Brewers not for sale 1919 - 1936

Another look at brewers not for sale. It should be lots of fun.

The big surprise here is the massive revival in these licences. At the end of WW I, the number had fallen below 2,000. But by the end of the 1920s, there were more than in 1900, peaking at over 13,000.

It's also fascinating to see a big increase in the licences in Scotland. From nothing, to over 1,000. In 1900, just 127 licences were issued in Scotland. Proportionally way less than in England. Remember that Scotland had about 10% of the population of England. But, by 1936, around 25% of the licences were in Scotland. And continuing to increase, unlike in England.

I suspect that home-brewing might have collapsed at the end of WW I when ingredients became difficult, if not impossible, to obtain. After a couple of years of peace, not-for-sale licences were way above the 1914 level of 4,522. And continued to steadily increase until 1928. After which there was a steady decline. Though still well above the immediate pre-WW I level.

Now not everyone holding a licence was necessarily brewing. On the other hand, there were almost certainly some brewing without bothering with a licence. There probably were 10,000 or so not-for-sale brewers between the wars. 

I'd love to know something about these brewers. What did they brew? What equipment did they have? How much did they brew? I've never seen any information about this group. If you have any, please let me know. It's a beer culture that seems to have been totally forgotten about.

Brewers not for sale 1919 - 1936
Year	Eng.	Scot.	G.B.
1919	1,876	3	1,879
1920	2,998	1	2,999
1921	6,174		6,174
1922	7,069		7,069
1923	8,028	40	8,068
1924	9,423	409	9,832
1925	8,991	476	9,467
1926	10,869	618	11,487
1927	11,427	751	12,178
1928	12,257	842	13,099
1929	11,878	1,044	12,922
1930	11,437	1,076	12,513
1931	11,462	1,088	12,550
1932	10,033	1,106	11,139
1933	10,141	1,135	11,276
1934	9,549	1,197	10,746
1935	8,906	1,264	10,170
1936	8,502	1,265	9,767
Source:
"Drink in Great Britain 1900 - 1979", by Gwylmor Prys Williams and George Thompson Brake, 1980, page 367.

 

 

A unique opportunity

To pick up a signed copy of my properly published book. The Home Brewer's Guide to Vintage Beer.

It took me ages to get hold of new copies. Not my fault. All the publisher's. And Brexit. Not quite true. The latter just made it more expensive.

Compared to the price of a second-hand copy, this is a total bargain. Don't miss out. As I might not be arsed to go through the whole ordering drama again.

Buy a signed paperback edition of the Home Brewer's Guide to Vintage Beer. For the USA, Canada, Australia and other locations outside Europe.

Buy a signed paperback edition of the Homebrewer's Guide to Vintage Beer. For locations inside Europe.

 

Looking back (part eleven): home brewing

Home brewing was very big in the 1970s. Not because drinkers wanted to recreate exotic brews they'd tried on their travels, No. The reason was much more prosaic. Price. People just wanted cheap beer.

Despite what some might tell you, home brewing was never illegal in the UK. It just required a licence. It was pretty easy to avoid paying for a licence, if you put in a bit of effort. But, even as late as 1960, over 1,000 such licences were issued. In 1963 such licences were abolished, meaning home brewers no longer technically needed to buy a brewing licence.

"Until 1963 there were two kinds of brewers’ licences: that for a Brewer-for-Sale and that for Brewers other than Brewers-for-Sale, e.g., farmers brewing for their own and their employees’ consumption. The latter were abolished (with some small exceptions) in 1963."
"1971 Brewers' Almanack", page 64.

Of course, home brewers were included in this group, too. In some parts of the UK, notably the West Midlands, home brewing remained popular well into the 20th century. I wonder how many farmer were still brewing for their own use in the 1960s? Do any still brew today? This was a very long tradition and, at the start of the 19th century, such domestic brewers accounted for a considerable percentage of beer brewed in the UK. Particularly in England.

Me and my brother started brewing around 1972. We kicked off in the classic way: buying Geordie beer kits from Boots. I'm not sure why, but Boots was the main source of home brewing ingredients and kit. Any decent-sized branch had a section dedicated to home brewing.

