Truman Brick Lane gravities 1925 - 1933

As promised, I'm now taking a look at Truman's beers themselves. Based on information in document B/THB/C/256c.

This wasn't Truman's full beer range. Their brewery in Burton provided all of the posher Pale Ales and Burton Ales, including Barley Wine.

The Pale Ales they brewed in London, LK (London Keeper) and BLK (its bottled form), were really more like Light Ales.

In 1925, their range was this, in terms of styles:

2 Pale Ales
2 Mild Ales
1 Strong Ale
1 Porter
5 Stouts

What's odd about that? Do you remember the breakdown of Truman output by Ales and Stouts? In 1925, just 28% of Brick Lane's output was Stout. Yet there were more different types of Ale brewed than Stout. The inevitable conclusion is that some of the Stouts must have been brewed in pretty small quantities.

In 1933 just under 44,000 barrels of Stout were brewed, but there were seven different types. Meaning, on average, a bit over 6,000 barrels were brewed of each type. While in the same year 240,000 barrels were brewed of 9 types of Ale, an average of over 26,000 barrels of each type.

You can clearly see the fault line of Snowden's 1931 emergency budget again. The gravity of every beer in the range fell between 1931 and 1932. Except for those which were discontinued or appeared in that year.

Notable changes are the replacement of X by the weaker LM (though X did reappear the following year). Considering X was probably their biggest-selling beer, that's quite a significant move. A weaker Brown Ale was introduced, one that's obviously a bottled version of the weak Mild A. The name, NBA, stands for Nut Brown Ale. Sp. A looks like another draught variation of A, quite possibly coloured differently at racking time. Barclay Perkins introduced a very dark version of their Ale around this time.

Over on the Stout side, Stout was split into two differently-priced versions and the two versions of CS replaced by a single, weaker one.

What else have I learned? That Truman started brewing a Brown Ale in 1926. And that it was stronger than their strongest Mild Ale. Though I do know that it was parti-gyled with it. How do I know that? From another dead handy document. One that we'll be looking at soon.

Truman Brick Lane gravities 1925 - 1933
Beer	Style	1925	1926	1927	1928	1929	1930	1931	1932	1933
BLK	Pale Ale	1040.0	1040.0	1040.0	1039.8	1039.8	1039.8	1039.8	1036.4	1036.4
LK	Pale Ale	1029.2	1029.2	1029.2	1029.3	1029.3	1029.1	1029.2	1028.4	1028.4
SA	Strong Ale	1056.2	1055.8	1055.8	1055.9	1055.7	1055.7	1055.6	1049.2	1047.5
X	Mild	1043.0	1043.1	1043.0	1042.9	1042.8	1042.7	1042.9		1039.5
LM	Mild								1034.8	1034.8
BA	Brown Ale		1044.6	1044.8	1044.8	1044.7	1044.7	1044.8	1041.7	1041.7
A	Mild	1029.4	1029.4	1029.4	1029.5	1029.4	1029.5	1029.6	1028.4	1028.4
Sp. A	Mild								1028.4	1028.4
NBA	Brown Ale								1028.4	1028.4
Stock IDS	Stout	1083.7	1083.6	1095.4
BS	Stout	1058.4	1058.5	1058.3	1058.4	1058.7	1058.8	1059.0	1053.7	1053.7
St.	Stout	1050.1	1050.2	1050.2	1050.2	1050.3	1050.1	1050.5
St. 8d	Stout								1047.8	1047.8
St. 7d	Stout								1040.9	1040.9
CS Town	Stout	1044.8	1047.1	1046.7	1046.3	1048.5	1049.1	1049.0
CS Country	Stout		1044.3			1045.4	1045.3	1045.3
CS B									1038.9	1038.9
R	Porter	1037.4	1037.5	1037.5	1037.4	1037.2	1037.2	1037.1	1035.3	1035.3
SS	Stout	1054.5	1054.7	1054.6	1054.4	1054.5	1054.8	1054.8	1050.3	1050.3
Scotch St.	Stout		1058.4
RDS	Stout									1044.5
Source:
Document B/THB/C/256c held at the London Metropolitan Archives

Barclay Perkins and Dreher

I just had to tell you about this. I've found a connection between two of my favourite obsessions, Barclay Perkins and Dreher.

