Let's Brew - 1946 Lees "C" Ale

Today it's a recipe from another forthcoming book, "Blitzkrieg!". Which is finished, really, other than a coat of polish.

Just after war’s end  Lees introduced that most intriguing of beers, a “C” Ale.

It’s a name which only seems to have been used by breweries in Greater Manchester and refers to a strong, dark beer. Roughly equivalent to a London Burton, “C” Ale was, however, an exclusively bottled product.

It wasn’t a very long-lived product. It was replaced in 1954 by a stronger beer, Golden Brew, with an OG of 1078º.

The grist bears more than a passing resemblance to Best Mild. It contains exactly the same five elements: Pale and black malt, flaked barley, glucose and invert sugar. Not totally sure which type of invert they were using. No. 3 seems a reasonable guess.

The logs are a little vague when it comes to hops. All I know is that they were English and from the 1944 and 1945 harvests. I’ve gone with a Fuggles and Goldings combination, as they were by far and away the two most grown varieties at the time. 

1946 Lees "C" Ale
pale malt	8.50 lb	74.73%
black malt	0.125 lb	1.10%
flaked barley	1.25 lb	10.99%
glucose	0.50 lb	4.40%
No. 3 invert sugar	1.00 lb	8.79%
Fuggles 105 mins	0.75 oz
Fuggles 60 mins	0.75 oz
Fuggles 30 mins	0.75 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.33 oz
OG	1052
FG	1012
ABV	5.29
Apparent attenuation	76.92%
IBU	27
SRM	13
Mash at	147º F
After underlet	150º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	105 minutes
pitching temp	60º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1318 London ale III (Boddingtons)

Let's Brew - 1948 Lees “C” Ale

There a good geographical spread of the breweries featured in the recipe section of my new book. Scotland, the North, London, the Midlands, East Anglia and the West Country, to name a few. Lees is one of three breweries from the Northwest.

I was so delighted when I came across this beer in the Lees records. Finally, I’d find out for certain what a “C” Ale was.

It must have been 10 years ago when I first stumbled across a reference to “C” Ale in the history of a Manchester brewery. What the hell was it and why did it have that name? It turned out that several breweries in the Manchester area brewed one at one time or another. It was obviously some sort of strong bottled beer. But as to what the name signifies, I’ve no idea.

Stylistically, it’s much like a London Burton Ale, just bottled rather than draught.

The grist is surprisingly similar to Lees Bitter from the same year. Except here there’s some crystal malt and rather more black malt. I’ve had to do some interpretation on the sugars, which are listed as simply Invert and CWA. No. 2 invert is my choice.

The hops are rather vaguely described in the log. I just know that they were English and from the 1947 crop.

The initial mashing heat of 150º F was raised to 152º F by an underlet.

1948 Lees "C" Ale
pale malt	7.50 lb	75.34%
black malt	0.125 lb	1.26%
crystal malt 60 L	0.50 lb	5.02%
enzymic malt	0.25 lb	2.51%
glucose	0.33 lb	3.31%
No. 2 invert sugar	1.25 lb	12.56%
Fuggles 105 mins	0.75 oz
Fuggles 60 mins	0.50 oz
Goldings 30 mins	0.50 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.25 oz
OG	1050
FG	1014
ABV	4.76
Apparent attenuation	72.00%
IBU	21
SRM	13
Mash at	150º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	105 minutes
pitching temp	59º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1318 London ale III (Boddingtons)

Find more fun recipes like this in my new book:

http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/austerity/23181344

Boddington CC 1914 - 1921

I've never quite got my head around Boddington's naming convention. What makes CC a Strong Ale?

And does it have connection to the enigmatic "C" Ale, that type of Strong Ale only found in the Manchester area? I've no idea, to be honest.

The biggest surprise is that CC was only briefly dropped during WW I, for about a year between October 1917 and November 1918.  Brewing strong beers became virtually impossible after April 1st 1918, when the average gravity of all the beer a brewery produced couldn't be more than 1030º. Pretty difficult to brew a beer of 1060º and stick to that rule.

