Cairnes Single Stout hops

Over to the hops. At the start of the period, Cairnes used exclusively foreign hops in their Single Stout. Either from Oregon or Belgium. That all changed in the middle of the year.

When English hops appear. There were still Oregon hops, but they were getting older as they all remained from the 1915 harvest. The reason is obvious: imports of American hops dried up. Once the war was over, large quantities of fresher American hops came into the mix. Though there were still some English hops used.

Let’s see how Fullers use of hops compared.

There’s a similar pattern to at Cairnes, where new foreign hops disappear in 1916. Though, in this case, rather than American hops they were Belgian and Germany. After that, it’s all English hops until after war’s end. When lots of French and American hops appear.

“MK”, obviously, stands for Mid-Kent. Not really sure what “B” means. I can’t think of a type of hops that starts with the letter “B”, other than Belgian.

Cairnes Single Stout hops 1914 - 1923
Date	Year	hop 1	hop 2	hop 3	hop 4
1st Jan	1914	Oregon 1912	Belgium old
1st Sep	1914	Oregon 1913	Oregon no date	Oregon 1912
7th Jan	1915	Oregon 1913	Oregon 1913	Oregon 1907
2nd Oct	1916	Oregon 1915	English 1915	Poperinge 1915
3rd May	1917	Oregon 1915	English 1916
7th Jun	1917	Oregon 1915	English 1916
1st Nov	1917	Oregon 1915	English 1916
3rd Jan	1918	Oregon 1915	English 1916
2nd May	1918	Oregon 1915	English 1916
3rd Oct	1918	Oregon 1915	English 1916	English 1917
3rd Feb	1919	Oregon 1915	English 1917
2nd Oct	1919	English 1917	English 1918	Pacifics no date
1st Jan	1920	Oregon 1918	English 1917	English 1918	old Pacifics
15th Apr	1920	Oregon 1918	English 1918
4th Oct	1920	Oregon 1918	Oregon 1919	English 1919
3rd Oct	1921	Oregon 1918	Oregon 1919	English 1919	English 1920
2nd Feb	1922	Sonoma 1920	English 1917	English 1920
1st Jan	1923	English 1921	English 1921	English 1921
Sources:
Cairnes brewing records held at the Guinness archives, document numbers GDB/SUB/0022 and GDB/BR17/1257.

 

Fullers Porter hops 1914 - 1925
Date	Year	hop 1	hop 2	hop 3	hop 4	hop 5
18th Nov	1914	MK 1913	Poperinge 1913	Hallertau 1912	Farnham 1913	Tolhurst 1914
17th Feb	1915	Poperinge 1913	B 1913	MK 1913	Tolhurst 1913
2nd Jun	1916	Tolhurst 1915	MK 1914	Farnham 1914
4th Aug	1916	Tolhurst 1915	MK 1914	B 1914	old hops
12th Apr	1917	MK 1915	B 1915
9th Aug	1917	No. 2 B 1915	Tolhurst 1916	MK 1916
5th Jan	1918	MK 1916	Tolhuirst 1916
19th Apr	1918	Farnham 1916	MK 1916
14th Jan	1919	MK 1917	Poperinge 1914
10th Feb	1920	Alsace 1917	Alsace 1919	Sonoma 1916	Oregon
16th Jun	1925	Pacifics 1922	English 1923	English 1924
Source:
Fullers brewing records held at the brewery.

 

Cairnes Single Stout sugars 1914 - 1923

Moving on to the sugars, this is where Fullers and Cairnes really diverge. At the start of the war, Cairnes Single Stout had a little under 9% sugar, in the form of glucose. In 1916, that disappears in 1916, and for the rest of the war there’s no sugar at all. Sugar does reappear in 1920, but only in the form of caramel.

Things at Fullers were way, way more complicated. Over the war years, they employed seven different types of sugar. Though in any single brew there were never more than three.

The most popular sugars were glucose and something called Special Dark. I’m guessing that the latter was some sort of dark invert sugar. The quantity used was pretty high at the start and the end of the period covered by the table. I assume restrictions on the supply of sugar was responsible for the drastic reduction in the quantity during the war years.

At Fullers, the proportion of sugar in the grist was far higher than at Cairnes. Starting at over 25%. Even in the most difficult later war years, the amount never fell lower than 6.5%. And for most of the time was well over 10%.

