Let's Brew - 1878 Adnams XXXK

Not totally sure what this was marketed as. Strong Pale Ale? Stock Ale? Old Ale? Who knows?

The fact that it was parti-gyled with AK leads me to believe that this was a Strong Pale Ale. But brewers pulled some weird shit and I could be completely wrong. It does have a typical gravity for Stock Pale Ale (or IPA), being around the same as Bass’s famous version.

Given that the much weaker AK came out at 70-odd (calculated) IBU, it’s no surprise that XXXK is pushing 100 IBU.

Unlike AK, which would have been consumed within a couple of weeks of racking, if this really was a Stock Pale Ale, it would have been aged for up to 12 months. During this time, the action of Brettanomyces would have considerably dropped the FG and dried out the beer considerably.

1878 Adnams XXXK
mild malt	8.00 lb	68.09%
No. 1 invert sugar	3.75 lb	31.91%
Goldings 105 mins	4.25 oz
Goldings 30 mins	4.25 oz
Goldings dry hops	1.00 oz
OG	1064
FG	1018
ABV	6.09
Apparent attenuation	71.88%
IBU	98
SRM	9
Mash at	152º F
Sparge at	172º F
Boil time	105 minutes
pitching temp	64º F
Yeast	WLP025 Southwold

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1850 Truman KXXX

If you’ve been getting bored with my weedy 1950’s recipes, here’s something with a little more oomph. Quite a lot more oomph, actually.

The early 1800’s were a simpler time. Recipes were very simple, partly because there was a sort of Reinheitsgebot until 1880 (though after 1847 sugar was allowed). But partly just because they liked to keep things simple.

Truman brewed two parallel sets of Ales: Mild Ales X, XX, XXX and Keeping Ales KXX, KXXX and KXXXX. Hard as it may be to believe, this wasn’t the strongest beer in their range. The gravities of the Mild and Stock versions were the same, only the hopping differed. You’ll note that even the bottom-level X Ale had a pretty hefty gravity.

Interestingly, there’s an Export India Pale Ale in the 1850 set. Guess what it’s OG was? 1055º. Considerably weaker than the weakest Mild. Just thought I’d mention that to remind you that, far from being brewed stronger for the trip to India, IPA was one of the weakest beers around. About the only thing weaker was Table Beer.

Obviously, Stock Ales were aged before sale. Though I’m not sure how this took place at this time at Truman. I suspect probably in vats, though smaller ones than for Porter, as the quantities brewed were much smaller. At the end of the 19th century it seems that Stock Ales were often aged in trade casks in the brewery cellar.

Here’s a nice table of Ales:

Truman's Ales around 1850
Beer	Style	OG	hops lb/brl
X Ale	Mild	1079.8	1.94
XX Ale	Mild	1093.1	4.34
XXX Ale	Mild	1108.0	5.34
KXX  Ale	Stock Ale	1094.7	6.16
KXXX Ale	Stock Ale	1103.3	8.26
KXXXX Ale	Stock Ale	1114.1	11.94
Source:
Truman's brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers B/THB/C/127 and B/THB/C/132

And now over to Kristen . . . . .

Kristen’s Version:
Notes: Sometimes there is a log that comes along that is so damn simple, it lends the ability to have an infinite number of variations. That would be this log. Spartan, would be understatement when it comes to this log. Pages are mostly blank but it’s so simple maybe that’s why. I would suggest highly aging this beer, specifically in wood, absolutely specifically not in X-booze barrels. Cake on cake doesn’t taste better than cake.

Malt: One malt. The End. Make a good choice. Or a combo of choices. This is the time to get the very best tip top, spendy hard to find, floor malted, air dried, whatsahoosit. Spend the money.

Hops: One Hop. There was no info about dry hopping so I added it. This beer begs a nice dry hopping. If you are planning to age this for an extended period, I prefer to dry hop after aging as I really don’t like oxidized hops in beer. You really can choose anything but if you wont have the same beer if you use higher alpha acid hops. This has a massive amount of hops so be mindful with how much beer you will actually be losing.

Yeast: You should have no problem with the beer finishing too dry with this one. The high mash temp, along with no sugar, should be easy to have a nice, rich finish. Just make sure it doesn’t finish too sweet!! A nice London ale yeast that lends some nice fruit but also will ferment this thing where it needs to finish. 

