What is parti-gyling?

I explain parti-gyling. Real parti-gyling, as performed by traditional UK breweries. And, no, it doesn't mean using each running to make a different beer.

 

Truman's weird parti-gyling

I bang quite a lot about parti-gyling. How it wasn't one wort per beer. No, the worts were blended together post-boil, with some of each wort going into each beer, just in different proportions.

That's how everyone parti-gyled. Except for Truman, at times. When they blended both pre- and post-fermentation. I'll be upfront: I have no idea what the point of this process was in the 19th century. Something similar was done during WW I, but then there was a point. Some beer was fermented at a higher gravity for yeast production, then blended with weaker beer after fermentation. Here, though, I really can't see the point.

 
Let's get on with it, then. This was a Stout parti-gyle from 1st March 1886. Four worts came out of the coppers, with these gravities:

41 lbs per barrel (1113.6º)
33.8 lbs per barrel (1093.6º)
16 lbs per barrel (1044.3º)
9 lbs per barrel (1024.9º)

What happened to these is where the weirdness starts. Because 6 barrels of the strongest wort were siphoned off "to C.R.", presumably that means Country Runner, one of Truman's Porter variants.

The four worts were blended up to create three beers:

162 barrels @ 34 lbs per barrel (1094.2º)
158 barrels @ 28 lbs per barrel (1077.6º)
305 barrels @ 25.5 lbs per barrel (1070.6º)

These were left to ferment away. At racking time, though, there was a second blending, leaving:

Imperial Stout 82 barrels @ 34.1 lbs per barrel (1094.5º)
Double Stout 244 barrels @ 28.8 lbs per barrel (1079.8º)
Single Stout 315 barrels @ 27 lbs per barrel (1074.8º)

80 barrels of Imperial Stout have been blended with Double Stout and Single Stout, bumping up the gravity of Double Stout by 2.2º and Single Stout by 4.2º. I really can't see what the point of the messing around was.

Next the log gives the quantities of each beer racked:

Imperial Stout 82 barrels
Double Stout 246 barrels
Single Stout 297 barrels

Before you say anything, I know the numbers don't quite add up.

This wasn't some weird one-off. Truman always brewed their domestic Stouts this way, right up until 1909 at least. (That's the last Stout brewing book I have).

I really can't see a point to this fiddling. Only thing I can think of, is it's connected to the new taxation system introduced in 1880. But that still dooesn't explain the reasoning behind it.

Parti-gyling in the 1950s

A technique much-beloved of UK breweries, for a whole variety of reasons. The most obvious being efficiency. It was a way of using every last drop of wort.

Parti-gyling was also a very convenient and economical way of producing low-volume beers. Fullers, for example, with a brew length of 200-300 barrels, produced OBE, their Burton Ale, in batches as small as 10 barrels. This was only possible because it was parti-gyled with a much larger quantity of Mild Ale.

Here’s an example of one of those Fullers parti-gyles of OBE with Mild:

1958 Fullers OBE
barrels	OG
21.75	1059.5
4.25	1013.1
1.25	1002.8
27.25	1049.6
Source:
Fullers brewing record held at the brewery

1958 Fullers Hock
barrels	OG
79.25	1059.5
117.5	1013.1
2.25	1002.8
199	1031.4
Source:
Fullers brewing record held at the brewery

The three worts were hopped and boiled separately then blended post-boil to hit the required volumes and gravity for the two beers.

In Scotland, virtually everything was parti-gyled. Most breweries had a single recipe from which they produced three separate Pale Ales (60/-, 70/- and 80/-) and a Strong Ale.


This is an exceprt from my excellent book on brewing after WW II.


http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/austerity/23181344

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1937 Greene King IPA

While I’m looking at Greene King I may as well do their IPA, too.

I’d love to know more about the history of this beer. If only to have more arguments against those who accuse of not being an “authentic” IPA because it doesn’t fit their preconceptions. What I do know, is that it filled the Best Bitter spot in their pre-war line-up. We can blame the war for knocking the gravity down to its current level.

If I were Greene King, I’d be annoyed with the developments which have left their flagship beer under attack by geeks who, let’s face it, mostly know eff all about the real history of IPA. Or any other beer history, for that matter.