We shifted through the gears quite quickly. Moving from kits to buying malt extract, hops and grains to steep. But malt extract always leaves a strange tang. The best extract beers we brewed were Stouts where the roast from steeped grains covered up the funny taste.

Soon we moved up another level. One of the classic pieces of kit for early all-grain brewers was a burco boiler. Intended for washing clothes, it was easily converted to use as a mash tun. With a plastic dustbin as fermenter, we were fully kitted out.

Initially, we bottled everything. In the old returnable half-pint and pint bottles. Onto which we hammered crown corks. Quite a lot of work. We were always careful to ferment all the way out in primary, then add sugar to each bottle for secondary fermentation.

The range of ingredients available was pretty limited. It wasn't too mad with malt. You could get pale, crystal, chocolate and black malt. Hops were much worse. Mostly not sold by variety, but just as generic "hops". From what I can recall, they seemed to be, logically enough, English types. Probably mostly Fuggles or similar.

The yeast sold at Boots was similarly vague in origin. But there was a way of getting commercial yeast. The simplest to acquire was Guinness, as it was bottle-conditioned at the time. Just drink most of the bottle, then top up the dregs with malt extract or sugar and a little water. Stick some cotton wool in the neck and leave it in the airing cupboard for a few days. Hey presto, lovely yeast for pitching.

And Guinness yeast was really good. It was easy to get a started going and it fermented really well. One of the best yeasts I've ever used.

Another source of commercial yeast was cask beer. All you needed was a lemonade bottle and a funnel. Buy a pint of cask beer in the pub, decant it into the pop bottle. When you get home, add half a teaspoon of sugar and wait a couple of days. When a layer of yeast sediment had developed and the beer was carbonated, you could drink the beer and then make a yeast starter from the dregs.

After a while, we got hold of a five gallon cider barrel. Off-licences often used to sell draught cider back in those days, served from such a small plastic barrel. It made life much easier, doing away with all that bottling mess. Though you needed to drink the beer fairly quickly. A week to ten days was about the longest it would last.

I can remember having a barrel of Mild my brother brought up to Leeds towards the end of my first year at university. The very hot summer of 1976. We sat drinking glasses of iced Mild on the balcony of my student flat in North Hill Court.

We also took advantage of Newark being a brewing and malting town. My brother got hold of a sack of pale and a sack of mild malt from one of the maltsers. And from Courage we bought half a dozen wooden firkins at some ludicrously knock-down price.

We were all kitted up, finally. We just had to drink nine gallons in a week or so. Not such a problem, as we brewed session-strength beers, mostly. 

Brewing licences 1881 - 1969
Year ending 31st March	Brewers for sale		Other brewers - not for sale	Total
	No.	Duty paid £
1881	16,798	16,798	71,876	88,674
1890	11,364	11,364	25,281	36,645
1900	6,447	6,447	12,734	19,181
1910	4,512	382,253	7,006	11,518
1920	2,914	226,745	2,999	5,913
1930	1,418	228,146	12,513	13,931
1932	1,286	205,291	11,139	12,425
1934	1,197	151,338	10,746	11,943
1935	1,144	161,461	10,170	11,314
1936	1,103	173,011	9,767	10,870
1937	1,027	177,319	8,345	9,372
1938	946	188,138	7,791	8,737
1939	885	194,751	7,081	7,966
1940	840	205,567	8,115	6,955
1941	810	198,952	5,349	6,159
1942	788	225,486	5,120	5,908
1943	757	237,040	4,234	4,991
1944	741	239,638	4,024	4,765
1945	703	249,637	3,734	4,437
1946	680	255,863	3,512	4,192
1947	648	248,690	3,224	3,872
1948	625	240,265	3,073	3,698
1949	602	229,913	2,998	3,600
1950	567	212,902	2,673	3,240
1951	539	201,909	2,406	2,945
1952	524	199,122	2,225	2,749
1953	501	199,893	2,015	2,516
1954	479	197,056	1,758	2,237
1955	460	192,395	1,523	1,983
1956	426	192,956	1,396	1,822
1957	416	192,387	1,412	1,828
1958	399	198,331	1,317	1,716
1959	378	191,053	1,189	1,567
1960	358	196,675	1,055	1,413
1961	336	208,378	1,029	1,365
1962	317	219,781	909	1,226
1963	304	218,711	901	1,205
1964	295	222,365	—	295
1965	274	232,469	—	274
1966	246	233,480	—	246
1967	243	237,954	—	243
1968	281	4,437	—	281
1969	210	3,321	—	210
Source:
1881 - 1960 "1962 Brewers' Almanack", page 67.
1961 - 1969 "1971 Brewers' Almanack", page 64.

