5 quarters from Scottish barley, 2 quarters from foreign. Which was a fairly typical mix. As the UK couldn’t grow enough malting barley to meet the needs of the brewing industry.

It was a similar story with hops, where imports were needed to match demand. That’s reflected in the hops used, where two-thirds are imported. There are equal quantities of Kent, Bavarian and Californian. Along with a quantity of spent hops. Even with those, the hopping rate is still a feeble 3 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt. Which is mot much more than half of what you’d find in a London Mild Ale of the period.

No way this would have undergone any ageing. It’s far too lightly hopped. 

1903 Binnie 80/- Ale
pale malt	13.75 lb	100.00%
Cluster 90 min	0.50 oz
Hallertau 60 min	0.50 oz
Fuggles 30 min	0.50 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.25 oz
OG	1059
FG	1020
ABV	5.16
Apparent attenuation	66.10%
IBU	20
SRM	5
Mash at	154º F
Sparge at	175º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	62º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

 

Let's Brew - 1903 Binnie Table Beer

After the tax category was abolished in 1830, Table Beer quickly banished from most of the UK. Except in Scotland, where it lived on until WW I.

What was this later Scottish style like? Extremely watery for the period. With a gravity of just 1030º. Binnie’s example also isn’t very well attenuated, leaving it under 2.5% ABV. Something for the kiddies, really.  It was always parti-gyled with 140/-.

There’s not a great deal to the recipe. Just pale malt and an unspecified type of sugar. I’ve guessed – as I usually do – for No. 2 invert. But it could have been another type of invert or even raw cane sugar.

Three types of hops were employed: Kent, American and Bavarian. With no vintage specified.

 My guess is that this was exclusively sold in bottled form.

1903 Binnie Table Beer
pale malt	6.50 lb	96.30%
No. 2 invert sugar	0.25 lb	3.70%
Cluster 90 min	0.50 oz
Hallertau 60 min	0.50 oz
Fuggles 30 min	0.50 oz
OG	1030
FG	1012
ABV	2.38
Apparent attenuation	60.00%
IBU	25
SRM	4
Mash at	152º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	64º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

 

 

Binnie hops 1903 - 1905

I'm almost done with Binnie's beers. Well, until I start writing recipes. I hope you've enjoyed this series. I certainly have. Mostly as I need to build up some posts to cover my next overseas jaunt. Maybe I'll pull the same trick with Thomas Usher. That would get me through until October. By which time I'm sure I'll have lots of new material.

For example, the fascinating material in the letters between J. C. Jacobsen and his son Carl. In particular, the details about Younger and Bass IPA. And the rather condescending way they wrote about William Younger, where Carl was an apprentice.

Finally, let’s consider the hops. Most beers contained at least two types. And many three types.

Most common types were Kent, Bavarian and Californian.  With a single example each of Sussex and Betd. Not sure what the latter one was. Those first three types seem to have been pretty common amongst Scottish brewers. For example, at Thomas Usher.

Note the heavy use of spent hops. Mostly in conjunction with fresh hops. Other than in the Table Beer, which was exclusively spent hops. It’s not unusual to see spent hops in certain types of beer. But not in Pale Ales. Where normally only the best hops were used.

Binnie hops 1903 - 1905
Beer	Style	hop 1	hop 2	hop 3	hop 4
TB	Table Beer	spent
80/-	Ale	Kent	Bavarian	California	spent
100/-	Ale	Kent	Bavarian	spent
140/- Ale	Ale	Kent	Bavarian	California
BB	Pale Ale	Kent	American	Bavarian
Ex B	Pale Ale	Kent	California	spent
54/- IPA	IPA	Sussex	Bavarian	California	spent
60/- IPA	IPA	Kent	Bavarian	California
XXX Porter	Porter	Bavarian	Kent	Betd.
DBS	Stout	Kent	Bavarian	California	spent
Source:
Binnie brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archives, document number BH/6/1/1/1.

 

Binnie sugars 1903 - 1905

I'm glad that I'm managing to spin some posts out of my Scottish Brewing Archive visit. I need something to fill up the blog now I've finished off the posts about my trip to Australia. 

There's not much in the way of sugars. Just two, called saccharum and sugar. Which is a bit confusing as I thought saccharum was just another word for sugar. I would have thought that it was just an inconsistency in notation. Except a couple of beer contain both.

What are they then? I’m guessing at least one is a type of invert. And perhaps the “sugar” was raw cane sugar. Who knows?

Several of the beers – 80/-, BB, Ex B and XXX Porter – contained no sugar at all. While 100/- and 140/- contained more than 10%. Presumably, because of the higher gravity. 