You may have noticed that I’m waffling a bit. I need to fill out this post, but there’s little to add to what I said about AK. The two were parti-gyled together, meaning this is just slightly stronger version of AK. Though there was one difference: caramel was added to AK to make it slightly darker.

1937 Greene King IPA
pale malt	6.75 lb	77.14%
crystal malt 60L	0.25 lb	2.86%
flaked maize	0.50 lb	5.71%
no. 2 sugar	1.00 lb	11.43%
diastatic malt extract	0.25 lb	2.86%
Fuggles 90 mins	1.25 oz
Goldings 30 mins	0.75 oz
Saaz 30 mins	0.50 oz
Goldings dry hops	1.00 oz
OG	1040.7
FG	1012.5
ABV	3.73
Apparent attenuation	69.29%
IBU	33
SRM	5
Mash at	150º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	61º F
Yeast	WLP025 Southwold

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1957 Robert Younger Export

I'm maintaining my run of Let's Brews for at least one more week. I'm starting to get the hang of this lark again.

We're returning to Scotland after what seems like a very long absence. With a beer from one of the other Youngers, Robert of Edinburgh. The smaller and less fashionable Edinburgh Younger.

This is taken from their final brewing log. They were bought by Scottish & Newcastle in 1960 and closed in 1961. These were years of carnage for Scottish brewing. Between 1955 and 1965 pretty much all the independent brewers were bought up and mostly closed. The industry was left almost totally in the hands of large British brewing groups: Scottish & Newcastle, Bass Charrington, Allied Breweries, Watney and Whitbread. Which is the full set, except for Courage.

Robert Younger belong to the tradition of totally dull Scottish brewing records. They had a recipe. Just the one. From which they parti-gyled all of their beers, including their Stout. There's the classic 60/-, 70/-, 80/- combo. Though there's also a really watery 54/- at just 1028º.

The 1950's are when Scottish styles of 60/-, 70/- and 80/- really became fixed in their modern forms. Just to be totally clear about this, they're all types of Scottish Pale Ale. No matter how well 60/- was in passing itself off as Mild.

Now I've got started about Scottish styles, I may as well say something about hopping rates. As I already mentioned, 60/-, 70/- and 80/- are all types of Pale Ale. With the minimal hopping Scottish brewers employed, how could that be true? Other than that story being total bollocks, of course. It is true, however, that hopping rates fell more in Scotland than in England during the 20th century.

Shall we look at some examples? Yeah, 'course.

First archetypal English brewery Whitbread:

Whitbread hopping rates in 1957
Beer	Style	OG	lbs hops / barrel
Best Ale	Mild	1030.4	0.71
IPA	IPA	1035.8	1.26
PA	Pale Ale	1039.6	0.93
Source:
Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/01/124.

Now Robert Younger:

Robert Younger hopping rates in 1957
Beer	Style	OG	lbs hops / barrel
60/-	Pale Ale	1030	0.58
70/-	Pale Ale	1035	0.67
80/-	Pale Ale	1043	0.83
Source:
Robert Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number RY/6/1/2.

Whitbread's Best Ale has 22% more hops than Robert Younger's 60/-, PA 20% more than 80/- (after adjustment for the difference in gravity). I'd call that a significant, though not enormous, difference. Though you can see why Scottish 60/-, coloured dark with caramel, could pass for Mild in England.

Export seems to have established itself as a style between the wars, representing a brewery's strongest draught Pale Ale. The 80/- designation seems to come later, possibly only after WW II. In this brewing log it appears as both Ex and 80/-.

As I've doubtless told you 1,000 times, Scottish brewers rarely used any malt other than pale, with the exception of in Stouts. This recipe is no exception. It's just pale malt, flaked maize, sugar and caramel. The latter purely for colour. Feel free to colour this beer any way you like. Because I'm sure Robert Younger sold it in many different shades. That's just what Scottish brewers did.

The hops are a total guess. Other than that they were English, I've no idea. Feel free to fiddle, but stick to English varieties, please. Or just say fuck it and throw in bagfulls of Citra Nelson Sauvin.