A question for home brewers

Would you be interested in an add-on to BeerSmith with historic styles and ingredients? And. more importantly, would yo be prepared to pay for it?

I've contemplated this in the past and have customised my own version of BeerSmith. But, I've a lot of projects either current or in the pipeline. I'm not going to put in the effort unless I know that it will be worthwhile.

Thanks to Brian Welch for reminding me of this.

Birthday homebrew recipe.

One of my great ideas. Or at least not such a shit one according to Dolores:

"At least it earns us some money. Though you do spend it all on your stupid trips."

Not any more. As the trips option is pretty much closed off at the moment.

"The money is all going to my research fund now."

"Beer fund, more likely. I've seen how much you spend at Ton Overmars."

What is my bespoke recipe service? You give me your birthday - or other significant event - and I'll put together a recipe for you that was brewed on that date.

You'll get a recipes and text much like one of my Let's Brew posts plus an image of the original brewing record so you can be sure that I'm not pulling your plonker. It's a great deal for just 25 euros.



Make your birthday special - by brewing a beer originally made on that date.
For a mere 25 euros, I'll create a bespoke recipe for any day of the year you like. As well as the recipe, there's a few hundred words of text describing the beer and its historical context and an image of the original brewing record.
Just click on the button below.

Beer and food pairing in the 1950’s (part two)

We’re getting to the meat now, so to speak. With specific beer and food pairings, sort of. As well as some non-parings.

First one of the latter:

“Bottled beer is becoming too popular at table. To bombard the tongue with bubbles of gas while eating is wrong. For an appetizer, yes: and at least one strong light ale now brewed with a slightly bitter tang, sold in something less than half-pints, makes an excellent aperitif. Beer, while it assists the appreciation of good food, also makes bad food endurable, and by the standards of former rough, farm-worker's fare food to-day is insipid. Mrs. Carlyle at the Frome inn could not stomach the meat, but she ate the bread with the aid of her pint of porter. In refreshment rooms a good frothy ale — and here's every excuse for bottled  — often gives a flattering zest to rigid sandwiches or cardboard-tasting pie.”
"Beer in Britain", 1960, page 105.

I wish he’d named that Strong Light Ale. Even though that’s a bit of an oxymoron. Light Ale was, by definition, not particularly strong. If it were, it would be called a Pale Ale. I guess with “something less than half-pints” he means a nip bottle. Which was a popular bottle size for stronger beers. Probably to save drinkers the shock of the price of a half or a pint.

I’m with him on fizzy beer. But it’s a problem that’s easily solved with a spoon. A minute or so’s agitation knocks most of the CO2 out of a beer.

Beer certainly will liven up crap food, or at least take your mind off it. In 1958 memories of rationing, which had only finally ended a few years earlier, in 1954, were still strong. And the often unpalatable food that was served up as a result. People had plenty of experience of eating rubbish food.

Now for some examples of cooking with beer as well as drinking it as an accompaniment to food:

“Beer has its place in food as well as with it. Welsh rarebit, when the cheese is blended with a little four-X ale, is delicious. The Suffolk farmer's pig absorbed a quantity of old ale in the curing process, being immersed for three weeks in a liquor of it before smoking. The flavours of beer, oak smoke, and barley-fed pork were combined in the result, and the fat was very rich. When a friend, thinking to give me a treat, partnered one of these hams with audit ale, he overdid it, especially as we were in a small sloop on a choppy sea. Mild beer would have been fitter. On the whole, mild is the best accompaniment to a square meal. Bitter has its virtues, and can give the motorist's appetite an edge which the walker's has gained naturally. Old beer is too sweet for a full meal: it is the ale of evening, of a companion rather than a crowd, and its accompaniment should be slight—a biscuit, or walnuts.”
"Beer in Britain", 1960, page 107.

It’s weird that he’s still calling Mild four-X Ale. True XXXX Ale hadn’t existed since before WW I. True, there were still beers called XXXX in the 1950’s, but they were just ordinary strength Mild Ales of around 3% ABV. A proper XXXX Ale was 8-10% ABV.

