Let's Brew Wednesday - 1945 Tetley's Bitter

Apologies for the gap between Let's Brew posts. A lot has been going on.

Here we have the 1945 Bitter to pair with the 1945 Mild. Brew both and you could serve 1945 Tetley's Mixed. I bet people did genuinely do that in pubs. I can remember mixed being fairly popular in Leeds in the 1970's.

A couple of things immediately strike me about this beer. First is the gravity. 1042º is very respectable for an Ordinary Bitter of the period. I haven't a huge number of Bitters from this date, just 15. They have an average OG of 1037.7. And at least one - Barclay Perkins PA - was a Best Bitter. That was just 1038º.  The strongest, Courage PA, was 1043.7º.

That tells me something. Tetley must have sold a lot more Mild than Bitter. How do I know that? Because there was a cap on the average OG of all beer produced in a brewery. And that average was well below 1042º. I don't know the figure it was set at in 1945, but as the average OG of all beer brewed that year was 1034.54º*, it must have been around 1035º.

The second point is the degree of attenuation, which is very high. Which means it has a very high ABV of 5.25%. How typical was that? Post-war, every example I have was over 80%. Take a look:

Tetley's Bitter 1928 - 1989
Year	Beer	Price	size	package	FG	OG	colour	ABV	App. Atten-uation
1928	Bitter Ale	9d	pint	bottled	1014.4	1049.6		4.56	70.97%
1940	Pale Ale	9d	pint	draught		1045.6
1952	Pale Ale	16d	pint	draught		1036.3	20
1953	Pale Ale	16d	pint	draught		1037.3	20
1955	Bitter	12.5d	half	bottled	1004	1037.1	23	4.32	89.22%
1959	Bitter Ale	10.5d	half	bottled	1006.1	1039	23	4.11	84.36%
1960	Bitter	16d	pint	draught	1003.7	1037.9	20	4.28	90.24%
1964	Bitter Ale	12.5d	half	bottled	1005.6	1040	25	4.30	86.00%
1977	Bitter		pint	draught		1035.5
1979	Bitter		pint	draught		1035.5
1981	Bitter		pint	draught		1035.5
1982	Bitter		pint	draught		1035.5
1986	Bitter		pint	draught		1035.5
1989	Bitter		pint	draught		1035
Sources:
Truman Gravity Book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/C/252
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002

You can see that the OG fell below 1040º in the 1950's, rose a little in the 1960's, then settled in the mid 1030's.

How did Tetley's compare with other Bitters? Why don't we take a look:

Bitter in 1945
Year	Brewer	Beer	Price per pint (pence)	package	FG	OG	colour	ABV	App. Atten-uation
1945	Barclay Perkins	PA	14	draught	1009.3	1038	32.5	3.72	75.53%
1945	Barclay Perkins	XLK		draught	1012.25	1035.4	29	2.99	65.40%
1945	Charrington	P.A.	14	draught	1009.4	1037	18.5	3.58	74.59%
1945	Courage	PA	16	draught	1010.4	1043.7	22	4.33	76.20%
1945	Lees	B				1038.0
1945	Lees	B				1038.0
1945	Mann	PA	16	draught	1010.1	1042.5	27	4.21	76.24%
1945	Meux	PA	14	draught	1007.4	1032.1	21	3.20	76.95%
1945	Meux	PA	14	draught	1006.4	1032.8	21	3.43	80.49%
1945	Taylor Walker	PA	14	draught	1011.2	1037	29	3.34	69.73%
1945	Truman	PA	15	draught	1005.9	1041.6	24	4.65	85.82%
1945	Watney	PA	14	draught	1006.6	1038.3	27	4.12	82.77%
1945	Whitbread	PA	14	draught	1009.2	1032.8	27.5	3.06	71.95%
1945	Whitbread	PA			1010.0	1039.4	26	3.89	74.62%
1945	Whitbread	PA			1012.5	1039.5	26	3.57	68.35%
	Average		14.5		1009.28	1037.74	24.5	3.70	75.28%
Sources:
Barclay Perkins brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number ACC/2305/01/626.
Lees brewing recods
Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/01/112.
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002

Tetley's Bitter had a higher OG, greater degree of attenuation and a paler colour than the average. Only one of the other Bitters comes even close in terms of attenuation - Truman PA. Tetley's look pretty atypical, though it should be borne in mind that all the others, with the exception of Lees, were London beers.

Almost forgot the flaked barley. That was a hangover from the war, when the government forced brewers to use it to save the energy used in malting.