Brewers had to be careul. The average was totted up every quarter and brewers who exceeded the permitted average faced fines. Boddington took this so seriously that they kept track of the weekly average in their brewing book:

Like all of Boddington's beers, CC wasn't very heavily hopped in comparison to London beers. A London-brewed Burton Ale was hopped at around 12 lbs per quarter of malt - about treble the rate of CC.

It's surprising how well the OG bounced back after the war. The average drop in gravity between 1914 and the early 1920's when things stabilised again was about 19%. CC's fall was just 4%. Barely even significant. Its gravity did fall a little more between the wars, but in 1939 was still a very respectable 1056º.

Boddington CC 1914 - 1921
Date	Year	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
9th Jul	1914	1062.0	1020.0	5.56	67.74%	3.53	1.18
7th May	1915	1059.0	1019.0	5.29	67.80%	3.75	1.20
27th Oct	1915	1058.0	1018.0	5.29	68.97%	3.64	1.17
18th May	1916	1062.0	1017.0	5.95	72.58%	3.87	1.33
20th Dec	1916	1062.0	1017.0	5.95	72.58%	3.53	1.23
31st Jan	1917	1059.0	1018.0	5.42	69.49%	3.53	1.46
11th Oct	1917	1056.0	1018.0	5.03	67.86%	4.41	1.32
12th Nov	1918	1058.0	1020.0	5.03	65.52%	3.97	1.27
24th Dec	1918	1061.0	1021.0	5.29	65.57%	3.97	1.31
10th Feb	1919	1059.0	1020.0	5.16	66.10%	3.97	1.26
24th Mar	1919	1060.0	1020.0	5.29	66.67%	3.97	1.29
17th Jun	1919	1061.0	1019.0	5.56	68.85%	4.22	1.35
13th Oct	1919	1060.0	1020.0	5.29	66.67%	3.82	1.29
30th Mar	1920	1058.0	1016.0	5.56	72.41%	4.06	1.18
7th Oct	1920	1057.0	1020.0	4.89	64.91%	3.82	1.20
5th Oct	1921	1059.5	1019.0	5.36	68.07%	3.53	1.16
Sources:
Boddington brewing records held at Manchester Central Library, document numbers M693/405/126 and M693/405/126.

Let's Brew Wednesday – 1950 Lees “C” Ale

Here’s a classic – and very geographically specific – type of Strong Ale: a Manchester “C” Ale.

I was so pleased when I found this tucked away in the Lees brewing records. I’d come across mentions of “C” Ale a couple of years previously and had wondered what the hell it was. Some sort of stronger bottled beer, but I had no real details. Lees records told me it was very like a London Burton, but bottled rather than draught. So dark, 5%-ish ABV, reasonably hopped, dark in colour.

In the middle decades of the 20th century several Manchester breweries produced a “C” Ale. I’ve seen labels from four different breweries: Lees, Groves & Whitnall, Cornbrook and Openshaw. There may well have been others. As to what the name means and who first brewed it – I’ve no idea. And it seems to have disappeared just as mysteriously as it emerged. I’m not being very informative, am I? I could make something up, but I’ve sort of made a point of not doing that. I’ll leave that to you.

Getting back to cold, hard facts, I am sure of the OG. The FG is a guess because the brewers at Lees couldn’t be bothered to enter it in this period. Which is a bit irritating. At least they filled most of the rest in. Apart from the pitching temperature. That, too, is a reasoned guess.

Lees were quite adventurous for 1950’s British brewers in that they used some dark malts. Unlike most brewers who preferred to use sugar, other than in Stout. This has a touch of black malt and some crystal. The log just says “invert”, but I think the No. 3 variety is a reasonable guess. What I’ve listed as cane sugar was “Barbados syrup” in the original. Sounds like some sort of unrefined sugar to me.

There’s very little detail on the hops in the brewing record, save that they were from the 1949 crop and cost £27 per cwt. I happen to know that the average price of that year’s crop was 26 10s per cwt.* So these are hops of average quality. Fuggles is definitely the way to go. Goldings would probably have cost more. And those two hops made up 90-95% of English hop production back then.




I’ll stop pestering you now and throw the recipe at you.