That marinated pig has me salivating like a dog outside a butcher’s shop. But I can see the author’s point about Audit Ale not necessarily being the best beer to slop back on a sloop. It was powerful stuff, even in the 1950’s:

Audit Ale 1951 - 1958
Year	Brewer	Price per pint d	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour
1951	Friary Holroyd	46.5	1084.6	1022.1	8.17	73.88%	51
1953	Friary Holroyd	45	1084	1025.1	7.67	70.12%	51
1955	Dales (Brewed by Wells & Winch)	36	1062.2	1023.5	5.00	62.22%	115
1955	Greene King	36	1083.2	1017.7	8.59	78.73%	100
1955	Wells & Winch	36	1062.2	1023.3	5.03	62.54%	115
1958	Lacons	54	1095	1017.8	9.65	81.26%	90
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.

I’m also with him on Mild going particularly well with food. It matches perfectly with hearty pub meals like pies, stews or fish and chips. That’s me drooling again, imagining a crusty pie, covered in rich gravy with a pint of Harvey’s Mild to wash it down.

Not all Stouts were good with food:

“Sweet stout is popular, but to me it is as mawkish as a Victorian ballad. A bitter tonic stout, on the other hand, is the best awakener of the sedentary man's digestion, or stand-by if he is hard-pressed and has only ten minutes in which to snatch a bite. A tonic stout is worth a bushel of indigestion tablets, not to mention tranquillizers.”
"Beer in Britain", 1960, page 107.

Proof, incidentally, that not all Stout other than Guinness was sweet in the 1950’s. Again, I’d have to agree with him. For most English dishes a beer like Mackeson is way too sweet. Though perhaps it might work with pudding. This talk of “tonic” is very 19th century, when doctors often recommended a Pale Ale like Bass to aid digestion.

At first I thought this next paragraph was a mention of the elusive commercial style of Home-Brewed. But I’m sure it’s meant more literally – beer brewed by someone at home.

“Finally, there is — or was — homebrewed. There was a jolly miller once who lived on a hill in Suffolk. The sails of his mill twirled merrily in March, and as often as you paid his bill he celebrated the fact with a pint of his home-brewed. It was cloudy — most home-brewed was — but very good, and an inducement to prompt payment. I remember too on my entry into a farmhouse being met by two powerful mingled odours. One came from a batch of loaves fresh from the oven. As to the other ... I sniffed questioningly. The old farmer tapped his nose, put a finger to his lips and opened a door. In a little room a mash-tub was steaming. He was breaking the law; but his tough old age and his son's and daughter's blooming health demonstrated that they understood the basic principles of good living.”
"Beer in Britain", 1960, page 107.

Home brewing wasn’t necessarily illegal in the 1950’s. It was perfectly fine, as long as you bought a licence. As late as 1960, just a couple of years before licences for home brewing were abolished, more than 1,000 were issued:

Brewing licences 1945 - 1960
	Brewers for sale
Year ending 31st March	No.	Duty paid £	Other brewers - not for sale	Total
1945	703	249,637	3,734	4,437
1946	680	255,863	3,512	4,192
1947	648	248,690	3,224	3,872
1948	625	240,265	3,073	3,698
1949	602	229,913	2,998	3,600
1950	567	212,902	2,673	3,240
1951	539	201,909	2,406	2,945
1952	524	199,122	2,225	2,749
1953	501	199,893	2,015	2,516
1954	479	197,056	1,758	2,237
1955	460	192,395	1,523	1,983
1956	426	192,956	1,396	1,822
1957	416	192,387	1,412	1,828
1958	399	198,331	1,317	1,716
1959	378	191,053	1,189	1,567
1960	358	196,675	1,055	1,413
Source:
1962 Brewers' Almanack, page 67.

Not the NHC

Last weekend I was in the pretty little town of Market Bosworth. For the Home Brew Festival, where I had been invited to speak. It sounded like a good laugh so why not? I might even get to flog a few books.

I’d been invited last year, but declined because it clashed with the NHC (American Homebrewers Association National Homebrewers Conference) in San Diego. Not that I went to the NHC – I was blackballed for the second year in a row – but I was in San Diego at the same time. It’s a long and slightly depressing story that I won’t go into now.

