Let's Brew Wednesday - 1928 Barclay Perkins KK (bottling)

Just a day late this week. But I think you'll find that today's recipe was worth the wait. An interwar K Ale from Barclay Perkins. Just what I fancy drinking now, if I'm honest.

For those of you who've arrived half-way through this blog, I'll explain a little about K Ales. Old hands can skip to the next paragraph. In the 19tth century London brewers had two parallel lines of Ales (not including Pale ale - that's a totally different beast). One set of Ales (X Ales) were sold mild or young. The other set (K Ales) were Keeping (or Stock) Ales, aged before being sold. Initially there were four grades of X Ales, called X, XX, XXX and XXXX, in ascending order of strength. There were only three grades of K Ale, KK, KKK and KKKK. XX had the same gravity as KK, XXX the same as KKK and XXXX the same as KKKK. As the century progressed, the stronger X Ales faded away and by WW I few breweries had more than an X and XX. The name Stock Ale started to fall into disuse around 1900 and K Ales to be known instead as Strong Ales.

Now on with the new stuff. In the 1920's, Barclay Perkins brewed a variety of Strong Ales. There was draught KK, known to drinkers as Burton. KKK a stronger draught beer. KKKK Winter Brew or Old Burton, a strong seasonal draught beer. And finally the beer we're looking at today, KK bottling sold as No.1 Southwarke Ale, known as Old Ale to drinkers. (As you can see from above, I actually have the right label this time.)

K Ales, as beers, were somewhere between a strong Mild and a Bitter. Dark, but quite heavily hopped. It's hard to think of a modern British beer that's really much like them. Almost forgot the dry-hopping. They were quite heavily dry-hopped, too.



That's me done again. Time for Kristen . . . .




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Barclay Perkins - 1928 - KK ale
General info: Burton ale…big, brown and bitter as hell. The Burton ales of yesteryear rarely resemble the Burton ales of today. These beers were very dark with huge gravities and even bigger hopping schedules. The amount of non-malt adjuncts was quite high with this beer having around 20% of such ingredients. The hops were fresh and added in huge amounts throughout the beer. A very substantial beer with the vast ability to age.
Beer Specifics			Recipe by percentages
Gravity (OG)	1.070		33.2% English pale malt			4.7% Crystal 75L
Gravity (FG)	1.016		19.4% American 6-row			14.7% Invert No2 sugar
ABV	7.25%		18.7% Mild malt			1% Caramel Colorant
Apparent attenuation	77.27%		8.3% Flaked maize
Real attenuation	63.30%
IBU	66.2		Mash	120min@154°F		1.03qt/lb
SRM	42			120min@67.8°C		2.15L/kg
EBC	83.0
			Boil	2.5hours
	Homebrew @ 70%				Craft @ 80%
Grist	5gal		19L		10bbl		10hl
English pale malt	4.48	lb	2.038	kg	242.80	lb	93.81	kg
American 6-row	2.61	lb	1.189	kg	141.63	lb	54.72	kg
Mild malt	2.52	lb	1.146	kg	136.57	lb	52.77	kg
Flaked maize	1.12	lb	0.509	kg	60.70	lb	23.45	kg
Crystal 75L	0.64	lb	0.291	kg	34.69	lb	13.40	kg
Invert No2 sugar	1.99	lb	0.906	kg	107.91	lb	41.69	kg
Caramel Colorant	2.24	oz	64.0	g	7.59	lb	2.93	kg
	13.351		6.078		731.88423
Hops
Goldings 4.5% 150min	1.48	oz	42.0	g	91.85	oz	2.219	kg
Goldings 4.5% 90min	1.48	oz	42.0	g	91.85	oz	2.219	kg
Goldings 4.5% 30min	1.48	oz	42.0	g	91.85	oz	2.219	kg
Goldings 4.5% dry hop	1.38	oz	39.0	g	85.33	oz	2.062	kg
Fermentation	73°F /22.8°C
Yeast	Nottingham ale yeast
	1028 London Ale Yeast  - WLP013 London Ale Yeast
Tasting Notes: Toasted malt and biscuits…lots and lots of biscuits. Some grain husk with a ton of dark fruits…cherries and plums. Absolutely NO roast. Endive and hay. Orangey hops and lots of spice. Although higher in FG than some beers of this gravity, it finishes quite dry tasting b/c of the tannins and hop bitterness.

Ingredients and technique

Grist & such
Lots of things going into this relatively simple concept of a Burton ale. Three pale malts, some crystal and maize and then a really good portion of Invert No2 sugar. The 15% No2 will really lend the most character of all ingredients. There is no roast flavors or aromas so the color comes from a large amount of caramel colorant. 1% of the entire grist is quite a lot for any beer. If you want to drop it, as always, feel free. However the first time you make it its good to do it as the original.