1951 Lees "C" Ale
pale malt	8.25 lb	75.00%
black malt	0.125 lb	1.14%
crystal malt	0.63 lb	5.68%
enzymic malt	0.25 lb	2.27%
glucose	0.50 lb	4.55%
No. 3 invert sugar	0.75 lb	6.82%
cane sugar	0.50 lb	4.55%
Fuggles 90 min	1.25 oz
Fuggles 30 min	1.00 oz
OG	1053
FG	1014
ABV	5.16
Apparent attenuation	73.58%
IBU	28
SRM	28
Mash at	150º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	60º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1318 London ale III (Boddingtons)

* 1955 Brewers' Almanack, page 63.

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1951 Lees "C" Ale

What a rare treat this is. It seems like only yesterday we were speculating about what a "C" Ale might have been like. And now here's a recipe. Cool or what?

I'm still none the wiser as to what the C might stand for. But I do t least have a pretty good idea of what the beer itself was like. Dark, moderately strong, medium hopping. Sounds like a variation on the Burton/weaker Old Ale theme.

Lees didn't brew their "C" Ale for long. Just for a few years at the end of the 1940's and beginning of the 1950's. Other brewes in the region, such as Groves & Whitnall, had already brewed one in the 1890's.

Here's a quote from page 12 of "Manchester Breweries of Times Gone By, Vol 2":

"The brewery's [Openshaw] included best mild and bitter, Grade A pale ale, Openshaw Stout and also a "C" Ale. "C" Ale seems to have been a local brew, the origin of which is uncertain. Groves and Whitnall of Salford became well known for their version of "C" Ale in the 1890s; it was discontinued during the last war but reintroduced in 1950. John Henry Lees of Moss Side also brewed a "C" Ale, as did Wilsons Brewery."

That's me about done. Time for Kristen to do his thing . . . .




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Lee's - 1951 - C-ale
General info: Finally, after hundreds of logs, scouring the planet, we finally have found it. A 'C'-ale. What is it? I have absolutely no idea! Its some sort of very dark ale (112EBC), coloured mostly with coloured malt extract and caramel color, with a touch of hops and a good portion of regular invert and a vast amount of pale malt. How to explain this? Well, you really gotta taste it. So get out there and make it. Take pictures and lets compare!
Beer Specifics			Recipe by percentages
Gravity (OG)	1.054		56.9% English Pale malt 1			1.1% Black malt
Gravity (FG)	1.012		17.1% English Pale malt 2			15.2% Invert No1
ABV	5.54%		2.8% American 6-row			2.5% C.M.E.
Apparent attenuation	77.59%		4.3% Crystal 75L
Real attenuation	63.56%
IBU	20.0		Mash	90min@149°F		1.13814863102999qt/lb
SRM	57			90min@65°C		2.38L/kg
EBC	112.3
			Boil	1.75 hours
	Homebrew @ 70%				Craft @ 80%
Grist	5gal		19L		10bbl		10hl
English Pale malt 1	5.68	lb	2.585	kg	307.98	lb	118.99	kg
English Pale malt 2	1.70	lb	0.775	kg	92.40	lb	35.70	kg
American 6-row	0.28	lb	0.129	kg	15.40	lb	5.95	kg
Crystal 75L	0.43	lb	0.197	kg	23.47	lb	9.07	kg
Black malt	0.10	lb	0.048	kg	5.68	lb	2.20	kg
Invert No1	1.51	lb	0.689	kg	82.13	lb	31.73	kg
C.M.E.	4.06	oz	116.0	g	13.75	lb	5.31	kg
	9.715		4.423		540.80426
Hops
Fuggle 5.5% 90min	0.72	oz	20.5	g	44.80	oz	1.082	kg
Fuggle 5.5% 30min	0.24	oz	6.8	g	14.93	oz	0.361	kg
Fermentation	63°F /17.2°C
Yeast	Manchester ale
	1318 London Ale Yeast III   -
Tasting Notes: Deep dark fruits. Very little roast. Quite similar to a Caribbean stout. No real hop character but enough to clean up the finish. Lots of biscuits and bread from the pale malt. Very different but smooth.

That's one legendary but obscure beer style done. Where next? Broyhan, perhaps.