The colour can be whatever you like. You can leave it naked as brewed or throw in any amount of caramel you care.




Right, time to pass you over to Ronald . . . . .

1957 Robert Younger Export
pale malt	6.50 lb	70.27%
flaked maize	1.50 lb	16.22%
No. 2 invert	1.25 lb	13.51%
caramel	1.00 oz	10.81%
Bramling Cross 90 min	0.75 oz
Bramling Cross 60 min	0.75 oz
Goldings 30 min	0.375 oz
OG	1045
FG	1012
ABV	4.37
Apparent attenuation	73.33%
IBU	33
SRM	20
Mash at	152º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	61º F
Yeast	White Labs WLP028 Edinburgh Ale (McEwan's)
	Wyeast 1728 Scottish ale (McEwans)

Malting and brewing in Germany in WW I (part two)

In the second of this brace of posts we look at the beers being brewed in Germany during the war.

While in Britain shortages of raw materials didn't really start to kick in until 1914, Germany had struggled virtually from the outbreak of hostilities. The Royal Navy's blockade began strangling Germany in 1914, while it was only with unfettered U-boat attacks in 1917 that Britain's supplies came under serious threat.

"We gather from the author's remarks that the beers which are now the staple product in Germany are brewed at a gravity not exceeding 1036. In these circumstances it is not surprising to learn that the German brewer has been confronted with the difficulty of obtaining yeast, and the plan adopted to meet this difficulty has been that which has been carried out successfully in many English breweries of late. It is to brew a beer of average gravity capable of yielding a yeast crop, and one of lower gravity, and to blend the two in such proportion that the mixture has the desired original gravity. W. Windisch points out that if a beer of something like 1048 gravity be mixed with one of, say, 1024, in such proportion that the mixture is equivalent to a beer of original gravity 1036, such a mixture drinks fuller than one brewed direct at 1036. With regard to the factors conducing to palate-fulness, he considers that alcohol plays the most important part, but that a high dextrin percentage in the wort tends to produce thin drinking beers. He deals at some length with fermentation, but, inasmuch as his remarks only apply to bottom-fermentation, they have little or no significance in this country."
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 23, Issue 6, November-December 1917, Page 356.

Wow. I'm so glad I found this. Because it's explained something that had puzzled me for quite a while. I'd wondered why at Truman's Burton brewery they blended beer after fermentation. This is the explanation. They wanted to ferment a stronger wort to get a good yeast crop. And guess when I found the first example of it? May 1917, just when gravities started to seriously fall. It explains why they would parti-gyle two beers, ferment them, then blend the result. On the face of it, that's a completely crazy way to work.

Truman had two ways of applying this technique. The simplest was when a Single beer was being brewed. The gyles were blended to give a wort marked "S", presumably standing for "strong" and another "W", most likely meaning "weak". After fermentation these two would be mixed together to give one beer at the required gravity.

Here are two examples from 1918:

Truman XX 16th Sept 1918
	barrels	gravity
S	75	1046.7
W	152	1021.7
racked as	227	1030.0
Source:
Truman brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/C/334.

Truman XXX 18th Sept 1918
	barrels	gravity
S	128	1046.7
W	122	1022.2
racked as	250	1034.8
Source:
Truman brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/C/334.

It was more complicated when they were parti-gyling. Then they would brew the weaker beer at the required gravity and the stronger one above its target gravity. Some of the weaker beer was blended after fermentation with the stronger one to bring it down to its intended gravity. Here's an example of that:

Truman XX and XXX 6th June 1917
	barrels	gravity
XXX	69	1050.0
XX	135	1037.8
racked as
XXX	135	1043.9
XX	69	1037.8
Source:
Truman brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/C/333.

This is how it looks in the original brewing record:

Truman continued to perform post-fermentation blending up until at least 1939.

William Younger took a slightly different approach. They brewed to a higher gravity than intended then watered down the beer post fermentation. They, too, continued this practice well after the end of the war. It's a real pain in the arse as it makes their records really tricky to analyse.