Having attended the NHC in 2014, I was able to compare and contrast the two events held either side of the pond.

The most obvious difference was the scale. The NHC draws hundreds, if not thousands of attendees, to big, flashy convention centres. The Market Bosworth event is held in a rugby club pavilion and a marquee. That’s partly a function of the relative popularity of the hobby in the two countries. After a burst of popularity in the 1960’s and 1970’s, home brewing fell out of favour in the UK, though there has been a recent resurgence. While in the USA it’s massive.

The NHC is a full-blown home-brewing exhibition, with manufacturers filling a hall with tempting shiny things. In Market Bosworth it was more about people swapping surplus bits of kit with each other.

And while the Americans have seminars in multiple theatres, the Brits have a tent with a few odd chairs for those listening.

But I have to say that in many ways I enjoyed the Home Brew Festival more than the NHC. Its smallness meant I had chance to talk to pretty well everyone there. At least anyone who wanted to talk to me. And a very friendly bunch they were. Neither I nor Dolores – whom I’d dragged along – lacked company at any point.

Then there was the beer. You don’t see much Mild at the NHC. While here there was plenty. That particularly impressed Dolores. She’s almost as big a fan of Mild as I am, which is quite an achievement. And there were plenty of other styles there, too, both fashionable and unfashionable. So as well as the inevitable IPAs, also Brown Ales and Ordinary Bitters.

Wine and cider, too. Dolores was particularly interested in the former, as she makes it herself. She’s been struggling to avoid oxidation and she managed to get some good tips from the winemakers in attendance. And to drink some of the surprisingly good wines that were available. Maybe she wouldn’t have drunk quite as much if they hadn’t been so good. For once wearing my sensible head, I just stuck to beer.

The only downer was the weather. I’d planned on dropping by on the Friday evening, but it absolutely pissed it down. I didn’t fancy walking a mile along a country road in the pouring rain. So we sheltered in the Ye Olde Red Lion, the pub where we were staying. Warm, dry and with several cask beers in pretty good nick. It could have been much worse.

We didn’t completely manage to avoid the rain, as it was raining when we left on Saturday evening. The walk was a little scary as well as damp. Country road with no pavement, at night, in the rain. Where were all those cars going to/coming from? I’m glad I wasn’t staying in a tent like many who attended. Must have been murder keeping dry.

Oh, one last difference with the NHC. The Home Brew Festival paid me travelling expenses. All I got from the NHC was free entrance to the conference.




The Home Brew Festival
Market Bosworth Rugby Football Club
Cadeby Lane,
Market Bosworth,
Warwickshire.
CV13 0BA
http://www.thehomebrewfestival.co.uk/



Ye Olde Red Lion Hotel
1 Park Street,
Market Bosworth,
Leicestershire.
CV 13 0LL
Tel.: +44 (0) 1455 291713
Email: contact@redlionmarketbosworth.co.uk
http://www.redlionmarketbosworth.com


AHA National Homebrewers Conference
http://www.homebrewcon.org/

Amsterdam murky

I'm so proud:

Partnership opportunity

Calling online home brewing supplies, er, suppliers. I've a partnership opportunity.

It's all part of a dramatic development - possibly the most cataclysmic event ever - here at SUABP. Get in touch via the gadget thing if you're interested.

BYO challenge

Can someone send me a scan of the article in Brew Your Own magazine that starts like this?

"Beer historian Ron Pattinson, of the blog Shut Up About Barclay Perkins, is famous for writing about the longevity of ideas in the brewing community. His research provides some necessary grounding to the lofty ambitions of today's inventive craft brewers, who are fond of re-inventing the wheel and then arguing about what to call it. As Pattinson often points out, there are very few concepts in beer you could come up with that weren't already being brewed a couple hundred years ago.

But I would like to issue a bit of a challenge to Mr. Pattinson, or any other beer historians, for there is a realm of beer that I believe has never bubbles inside any historic fermentation tank--those fermented exclusively with Brettanomyces. When it comes to 100% Brett-fermented beers, we may be dealing with the only style of beer truly invented by modern brewers during the craft beer revolution."

Thanks.