I'm all out of crap to tell you, so it's over to Kristen . . . . . . . .

Kristen’s Version:

Notes: Yeah…Tetley’s mild. One of my very favorite ‘drink-theer-piss-outta-eers’. You want to know what invert No2 tastes like, make this. You want to test your metal as a brewer, make this. You want to make a beer that can be done in two weeks, make this. You want me to stop writing, ma…err…yeah…

Malt: The original had a blend of 3 different English pale malts of 29%, 29% and 8%. Choose a blend or just do one. Whatever you fancy. A decent 14% of the doughy flaked barley and then lots of Invert and a touch of caramel which we’ve discussed previously….and can be left out all together.

Invert No2. http://www.unholymess.com/blog/beer-brewing-info/making-brewers-invert
Caramel. http://www.unholymess.com/blog/beer-brewing-info/making-brewers-caramel

Hops: Not hugely hoppy but not nothing either. A decent hop presence so choose whatever you like. Really this time. Go bonkers. Maybe some nice Hallertauer Blanc? Me, I’m using some Brewers Gold, b/c that’s how I feel today, in a golden mood. Goldings of any sort will work just peachy.
Yeast: (Same as before) Any really gang. This bastard is dry as a bone so pick your favorite one that you know how to use. Over pitch. Over oxygenate. Hope and pry she dries out for you.

Sundries: Nothing specific. Make it dry. Use the right sugar. Don’t forget to forget the bleedin caramel.
 
Cask: Standard procedure:

1) let the beer ferment until finished and then give it another day or so. For me right around 5-7 days.
2) Rack the beer to your vessel of choice (firkin, polypin, cornie, whatever).
3) Add primings at ~3.5g/L
4) Add prepared isinglass at 1ml/L
5) ONLY add dry hops at 0.25g/l – 1g/L.
6) Bung it up and roll it around to mix. Condition at 55F or so for 4-5 days and its ready to go. Spile/vent. Tap. Settle. Serve at 55F.




* Brewers' Almanack 1955, p. 50.

Huggins Mild Ale quality 1922 - 1923

Another day, another set of dodgy Milds from the 1920's.

Huggins and Co. Ltd. of the Lion Brewhouse, Broad Street (now Broadwick Street), Golden Square, was bought by Watney in 1929*. Or possibly in 1928 and closed**. It wasn't a huge brewery and evidently exported a lot of beer*.

Talking of impractical locations, Huggins takes a tin of garibaldis: in the middle of Soho. It didn't even have a yard. Appropriately, there was a urinal directly in front of the brewery.

Now isn't that interesting. Just done a bit of a search on the Huggins brewery and guess what? It seems to have played a role in the fight against disease. There was an outbreak of cholera in Soho in 1854. Analysis of the deaths was crucial in discovering how cholera was transmitted. They were able to isolate the cause of the outbreak as an infected water pump in Broad Street - the street Huggins brewery was on.

"There are certain circumstances bearing on the subject of this outbreak of cholera which require to be mentioned. The Workhouse in Poland Street is more than threefourths surrounded by houses in which deaths from cholera occurred, yet out of five hundred and thirty-five inmates only five died of cholera, the other deaths which took place being those of persons admitted after they were attacked. The workhouse has a pump-well on the premises, in addition to the supply from the Grand Junction Water Works, and the inmates never sent to Broad Street for water. If the mortality in the workhouse had been equal to that in the streets immediately surrounding it on three sides, upwards of one hundred persons would have died.

There is a Brewery in Broad Street, near to the pump, and on perceiving that no brewer's men were registered as having died of cholera, I called on Mr. Huggins, the proprietor. He informed me that there were above seventy workmen employed in the brewery, and that none of them had suffered from cholera,—at least in a severe form,— only two having been indisposed, and that not seriously, at the time the disease prevailed. The men are allowed a certain quantity of malt liquor, and Mr. Huggins believes they do not drink water at all; and he is quite certain that the workmen never obtained water from the pump in the street. There is a deep well in the brewery, in addition to the New River water."
"On the Mode of Communication of Cholera" by John Snow, 1855, page 42.

I think there's a moral there: drink beer not water.

Let's crack on with the quality of Huggin's X Ale. It was of the weaker type, 6d a pint until 1923, then 5d a pint. It has as reasonably high degree of attenuation and an ABV of between 3.5 and 4%.

