Inside the Dorchester Brewery (part four)

Wow. I've just looked to see how long ago this series about Eldridge Pope's Dorchester Brewery began. Too long ago. Much too long ago.

You may remember that we had just visited the fermenting room with its lovely rounds. Next comes the racking cellar.

"Our progress downward next brought us to the great racking cellar, which covers two-thirds of the entire ground floor of the brewhouse. It contains three slate racking or settling tanks, each holding 200 barrels,from which the beer is racked into the casks; also four vats of great capacity for receiving running ales. We found the floor, which is asphalted throughout, strewn with hundreds of barrels, either filled or in the process of being filled; and waiting  outside  was a train, composed of an engine and some eight or ten trucks, ready to convey them to their respective destinations. In the centre of this cellar there is fixed an endless chain barrel elevator, for lifting the stock ales from the cellars below to this level, to be rolled away on to the loading-out stage, which runs parallel with this room. The forwarding clerks' office is situated at the entrance to the loading-out department ; and opposite is the yeast store-house, containing a Johnsons press.

Through an archway we reached the vat-house, a spacious building 85 feet long and 45 feet high, used for storing old ales. Here, rising to a great height, are to be seen sixteen store vats, the two largest among them holding some 400 barrels each, and all containing old Dorchester beer, so much approved of in the West of England."
"Noted Breweries of Great Britain and Ireland, vol III", by Alfred Barnard, 1890, pages 138 - 139.

I'm a bit confused as to the purpose of the settling tanks and the vats for running ales. I don't understand why you would need both. Surely the settling tanks would be filled with running ales from the fermenters immediately before they were racked.

Pale ale cellar.

Time for some brewhouse maths. Assuming an average vat size of 300 barrels, that would give a storage capacity of 4,800 barrels. Quite an amount. But without knowing how long they stored the beer for before sale, it's hard to estimate how much Old Ale they were selling.

Time to move on again.

"Descending by a lift to the basement, we walked through two spacious paved cellars, one used for storing stock ales, the other for running beers, and then reached a sunken passage leading to a tunnel 200 feet in length, which gives access to the largest cellar on the premises. It is situated beneath the malthouse, is 140 feet long, 50 feet broad, and contained about 3,000 barrels of pale ale.  The roof of this cellar is very remarkable, as it is arched with tiles "three deep," set in cement The cellar itself is dug out of the solid chalk, with a natural floor of hard chalk, and forms one of the most perfect pale ale stores we have ever inspected.

The sampling and bottling cellars, afterwards visited, are beneath the counting-house. We tasted several of the firm's brews during our visit, among them being the Dorchester pale ale, the "A.K." and the "Crystal" ale. The Dorchester pale ale is of great merit, and challenges comparison. It is an exhilarating beverage, and possesses all those characteristics which insure its keeping sound. The "Crystal" ale suited our tastes for a general drink, it being light, delicate, and sparkling; as also did the Burton ale, a nourishing, hop-flavoured, sound beverage, as clear as champagne. All of them compare favourably with the ales of London and Edinburgh, and the demand for them in the former city is sufficient proof of their popularity. Near the sampling room there is a large wine and spirit store, for supplying the firm's numerous hotels and public-houses, and their private trade in the town and district. It contains seven large spirit vats, and a row of wine bins 50 feet in length; also a cellar for storing wines in the wood, and every convenience for bottling. In close proximity is a bottle-washing yard, 100 feet square, covered with a corrugated iron roof and laid with Staffordshire bricks."
"Noted Breweries of Great Britain and Ireland, vol III", by Alfred Barnard, 1890, pages 139 - 140.

Our patience has been rewarded with a quick description of some of Eldridge Pope's beers. It's a bit confusing when he talks about AK and Crystal as separate beers, but I think I understand it. If you remember the details of the beers from previous posts you'll know that Crystal was a form of AK. BAK, or bottling AK, to be precise.

I've repeated my table of Eldridge Pope beers from the 1890's for your reference. Looking at the stronger beers, I wonder which is the old Dorchester beer and which the Burton. XXXX looks the right gravity for  a Burton. To be honest, it looks to weak to be the Old Ale. But if it isn't, which beer is?

Eldridge Pope beers in 1896-1897
Year	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)	Pitch temp	max. fermentation temp	length of fermentation (days)
1896	AK	Pale Ale	1048.5	1011.6	4.87	76.00%	7.33	1.50	2.5	2.5	2.5	60º	71.25º	8
1896	AK	Pale Ale	1048.5	1011.9	4.84	75.43%	7.03	1.44	2.5	2.5	2.75	59.5º	69º	8
1896	BAK	Pale Ale	1048.5	1011.9	4.84	75.43%	7.03	1.44	2.5	2.5	2.75	59.5º	69.75º	8
1896	PA	Pale Ale	1057.6	1014.4	5.72	75.00%	10.50	2.56	2.5	2.75		59.5º	70.25º	7
1896	XX	Mild	1049.0	1011.6	4.95	76.27%	4.36	0.91	2.5	2.75		60º	70.5º	7
1896	S	Stout	1061.5	1026.9	4.58	56.31%	9.43	2.50	2.5			59º	70.5º	8
1896	LTS	Stout	1051.2	1019.4	4.21	62.16%	10.37	2.23	2.5			60º	70º	8
1897	XXX	Mild	1065.1	1018.6	6.16	71.49%	6.25	1.75	2.5	2.5	2.75	60º	74.25º	9
1897	XX	Mild	1048.8	1013.9	4.62	71.59%	6.25	1.31	2.5	2.5	2.75	60º	69º	8
1897	XXXX	Strong Ale	1074.8	1023.8	6.74	68.15%	8.95	2.82	2.5	2.5	2.5	60º	74º	9
1897	KK	Pale Ale	1051.5	1014.1	4.95	72.58%	6.81	1.50	2	2.5		60º	69.5º	4
1897	XX	Mild	1049.6	1012.5	4.91	74.86%	6.23	1.33	2	2.5		60.25º	70.5º	4
Source:
Eldridge Pope brewing records

Why are Eldridge Pope's beers compared with those of London and Edinburgh? Because those two towns were renowned for the quality of their Ales.