Grand Rapids here I come

It's been confirmed that I'll talk at the AHA National Conference in Grand Rapids in June.

You can probably guess what I'll discuss: brewing historic beer. A topic I know a little about.

You can find details of the conference here:

http://www.ahaconference.org/conference/about/

Finally

My proper book is out! A guide to the brewing beers of the past. But it's not just a bunch of recipes - there are chapter on ingredients, brewing techniques and a description of the history and development of each style. Pretty cool, eh?

To promote it, I'll be doing a short tour of the East Coast in March, with events in Boston, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Colonial Williamsburg, Washington DC and Baltimore. Come along if you can. It should be a lot of fun, and there will be beers to drink, brewed from recipes in the book.

But make sure to buy a copy first so you bring it along for me to sign.

Why I've been busy

You may have noticed that, over the last 3 months, my blog posts haven't been quite as expansive or frequent as usual. There's a good reason for that. I've been busy with something else.

I've not mentioned my other project because, well, I didn't want to be premature. Rather wait until it was done and dusted, in case it all went tits up. I know, I'm paranoid.

Now that the manuscript has been sent in and all the images are sorted out, I feel comfortable telling you about my proper book, The Homewbrewer's Guide to Vintage Beers, due out sometime this year.

It covers British beer styles 1800 to 1950. There's a history of each style, followed buy a series of historical recipes. I'm not sure how many recipes will make the final cut, but probably at least 50 or 60.

I almost forgot the tables. Plenty of those, too. You can't have a book without numbers.

I'll let you know more as the publication date approaches.

Home brewed beer and wine

We're back with old home-brewing recipes. Actually, one that looks very similar to the 1940's recipe I recently published.

So whay Am I repeating myself? For the introduction really. People will tell you that home brewing was legalised in Britain in 1963. That's not exactly true. Homebrewing was legal before that, but you needed to buy a licence. The rules (as they were in the 1930's) are explained below:

"HOME BREWED BEER AND WINE
If you consider following the recipe for home brewed beer, remember that beer is excisable if it contains alcohol, or the alcohol equivalent, of two per cent, proof spirit. Anyone who brews beer at home without complying with the Customs regulations is liable to prosecution. The only people entitled to a free licence are those who occupy houses of an annual rental of £8 or less, and they are allowed to brew not more than four bushels a year for their personal use. Where the rental is over £8 and up to £10, a licence costs 25s. a year; to a £15 rental, £2 10s. 0d.

A licence it not very expensive and it is better to pay small duty than to risk the anxiety and cost of possible summons, if beer is brewed at home.

On no account must anyone sell beer without a special licence for the purpose. I mention this because there are people who, having paid duty which enables them to make the beverage at home, think they can sell their product to compensate them for the cost of the licence.

Here is excellent recipe for home brewed beer:—

Hop Ale.
4oz. of dried hops, 2oz. of dandelion root and, if obtainable, 2oz. of gentian root. Boil in six gallons of water for 2.5 hours. When the liquid almost cold, strain it, and add 3 lb. of dark brown sugar and three tablespoonfuls of brewer's yeast. Stir well and cover. Next day, again strain the liquid or pour it off to leave the sediment behind. Put it into cask, fit the bung tightly and leave for a few days, after which will be fit to drink.

Carrot Wine.
Boil the carrots until they are tender, allowing life, to gallon of water. Strain tho liquor carefully through a jelly bag. Add 3 lb. or 4 lb. of preserving sugar to every gallon of liquid. and boil again for about three-quarters of hour. When the liquor has cooled down to 75 deg., add little yeast, and leave for a week in a warm place Stir thoroughly every day. Pour the liquor into a cask, and bum down when fermentation ceases The wine will be ready for use in about six months, when it may be bottled.

Egg Wine - A Splendid Tonic.
Take six eggs 0.5 lb. of castor sugar, three lemons, one gill of best rum, one pint of new milk. Put the whole eggs (with shells) into a bowl, squeeze the lemon juice over them, cover tightly and leave for 24 hours. Press all through a clean cloth (shells, too), then pour in the rum and add the sugar. Stir together until the sugar is dissolved. Add the milk, stir gently, and bottle. The lemon juice practically dissolves all the egg shells. Dose: One wineglassful twice day."
Nottingham Evening Post - Wednesday 16 December 1936.

