pticheval (gris)

My pticheval was grey. And marroon, too. And it did get me to Paris. Where I now sit, sad hotel desk before me.

A bottle of Andechs Doppelbock smiles at me from the left of my keyboard. "Stop being such a tart, Andechs." She doesn't answer. Unsurprisingly. Few bottles of beer possess lips, much less the power of speech.

We'll be becoming much more intinately involved shortly. If I can get her to pop her top. These German birds.


C'est l'heure de dire bonsoir. Priez pour moi. Demain, il me faut faire quelquechose difficile. En utilisant mon pauvre Francais. Je suis perdu.

New book

My latest purchase just arrived. Not really a book. A brewing journal. It couldn't be in better hands.

I bought it at an auction. Online. I won't tell you how much it cost. Too embarrassing. And Dolores occasionally reads this blog.

I'd been starting to worry that it had been lost in the post. It had been in transit for a couple of weeks.

Here's a special bonus for you. I've only had the volume in my possession for two hours. Not had chance to look at the contents properly. But here's a photo of one of the pages.

It contains two brews, XX and X, But that's as much as I've looked at

Go on. Have the first go at extracting the information.

Someone has to help me out. I've been snapping brewing records pretty frantically. You know something? I'm never going to make a dent in the stuff in archives. Not really.

Where they put in the poison

This story amused me. It shows just how ingrained the tales of adulteration were.

"Years ago, we accompanied an aged and somewhat credulous female through a country brewery. There were a good many dark passages and steep flights of steps, b ginning and ending as such affairs generally do, just where one does not expect them.

There There were puffs of steam and flavours of sweet-wort and gales of hop odours, and men in white aprons and red faces, and all the usual concomitants of a brewery. The visitor took everything with great composure; but as she turned to depart, a look of disappointment overspread her countenance, and she said, 'But you have not shown me where they put in the poison !' We trust our readers will not expect similar disclosures. Even in the trade of a rectifier there are, we believe, no secrets except such as yield to the analysis of the chemist; and certainly in malting, brewing, and distilling there is nothing required except skill, care, the use of two instruments—the thermometer and hydrometer, or saccharometer as brewers call it, good materials, and good water."
"The Quarterly review, Volume 131" 1870, pages 136-136

Just a short post today. I'm busy, busy, busy. As usual.

Tables with columns trunc

I'm very lucky. When Dolores sorted out a new PC for me, she got me a widescreen monitor. It's dead handy. Especially for my super-wide tables.

So apologies for publishing tables with columns you can't see. Unfortunately, some tables are just so packed with juicy numbers, that they don't fit on a normal screen.

I used to publish the tables as jpeg images. But I've swapped over to html tables instead. For a couple of reasons. For one thing, it makes the contents searchable. More importantly, it makes life easy for me when I'm putting my books together.

I've found a solution. An ugly, makeshift one, but one that works. I'll just have the tables in both formats. Click on the small image and you'll be able to see the table in all its full, mouth-watering detail.

I've already changed the last two large-tabled posts. The ones about Whitbread Porter and Stout. Take a look. Or failing that, the images below.

Whitbread Stout 1805 - 1892

Here's another table. I thought having seen the details of Whitbread Porter that you'd like to see their Stouts, too.

Here you go:

Whitbread Stout 1805 - 1892
Year	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Attenuation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)	Pitch temp	pale malt	brown malt	black malt	amber malt	no. 3 sugar	total
1832	DS	1077.6	1029.1	6.41	62.50%	12.15	5.33	2	3	5		63º	86.51%	12.29%	1.20%	0.00%	0.00%	100.00%
1842	Expt S	1075.1	1022.2	7.00	70.48%	21.78	7.03	1.5	2.5	3.5		62.5º	81.82%	15.64%	2.54%	0.00%	0.00%	100.00%
1844	Expt S	1076.2	1024.1	6.89	68.36%	21.81	6.89	1.5	2.5	3.5		63º	81.66%	15.61%	2.73%	0.00%	0.00%	100.00%
1861	Expt S	1070.1	1021.6	6.41	69.17%	19.40	6.14	1.5	2	2		63º	76.69%	19.75%	3.56%	0.00%	0.00%	100.00%
1871	Expt S	1070.4	1023.8	6.16	66.14%	19.67	5.88	1.5	2	2		63º	79.89%	15.47%	4.64%	0.00%	0.00%	100.00%
1873	Expt S	1070.1	1028.8	5.46	58.89%	19.57	8.98	1.5	2			63º	81.50%	13.87%	4.62%	0.00%	0.00%	100.00%
1877	Expt S	1072.3	1021.1	6.78	70.88%	14.73	5.41	1.75	2			º	74.90%	18.83%	6.28%	0.00%	0.00%	100.00%
1880	Expt S	1078.7	1018.8	7.92	76.06%	13.35	5.41	1.58	2			56º	69.25%	14.90%	5.59%	0.00%	10.26%	100.00%
1852	KS	1072.9	1026.3	6.16	63.88%	21.79	6.88	1.5	1.5	2		63º	77.12%	19.72%	3.16%	0.00%	0.00%	100.00%
1861	KSS	1079.8	1026.3	7.07	67.01%	17.72	6.70	1.5	2	2.5		62º	81.35%	15.55%	3.11%	0.00%	0.00%	100.00%
1862	KSS	1080.1	1028.3	6.85	64.71%	17.96	6.78	1.5	2	2.5		62º	81.35%	15.55%	3.11%	0.00%	0.00%	100.00%
1819	S	1064.5	1022.7	5.53	64.81%	10.70	3.61	1	2	4		62.5º	91.42%	7.46%	1.12%	0.00%	0.00%	100.00%
1821	S	1067.6	1023.5	5.83	65.16%	10.80	3.43	1	2	4		63.25º	94.83%	3.83%	1.34%	0.00%	0.00%	100.00%
1822	S	1067.3	1019.4	6.34	71.19%	12.15	3.93	1	2	4		64º	95.27%	3.64%	1.09%	0.00%	0.00%	100.00%
1825	S	1065.6	1021.6	5.83	67.09%	11.09	3.42	1.17	1.5	3	4	64.5º	94.13%	4.69%	1.17%	0.00%	0.00%	100.00%
1832	S	1068.4	1021.6	6.19	68.42%	10.78	3.75	1.25	2	4		62.5º	84.12%	13.44%	2.44%	0.00%	0.00%	100.00%
1834	S	1071.7	1023.3	6.41	67.57%	14.95	5.47	1	2	3		62.75º	87.08%	10.80%	2.12%	0.00%	0.00%	100.00%
1842	S	1074.2	1021.6	6.96	70.90%	12.88	4.00	1.5	2.5	3.5		62.5º	81.82%	15.64%	2.54%	0.00%	0.00%	100.00%
1844	S	1077.6	1026.6	6.74	65.71%	13.67	4.47	1.5	2.5	3.5		63º	81.66%	15.61%	2.73%	0.00%	0.00%	100.00%
1851	S	1075.3	1027.1	6.38	63.97%	10.86	4.56	2	2			63º	77.12%	19.72%	3.16%	0.00%	0.00%	100.00%
1851	S	1074.2	1024.4	6.60	67.16%	12.16	4.21	1.5	1.5	2		63º	77.12%	19.72%	3.16%	0.00%	0.00%	100.00%
1811	Sea	1051.0	1012.7	5.06	75.00%	9.03	2.42	1	2.5	4.5		64º	73.36%	26.64%	0.00%	0.00%	0.00%	100.00%
1811	Sea S	1059.6	1021.1	5.09	64.65%	11.08	3.61	1	2.5	4.5		65.25º	73.36%	26.64%	0.00%	0.00%	0.00%	100.00%
1805	SS	1060.7				10.47	3.90	1	2.5	5		70º	66.33%	14.17%	0.00%	19.51%	0.00%	100.00%
1844	SS	1088.6				11.46	4.38	1.5	1.5	3	4	63º	81.66%	15.61%	2.73%	0.00%	0.00%	100.00%
1852	SS	1085.9	1031.0	7.26	63.87%	12.47	4.89	1.5	1.5	2		62º	81.76%	15.52%	2.72%	0.00%	0.00%	100.00%
1861	SS	1077.8	1027.7	6.63	64.41%	13.91	5.73	1.5	2.5	2.5		64º	81.35%	15.55%	3.11%	0.00%	0.00%	100.00%
1867	SS	1084.8	1028.3	7.48	66.67%	15.97	6.16	1.5	2	2.5		62º	80.51%	15.59%	3.90%	0.00%	0.00%	100.00%
1871	SS	1080.3	1029.1	6.78	63.79%	15.71	4.50	1.5	2	2.5		62º	84.63%	11.52%	3.84%	0.00%	0.00%	100.00%
1876	SS	1080.6	1027.4	7.04	65.98%	9.50	3.95	1.33	1.67	2		59º	69.65%	26.30%	4.05%	0.00%	0.00%	100.00%
1880	SS	1079.2	1024.9	7.18	68.53%	10.63	4.73	1.17	2.25	2.17		57º	70.75%	15.95%	3.54%	0.00%	9.76%	100.00%
1881	SS	1078.1	1024.9	7.04	68.09%	10.02	3.83	1.5	1.75	2		57º	70.07%	15.79%	3.51%	0.00%	10.63%	100.00%
1892	SS	1084.5	1030.0	7.21	64.49%	10.62	4.91	2	2.75			57º	71.61%	17.15%	2.99%	0.00%	8.25%	100.00%
1844	SSS	1099.7	1030.7	9.12	69.17%	11.49	4.62	1.5	1.5	3	4	63º	81.66%	15.61%	2.73%	0.00%	0.00%	100.00%
1851	SSS	1091.4				11.15	4.55	1.5	1.5	2		63º	77.12%	19.72%	3.16%	0.00%	0.00%	100.00%
1871	SSS	1099.7	1041.0	7.77	58.89%	15.71	6.17	1.5	2	2.5		64º	84.63%	11.52%	3.84%	0.00%	0.00%	100.00%
1873	SSS	1091.4	1025.8	8.68	71.82%	13.93	6.81	1.5	2			62º	84.26%	12.24%	3.50%	0.00%	0.00%	100.00%
1876	SSS	1092.8	1030.5	8.25	67.16%	9.50	4.54	1.33	1.67	2		59º	69.65%	26.30%	4.05%	0.00%	0.00%	100.00%
1880	SSS	1091.4	1029.9	8.14	67.27%	10.63	5.45	1.17	2.25	2.17		57º	70.75%	15.95%	3.54%	0.00%	9.76%	100.00%
1881	SSS	1090.9	1034.9	7.40	61.59%	10.02	4.45	1.5	1.75	2		57º	70.07%	15.79%	3.51%	0.00%	10.63%	100.00%
1892	SSS	1093.3	1034.0	7.85	63.58%	10.62	5.42	2	2.75			59º	71.61%	17.15%	2.99%	0.00%	8.25%	100.00%
Source: Whitbread brewing records

Analysis? Naah. That's for losers. It's do-it-yourself analysis time.