Huggins Mild Ale quality 1922 - 1923
Year	Beer	FG	OG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	Appearance	Flavour	Score
1922	X	1009	1033.8	3.17	72.49%	thick	poor almost sour	-3
1922	X	1010	1037.3	3.54	73.19%	cloudy	fair	1
1922	X	1007	1038	4.10	82.89%	not bright	v poor	-2
1922	X	1007	1036.5	3.83	80.82%	bright	fair	1
1922	X	1007	1035.2	3.70	80.97%	bright	fair	1
1923	X	1008	1037.6	3.90	79.79%	bright	fair	1
1923	X	1008	1036.9	3.70	77.24%	bright	clean v fair	1
1923	X	1010	1036.5	3.41	72.05%	bright	good	2
1923	X	1007	1033	3.38	78.79%	rather hazy	fair rather thin	-1
1923	X	1008	1035.5	3.57	77.46%	bright	fair	1
	Average							0.20
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001

We're back with clarity problems. Only six of the ten samples were properly bright.

In terms of flavour, their Mild was mostly very middling, with a couple of pretty bad examples. Which leaves them with a slight positive score on average.



* "The Brewing Industry: A Guide to Historical Records", edited by Lesley Richmond, Alison Turton, 1990, page 189.
** "A Century of British Breweries Plus" by Norman Barber, 2005, page 87.

One night in Manchester

Just back from a flying visit to Manchester. Where I got to do my favourite thing: listen to the sound of my own voice.

Beermoth, a Manchester beer shop, invited me over to natter on aimlessly about Brettanomyces in British beer*. It seemed to go down pretty well. As did the Boddie's Mild, brewed by Jay of Quantum Brewing in Stockport**.

The question-and-answer session after I'd finished my bullshitting was particularly fascinating. Some very good question, not just limited to Brettanomyces. It probably would have lasted even longer idf I hadn't been in urgent need of a wee. I blame all that Mild I'd been slurping down.

It was mentioned that they've begun growing small amounts of Chevalier barley again. Someone got some seeds from a seed bank. It would be great if it made a comeback on a commercial scale.

There was a good showing of brewers and they'd brought along their own bretted beers to try. Very heartening to see that Brettanomyces is returning to British beer. It was such an important component of 19th-century brewing. My thanks to those who brought along very interesting and tasty beers. it was a real pleasure to try them.

Walking back to my hotel through Manchester city centre at 23:00 was an odd experience. A bit like those car-crash TV programmes about binge drinking, but without the vomit and violence. The photo above is the view from my hotel room. I forgot to take any snaps at Beermoth. Too busy yakking.

If you'd like to hear me talk for 60 to 90 minutes (the length depends on what pops into my head along the way) about Brettanomyces in in British beer, get in touch. It's a cracking little lecture, even if I do say so myself. This is what I cover:



Introduction

Ageing Beer:
Primary and Secondary Fermentation
Pure yeast problems
Different ageing period for different styles
British styles using Brettanomyces

Porter:
19th century
Courage Russian Stout
Guinness
Harvey’s Imperial Stout

Old or Stock Ale:
Mild Ale and Stock Ale
19th century
20th century
Greene King Strong Suffolk
Colne Spring Ale

Pale Ale:
Stock Pale Ale
Bass Pale Ale
20th century


Providing me with unlimited Mild is not compulsory, but is appreciated.




* I was paid for giving the talk. And given as much 1987 Boddington's Mild as I could drink. If you've seen me drink Mild when it's hitting the spot, you'll know how much that could be.


** "It's the wrong colour." I said to Jay. "It should be darker, coloured up with caramel" "But the recipe doesn't have any caramel." I just checked, and he's right. Though it is mentioned in the text. Whatever the colour, the beer was lovely.




Beermoth
70 Tib Street,
Manchester,
M4 1LG.
http://beermoth.co.uk/

Quantum Brewing
Unit 4, Victoria Works,
Hempshaw Lane,
Stockport SK1 4LG.
http://www.quantumbrewingcompany.co.uk/

Hoare Mild Ale quality 1922 - 1925

Hoare's Red Lion Brewery was another very old one, founded in 1492*. It was located on Lower East Smithfield (now called St. Katherine's Way) just to the East of St. Katherine's Dock.

It was another of the big 18th-century Porter breweries, though it was never quite in the Premier League. Its output peaked at 97,600 barrels in 1796**, when it ranked 6th amongst London brewers. After that, production fell and by 1830 it was down to 57,073 barrels***.