Time to get back to our original text:

"The author goes minutely into figures, showing the amount of money which might be saved by carrying his suggestions into practice In the first place, using the particular grist he recommends, malting losses would be minimised greatly. Further, he recommends very strongly the use of a filter-press in the place of a mash-tun. "
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 23, Issue 6, November-December 1917, Page 356.

I wonder if anyone still uses the filter press method of mashing? It may have produced amazing efficiency but seems to have had an adverse effect on the character of the final beer. I think only a handful of breweries ever tried it in Britain.

"In the paper by K. Windisch an account is given of the instructions issued by the German Brewers' Union for the preparation of the lighter war-beer. Owing to the shortage of malt in Germany, beers are now brewed, we are told, at an original gravity of about 1020, or even as low as 1012. The methods recommended for producing these light beers embody W. Windisch's suggestions."
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 23, Issue 6, November-December 1917, Page 356.

They shouldn't have sniggered quite so much about these watery German beers. In June 1918 Whitbread started brewing a version of their MA Mild at just 1011.5 and 1.4% ABV.

How to Manage the Brewing of One Boll (part two)

Hey, hey, hey as Crusty would say. Today's when we get the details of the parti-gyling combined grist brewing. Bet you've been waiting for that all week.

After the Strong Ale come two more: the inspiringly-named Middle Ale and Table Beer. I wonder if reading descriptions like the one below is what has confused everyone about parti-gyling? It's a huge mistake to extrapolate domestic practice into commercial brewing. If only because the laws governing the two were quite different. When this passage was written, for example, the use of sugar was prohibited in commercial enterprises. That's one of the reasons domestic brewing hung on for so long: it was as fettered by government regulation. Being able to use ingredients forbidden  to professionals could give the domestic brewer a price advantage.

That's enough of me rambly preambling On with the main course:

"While the boiling of the first wort has been going on, the second wort for the middle ale has run from the mash-tun, and is now in the underback; its strength has been tried with the saccharometer and noted down, and two pailfuls of it are ready to be poured into the boiler the moment it is empty, to prevent the copper from being injured by the fire.

After the first wort has boiled from an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half, and been treated according to the above directions, the fire must be completely damped and the furnace door thrown open. The piece of canvass must be fixed on the straight tap of the boiler as directed in page 639, and must be allowed to hang down into a large hair-sieve, placed above the tub which is to receive the wort, in order to keep out the hops. Open the tap, and let a person keep stirring the wort while it runs off, to prevent the hops from subsiding to the bottom of the boiler.


THE MIDDLE ALE.

The moment the copper is empty, let the two pailfuls of the second wort be poured into it. Put in the rest as quickly as possible, and put into the copper other two pounds of fresh hops, reserving the hops which came off with the boiled wort for the table-beer. The strong-ale wort must now go into the coolers, and should not exceed in depth four or five inches.

Stir up the fire, and let the second wort boil briskly for one hour and a half. After the wort has boiled one hour, put in a half pound of fresh hops, and, in twenty minutes after this, cool some of the wort to 60°, and try its strength with the saccharometer. Should it stand 57 on the instrument,-—that is, one pound and two-thirds of saccharine matter to the gallon, or 50 pounds more of the extract,—put into the boiler sugar to bring it up to 74. If there are 30 gallons of wort, 15 pounds of sugar will do this. After the sugar has been boiled a few minutes with the wort, draw off the contents of the copper as before, and distribute it in the coolers. This should make ale equal in strength to that which is sold by the Edinburgh brewers at £3 per hogshead, but, from the addition of the sugar, lighter and more delicate in flavour.

THE TABLE BEER.

As soon as yon have drawn off the second running from the boiler, pour into it the table-beer wort, having previously tried its strength with the saccharometer; and put in with it the four pounds of hops boiled in the first copper. It must boil two hours. If, as we supposed, 84 pounds of the saccharine matter were extracted from the malt in the first wort, and 50 pounds in the second, (134 pounds,) the remaining saccharum in the mash will amount to about 16 pounds,—and it may not be possible to extract all this in the process. When the wort begins to boil, make five or six gallons of it to percolate through the 2.5 pounds of boiled hops from the second copper, to extract the ale-wort from them. Then drain these hops well, and, throwing them away, return the strained wort to the copper. After the wort has boiled in all an hour and three quarters, I cool some of it to 60°,—try its strength with the saccharometer, and add sugar to raise it as high as you wish. The strength of the wort will perhaps not be more than from 30 to 34, and a. half-pound of sugar per gallon will give an additional gravity of 17, which will raise it to 48 or 50. If then there are 16 gallons in the copper, add eight pounds of sugar. This will form a light refreshing drink during dinner, and when you are not inclined for the middle or strong ale.