More Ales

You've been good. Here's your reward: more Ales from "A Cyclopaedia of Six Thousand Practical Receipts, and Collateral Information" by Arnold James Cooley (1854, pages 44 - 45).

First, one of my favourites: Burton Ale.

ALE, BURTON. This is a strong species of ale, of which only a barrel and a half is drawn from a quarter of malt. Temperature for the first mash 170°, and for the second 180°, followed by a mash for table beer at 165°. It is tunned at 58°, and cleansed at 72°. The finest pale malt, ground two days before using, together with the best Kent hops, (6 to 8 lbs. per quarter,) are employed for this ale. Remarks. The "East India" ale, brewed by Bass & Co. of Burton, is perhaps as near an approach to wine as malt liquor is capable of receiving; it is indeed the "wine of malt"

I find this description quite confusing. For one thing, The Bass East India Ale it mentions is a different type of beer. A Pale Ale. The sort of beer now associated with Burton. The brewing method is for a much stronger beer. Crazily strong. One and a half barrels from a quarter of malt would give a gravity of around 1140º. Bass Pale Ale was less than half that - 1065º. The hopping rate is also way too low for an IPA - just 6 to 8 pounds per quarter. As a comparison, Reid IPA of 1839 was hopped at 26 pounds per quarter. The last sentence gets very close to calling Bass barley wine.

ALE, DORCHESTER. This is made with half pale and half amber malt, with 6 or 7 lbs. of hops to the quarter. The temperature of the first mash is 170°, and of the second 180° ; boiled for 30 minutes, and the yeast added, when a head gathers on the gyle-tun ; work until the head begins to fall, then cleanse and fill up the casks as long as they continue to work. Two barrels per quarter.

This is another very strong Ale. Two barrels from a quarter is around 1100º. I guess this is the ancestor of Hardy Ale, which was originally brewed in Dorchester.

ALE, EDINBURGH. Employ the best pale malt. 1st. Mash two barrels per quarter, at 180°; mash three quarters of an hour. let it stand 1 hour, and allow half an hour to run off the wort. 2nd Mash 1 barrel per quarter, at 183°; mash three quarters of an hour, let it stand three quarters of an hour, and tap as before. 3rd. Mash one barrel per quarter, at 170° ; mash half an hour, let it stand half an hour, and tap as before. The first and second mash may be mixed together, boiling them about an hour or an hour and a quarter, with a quantity of hops proportioned to the time the beer is intended to be kept. The first two may be mixed at the heat of 60° in the gyle- tun, and the second should be fermented separately for small beer. Remarks. The best hops should be used, in the proportion of about 4 lbs. for every quarter of malt employed.

Yet another description of Scotch Ale. And yet another one that specifies a hopping rate of four pounds per barrel. The fact that multiple mashes are employed suggests to me that it isn't an authentically Scottish recipe. As does the relatively high pitching temperature of 60º F.

ALE, ESSEX. This ale is brewed by putting boiling water into the mash-tun, and adding thereto some cold water, and then the malt, gradually, until a cover of dry malt is left on top; it is then allowed to stand three hours; in the mean time a similar mash is made with half the previous quantity of malt, and the same measure of water, in another tun, as soon after the first as possible; both worts are drawn off simultaneously, and the latter serves as a second water for the malt used for the former. The smaller quantity of malt is then mashed a second time with water. The first wort is boiled an hour, or until it breaks into large flakes, when half of it is taken out, and the remaining raw wort added to it, and the boiling continued until it again breaks. The wort is now drained off from the grains and boiled, and a fresh mash made with the wort from the second tun, for the larger quantity of malt, and very hot water for the other; after an hour it is drawn off and another mash made for small beer. The proportion of hops is 2.5 lbs. per quarter. This system of mashing, which has no advantage over the usual way, has been called "succession mashing."

I'm not sure I understand the complicated mashing scheme specified here. It sounds very fiddly. You'll not that very few hops are used, significantly less than in Scotch Ale even - just 2.5 pounds per quarter. I suppose hops didn't grow in Essex and were expensive to import all the way from Kent.


How did I calculate the gravities?
How do I work out the gravities from the amount of malt used per barrel? Exactly the same way Victorian brewers did.

The sugar yield from malt was usually expressed in pounds per quarter. It's the amount of extract that will give you that OG spread over a barrel. The standard amount was 80 pounds per quarter for pale malt (about 54 for brown malt). That means you would get 36 gallons of wort with a gravity of 80 pounds per barrel. To get the OG in specific gravity, you multiply it by 2.77 and add 1000. So

80 X 2.77 = 221.6 + 1000 = 1221.6

I know that figure is reliable, because I've seen it on so many brewing logs. They always include the yield expressed this way.

Standard-strength commercial beers (Like Porter) were usually brewed four barrels to the quarter, or 20 pounds per barrel (1055º).

A barrel and a half to a quarter is a huge gravity. But I'm inclined to believe it, because the Edinburgh Ale is about right at 1100º. In "Scottish Ale Brewer" (1847) there are tables of Scotch Ales analysed in the 1830's. The highest OG is 1133.5.