Hops
The hops were all relatively fresh, the oldest being 2 seasons old. All were from exactly the same producer and all were Kentish, middle kent to be specific. Unlike most of BP’s beers these were added at three different times in the copper. At make up, at 90 minutes and then at 30 minutes. There was no aroma addition which didn’t matter as this beer was dry hopped at a rate of 0.5lb/ bbl.

Mash & Boil
A simple single infusion along with a single underlet left the average for this mash on the higher end. BP did this a lot for the majority of their beers. Not getting fancy very often. The boil was quite long at 2.5 hours and 2 hours for the second gyle.

Fermentation, Conditioning & Serving
Fermentation was done at a quite a high temperature for such a large beer which would have lent a definitely spicy/hot/ alcohol character to the beer. The beer finished in 145 hours and was then conditioned for about 3 weeks. The CO2 should be around 2.2 volumes allowing the hops to show off and keep the end from being to flabby.

Gyling & Blending
A simple 2 gyle, partigyle. The vast majority of the hops went into the first gyle (75%). The sugars were split between the first and second. This is one beer, with the way its gyled and the type of beer that is very well suited for a gyle. If you want to drop the gyle you’ll need more hops to get the same BU count b/c  of the gravity of the beer.

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KK	5gal	19L	10bbl	10hL
G1 - vol	2.34	8.90	4.69	4.69
G1 - grav	1.081	1.081	1.081	1.081
G1 - BU	102	102	102	102
G2 - vol	2.66	10.10	5.31	5.31
G2 - grav	1.060	1.060	1.060	1.060
G2 - BU	31	31	31	31
G3 - vol	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
G3 - grav	1.000	1.000	1.000	1.000
G3 - BU	0	0	0	0
Hopping	0.3oz/gal	2.26g/L	0.59lb/bbl	0.23kg/hL
Totals	OG 1.07	FG 1.016	BU 64.6	Abv 7.1%

One of a kind

British beer gravities used to be a big secret. Until CAMRA had every cask beer analysed and published the results, no-one had any idea how strong British beers were. Though there was one brewery that wasn't so secretive.

Just about the only breweries founded between 1910 and 1970 were clubs breweries. They were set up just after the end of WW I by clubs who felt exploited by brewers and who decided they'd be better off brewing their own beer. They were usually co-operatives, jointly owned by the clubs they supplied.

Yorkshire Clubs, Midlands Clubs, Northants And Leicestershire Clubs, South Wales & Monmouthshire United Clubs and Northern Clubs Federation. The last is the only one still open, though in the hands of multinational Heineken. A bit sad really.

Northern Clubs Federation did something unique. They listed their beers' gravity on the label. Very sporting of them.

In ascending order of gravity, you've got:

Mild Ale 1032
Pale Ale 1032
Light Brown Ale 1032
Special Ale 1041
Sweet Stout 1044
Export Ale 1046
Championship Brown Ale 1050

Between 1960 and 1966 Mild Ale seems to have changed itself into Light Brown Ale. Both, I assume, were simply bottled versions of their Dark Mild.

Based on the Whitbread Gravity Book, usually my only source for this period, Pale Ale and Special Ale appear to be bottled versions of their Ordinary Bitter and Special Bitter, respectively.



Let's take a look at those gravity book entries, shall we?

Northern Clubs Federation beers
Year	Beer	Price	size	package	FG	OG	Colour	ABV	atten-uation
1959	Sweet Stout	13d	halfpint	bottled	1021.9	1048.1	500	3.37	54.47%
1959	Sweet Stout	14d	halfpint	bottled	1022.9	1047.3	500	3.14	51.59%
1955	Brown Ale	1/1d	halfpint	bottled	1016.5	1053.6	75	4.81	69.22%
1960	Brown Ale	11d	pint	bottled	1010.4	1051.4	70	5.13	79.77%
1961	Sweet Stout	16d	halfpint	bottled	1016.7	1045.6	300	3.61	63.38%
1964	Sweet Stout	16.5d	halfpint	bottled	1019.5	1046.9	300	3.43	58.42%
1964	Special Bitter	17d	pint	draught	1011.5	1040.9	17	3.68	71.88%
1964	Ordinary Bitter	13d	pint	draught	1004.5	1033.1	25	3.57	86.40%
1967	Special Bitter	21d	pint	draught	1010.5	1041.2	18	3.84	74.51%
1967	Ordinary Bitter	17d	pint	draught	1010.3	1031.9	30	2.70	67.71%
Source: Whitbread Gravity Book

What am I doing? Trying to fill in some of the 1960's chapter of my book, that's what. It's weird. I've far more information for the 1860's.

Mild month again

Oh dear. We're already half way through March and I've not mentioned Mild yet. What is wrong with me. Mild is March month.