Cask:
Standard procedure:
1) let the beer ferment until finished and then give it another day or so. For me right around 5-7 days.
2) Rack the beer to your vessel of choice (firkin, polypin, cornie, whatever).
3) Add primings at ~3.5g/L
4) Add prepared isinglass at 1ml/L
5) ONLY add dry hops at 0.25g/l – 1g/L.
6) Bung it up and roll it around to mix. Condition at 55F or so for 4-5 days and its ready to go. Spile/vent. Tap. Settle. Serve at 55F.

Old Ale in the 1790's

I've still not forked out on a copy of Richardson's "Philosophical Principles of the Science of Brewing.". I'm making do with Booth's copy still. I hope he transcribed it accurately.

This time it's Old Ale that's being described:

"Richardson's Instructions continued.

Art. II.—For Old Ale, or such as is to be long kept.

§ 1.—Heat of the Liquor.

As purity is not immediately required in this sort of ale, the first mashing heat should be as low as practicable; that is, so as just to avoid acidity in the wort, which is apt to be produced by a very low heat of the liquor. Hence 160º or 165º may be the first heat, and from 10º to 15º may be added for the second, if there be but two mashes, and 10º each if there be three. Thus if the first heat be 160º, and you find no tendency to acidity in the last running of the worts, then these rules may be observed; but if there should be a little acidity discernible, it were advisable to make the increase 4° or 5° more for the subsequent mashes, and on brewing another gyle of the same sort, from the same malt, it were best to begin at 165°, and then observe these rules for the next mashings.

§ 2.—Time of Infusion.

If the heat of the liquor be very low, the time of infusion should be somewhat less than that allowed for mild ale. Therefore, two, or two and a half hours may be allowed for the first mash, and one hour for each of the rest.

§ 3.—Quantity of Hops, and time of boiling.

The general rule for hops is one pound per bushel of malt; but if it be intended that the ale should retain its mildness to a very distant period (which by the bye is to answer a very useless purpose), a larger portion of hops must be used, agreeably to the intention of the brewer.

The boiling is regulated by time, as the nicety of flavour is not such a requisite in this as in mild ale. In two worts the boiling may be from an hour to an hour and a half for the first, and two or two and a half hours for the second; in three worts, the first may boil one hour, the second an hour and a half, and the last two or two and a half hours.

§ 4.—Quantity of Yeast, and mode of Fermentation.

If the first heat of fermentation be not below 60º, and the gravity not much more than thirty pounds, provided the air be temperate, the quantity of yeast must be from two to two and a half pounds per barrel, applied in the manner as directed for mild ale. If the heat be lower, the specific gravity more, or the heat of the atmosphere less, the quantity of yeast must be increased in proportion; in doing of which, no great inconvenience can arise from applying a few pounds too much, but it may occasion an imperfect fermentation if there be a few pounds too little.

The heat of the fermentation should not exceed 75º at the highest, but rest between that and 70º, though the nearer 75° the better will be the flavour of the ale at an early period; and as a low heat of mashing is conducive to a great increase in the heat of fermentation, it will thence be evident that the fermentation for ale, whose average gravity is thirty pounds, must begin at or below 60 , and the precautions before recommended respecting the yeast, must be particularly attended to. The mode of conducting the fermentation, and the criterion for cleansing, being the same with those directed for mild ale, a repetition here would be superfluous.

I, however, recommend a more strict adherence to the rules for cleansing, before inculcated in this process, than in that for mild ale, because the first heat being lower, a greater time is necessary to bring the fermentation to perfection, and secure the future good flavour of the ale. It may be here observed that this sort will generally require finings."
"The art of brewing" by David Booth, 1829, pages 43 - 44. (Copy of text from Richardson's "Philosophical Principles of the Science of Brewing." 1798.)

One important point before we continue. It's about Ale, Mild and Old. Old Ale was not simply Mild Ale that had been aged. Old Ale was brewed to be aged, While it might well have used the same basic recipe as a Mild Ale, it would have been tweaked - principally in the quantity of hops used - to help it keeping qualities. Just thought I'd make that crystal clear.