Fullers also used way more caramel, varying between 3% and 7.5%. While at Cairnes it went from zero to a maximum of 2%.

While at Cairnes, even at the start of the war, sugar was less than 10% of the grist. From 1916 on, that was reduced to zero. And, other than caramel, no sugar was used after WW I. 

Cairnes Single Stout grists 1914 - 1923
Date	Year	pale malt	roast barley	flaked maize	glucose	caramel
1st Jan	1914	74.45%	6.50%	9.93%	8.82%	0.30%
1st Sep	1914	70.03%	7.74%	13.34%	8.89%
7th Jan	1915	71.37%	7.22%	12.69%	8.72%
2nd Oct	1916	79.62%	7.11%	13.27%
3rd May	1917	79.62%	7.11%	13.27%
7th Jun	1917	87.83%	6.84%	5.32%
1st Nov	1917	87.83%	6.84%	5.32%
3rd Jan	1918	86.70%	6.88%	6.42%
2nd May	1918	91.17%	6.74%	2.10%
3rd Oct	1918	93.33%	6.67%
3rd Feb	1919	93.33%	6.67%
2nd Oct	1919	85.42%	7.46%	7.12%
1st Jan	1920	89.05%	7.66%	3.30%
15th Apr	1920	87.33%	7.37%	5.29%
4th Oct	1920	81.76%	8.54%	9.28%		0.41%
3rd Oct	1921	95.33%	3.91%			0.76%
2nd Feb	1922	76.04%	10.18%	12.64%		1.13%
1st Jan	1923	89.36%	8.51%			2.13%
Sources:
Cairnes brewing records held at the Guinness archives, document numbers GDB/SUB/0022 and GDB/BR17/1257.

Fullers Porter sugars 1914 - 1925
Date	Year	glucose	invert	Special Dark	cane sugar	Dark Trivert	Porteris	caramel	total sugar
18th Nov	1914	11.34%		12.60%				3.30%	27.25%
17th Feb	1915	3.83%				9.56%		2.91%	16.30%
2nd Jun	1916						15.84%	6.15%	21.99%
4th Aug	1916			4.90%				3.85%	8.75%
12th Apr	1917	3.44%		6.89%				3.59%	13.92%
9th Aug	1917			1.25%	1.25%			3.92%	6.42%
5th Jan	1918			2.35%	2.35%			3.69%	8.39%
19th Apr	1918	8.59%		4.30%	8.59%			4.42%	25.90%
14th Jan	1919	5.69%	5.69%					7.57%	18.94%
10th Feb	1920				6.92%			4.89%	11.81%
16th Jun	1925			13.50%				4.80%	18.31%
Source:
Fullers brewing records held at the brewery.

Cairnes Single Stout grists 1914 – 1923

A Cairnes Special Export Irish Stout label

Back to work, eh? Looking at all the the nutty bolty stuff.

I always try to have a purpose behind all my posts. Usually, that's a book. Either it's part of my research for a book, an excerpt or a recipe that's going into a book. Which is where the Irish material I'm going through throw up a problem. What book is it going in?

The most obvious - and simple - solution would be to start a book called "Ireland!". That would make a lot of sense. But I'm not going to do it. No, not just to be awkward or contrary. I don't feel that I know enough to start on it. My mind is full of unanswered questions about Irish brewing. Far too early to be confident about writing a book about it.

Perhaps I'll feel differently when I've finished going through all the brewing records I photographed earlier this year. Or maybe not. I only got about halfway through the Murphy's records. And I wouldn't mind looking at the ones of Beamish & Crawford, too.

Before I started writing my series of books on UK brewing, I'd already completed a huge amount of the research. All that was left, was filling in a few holes. Nothing that affected the overall picture. I'm far away from that situation when it comes to Ireland.

If you can remember my earlier question, stuff like this is being stored as a future update. In this case, to "Armistice!". Not totally sure where I'd put it. I'm sure I'll be able to find some way of hammering it in. Ireland probably deserves its own chapter, at least. With the restrictions being different there.

Now let’s look at what went into Cairnes Single Stout.  It’s not particularly complicated. Especially when we compare it with Fullers Porter.

Only three elements graced the mash tun: pale malt, roast barley and flaked maize. Which is pretty minimal. And the last of those three wasn’t omnipresent, disappearing for a while in 1918 and 1919. The quantity used having already been drastically reduced.