Four bushels of malt is enough to brew about 72 gallons of 5% ABV beer.

The hop ale recipe is basically the same as the one from 1941, except for the addition of dandelion root and gentian root. I'm surpised dandelion root wasn't in the 1941 one. It would have been one of the few ingredients that were readily available.

I wonder what they mean by a dose of one wineglassful twice a day? Is that for some sort of medicinal purpose?

1941 home brewed Mild recipe

Here's an unusual recipe for you homebrewers: a wartime Mild (or is it Brown Ale?) recipe.

You may notice one rather vital ingredient is missing: malt or grain of any kind. Not surprising, really, when brewers had their malt rationed. Hops, I suppose, were a bit different as there would have been some growing wild. Though you'd have no idea what variety or what the flavour was like. But that's war for you. You couldn't afford to be fussy.

"HOP ALE.
If hops are available your district, why not try the following recipe for mild brown ale? Boil 5 ounces of hops for 40 to 50 minutes in eight gallons of water: put 4 lb brown sugar, more or less according to taste, in a large pan and strain the liquor over it. Add 2 ounces of yeast when the liquor is luke-warm, turn into a pan or tub to ferment for 4 days, then cask or bottle for use as wanted."
Western Times - Friday 01 August 1941, page 3.

Five ounces in 8 gallons is the equivalent of 1.4 lbs of hops per barrel. Actually a pretty reasonable amount for the day. in October 1941 Whitbread's XX Mild Ale only contained 0.76 lbs hops per barrel and their Pale Ale 1 lb*.

It wouldn't have been very alcoholic. I reckon 4 lbs of sugar across 8 gallons would give an SG of about 1021º. Quite a bit lower than commercial Mild, which was 1030-1032º in 1941. I'd have thrown in another couple of pounds of sugar myself to get something about 3% ABV. Assuming it was available. Because, as with everything else, there was a shortage of sugar.

Bottles wouldn't have been easy to come by. There was a shortage of glass and brewers usually wouldn't send pubs bottled beer unless they sent all the empties back




* Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/107

What should we get.....

to do di brews?

Me and Andrew. We're going to homebrew.


Watching me throw in a few hops out at Westport with Dann has caught his attention. As long as no scary ladder climbs are included.

If I want to brew 15-25 litres, what equipment should I get? I'm thinking mash tun, kettle, 2-3 fermenters. I definitely want a separate mash tun and kettle to be able to parti-gyle.

This sort of thing, but on a bit smaller scale:

Be grateful for any advice.

Brewing Stout

One for the homebrewers - men brewing Stout. There's a reason why I've brought it to your attention: because it mentions this blog. Which brings a bout a circular reference - incestuous and recursive as all good internets are.






Enjoy!

Tom Caxton's Homebrewing with Emlyn Hughes

This is just so bizarre. I have to share it.

Tom Caxton's Homebrewing With Emlyn Hughes OBE

PRESENTER (P): Away from the excitement of the world of international soccer, sporting personalities find different ways of relaxing. Our guest is one of the sports most popular figures, former captain of England and Liverpoool, and now a TV star in how own right, Emlyn Hughes OBE. You're quite used to answering questions on sport, but can we ask you a few questions on your progress with homebrewing?

EMLYN HUGHES OBE (EH): Well, as you know, if you're not playing a sport, then a good way of getting a different view of it is to watch it on TV - and what could go down better watching the big match then a pint of your own homebrewed beer. Here, try some of this ...

P: Hah, don't mind if I do. (takes a swig). Wow, well that's pretty good.

EH: Well, you're drinking Tom Caxton's homebrew - and quite a bit of teamwork went into producing that.

P: So what's the secret?

EH: Well, for a start Tom Caxton's make the job easy for you. One you've got the right kit - and follow the instructions carefully, it's pretty straight forward and frankly a lot of fun. It saves a few bob as well.

P: You mentioned the right kit, so what else do you need?

EH: Tom Caxton's, of course, plus a five-gallon white plastic bin with lid. A clear siphoning tube, some pint beer bottles - but they aren't essential because if you're making a quantity, there are some really handy five-gallon barrels on the market with their own tap. But if you're using bottles and metal caps, then a crown capper is also necessary.

P: What about a thermometer?