Here there's a difference in the process for the Old Ale. Specifically, it's mashed cooler. I can't think of an reason for doing that myself, but I'm sure there must be one. The mashing scheme, with two or three separate mashes, is very 18th century. Though, in England, brewers continued to mash several times well into the 19th century. And yes, I do have an example. Two, in fact. a XXX and a XXXK from Truman from 1831. XXX being a Mild Ale and XXXK a Stock, or Old Ale. Let's take a look:

	XXX	XXX	XXXK
1st mash	177º	178º	176.5º
2nd mash	184º	185º	185º
3rd mash	183º

Doesn't look to me as if the Keeping version was mashed any differently. And neither is anything like as cool as Richardson's recommendation.

A pound of hops per bushel is 8lbs per quarter. How does that compare with some real beers? In 1837, Whitbread's KXXX was hopped at 7.64 lbs per barrel, KXXXX at 8.06 lbs. About exactly the same. The Truman XXX from above was hopped at 8 lbs per quarter, the XXXK at 14 lbs per quarter. Rather more than Richardson suggests.

The fermentation temperatures look about right: pitching at around 60º F and letting the temperature rise no higher than about 75º F. That's very similar to how Whitbread fermented their Ales in the 1830's. Their Porters, on the other hand, they fermented warmer: pitched at 63-64º F, rising to about 80º F.

30 pounds gravity is 1083º. Which, in the 1830's, would have been an XX Ale, on the scale of 1 to 4 X's. Not particularly strong.

I was surprised that finings were needed. I thought one of the points of ageing beer was to allow it to drop bright spontaneously.

Truman's Ales (part 3): 1860 - 1861

This is fun, isn't it? Going through Truman's Ales decade by decade. Who needs TV, when you've got entertainment like this?


What's fun about these numbers? Well,you can see that the gravities have dropped. X Ale was 1078 in 1850, but just 1067 in 1860. 40/- Ale fell from 1084 to 1077, XXX from 1106 to 1087. That's quite a sharp decrease. Exactly why and when, I don't know.

What are the usual culprits for gravity drops? War and taxation. Or rising costs.

For once, tax seems to have played no part. The malt tax (there was no tax on beer per se between 1830 and 1880) was steady at 2s 7d a bushel. To give you some idea what that meant, brewing a 36 gallon barrel of Porter of 1056º required two bushels of malt. So about five bob tax per barrel. Whereas before 1830 the excise duty on a barrel of Porter was ten shillings.

The price of malt could be the key. You know me. I have numbers coming out of my ears. Not for the price of bloody malt, though. I need to get myself an older Brewers' Almanack. I only have these figures:

1820 58s per quarter (approx. 336 pounds)
1857 42s
1860 36s

Doesn't look like malt was getting more expensive.

War? There was the Crimean in the 1850's. But no tax increase.

I'm a bit stumped. There's only one last thing I can think of. That the price breweries charged for a barrel of beer fell. Haven't got time to check up on that now. I've already missed my tea and the Simpson's has just started.

Truman's Ales 1850-1851

A promised, more crazily-strong Truman Ales from the 19th century.

Beers made stronger for Export? Take a look below. The second-weakest beer is Export Ale. I have a suspicion where the idea that export beers were stronger came from. After WW I. I've found plenty of export beers in the logs in the 1920's and 1930's. They have the gravities of pre-1914 beers. Brewers continued to make the old-style beers for foreign markets as they weren't liable for UK tax.

Guinness, that's a good example. Until 1916 Extra Stout and Foreign Extra Stout had the same OG: 1074. FES is still about the same, while Extra Stout is a puny 1042 or so. (How can you have a Stout with a gravity below 1055? Guinness Extra Stout is a travesty and doesn't deserve to be called Stout.)


Oh yes, note that the Pale Ale was the weakest beer at 1067. Not very popular, either. There were only a couple of brews a year. X Ale, the ordinary Mild of the day, was an impressive 1078. As the 19th century progressed, the gravity of X Ale dropped to 1055, but Pale Ale stayed much the same, at about 1065.

Truman Ales part one: 1831 - 1841

I told you this week was Truman week. It's exciting, isn't it? I'm going to kick off with an overview of Truman's Ales in the middle of the 19th century.