This is it:

"The Barclay and Perkins of Vienna, Herr Dreher, died suddenly a few days ago. He was the best producer of Vienna beer, and died worth from 6,000,000fl. to 8,000,000fl. (£800,000). His heir is his only son, a boy of 14. The boy, after finishing school, is to come for three years to England, to Barclay and Perkins's establishment, work there till the age of 21, and then assume the patrimony."
Lincolnshire Chronicle - Friday 15 January 1864, page 7.

When you think about it, it isn't so strange. Dreher's Schwechat brewery was the largest on the continent and Barclay Perkins had for a while been the largest brewery in the world. Though you might have expected the young Dreher to do his apprenticeship in a Lager brewery.

I wonder if Anton Dreher had set uit up remembering his own highly-significant rtip to Britain in the 1830's. The trip that gave birth to the first industrial bottom-fermenting styles styles: Munich and Vienna Lagers.

Dextrin and decoction

Busy, busy, busy. That's my life. Gallavanting around the world trying to sell my book. Sometimes it gets in the way of my other work.

I found these fascinating analyses of different mashing methods just before I left for San Diego. No time to write about them then. "I'll do it when I get back." I thought. That was before a random Truman document led me astray. I've only just remembered about the mashing stuff.

When I first looked seriously ay decoction mashing in my early blogging days, I was surprised to discover just how many different methods there were. One made a particular impression on me: the Satz (or Augsburg) method.

In it, the malt is mashed in with cold water and left to sit for four or five hours. The liquid which accumulated below the false bottom, called Satz, was drawn off. It contained various stuff from the malt but, most importantly, some of the enzymes.

It's one of the methods which crops up in the article in "Jahresbericht über die Leistungen der chemischen Technologie" which appeared in 1868. There are six mashing schemes considered in total. But, frustratingly, none of them are explained. I think I know what infusion is, but what about decoction or Bock? As I just mentioned, there are very many different types of decoction. Which one do they mean?

A couple of different tables appear in the article. First is the composition of the wort:

Worts
	decoction	Bock	Satz method	so-called English method	with added starch	infusion
sugar	4.85	7.10	4.37	5.00	5.31	5.26
dextrin	6.24	8.60	7.61	7.70	6.23	6.68
nitrogen-containing substance	0.79	1.35	-	-	0.67	-
other contents	0.41	0.63	0.95	0.80	0.22	0.70
specific gravity	1050	1073	1052.7	1055.1	1051	1051.5
extract (directly measured)	11.87	17.05	11.98	12.70	12.30	11.94
extract according to Balling	12.29	17.68	12.93	13.50	12.52	12.64
Source:
Jahresbericht über die Leistungen der chemischen Technologie, 1868, page 543.

Next the composition of the beer after fermentation:

Beer after tub fermentation
	decoction	Bock	Satz method	so-called English method	with added starch	infusion
alcohol	2.81	3.38	2.94	2.96	3.03	3.13
sugar	1.58	2.32	1.46	1.68	1.59	1.33
dextrin	4.61	6.91	4.77	5.26	4.56	4.80
nitrogen-containing substance	0.38	0.74	-	-	0.44	-
other contents	0.38	0.4	0.89	0.97	0.14	0.55
specific gravity	1022.8	1042	1028.6	1031.8	1027	1026.8
extract (directly measured)	6.57	9.98	6.23	6.93	6.59	6.13
extract according to Balling	6.95	10.38	7.12	7.90	6.73	6.68
Source:
Jahresbericht über die Leistungen der chemischen Technologie, 1868, page 544.

And finally one showing the relationship between the sugar and dextrin content in both the wort and finished beer.

	for each unit of sugar
mashing method	dextrin in the wort	dextrin in the beer
with added starch	1.170	2.868
Bock	1.211	2.979
infusion	1.270	3.609
decoction	1.286	2.918
so-called English	1.540	3.137
Satz	1.740	3.267
Source:
Jahresbericht über die Leistungen der chemischen Technologie, 1868, page 544.

I have to admit that these don't show what I would have expected. I'd have bet that the infusion mash would produce the least dextrin. But that's not the case. It actually places about in the middle of the pack.

In the last table the Bock method comes quite low down because of the high density of the wort and the poor degree of attenuation. These both mean that there are relatively high levels of sugar both before and after fermentation.

It's fascinating, even though I'm not sure exactly what it's telling me.

Truman Brick Lane grists 1924 - 1940

Yes, I've not done spinning words from those few tables of numbers.

This time it's the stuff that provides the fermentable materials that we're looking at. Malt, sugar and adjuncts. I've had to fiddle with the number a bit because they were specified in quarters. And a sugar quarter is only 224 lbs, as opposed to the 336 lbs of a malt quarter. So I've adjusted the sugar and caramel figures to be 336 lb quarters.

