Let's Brew Wednesday - 1893 Tomson & Wotton AK

I can remember how excited I was when I came across my first AK brewing record. (Fullers, if you’re interested.)  Now I have literally dozens of them. That’s how common AK was before WW I.

This is on the strong side for AK, which usually tops out at around 1050º. And indicates that this was the more expensive of the brewery’s two AKs.

Not much to discuss about the recipe. Which is as simple as they come: just a single malt and a single hop. All their Pale Ales were brewed all-malt. Only the Mild Ale contained sugar. And no adjuncts at all were used.

Just one type of Worcester hops from the 1892 harvest. Which, given that this beer was brewed in March, meant that they were pretty fresh. Another type of Worcester hops, also from the 1892 season, were used as dry hops.

1893 Tomson & Wotton AK
pale malt	12.00 lb	100.00%
Fuggles 90 mins	1.25 oz
Fuggles 60 mins	1.25 oz
Fuggles 30 mins	1.25 oz
Fuggles dry hops	0.25 oz
OG	1052
FG	1015
ABV	4.89
Apparent attenuation	71.15%
IBU	43
SRM	4.5
Mash at	152º F
Sparge at	175º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	60º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1099 Whitbread ale

 

Tomson & Wotton hops in 1893

Time now for the other main ingredient: hops. 

The first thing that strikes me is that all but one of the hops are English. Which, at this point, was quite unusual. With the UK importing massive quantities of hops from all over the world. “But the brewery was based in Kent, the hop garden of England” you might say. Except most of the hops used come from Worcestershire, not Kent.

Other than X and AK, none of the beers has more than one type of hop. Which is unusual. Brewers mostly used multiple types of hops – three or four, typically – to smooth out any changes when supplies of one type of hop ran out and needed to be replaced.

Most on the hops employed are relatively fresh, from the most recent season or the one before. The exception being the East Kent hops used in X, which are five years old. It’s by no means unusual for hops several years old to find their way. But five years is a bit excessive. For English hops. Not so odd with American hops, with their higher alpha acid content and unwanted flavour.

All the Pale Ales are dry hopped. Always with Worcester hops. Mostly in quite modest quantities. Other than AKK which has a massive 2 lbs per barrel. Only slightly less than the quantity of copper hops.

Tomson & Wotton hops in 1893
Beer	Style	hop 1	hop 2	dry hops	dry hops (oz / barrel)
X	Mild	EK 1888	Californian 1891		0.00
AK	Pale Ale	EK 1892	Wor 1893	Wor 1892	2.00
AK (Stock)	Pale Ale	Wor 1892		Wor 1892	4.00
AKK	Pale Ale	Wor 1892		Wor 1892	32.00
KK	Pale Ale	Wor 1892		Wor 1892	4.00
P	Porter	MK 1891			0.00
KKK	Stock Ale	EK 1892		Wor 1892	4.00
Source:
Tomson & Wotton brewing record held at the Kent Archives, document number R/U7/B5.

 

 

Tomson & Wotton grists in 1893

To be honest, it’s not very interesting. The majority of the beers only have a single ingredient in the grist. Pretty dull, right? Just a one type of pale malt.

The only exceptions were X Ale and Porter. With the former having a small amount of sugar. No idea what type of sugar, as there’s nothing specified in the brewing record. Which isn’t unusual for the period.

Most interesting is the Porter. Which has the classic London combination of malts: pale, brown and black. With a very high percentage of brown malt. More, even, than you’d see in a London Porter at the time. Where 10% to 15% was the norm.

There’s also a hefty amount of black malt. Which leaves the proportion of roasted malt at almost 40%. I don’t need to point out that this is a hell of a lot. Resulting in a pretty damn black beer.

Tomson & Wotton grists in 1893
Beer	Style	pale malt	brown malt	black malt	other sugar
X	Mild	95.45%			4.55%
AK	Pale Ale	100.00%
AK (Stock)	Pale Ale	100.00%
AKK	Pale Ale	100.00%
KK	Pale Ale	100.00%
P	Porter	60.61%	30.30%	9.09%
KKK	Stock Ale	100.00%
Source:
Tomson & Wotton brewing record held at the Kent Arrchives, document number R/U7/B5.

 

 

Preliminary archive results

When I'm in archives, I don't spend a huge amount of time analysing documents. There's plenty of time for that later. I just snap away, making sure I take as many photos as possible.

I snapped 29 documents described as brewing books. More than enough material, surely? Well, it's not quite as simple as that.

The good news, is that there were records from more than the two breweries, Fremlin and George Beer & Rigden, that were in my original plan. There was a single brewing book each from two breweries owned by Tomson & Wotton. Both from 1893. And much of the two books in the same handwriting. They also contain most everything I'm interested in and are easy to read..

Not such good news with George Beer & Rigden. Of the twelve documents I photographed, only five are really brewing records. The others are gyle books, which only list the ingredients. Nothing about processes. On the other hand, the actual brewing records are very good, containing all the information I usually plug into my spreadsheet. Unfortunately, only one is for the period I'm interested in, 1880 to 1914.