See that of each kind of ale you have two gallons more than your casks will contain when the ale is put into them; for it will continue fermenting two or three days,or longer, in the casks; and a good deal will be thrown off in this process, which must be supplied regularly from this extra quantity. In case of shortcoming after all, it is well to have a few extra gallons of the table beer. You can then fill up the strong-ale cask with the middle ale, and the middle-ale cask with the extra table-beer."
"The cook and housewife's manual" by Margaret Dods, 1847, pages 647 - 648.

One point worth noting from the first paragraph: they're using a direct-fired copper. But doing their best to avoid caramelisation. I just thought I'd throw that one in.

The Middle Ale also gets two hop additions: two pounds at the start of the boil and another half pound 30 minutes before the end of the boil. The second wort is boiled longer than the first, but not by much, just 15 minutes or so. No evidence here of long, caramelising boils. Probably because it would have been a waste of fuel (and money).

Middle Ale similar to £3 Edinburgh Ale? Let's see what William Younger's 60/- was like in 1847.

Two and a half pounds of hops for half a hogshead is the equivalent of 3.33 lbs per barrel. That's quite a lot for an Ale of this strength. Younger's 60 bob only got 1.13 lbs. Though that was lower gravity than 1074º. It was closer to the gravity here before the addition of sugar, namely 1061º.



The process of hopping the Table Beer is intriguing. The spent hops from the Middle Ale are sparged with the Table Beer wort to extract the absorbed goodness, but are then thrown away. Only the 4 pounds of spent hops from the Strong Ale are used. Why not boil all the spent hops? There must have been a reason why they didn't.


As with the first two beers, the gravity of Younger's Table Beer is about the same as the one in the text before the addition of sugar: namely 1033º. 1048º to 1050º seems rather strong for Table Beer. Funnily enough, Younger's Table Beer was more heavily hopped than their 60/-: it had 1.33 lbs of hops per barrel. And not second-hand ones, either. I'll let you decide if a beer of 4.5% ABV is a  "light refreshing drink during dinner".

See how a few gallons extra of each wort were collected? For topping up during the cleansing process. How did they store this wort? Wouldn't it start going sour if left unfermented? Unlike at a commercial brewery, this topping up is the only time different-strength worts are mixed.

Still fermentation to go. On the off chance any of you are still awake after the first two instalments. I know I'm struggling to keep my eyes open and I'm writing this stuff.

Horst again

Yes, they also let Horst Dornbusch write the article on Old Ale in the "Oxford Companion to Beer". It's not quite as bad as his one on the shilling system. There are even a couple of sentences without mistakes.

Here's the text:

"old ales, a British ale style that has evolved greatly over the past 2 centuries. Traditionally, these beers were also known as stock ales or strong ales as they emerged to some prominence in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. At first, little separated them from barley wines, and they were big beers. Old ales were normally fermented only from the first, high-gravity runnings of the mash, often in a parti-gyle brewing process. The second runnings were then fermented as brown ales or other medium-strength beers; sometimes a third running was even performed, yielding small beers of little strength and body. Old ales were invariably higher alcohol beers of perhaps 6% to 7% alcohol by volume (ABV). But the alcohol level was initially kept in check by mashing techniques that favored unfermentable sugars in the high-gravity wort. The beer was left with notable residual sweetness rather than higher levels of alcohol. The original old ales were literally old by beer standards of the day, matured for months and often years in wooden casks. Long aging in wood allowed the ale to mellow in bitterness but also to acquire some flavour from the raw wood, a slightly stale taste from oxidation, and a dash of sourness from wild yeasts, particularly Brettanomyces, and lactic acid bacteria with which the brew would invariably come into contact. Old ales received very little to no aroma hops; hop flavor and aroma, even if they survived the long aging, would not have been compatible with the beer's other flavors. The finished beer would have had low, natural effervescence, a deep tawny color, and a substantial mouthfeel. A long, slow secondary fermentation would sometimes eventually reduce the 'unfermentable" sugars, leaving the beer with a dry finish. Old ales were often blended with young "running ales," thereby conferring to the young beer some of the richer properties of the older fraction. The British brewery Greene King still produces its excellent Strong Suffolk (also known as Olde Suffolk) by this method.