Charrington bought the Red Lion Brewery in 1933 and ended brewing there in 1934*. Charrington nicked Hoare's Toby jug trademark, which they used even after their brewery on Mile End Road had closed.

The brewery must have been demolished soon after closure because the site is now occupied by what looks like a 1930's block of flats.

Not long ago I bought a history of Hoare, which was published recently. Quite odd to write the history of a brewery 70-odd years after it had closed. I really should fish some more historical salmon from it. But, you know what it's like, you start 30 projects and have little time for reading.

You can see that they were another brewery with a relatively weak X Ale. Milds of this strength sold for 6d a pint in 1922, dropping to 5d in 1923 when the tax was lowered from 100 shillings to 80 shillings per standard barrel. Milds in the low 1040's sold for a penny more a pint.

Hoare Mild Ale quality 1922 - 1923
Year	Beer	FG	OG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	Appearance	Flavour	Score
1922	X	1007	1033.9	3.44	78.17%	not bright	poor	-1
1922	X	1008	1033.5	3.31	76.12%	bright	fair	1
1922	X	1009	1034.3	3.31	74.34%	bright	fair	1
1922	X	1010	1033.2	2.98	69.28%	bright	fair	1
1922	X	1011	1034	2.97	67.65%	bright	fair	1
1923	X	1012	1034	2.84	64.71%	bright	v fair	2
1923	X	1012	1034.3	2.91	65.60%	bright	thin	-2
1923	X	1010	1033	2.98	69.70%	fairly bright	American wood	-3
1923	X	1009	1033.7	3.17	72.70%	not quite bright	v fair	2
1923	X	1009	1034.1	3.24	73.31%	bright	fair	1
	Average							0.30
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001

They seem to have the brilliancy of their Mild sorted out, because there's only one that wasn't bright.

Flavourwise they don't fare quite so well, with three out of ten getting a negative score. I love the way "American wood" is used as a serious flaw. British brewers didn't usually use American oak because of the flavour the wood imparted to the beer it contained. One exception was Guinness, but they only brewed Porter and Stout where any taint would be much less noticeable.

Hoare is another brewery to get a small positive average. This is going to be really close.



* "A Century of British Breweries Plus" by Norman Barber, 2005, page 86.

** “The Brewing Industry in England 1700-1830”, Peter Mathias, 1959, p 551-552.

*** Whitbread brewing log, document LMA/4453/D/09/023.

Courage Mild Ale quality 1922 - 1925

Here's a brewery that shouldn't need much of an introduction. Courage at their still brewed in their Horselydown Brewery next to Tower Bridge within my drinking memory. It finally closed in 1981.

I must have drunk beer from the brewery sometime. What am I thinking, of course I did. Getting back to when I lived in the East End in 1979. I can remember drinking in a really grotty Courage pub on the Roman Road in Bethnal Green. No cask beer, but it did have Russian Stout. The East End was weird like that back then

I'm not so sure about any of their other beers. According to the 1980 Good Beer Guide, they brewed two cask beers: Best Bitter and Directors Bitter. I think I had both, but they haven't left any lasting impression. I didn't frequent many Courage houses in London because cask beer was rare. When more of their pubs did start stocking it, Horselydown had closed and it was shipped in from Bristol.

Back in the 1920's, Courage brewed an odd selection of beers. They didn't brew any Bitter in London, getting it instead from a brewery they owned in Alton, Hampshire. In Horselydown they brewed Mild, Porter, Stout and Burton. Plus one beer I can't place for certain, XXX. At 1053º, the gravity looks to high for it to be a Mild. It looks closer to a KK. But their KKK was surely their Burton, even though its gravity also looks too high at 1073º. Later in the 1920's they did introduce a Mild, called MC in the brewery, with a gravity that was right for an X Ale, 1043º.

The gravity of Courage X Ale in the Whitbread Gravity book is a bit higher than appears in the brewing book - that was 1032.69. The difference is accounted for by the primings which were added at racking time. The recipe is pretty simple: pale malt, crystal malt, No. 3 invert, flaked maize and caramel added at racking time along with the primings. How are it is to find a Mild of this period that contains any dark grains. All the colour comes from sugar and caramel.

Let's have a look at what condition  you were likely to find Courage X Ale in down the boozer.