I still obsess about Mild, despite drinking it only once a decade. Later this week I'll have a rare opportunity to knock some back. Bottles of Pretty Things 1832 Mild will be delivered on Wednesday. A full-strength Imperial Mild, originally brewed by Truman. Right down my street, what with its 10% plus ABV.

This is also a great opportunity for me to plug my book "Mild!". Easily the best book ever written about Mild Ale. Mostly because I can only think of one other. "Mild!" tells you everything you could ever need to know about Mild. And a whole load more. Then more after that.

Want to expose that arrogant know-it-all in the pub? Well bugger off, because that's probably me. But if you want to know enough to think you can impress a geek in a T-shirt, "Mild!"is the book for you. Unless you're not interested in beer history. In which case, why the hell are you reading this dull blog?

Brewing Sugars

It's ironic that I should spend so much time writing about sugar and defending its use in beer. Why? Because I eliminated refined sugar from my diet when I was a teenager. Beer is the only product containing sugar that I will; consume. Weird, eh?

In the passage below a point is made that I've often seen disputed (especially by know-it-all homebrewers): that more effort is asked of the yeast when sucrose is used because it has to invert it before it can be consumed. It seems to make sense to me, but feel free to argue the opposite. 

"BREWING SUGARS

Class II.—The necessity of treating cereals, before they could be available as a source of extract in the brewery, led to the wide use of materials, that require no preliminary treatment, which moreover are not acted upon or modified during the mashing process. These articles are the different brewing sugars. They comprise glucose, invert sugar, and cane sugar.

Glucose, or saccharum, as it is sometimes called, is prepared by submitting starch derived from maize, rice, potato, or other source, to the action of acid at a high temperature. The processes involved in its manufacture may be arranged in the following order: (I) The conversion; (2) the neutralisation ; (3) the filtration ; (4) the decolorisation; (5) the concentration; (6) the purification.

(1) The conversion. In this country the materials usually employed in the manufacture of glucose or saccharum are sago, maize, and rice starch. In Germany, potato starch is employed, and in America, green maize. The vessel, in which the conversion is carried out, is termed a converter. It consists of a closed lead-lined iron vessel, provided with stirring gear, manhole, discharging mains, etc. Generally sulphuric acid is used as the converting agent, although other acids may be used. One half of the quantity of acid is mixed with water, and the temperature of the mixture is so adjusted, that it is a little below the gelatinising point of the starch. The acid is then mixed with the starch. The remaining half of the mixture of acid and water is introduced into the converter, and rapidly heated to boiling-point; then the mixture of starch and acid is run in, at such a rate that the temperature does not fall far below boiling. The converter is closed, the stirring gear is set in motion, and the conversion carried to the desired limit. The time for the complete conversion of the starch into glucose varies according to the pressure and temperature in the converter.

(2 and 3) The neutralisation, and filtration. This is effected by mixing chalk with water, and adding it gradually to the solution of sugar. It is generally done in a separate vessel. The neutralised liquid is kept stirred for some time, and is then allowed to settle and run through filter presses, to separate the calcium sulphate.

(4) Decolorisation. The clear, filtered solution is passed through towers packed with animal charcoal.

(5) The concentration is effected in vacuum pans until a specific gravity of 1.50 (water = 1.0) is reached; it is then run into moulds, or casks, and allowed to solidify. The solidified mass is broken up into lumps, in which form it is generally seen on the market. The colour of commercial glucose varies from pure white to light brown, and depends upon the nature of the material used, and upon the extent to which the decolorisation has been carried. The product consists of glucose, varying proportions of dextrin, and water, with small quantities of other sugars.

The manufacture of invert sugar is carried out in a manner very similar to that of glucose. The cane sugar is dissolved in water, and is heated with acid in a converter. The acid is neutralised by chalk, and the filtration, purification by charcoal, and evaporation, are conducted in much the same way as described above. Invert sugar as used in breweries is a syrup pale yellow to dark brown in colour, and consists of invert sugar, water, small quantities of unaltered cane sugar, and mineral matter. Some breweries effect economy by preparing their own invert sugar, either by the acid process, or by heating the solution of cane sugar with yeast at a temperature of 140° F. for three or four hours. The inverting agent in this case is an active principle, or enzyme, known as invertase, contained in the yeast cell. For some kinds of beer, more especially for running porters, raw cane sugar is used; but it is generally advisable to employ invert sugar, as cane sugar is unfermentable, so that in addition to fermenting the other constituents of the wort, the yeast has to invert the added cane sugar. Throwing this extra work upon the yeast tends to weaken it. For this reason, the use of untreated cane sugar is resorted to only in the preparation of certain beers. None but the better-class raw cane sugars are employed."
"The Brewing Industry", by Julian L. Baker, 1905, pages 48-51.

That made a change from all the stuff about 1950's British beer, didn't it? Back to the 1950's tomorrow. Probably.