One word of caution. We've already seen how there was a big shift from Porter/Stout to Ale in Truman's output over this period. That makes trends in ingredient usage harder to spot, because the ingredients for Ale and Stout differ. In 1910, the last year for which I have Brick Lane brewing records, neither of the two Ales, X and LK, contained either black malt or caramel. While all their Porters and Stouts did.

If we combine the caramel and black malt percentages, they start at 5.14% in 1924 and fall to 3.38% in 1940. That's a fall of around 50%. But production of Porter and Stout fell by more than 100% over the same period. My conclusion? Truman had started using caramel and black malt in some of their Ales.

I think I can understand why. You will, too, when we look at how Truman's beer range changed between 1910 and 1940. Which is what we'll be doing next time.

The most obvious long-term trend is the increase in the use of sugar, rising steadily up to a peak in 1934 then falling back again a little.

Malt usage is around 75% all the way through, except for the difficult year of 1933, where it dropped just below 75%. I was surprised to see the share of maize decline. That could be connected to which styles were being brewed as some contained maize and others didn't. At least that was the case back in 1910.

Here are the tables:

Truman Brick Lane grists 1924 - 1940 (qtrs of 336 lbs)
Year	Malt	Maize	Sugar	Caramel	Black	Total
1924	36,541	2,732	4,917	865	1,530	46,586
1925	40,789.5	3,323	6,222	1,150	1,426	52,910
1926	40,707.5	3,332	6,680	1,152	1,524	53,396
1927	41,395	2,748	7,319	1,164	1,042.5	53,668
1928	40,438.5	3,019	7,641	1,054	1,204	53,357
1929	38,145	3,263.5	7,415	962	1,035	50,820
1930	41,626	2,864.5	8,917	1,124	803	55,335
1931	39,365.5	2,994	8,780	1,110	628	52,878
1932	36,450.5	3,042	8,305	1,016	692	49,506
1933	26,719.5	2,589.5	7,307	851	821.5	38,288
1934	33,364	2,557	9,086	914	928	46,848
1935	36,248.33	2,264.17	8,980	854	851.5	49,198
1936	38,543	2,434.5	9,261	936	926	52,101
1937	38,508.5	2,465	9,310	861	1,097	52,242
1938	39,372	2,478.5	9,626	964	891.5	53,332
1939	39,061.33	2,521.33	9,545	714	1,084	52,926
1940	38,756	2,320	8,961	650	1,100	51,788
Source:
Document B/THB/C/256c held at the London Metropolitan Archives

Truman Brick Lane grists 1924 - 1940 (%)
Year	Malt	Maize	Sugar	Caramel	Black	Total
1924	78.44%	5.86%	10.56%	1.86%	3.28%	100.00%
1925	77.09%	6.28%	11.76%	2.17%	2.70%	100.00%
1926	76.24%	6.24%	12.51%	2.16%	2.85%	100.00%
1927	77.13%	5.12%	13.64%	2.17%	1.94%	100.00%
1928	75.79%	5.66%	14.32%	1.98%	2.26%	100.00%
1929	75.06%	6.42%	14.59%	1.89%	2.04%	100.00%
1930	75.23%	5.18%	16.12%	2.03%	1.45%	100.00%
1931	74.45%	5.66%	16.60%	2.10%	1.19%	100.00%
1932	73.63%	6.14%	16.78%	2.05%	1.40%	100.00%
1933	69.79%	6.76%	19.08%	2.22%	2.15%	100.00%
1934	71.22%	5.46%	19.39%	1.95%	1.98%	100.00%
1935	73.68%	4.60%	18.25%	1.74%	1.73%	100.00%
1936	73.98%	4.67%	17.78%	1.80%	1.78%	100.00%
1937	73.71%	4.72%	17.82%	1.65%	2.10%	100.00%
1938	73.82%	4.65%	18.05%	1.81%	1.67%	100.00%
1939	73.80%	4.76%	18.03%	1.35%	2.05%	100.00%
1940	74.84%	4.48%	17.30%	1.26%	2.12%	100.00%
Source:
Document B/THB/C/256c held at the London Metropolitan Archives

Next time we'll be looking at which beers Truman brewed in the interwar years.

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Brewing in Australia

Just some random piece of shit from an old brewing magazine about Australia.