Over time, like most British beer styles, the beers referred to as "old ales" have changed substantially. They have kept the original dark color range, and most show a tendency to rich fruitiness, but in all but a few examples, the touch of wild or lactic character is gone. Some are simply slightly beefed-up mild ales, barely touching 5% ABV. Wood aging is rare, and aging itself seems optional, although some strong versions to age very well indeed. In the past decade or so, however, craft brewers have sought to bring back types of old ale somewhat closer to those of the mid-1800s, and many of these are very characterful and show good aging potential."

"Old ales were normally fermented only from the first, high-gravity runnings of the mash" Interesting claim that one. And easy enough to check up. Though notice how the whole article is very vague about time. Does he mean late 18th/early 19th century? The 19th century in general? To be on the safe side, let's check several years.

Here's a nice Whitbread example from 1837:

It shows the gyles and how they were mixed to create two beers: X (a Mild Ale) and KXXX (a Keeping or Stock Ale). There were three worts:

1st 39.5 lbs/barrel (1109º)
2nd 29.8 lbs/barrel (1083º)
3rd 22.6 lbs/barrel (1063º)

KXXX was blended from 48 barrels of the first wort and 31 of the second. X had 7 barrels of the first wort, 23 of the second and 38 of the third.  KXXX had an OG of 35.7 lbs/barrel (1099º) and X 26.6 lbs/barrel (1074º).

Not only wasn't the Keeping Ale all first runnings, some of all three runnings were in the weaker Mild Ale. Not much like Horst describes, is it?

Not convinced about the gyling? Here's another example, from the other end of the 19th century. It's a Barclay Perkins KKK from 1891:

This one is even simpler, having been brewed entire gyle. Three worts of 1086, 1085 and 1037 were blended to get an OG of 1085.

Here's another example from closer to the middle of the century. It's a Truman KXXX from 1860:

This was also brewed entire gyle. There were 4 worts:

1st wort 42.3 lbs/barrel (1117º)
2nd wort 35.5 lbs/barrel (1098º)
3rd wort 23 lbs/barrel (1064º)
4th wort 20 lbs/barrel (1055º)
combined: 32.3 lbs/barrel (1089º)

Still not convinced the gyling method described in the article is fantasy? Here's yet another example, again from Whitbread, but this time the year is 1875. We've seen a standard-strength Mild parti-gyled with a strong Keeping Ale and we've seen two entire gyle Keeping Ales. Here's a third variation: two Keeping Ales parti-gyled with each other:

This time there were 2 worts:


1st wort 38.8 lbs/barrel (1107º)
2nd wort 18.9 lbs/barrel (1052º)

which were blended to make KK at 26.4 lbs/barrel (1073º) and KKK at 29.4 lbs/barrel (1081º).


I could go on. I have hundreds of examples from several different breweries spanning the years 1830 to 1950. None of them were brewed in the way Horst describes.


"Old ales were invariably higher alcohol beers of perhaps 6% to 7% alcohol by volume (ABV)."  Old ales 6 to 7% ABV in the 19th century? Total bollocks. The weaker X Ale in my first example above would have been that strong. The KXXX was probably more like 9% ABV. He's just taken modern strengths and assumed beers were always like that. 6% ABV was normal strength in the 19th century. That's how strong a bottom of the range Mild or a standard Porter were.