Interestingly, the percentage of malt increased quite a lot in 1917, coinciding with the reduction and then elimination of flaked maize. This was presumably a reaction to supply difficulties with maize as the German U-boat campaign hotted up.

The proportion of roast barley remained very constant at around 7%, other than for a bit of a wobble in the early 1920s, when it dropped as low as 4% and then shot up to 10%. Not sure why that was.

Looking at Fullers grists, there are some similar patterns. Though their recipes were way more complicated.

There were three malts, the classic London combination of pale, brown and black malt. Though the total amount is similar to at Cairnes, starting at around 70%, rising to a peak of over 90% in 1917.  This was presumably in response to restrictions in supply of maize and sugar.

Which brings us to flaked maize. It kicks off the war at a much lower level than at Cairnes, just a little under 3%. And, just as at Cairnes, it disappears in the later war years.

The other adjunct, oats, appears in tiny quantities, purely for legal purposes so that some of the Stout it was parti-gyled with could be sold as Oatmeal Stout. The larger quantities which appear in 1918 were in the form of oat husks. Not sure if they would get any extract out of those. But why else would they be used?

Cairnes Single Stout grists 1914 - 1923
Date	Year	pale malt	roast barley	flaked maize	glucose	caramel
1st Jan	1914	74.45%	6.50%	9.93%	8.82%	0.30%
1st Sep	1914	70.03%	7.74%	13.34%	8.89%
7th Jan	1915	71.37%	7.22%	12.69%	8.72%
2nd Oct	1916	79.62%	7.11%	13.27%
3rd May	1917	79.62%	7.11%	13.27%
7th Jun	1917	87.83%	6.84%	5.32%
1st Nov	1917	87.83%	6.84%	5.32%
3rd Jan	1918	86.70%	6.88%	6.42%
2nd May	1918	91.17%	6.74%	2.10%
3rd Oct	1918	93.33%	6.67%
3rd Feb	1919	93.33%	6.67%
2nd Oct	1919	85.42%	7.46%	7.12%
1st Jan	1920	89.05%	7.66%	3.30%
15th Apr	1920	87.33%	7.37%	5.29%
4th Oct	1920	81.76%	8.54%	9.28%		0.41%
3rd Oct	1921	95.33%	3.91%			0.76%
2nd Feb	1922	76.04%	10.18%	12.64%		1.13%
1st Jan	1923	89.36%	8.51%			2.13%
Sources:
Cairnes brewing records held at the Guinness archives, document numbers GDB/SUB/0022 and GDB/BR17/1257.

Fullers Porter grists 1914 - 1925
Date	Year	pale malt	brown malt	black malt	total malt	flaked maize	oats	total adjuncts
18th Nov	1914	53.88%	11.34%	3.78%	69.00%	2.84%	0.91%	3.75%
17th Feb	1915	60.25%	12.91%	6.46%	79.62%	3.59%	0.49%	4.08%
2nd Jun	1916	52.53%	12.51%	8.76%	73.80%	3.75%	0.46%	4.21%
4th Aug	1916	60.06%	14.71%	11.03%	85.80%	4.90%	0.55%	5.45%
12th Apr	1917	58.54%	13.77%	8.61%	80.92%	5.16%		5.16%
9th Aug	1917	67.38%	14.97%	11.23%	93.58%			0.00%
5th Jan	1918	61.66%	14.09%	10.57%	86.33%		5.29%	5.29%
19th Apr	1918	45.10%	11.28%	8.05%	64.44%		9.67%	9.67%
14th Jan	1919	59.73%	12.80%	8.53%	81.06%			0.00%
10th Feb	1920	59.66%	12.97%	9.08%	81.70%	6.48%		6.48%
16th Jun	1925	64.15%		8.44%	72.59%	8.44%	0.66%	9.10%
Source:
Fullers brewing records held at the brewery.

 

 

Brewing in WW II (part five)

We're still on grains. But I promise we'll get onto a more exciting topic soon. Like hops. You young people love you your hops. Not like us boring old twats.

This is great. The article discusses the increased use of unmalted grains during the war. Why is that brilliant? Because I have some great numbers on brewing materials. Ones I've been saving until now.