Binnie sugars 1903 - 1905
Beer	Style	Saccharum	sugar	total sugar
TB	Table Beer	4.51%		4.51%
80/-	Ale			0.00%
100/-	Ale	5.88%	5.88%	11.76%
140/- Ale	Ale	4.17%	8.33%	12.50%
BB	Pale Ale			0.00%
Ex B	Pale Ale			0.00%
54/- IPA	IPA	7.69%		7.69%
60/- IPA	IPA	5.71%		5.71%
XXX Porter	Porter			0.00%
DBS	Stout		5.78%	5.78%
Source:
Binnie brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archives, document number BH/6/1/1/1.

 

Binnie malts 1903 - 1905

What was Binnie brewing these beers from? Well, let’s take a look. But don’t expect a huge number of malts. That’s just not the way they brewed in Scotland. The vast majority of beer contained just a single malt: base pale malt.

The exceptions, obviously, were Black Beers. Which needed some roasted malt to get the right colour and flavour profile. Here there’s a combination of black and amber malt for the Porter and Stout. Though there’s also a tiny amount in Table Beer, presumably for colour correction.

Two types of pale malt are listed: Scotch and foreign. That being where the barley was grown. Where would “foreign” be, exactly? Could be lots of places. Most likely were California, Chile and the Middle East. But Hungary, Germany and Cyprus are also a possibility

Only the Pale Ales contained adjuncts. Don’t take as definitive the split between flaked maize and flaked rice. All four beers contained both maize and rice at different times. Seemingly quite randomly. 

Binnie malts 1903 - 1905
Beer	Style	pale malt	black malt	amber malt	flaked maize	flaked rice
TB	Table Beer	94.65%	0.85%
80/-	Ale	100.00%
100/-	Ale	88.24%
140/- Ale	Ale	87.50%
BB	Pale Ale	86.67%				13.33%
Ex B	Pale Ale	86.67%				13.33%
54/- IPA	IPA	80.77%			11.54%
60/- IPA	IPA	85.71%			8.57%
XXX Porter	Porter	78.43%	9.80%	11.76%
DBS	Stout	77.98%	7.58%	8.66%
Source:
Binnie brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archives, document number BH/6/1/1/1.

 

 

Binnie beers 1903 - 1905

More results from my visit to the Scottish Brewing Archive. This time we're looking at Binnie, a small brewery in Haddington.

With batch sizes of just 20 barrels, it really was on the small size. Though they did still brew a decent range of beers, from a Table beer to a 140/-.

In most of the UK, Table Beer had disappeared by the middle of the 19th century. While in Scotland it was still being brewed up until WW I. The example here is particularly weak at under 1030º and only 2.25% ABV.

There are three Shilling Ales, 80/-, 100/- and 140/-. The latter was brewed surprisingly often, parti-gyled with Table Beer. Do I need to remind you that this 80/- has nothing to do with the modern beer of the same name? Because it doesn't.

BB and Ex B might well be the same beer. As they look very similar. For a Pale Ale of the period, it's pretty weak. But reasonably heavily hopped. It would be difficult to find a Pale Ale this weak in England.

The two IPAs appear under different names. 54/-, 54/- IPA and 54/- Bitter. And 60/-, 60/- IPA and 60/- Bitter. Which is pretty confusing. Though given the strength and recipes are pretty much the same, I'm sure that they're the same beers. If you remember, Belhaven also had Pale Ales at 54/- and 60/- with similar gravities. And at Thomas Usher, their PA and PA 60/- were around the same gravities, too.

The Porter and the Stout might also be the same beer. Given the similarities of their gravities. Which both look about right for a Double Stout.

The rates of attenuation are pretty crap. With the highest just 66%. Though it's possible the high FGs might be deliberate to leave enough fementables for secondary conditioning without the addition of primings.

Pretty low hopping rates all around, maxing out at just 6 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt. 

Binnie beers  1903 - 1905
Date	Year	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
7th Apr	1904	TB	Table Beer	1028	1011	2.25	60.71%	0.66	0.63
24th Dec	1903	80/-	Ale	1059	1020	5.16	66.10%	3.27	0.82
24th Feb	1905	100/-	Ale	1068	1034	4.50	50.00%	3.00	0.95
19th Jan	1905	140/- Ale	Ale	1084	1039	5.95	53.57%	3.00	1.34
18th Feb	1904	BB	Pale Ale	1037	1013	3.18	64.86%	6.40	1.04
3rd Jun	1904	Ex B	Pale Ale	1037	1014	3.04	62.16%	6.40	1.00
22nd Sep	1904	54/- IPA	IPA	1049	1019	3.97	61.22%	6.00	1.23
15th Sep	1904	60/- IPA	IPA	1057	1020	4.89	64.91%	5.00	1.50
3rd Dec	1903	XXX Porter	Porter	1075	1029	6.09	61.33%	4.39	1.33
9th Mar	1905	DBS	Stout	1071	1036	4.63	49.30%	4.55	1.42
Source:
Binnie brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archives, document number BH/6/1/1/1.