Courage Mild Ale quality 1922 - 1925
Year	Beer	FG	OG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	Appearance	Flavour	Score
1922	X	1007	1033.3	3.47	80.18%	bright	moderate	1
1922	X	1008	1033.7	3.36	76.85%	brilliant	v fair	2
1922	X	1009	1034.3	3.31	74.34%	bright	poor & thin	-2
1922	X	1009	1035.3	3.44	75.07%	bright	fair	1
1922	X	1009	1033.7	3.17	72.70%	bright	fair	1
1923	X	1006	1033.9	3.57	81.12%	brilliant	fair	1
1923	X	1007	1034.3	3.57	80.17%	bright	fair	1
1923	X	1007	1034	3.51	79.41%	bright	v good	3
1923	X	1007	1034.1	3.57	80.65%	bright	fair	1
1923	X	1007	1033.2	3.37	78.31%	bright	fair	1
1923	X	1008	1034.5	3.51	78.26%	not quite bright	nasty flavour	-3
1924	X		1034.8			bright	moderate	1
1924	X	1005	1034.9	3.87	85.10%	bright	fair	1
1924	X	1008	1036.9	3.77	78.59%	brilliant	burnt flavour	-3
1925	X	1007	1035.6	3.72	80.34%	brilliant	v good	3
1925	LA	1007	1035.5	3.70	80.28%	bright	sour & without character	-3
	Average							0.38
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001

It's obvious that they didn't have the clarity problems of some of their rivals. Only one example is not completely bright. Pretty good so far.

Only four of the 16 examples get a poor score for flavour, though they are all pretty bad. Balancing that out are a couple of very good ones. I guess you would have to chose your Courage pub wisely. The average of 0.21 I would judge as OK, but not great.

I know where one of the samples came from. The one with an OG of 1034.1 was from Princess of Wales, 88 Grove Street, Deptford, London SE8. It's still standing but no longer a pub.

City of London Brewery Mild Ale quality 1922 - 1923

Predicting the future is a dangerous game. If I could do it, I wouldn't be pissing around writing this blog. Actually, I probably would. Just in a mansion. Typing on a solid gold keyboard.

The City of London Brewery, located on the river at Upper Thames Street right next to Cannon Street station, was one of the oldest in London, dating back to the 15th century. In the 18th century, under the name of Calvert & Co., it was one of the big Porter breweries. Though it's really difficult to work out sometimes which Calvert brewery is being referred to.

Now here's something confusing. According to "A Century of British Breweries Plus" (by Norman Barber, 2005, page 81) the brewery closed in 1922 and production was transferred to the Swan Brewery in Fulham, home of Stansfield & Co, whom City of London had bought in 1914. I guess at least the examples from 1923, and possibly some or all from 1922, were brewed there.

I wasn't lying when I said that I hadn't gone through all the breweries. When I wrote about Charrington, that was as far as I'd got. I'm talking about brewery rankings, if you've forgotten. I said that Charrington was the brewery to beat. I was so wrong.

City of London Brewery Mild Ale quality 1922 - 1923
Year	Beer	FG	OG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	Appearance	Flavour	Score
1922	X	1005	1033.6	3.71	84.82%	thick	sour	-3
1922	X	1005	1034.2	3.84	86.26%	cloudy	fair	1
1922	X	1005	1034.2	3.77	84.80%	almost bright	poor & thin	-2
1922	X	1006	1034	3.64	82.35%	bright	poor	-1
1922	X	1007	1033.7	3.51	80.12%	hazy	not quite sound	-1
1923	X	1007	1031	3.11	77.42%	not quite bright	casky	-2
1923	X	1007	1033.3	3.37	78.08%	bright	fair	1
1923	X	1007	1034.7	3.57	79.25%	grey	poor, going off	-2
1923	X	1006	1035.2	3.77	82.39%	bright	unpleasant flavour	-3
1923	X	1007	1035.6	3.77	81.46%	fairly bright	harsh	-2
1923	X	1007	1031	3.11	77.42%	not quite bright	casky	-2
1923	X	1007	1033.3	3.37	78.08%	bright	fair	1
	Average							-1.25
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001

They really seem to have had cloudiness issues in London. Only 4 of 12 properly bright. Was that why Mild got darker - to mask problems with clarity? Or did the landlords have no effing clue?

The flavour is even worse. Nothing better than fair. And only three of those. "Casky" means a woody taste, I suppose. Note that these are on the weak side for 1920's X Ale. I'd expect something over 1040.

This really is the one to beat. Or can someone top it?

Look, I have to excite up this stuff. Who gives a toss about whose Mild was drinkable in 1920's London. I've learned from reality TV that an element of suspense and competition keeps the punters punting.