Hang on a minute. I've a set of Old Ale analyses from the British Medical Journal. Let's see how strong those were:

Old Ales
Year	Brewer	Beer	Acidity	FG	OG	ABV	App. Attenuation
1870	Allsopp	Old Burton Ale (brewed March 1869)	0.32	1040.38	1121.63	10.64	66.80%
1870	Allsopp	Old Burton Ale	0.25	1030.11	1111.45	10.69	72.98%
1870	Bass	Barley Wine	0.23	1032.31	1114.78	10.84	71.85%
1870	Roy	Scotch Ale	0.20	1037.84	1111.46	9.61	66.05%
1870	Truman	Old Ale (KXXX)	0.16	1020.81	1084.95	8.39	75.50%
1870	Bass	Burton Ale	0.18	1014.91	1091.47	10.10	83.70%
1870	Allsopp	Burton Ale	0.56	1008.61	1086.4	10.30	90.03%
1870	Butler	Kennet Ale	0.36	1012.31	1090.3	10.31	86.37%
1870	Charrington	Old Ale	0.26	1017.08	1089.16	9.48	80.84%
1870	Charrington	Old Ale	0.28	1013.9	1073.27	7.78	81.03%
1870	Elliott, Watney & Co.	Old Ale	0.28	1007.93	1072.81	8.55	89.11%
Source:
British Medical Journal 1870, vol. 1, 1870, page 68.

Look at that - the weakest is almost 8% ABV.

"The second runnings were then fermented as brown ales" Second runnings fermented as Brown Ales? In the 19th century? That shows just how clueless he is. Brown Ale didn't exist in the 19th century. I thought everyone knew that. It died out at the end of the 18th century when everyone sussed out how much cheaper it was to brew with pale malt. And, as the brewing records above have shown, when beers were parti-gyled, the weaker beer almost always contained some of the strongest wort. There were several reasons for doing that. First and foremost: hitting the target gravity. Second: a beer from only later weak worts is thin and crap. You wanted some of the good stuff in every beer.

Let's move on to some other points.

"acquire some flavor from the raw wood" British brewers went to great lengths to stop this happeneing. They deliberately made their barrels from types of oak that im[parted little flavour. Barrels and vats were constantly re-used. Any wood flavour would have quickly disappeared. They also treated new casks to remove any wood taint*.

"a deep tawny color"; "They have kept the original dark color range" I think he's making a big assumption here, that Old Ales were dark in the 19th century. They weren't. Or at least not until the very end. Like pretty much all British beers except Porter and Stout, Old Ales were brewed from 100% pale malt (and maybe some sugar) between 1800 and around 1890. They were pale in colour. (My source: countless brewing records.)

"Some are simply slightly beefed-up mild ales, barely touching 5% ABV." That's what Old Ales always were. Old Ale and Mild Ale were essentially the same thing. The difference was that one was sold young and the other aged. The recipes were identical, except for the level of hopping (Keeping Ales had more, obviously). A KK Keeping Ale had the same gravity as an XX Mild Ale. The Keeping Ales were brewed in the higher end of the gravity range - KK, KKK and KKKK. Mild Ales tended to be in the lower ranges, X and XX, but there were XXX and XXXX Mild Ales.

What are some modern Old Ales in the 4 to 5% ABV range? For the same reason that Mild is now 3% rather 6% or 7% ABV. Because British beer strengths aren't much more than 50% of what they were 150 years ago. Gravities of all beers have declined in steps: Boer War, WW I, 1931 tax increase, WW II. Each chipped away at beer strengths. Only a very small number of specialist beers - Colne Spring Ale, Bass No. 1, Barclays/Courage Russian Stout - remained at pre-WW I strengths.

He is right about the Brettanomyces. That's what made Old Ale old - a long, secondary fermentation with Brettanomyces that gave the beer the "aged" flavour. Brettanomyces can break down complex sugars that normal yeast can't. That explains some of the very high degrees of attenuation in the table above.

Overall, not that bad an article by Horst's standards. Only half a dozen serious errors.



* I know that I've posted a section of a brewing manual discusses seasoning casks.  Just can't find it. If you can find it, I'd be grateful.

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1934 Barclay Perkins Ale 4d

It's Meek and Mild Month here at SUABP. At least for today. We're back with one of my favourite lost styles: Ale 4d or just Ale.