"The use of flaked barley became general quite early in the war as a malt adjunct, and as no restriction was placed on its use it helped to increase output. It was found to be readily converted in the mash tun and, as time has proved, when not used in excess, has had no directly deleterious effect on the beers, although it was not used at first without some misgivings on the part of the brewer. It increases the bulk of the mash, however, and when output was of so much moment some brewers replaced it by finely ground barley without any noticeable difference (cf. J. L. Baker, ibid., 1942, 109). Although a small proportion of the nitrogen constituents of flaked barley are rendered soluble in the mash tun it contributes but little yeast feeding material to the wort and therefore acts as a diluent to that contributed by the malt. This was a drawback in those breweries whose average gravity was low, although it certainly helped to correct and reduce the difficulties consequent on the use of poor quality malts."
Journal of the Institute of Brewing Volume 52, Issue 3, May-June, 1946, page 121.

There were two reasons why the government was keen on using unmalted barley: it saved on both fuel and labour. You can see how the usage of adjuncts increased during the war years:

Brewing materials (cwt)
year	malt		unmalted corn		rice, maize, etc		sugar		total malt & adjuncts
1938	9,378,888	78.31%	14,194	0.12%	688,086	5.75%	1,894,773	15.82%	11,975,941
1939	9,884,803	78.35%	9,910	0.08%	734,771	5.82%	1,986,478	15.75%	12,615,962
1940	9,857,838	83.81%	7,912	0.07%	363,588	3.09%	1,532,776	13.03%	11,762,114
1941	10,988,413	86.90%	11,897	0.09%	246,757	1.95%	1,397,642	11.05%	12,644,709
1942	10,918,102	85.54%	52,646	0.41%	382,207	2.99%	1,411,422	11.06%	12,764,377
1943	10,287,322	79.34%	40,592	0.31%	1,238,183	9.55%	1,400,573	10.80%	12,966,670
1944	10,621,168	78.88%	143,183	1.06%	1,241,121	9.22%	1,458,647	10.83%	13,464,119
1945	10,435,212	75.63%	245,751	1.78%	1,332,032	9.65%	1,784,064	12.93%	13,797,059
1946	9,976,998	76.53%	137,750	1.06%	1,132,748	8.69%	1,790,021	13.73%	13,037,517
1947	9,454,253	80.37%	92,974	0.79%	614,335	5.22%	1,601,186	13.61%	11,762,748
Source:
Brewers' Almanack 1955, page 62.

By the 1944 and 1945, the proportion of unmalted adjuncts was around 10% of the total - about double what it had been in 1938. While sugar fell from around 15% of the total pre-war to 10%. While the amount of malt itself increased in the middle war years. By the look of it to compensate for a reduction in the amount of sugar available.

But brewers were later forced to use an even less popular ingredient: flaked oats

"Early in 1943, when the shipping position became difficult owing to the intensified U boat activity, barley was required for use in bread, and brewers were asked to replace flaked barley by flaked oats, but there were some misgivings about its use on account of its high fat content. A series of investigations was carried out to prove its suitability in order to satisfy brewers that they could be used with safety; 10 per cent, was considered a safe maximum. Owing to its huskiness flaked oats had the advantage of improving drainage in the mash tun, although, owing to its bulkiness, those brewers working with a full mash tun found it to be a disadvantage. A bad oat harvest in the following year, however, caused its use in brewing to be discontinued. The Ministry of Food then suggested that flaked oats might be replaced by dried potatoes, the drying plants in beet sugar factories used for drying the exhausted beet slices being utilized for this purpose. Investigations carried out with potatoes dried in this manner, however, proved them to be quite unsuitable for use in brewing owing to the unpleasant flavour imparted to the beer, and as the anticipated surplus of potatoes did not materialize, flaked barley was again used to replace flaked oats, and has continued up to the present time."
Journal of the Institute of Brewing Volume 52, Issue 3, May-June, 1946, page 121.

Potatoes have been used in brewing. I've published a 19th-century recipe for potato Broyhan. So it is possible. I wonder if the Broyhan also suffered from a nasty flavour?

It's easiest to see the move to unmalted grains at Whitbread, because before the war they used no adjuncts, only malt and sugar. The first sighting of flaked barley is on 10th October 1941 in a brew of XX Mild Ale*. Significantly, IPA and PA brewed a few days later contained none. On 28th May 1942, in addition to flaked barley, barley meal and flaked rye is in the grists**. By now the adjuncts are in all Whitbread's beers.