It's funny how beer styles develop over time. Go back 150 years and the relationships between the styles is often quite different. Especially when you look at Mild (a beer where "Alcohol content is traditionally very low"). Odd word, "traditional". Very vague, don't you think? It refers to a practice that was common at some unspecified period in the past.

If "traditional" covers the years 1940 to 1980, then the assessment of Mild being very low in alcohol isn't far from the mark. Go back any further than 1914 and it's utter and complete bollocks. As you'll see from the tables below. The weakest Mild brewed by Truman in the period I cover had a gravity of 1066. I don't think that counts as exceptionally weak in anyone's books. Certainly not mine.


In the 1830's, Truman brewed a wide range of K and X Ales, which varied in strength from strong to bloody strong. The equivalent K and X Ales, for example XX and XXK had similar gravities (though the K version's was usually a touch higher). Their main difference was the hopping rate, which was 50-100% greater in the K Ale.

One other point of interest. Take a look at when the K Ales were brewed. In the table above they were all brewed in March. One of the traditional times for the brewing of Strong Ales.


By 1840, little had changed, except that a new beer had been introduced , 40/- Ale. Now you shouldn't start getting confused by thinking of Scotland. Prior go adopting the use of the X and K system, English breweries had also used the retail price per hogshead as a way of indicating the relative strengths of their different beers.

Table Beer is intriguing, too. Did they really give it to kids? With gravities of 1049 and 1058 neither was exactly watery. They weren't brewing a great deal of Table Beer, squeezing some out of the later runnings of stronger beers every now and again.

You'll note again that all the K Ales but one were brewed in February, March or April. Very traditional.

Don't worry. I've not finished yet. Still more lovely OG charts to come.

Truman's Ales 1831-1832

This week I finally ordered into directories the remaining photos from my last archive visit. A load of Truman's Ale logs from the 19th century. I thought I may as well take a look at them while I was fiddling around.

I've not spent much time on Truman's logs. Especially the Ale ones. There are a couple of reasons why. Most obvious is that I hadn't photographed many until recently. And their 20th century logs are a nightmare to understand. I can't even work out what type of beer most of them are for. The handwriting is often a problem, too. They only seem to have employed brewers with scruffy handwriting. Some entries are little more than squiggles.

Rather than attempt extracting everything from the logs, I've just gone for OG and hopping rate. For a couple of reasons. Most important of which is that I don't properly understand the mashing details. Boiling is easy. The logs don't give any details at all. Ingredients? Pale malt and hops. Not much to say about those. Occasionally there's a bit more, like EK or white malt. But not often.

In this period, Truman's naming convention was simplicity itself. A number of X's with sometimes a K stuck on the end. Except for Table Beer.


As you can see, they weren't brewing a great deal of session beer. Even the Table Beer had a gravity of about 1040. Take a good look at those OG's. Now think about IPA. Remember that old wives tale about IPA being a strong beer? Take a look at the table below. To be extra fair, I've only included IPA's that were exported to India.


The strongest IPA had a gravity of just 1070. That's weaker than every single Truman Ale, with the exception of the Table Beer. Which was the stuff they let their toddlers drink. Anyone out there still think IPA was a strong Beer? I bet there are. No amount of facts will persuade some geeks that what they believe is fantasy.

Getting back to the real topic of this post, what does the first table tell us? Firstly, that Truman had two parallel ranges of Ales. Those with a "K" suffix and those without. I don't think that I'm going out on a limb when I say it stands for "Keeping". The difference between the K Ales and the straight X equivalent is mostly the hopping. The grists, basically just pale malt, are the same for all the Ales.

X, with 4.5 lbs to 7 lbs of hops per quarter of malt, was the least heavily hopped. No surprise there. (The one with 14 lbs per quarter was party-gyled with XXXX, before you ask.) XX and XXX were both hopped at between 6 and 8 lbs per quarter, a pretty typical figure for the period. XXK had 10 lbs of hops per quarter and XXXK 14 lbs. XXXX was hopped at 10 lbs per quarter, XXXXK 14 lbs per quarter.

Gravities start in the low 1070's for X and go over 1100 for the strongest. It's pretty hard to equate such powerful beers with modern Mild.

If you're lucky, there will be more Truman archive Ale fun tomorrow. That's if I don't overindulge in cask Fuller's ESB tonight.