This type of low-gravity Mild has its origins in WW I. When government restrictions from 1917 onwards forced brewers to slash gravities. Barclay Perkins discontinued their biggest-selling beer, X Ale, and replaced it with GA (Government Ale). When that name was forbidden (for some reason the government didn't like it), it became Ale 4d. The 4d (four pence) being the controlled price at which it was sold.

GA had a resonable gravity of 1038º. Ale 4d, introduced in April 1918 was considerably weaker - just 1027º and 2.7% ABV. Not really an intoxicating drink. After X Ale was reintroduced in 1919, Barclay Perkins continued to brew Ale 4d. There was clearly still demand for a cheap, low-gravity beer. The price differential was significant: X Ale cost 6d a pint and Bitter 8d.

Most other London brewers had a similar beer.Whitbread's was called MA. And, like Barclay Perkins Ale 4d, it was party-gyled with their standard X Mild. Gravities were in the range 1027º to 1030º. The quantities brewed gradually declined through the 1930's, but these beers only disappeared in the early 1940's when war again caused a fall in gravities. When standard X dropped to a similar gravity, Ale 4d disappeared.

Though it could be argued that post-WW II Milds were more similar, at least in terms of strength, to Ale 4d than they were to the old X Ale.

This particular beer comes from a three-way party-gyle of XX, X and Ale 4d, respectively 1042º, 1035º and 1031º. Though it was even more complicated than that. XX came in light and dark versions and there was a darker version of Ale 4d called Royal Ale. Extra caramel and different priming sugars were used to create them. So there were really 5 beers produced from a single mash. There's efficiency for you.




That's me done, so over to Kristen . . . . .

Barclay Perkins - 1934 - 4d
General info: This is a beautiful prototypical mid-war less than X, mild ale 'thing'. 4d ale is the type of ale that allows you to see what kind of a brewer you really are. Its low enough in gravity that there is nothing to hide behind. Has everything a growing boy needs. Pale malt, toasted malt, crystal malt, some corn and lots of dark sugar. Throw in a good dose of the burnt stuff for color and you have a meal in a glass...however many you need to fill your belly is completely up to you. A really fruity or spicy yeast will make this that much better. Made well, this is a very nice pint!
Beer Specifics			Recipe by percentages
Gravity (OG)	1.028		31.1% English pale malt 1			3.8% Crystal malt
Gravity (FG)	1.007		14.9% English pale malt 2			13.7% Flaked maize
ABV	2.81%		18.7% American 6-row			11.6% Invert No3
Apparent attenuation	75.10%		5.2% Amber malt			1% Caramel colorant
Real attenuation	61.52%
IBU	17.9		Mash	120min@152.25°F		0.93qt/lb
SRM	18			120min@66.8°C		1.94L/kg
EBC	36.1
			Boil	2.5 hours
	Homebrew @ 70%				Craft @ 80%
Grist	5gal		19L		10bbl		10hl
English pale malt 1	1.69	lb	0.767	kg	91.44	lb	35.33	kg
English pale malt 2	0.81	lb	0.368	kg	43.89	lb	16.96	kg
American 6-row	1.01	lb	0.460	kg	54.86	lb	21.20	kg
Amber malt	0.28	lb	0.127	kg	15.15	lb	5.85	kg
Crystal malt	0.21	lb	0.094	kg	11.15	lb	4.31	kg
Flaked maize	0.74	lb	0.338	kg	40.23	lb	15.54	kg
Invert No3	10.07	oz	288.0	g	34.14	lb	13.19	kg
Caramel colorant	0.83	oz	23.9	g	2.83	lb	1.09	kg
					293.69
Hops
Goldings 4.5% 120min	0.56	oz	15.9	g	34.68	oz	0.838	kg
Goldings 4.5% 90min	0.26	oz	7.4	g	16.10	oz	0.389	kg
Fermentation	66°F /18.9°C
Yeast	Nottingham ale yeast
	1968 London ESB Ale Yeast  - WLP002 English Ale Yeast
Tasting Notes: Mmmmm....mildly, mildy. Lots of dark stone fruits, cherries and plums. Some sweet malt and toast with a bit of a corny hint on the end. Rather rich and mouthfilling in the middle but dries out quite well on the end leaving a very fruity finish and a decent little hop bite.