What about Fremlin? I photographed fourteen volumes. On the upside, all but one are really brewing books. Only the last one, from 1970, is a gyle book. They aren't as complete as the Beer & Rigden records. They really are just brewing books, with no details of the fermentation at all. But it gets worse.

Part of a Fremlin brewing record.

The first five brewing books are in code. And not just the mashing temperatures, which I've seen before. All the numbers are in code. Even the boil time and the gravity. Fucking magic. It makes them just about unusable. Fortunately, the other records are all uncoded. Including three covering 1880 to 1914. If I'm lucky, I'll be able to use those to decode the others. But it will take a load of work. 

Overall, less useful stuff than I'd hoped for. But plenty to be getting on with. And probably 40 to 50 recipes for the book. Which was what I was really after. 

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1893 Tomson & Wotton Porter

The range of beers brewed by Tomson & Wotton is a little odd. At a time when Porter was disappearing from most of England, they continued to brew one. Yet didn't brew a Stout of any description. A style pretty well every other brewery in the UK produced.

Perhaps it was the influence of nearby London that had an impact. But the grist is quite unusual. in that it has a large percentage of brown malt. Making up a quarter of the grist. That about double what you'd find in a London Porter. And the capital was where brown malt retained its popularity. My guess is that this would have tasted quite similar to the Porters brewed in London.

There were two types of hops: East from the 1888 harvest and Californian from 1891. Both types reasonably old, then.

Pretty sure that this was a Runner. So no ageing. 

1893 Tomson & Wotton Porter
pale malt	8.25 lb	67.35%
brown malt	3.00 lb	24.49%
black malt	1.00 lb	8.16%
Cluster 90 mins	1.25 oz
Goldings 60 mins	1.25 oz
Goldings 30 mins	1.25 oz
OG	1050
FG	1016
ABV	4.50
Apparent attenuation	68.00%
IBU	35
SRM	36
Mash at	154º F
Sparge at	180º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	62º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1099 Whitbread Ale

 

 

Tomson & Wotton beers in 1893

Some results from my expedition to Maidstone last week. From the one brewing book they hane from Tomson & Wotton.

The range is quite narrow, just seven beers. And two of those are AK. One Mild, four Pale Ales, one Porter and one Stock Ale. No Stout. No Strong Ale, really. And with a very narrow range of gravities: from 1047º and 1062º.

I know that there really were two beers sold as AK, because I've seen it in an advert. Which is also how I know that KK was a Palae Ale.

The gravities aren't that different from London. The Mild is a bit weaker, but the Pale Ales cover a similar range of gravities and the Porter is about the same.

It's a similar story with the hopping rates, which are very similar to those in London. 7 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt for Mild, 11 lbs per quarter for a strong Pale ale.

The rate of attenuation isn't great, only 76% at best. Though I'm not 100% that it's the racking gravity. The true FG could be lower.

Tomson & Wotton beers in 1893
Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
X	Mild	1052.2	1016.1	4.77	69.20%	7.00	1.40
AK	Pale Ale	1046.9	1016.1	4.08	65.74%	9.00	1.71
AK (Stock)	Pale Ale	1051.1	1016.1	4.63	68.55%	9.00	1.71
AKK	Pale Ale	1057.3	1013.9	5.75	75.85%	10.00	2.14
KK	Pale Ale	1059.6	1016.6	5.69	72.13%	10.69	2.37
P	Porter	1051.2	1021.6	3.92	57.82%	6.67	1.49
KKK	Stock Ale	1062.0	1016.6	6.01	73.20%	10.00	2.37
Source:
Tomson & Wotton brewing record held at the Kent Arrchives, document number R/U7/B5.

 

Let's Brew - 1893 Tomson & Wotton X

Here are the first results of my jaunt to Maidstone during the week. The Kent Archives have one Tomson and Wotton brewing book. A personal notebook rather than the official brewing record. Pretty complete information, though.

A provincial Mild Ale here. But not too far from London. And that seems to be reflected in the strength. As this is closer to a London X Ale than Adnams X Ale.

As with most Milds of this period, there’s not much to the recipe. Just one type of base malt and a dash of sugar. No description of the sugar. So I’ve guessed No. 2 invert, as usual. And that’s it.

What about hops? Two types: East Kent from the 1888 harvest and Californian from 1891. Fairly old, then.

No dry hopping, but there was another addition. It says in the log: "mixed in 4.75 barrels of O.A." into the 91 barrels of Mild. I take the O.A. to be Old Ale. An interesting case of blending. 

1893 Tomson & Wotton X
pale malt	11.00 lb	95.65%
No. 2 invert sugar	0.50 lb	4.35%
Cluster 90 mins	1.00 oz
Goldings 60 mins	1.00 oz
Goldings 30 mins	1.00 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.50 oz
OG	1050
FG	1014
ABV	4.76
Apparent attenuation	72.00%
IBU	44
SRM	6
Mash at	152º F
Sparge at	180º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	60º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1099 Whitbread ale