EH: Yes, they're useful. I'll mention that a bit later.

P: So what's the first step?

EH: Clearing a space - and getting all your bits and pieces together. You need a clear run at the job.

P: Assuming you've put the ingredients together in the right way, what happens next?

EH: Well, tip number one is to sterilise all your equipment really thoroughly. You'd be surprised how many beers fail because of infected brews. Time spent in sterilising is always time well spent. And another very important point is to cover up your brewing vessel. And the reason for doing this is to keep out airborne infection. When you've done this, position your brew in a suitable temperature, which you can, of course, check with your thermometer. And provided you've followed your instructons carefully, you should soon have a good fermentation going.

P: Now, how long does this go on before you can (slight pause)...?

EH: Patience, patience. Between five and 10 days. But after bubbles have ceased to rise, check with your hydrometer that the brew is ready. When you're satisfied fermentation is complete, carefully siphon out the brew into your prepared bottles or barrel without disturbing the sediment.

P: Now assuming you've followed all the instructions carefully, you should end up with a perfect brew. But I've had a few problems with my kits in the past - I've ended up with a rather lively or a gushing brew.

EH: From time to time, people will have problems with their beer. But these can be minimised if care is taken and instructions are followed. If you have gushing beer, that means you've probably added too much priming sugar to your brew. Or it's been bottled or barrelled too early, or perhaps before the first fermentation has finished. If this happens, you can try serving the beer very cold, or release the gas that has accumulated in the storage vessel. Then reseal it. But if you are using a barrel for very good safety reasons, you must read your instructions first.

P: Well, I've got another one for you, Emlyn. Am I the only home-brewer who ends up with flat beer? And why does this happen?

EH: You'll find that that is due to too little sugar being added, or through the bottle or barrel not being air-tight. You must ensure that the correct amount of sugar is added, as per instructions. This is normally half a teaspoon per bottle, or two ounces per barrel. Seal the container securely and then leave it for about three weeks to mature.

P: Fine. Now I'm sure some people have found their beer sour to the taste. Now are there any hints there for us?

EH: This could be due to (slight pause) ineffective sterilisation, or the bottle top being defective. So if you do suffer from this, tighten up on the inspection of the bottles and the effectiveness of their seals. Another reason could be that the beer has been left laying on the sediment for too long after sedimentation has finished. Sorry about that, but there's not much that can be done to save the brew. The sensible thing to do is to dispose of the brew and start again.

P: Now what's happened if the beer doesn't ferment?

EH: This is a very important point and it's due to one of three reasons. The brew has been kept at too low a temp when the yeast was added. So try bringing the brew into a warm atmosphere, so that it reaches a temp of between 70 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit. The second reason could be that the brew has been kept at too high a temperature when the yeast was added. The answer here is to add a fresh batch of yeast and to again keep it at a temperature of between 70 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit. The third reason is that your equipment hasn't been sterilised properly and the bacteria has killed off the yeast. Now this just shouldn't happen if you've cleaned it all properly in the first place. So the answer is to discard the brew and start again, following the instructions that cover the cleaning the equipment shown on the product you are using.

P: Right Emlyn, assuming we've covered all these stages properly, when will ...?

EH: (interrupts P) Well, the brew will be ready from two to three weeks. You'll see the beer clear. When it does, it's ready to drink.

P: I think I'll have some more of that (takes another swing). It really is pretty good, isn't it?

EH: Well worth waiting for.

P: So, to sum up. What are the main dos and dont's?

EH: Certainly, read the instructions on the home-brew kit. Follow them carefully, stage by stage. Cleanliness of all the equipment is very important and you can buy suitable products to help sterilise everything you use. This really is the most important step in your home-brewing. And the time and care you take will determine the quality of the finished brew. Oh, and remember, don't leave your fermentation container uncovered - that's asking for trouble. And if you have any problems at all, you can ring the Tom Caxton helpline on XXXX XXXXX.

P: Right, anything else Emlyn?

EH: Yes, you've got to be patient. You'll enjoy making your home-brew of beer almost as much as drinking it. (slight pause) Almost.

P: Thanks very much Emlyn Hughes for your time and advice. If you want to score a few points making your Tom Caxton home-brew beer, remember it's well worth waiting for. Oh, and good luck - but don't drink and drive.