It's a slightly frustrating article because the most interesting part of the pamphlet it quotes from - a trip around teh Carlton Brewery - isn't included, just the rather bullshitty and flowery introduction. I've chopped the crap out to save you the trouble of reading it

"BREWING IN AUSTRALIA
WE have received from Mr. Edward Latham, the proprietor of the Carlton Brewery, Victoria, Australia, a nicely-written and neatly-printed little pamphlet of thirty-one pages, descriptive of a visit to his well-known establishment, and of the premises, plant, and machinery. All these appear from the account, which is apparently reprinted from a local newspaper, to be just what they should be—the best of their kind, and need no Further notice at our hands. There is a pleasant, gossipy introduction, which we may very well transfer to our columns :—

. . . . .

And when a Briton leaves his mother-country, and settles down in one or other of her numerous colonies, he still retains his innate affection for the beer of his youth. Take, for example, our Indian brethren. That they do not outgrow their hereditary love of the national beverage is testified by the twin facts, that a special class of ale is brewed to suit their parched palates, and that ‘India Pale Ale’ is annually imported into the three Presidencies in astonishing quantities. We all know the story of the young Indian officer, who, on hearing through his agents that a fortune of £10,000 had been left to him, and receiving a request as to what should be done with the money, replied, without hesitation, ‘Send for a cargo of bottled beer.’ It is be hoped, for sobriety's sake, that there are not many such hundred-thousand-bottle men to be found now-a-days, but there are very few Indian residents who entirely banish bottled ale from their tables. Even on board the steamers running between England and the East, the consumption of bottled beer assumes gigantic proportions, for we learn from a report dated October, 1865, that the number of bottles of beer used on board the Peninsular and Oriental Company's steamers alone, for the twelve months prior to the date quoted, was no less than six hundred and ninety thousand, three hundred and fifty-nine bottles! Coming nearer home, we notice in the manifests of newly-arrived vessels, hogsheads of draught, and cases and barrels of bottled beers, sufficient to accompany the most Gargantuan repasts—enough, one would think, to wash down all the fresh and preserved meats in Australia. But there are drawbacks to the general consumption of this beer, carefully prepared as it may be, and set apart, like the left-off clothes we read of but never see, ‘ for the colonies.’ It is not thoroughly suited to the requirements of our climate. It is too heavy, too somniferous in its effects for the heat of our summer days, not sufficiently refreshing to the taste, and rather too expensive for universal use. What is wanted to recoup the ‘waste of tissue,’ to appease the ‘drouth’ of sun-baked Australians, is a beer that shall be light, yet good, pleasant to the palate, but not unpleasant to the system, a beer, to use an hackneyed quotation, 'without a headache in a hogshead of it,’ or a suspicion of cocculus indicus, grains of paradise, or strychnine, in a year's brewing. To meet this want, several breweries have, at different times, been started in Victoria, and have met with various degrees of success.”

The ales of the Carlton Brewery, we learn, are in high repute in the Colony, where they have taken many prizes and prize certificates at the various exhibitions. The employes have enrolled themselves into a volunteer fire brigade, not only for the protection of their employer's property, but for that of their neighbours, and have on many occasions rendered valuable service in the suppression of outbreaks in the town. From a footnote we leam that there are already no less than 124 breweries in Victoria, turning out in 1871 more than thirteen millions of gallons of beer, equivalent to eighteen gallons per head of the population, including children, annually."
"Brewers' Guardian vol 3", 1873, pages 320 - 321.

 The quantites of IPA shipped to India weren'y really that astonishing. Compared to the total amount of beer brewed by Bass and Allsopp the quantity taht went to India was really rather negligible. In 1872 167,597* barrels of beer were imported into in India. Less than half of that would have been IPA, say 70,000 barrels at the absolute maximum. Between them Bass and Allsopp brewed well over 1 million barrels.

Could that story of the officer spending £10,000 on beer possibly be true? I'd like to believe it was. But my head tells me there's some embellishment or fantasy at play. If £10,000 really did get you 100,000 bottles, that makes IPA 2 shillings a pop. Which seems pretty expensive, even considering it's in India. British adverts tell me that an Imperial pint of Bass IPA was just 4.75d - about a fifth of 2 shillings. Even if the Indian bottle was quart, that's still a big preice difference.

Mr. Latham seems to be describing Lager: "a beer that shall be light, yet good, pleasant to the palate, but not unpleasant to the system". His brewery would later become very big in the Lager trade. It still is, with delightful beers such as Victoria Bitter.