In April 1943 flaked oats replaces all the other adjuncts***. The in February 1944 Whitbread switched back to using flaked barley****. You can see that Whitbread had little control over their grists but had adjunct them according to government policy and which raw materials were available.

Whitbread also occasionally used wheat malt. These tables should give a good impression of the decisions Whitbread had forced on them during the war years:

Whitbread Mild Ale 1938 - 1947
Date	Year	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)	Pitch temp
25th Feb	1938	X	1035.3	1010.0	3.35	71.67%	7.44	1.11	1.25	1.25	65º
26th Sep	1939	X	1033.9	1010.5	3.10	69.03%	8.27	1.11	1.25	1	65º
25th Apr	1940	X	1033.5	1008.5	3.31	74.63%	8.12	1.12	1.25	1	65º
20th Nov	1940	XX	1031.1	1010.0	2.79	67.85%	8.42	1.07	1.17	0.75	66º
10th Oct	1941	XX	1031.2	1009.0	2.94	71.15%	6.38	0.76	1.25	1.25	65º
30th Jan	1942	XX	1029.1	1007.5	2.86	74.23%	5.84	0.75	1	1	65º
30th May	1942	XX	1028.4	1007.0	2.83	75.35%	6.19	0.75	1	1	65º
5th Apr	1943	XX	1027.8	1008.0	2.62	71.22%	6.07	0.76	1	1.25	65º
22nd Feb	1944	XX	1028.5	1009.0	2.58	68.42%	5.79	0.69	1	0.75	65º
4th Apr	1945	XX	1028.2	1009.0	2.54	68.09%	5.63	0.70	1	0.75	65º
12th Sep	1946	XX	1027.3	1008.0	2.55	70.70%	6.02	0.71	1	1	65º
3rd Jan	1947	XX	1027.5	1005.5	2.91	80.00%	6.02	0.68	1	0.75	65º
Sources:
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/105, LMA/4453/D/01/107, LMA/4453/D/01/108, LMA/4453/D/01/109, LMA/4453/D/01/110, LMA/4453/D/01/111, LMA/4453/D/01/112, LMA/4453/D/01/114.

Whitbread Mild Ale grists 1938 - 1947
Date	Year	Beer	OG	pale malt	crystal malt	MA malt	PA malt	no. 3 sugar	other sugar	wheat malt	flaked barley	barley meal	flaked rye	flaked oat
25th Feb	1938	X	1035.3	72.97%	12.46%			13.05%	1.52%
26th Sep	1939	X	1033.9	75.73%	13.59%			9.06%	1.62%
25th Apr	1940	X	1033.5	24.30%	13.08%	54.21%		4.98%	1.56%	1.87%
20th Nov	1940	XX	1031.1	81.42%	11.63%				6.95%
10th Oct	1941	XX	1031.2	65.39%	11.98%	4.99%	4.99%		5.66%	2.00%	4.99%
30th Jan	1942	XX	1029.1		12.02%	68.11%		4.01%	1.84%	2.00%	12.02%
30th May	1942	XX	1028.4	46.32%	12.63%	16.84%		5.61%	1.75%	2.11%	8.42%	1.05%	5.26%
5th Apr	1943	XX	1027.8	9.28%	10.31%	55.67%		5.50%	1.72%					17.53%
22nd Feb	1944	XX	1028.5		10.45%	71.08%		4.18%	1.74%		12.54%
4th Apr	1945	XX	1028.2		7.38%	62.21%		9.84%	3.70%		16.87%
12th Sep	1946	XX	1027.3		7.85%	75.14%		10.47%	2.06%		4.49%
3rd Jan	1947	XX	1027.5		7.79%	81.26%		8.91%	2.04%
Sources:
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/105, LMA/4453/D/01/107, LMA/4453/D/01/108, LMA/4453/D/01/109, LMA/4453/D/01/110, LMA/4453/D/01/111, LMA/4453/D/01/112, LMA/4453/D/01/114.

There's only one constant in the grist: crystal malt. Not even mild malt and No. 3 invert sugar, staples of Dark Mild brewing, appear in every beer. When things were starting to get back to normal in 1947, Whitbread reverted to a grist of base malt, crystal malt and sugar.

Next time the excitement begins. We'll be looking at hops.







* Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/01/108.
** Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/01/109.
*** Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/01/110.
**** Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/01/111.