One of the reasons I've shared this is that I used to walk past the site of the Carlton Brewery every day on my way into work when I live in Melbourne in the early 1990's. God, that seems like several lifetimes ago.

124 is far more breweries than there currently are in Victoria, that's for sure. 13 million gallons is 361,111 barrels. Or about as much as one of the large London breweries. It's a average of just a little less than 3,000 barrels per brewery. Most must have been pretty small.





* Brewers' Guardian, Volume 3, 1873, page 14.

Truman Brick Lane hop usage 1924 - 1940

I'm back with that Truman costings document from between the wars. And one of the other items it has detailed information on: hop usage.

Again, a few seemingly dull numbers tell us a stack. First Truman's hopping rates. There wasn't a huge change in average gravity over this period, so we can take the figures at face value. Between 1924 and 1940 the average hopping rate almost halved, save for a little blip in 1931 and 1932. but I think I can explain that. The blip, I mean.

1932 was a funny year for British brewing. A shit one, really. Beer production plummeted after the big tax rise in Snowden's 1931 emergency Budget. Which probably partially explains why hops were so cheap in 1932. In 1934, after the tax increase had been reversed and beer production started to rise again, the hop price goes up again.

Here are some details on UK hop production. Usually you would expect the poor harvests in 1931 and 1932 to have forced up prices. But because beer production fell - and hence hop usage, too - prices didn't go crazy.

Hops: home production and imports
Year ended 31st Dec.	Acreage	Estimated Produce	Imports: Less Re-Exports	Consumption Years ended 30th Sept. following
		Cwts.	Cwts.	Cwts.
1929	23,986	359,100	62,208	307,289
1930	19,997	253,000	44,199	277,406
1931	19,628	169,000	50,303	219,587
1932	16,531	188,000	14,952	222,868
1933	16,895	210,000	44,829	233,419
1934	18,037	259,000	30,046	248,744
1935	18,251	248,300	35,186	258,300
1936	18,317	252,000	31,953	270,692
1937	18,093	235,000	40,406	277,846
1938	18,460	257,000	45,287	286,716
1939	18,812	288,000	7,840	265,512
1940	18,592	270,500	14,675	251,354
Source:
Brewers' Almanack 1955, page 63.

Usage of foreign hops also tells a story. Though the figures are confused by the inclusion of other European hops in the British numbers for most years. What we're really seeing is European vs American hops.

Pre-WW I massive amounts of hops were imported from the US. And in the immediate post-war years, with the hop industry in Europe still suffering from the war, large quantities were again imported from the US. Through the 1920's, these hops were around a third of those used at Truman. But once the UK industry became just about self-sufficient, Truman dropped foreign hops.

Truman Brick Lane hop usage 1924 - 1940
	UK hops		Foreign hops		total hops
year	cwt	%	cwt	%	cwt	Average price (cwt)	oz per barrel brewed
1924	1818	61.85%	1121.25	38.15%	2939.25	£13.43	19.8
1925	2131.5	67.33%	1034.25	32.67%	3165.75	£13.76	18.6
1926	2222.5	72.41%	846.75	27.59%	3069.25	£11.05	17.77
1927	2078	67.94%	980.75	32.06%	3058.75	£11.68	17.7
1928	1939.25	68.06%	910.25	31.94%	2849.5	£11.55	16.08
1929	1951.25	69.60%	852.25	30.40%	2803.5	£13.06	16.44
1930	2155	74.99%	718.75	25.01%	2873.75	£11.03	15.35
1931	2547	90.58%	265	9.42%	2812	£6.02	15.62
1932	2886.25	100.00%		0.00%	2886.25	£5.76	15.68
1933	2246.5	100.00%		0.00%	2246.5	£7.50	14.17
1934	2582	98.62%	36.25	1.38%	2618.25	£10.35	14.34
1935	2164.25	90.10%	237.75	9.90%	2402	£15.14	13.07
1936	2271.75	81.85%	503.75	18.15%	2775.5	£11.49	13.69
1937	2718.75	100.00%		0.00%	2718.75	£10.98	13.32
1938	2713.25	99.97%	0.75	0.03%	2714	£10.79	12.77
1939	2652.5	100.00%		0.00%	2652.5	£10.52	12.52
1940	2455.25	99.41%	14.5	0.59%	2469.75	£10.40	11.71
Source:
Document B/THB/C/256c held at the London Metropolitan Archives

I'm saving the best stuff from this document for later. Stay tuned.