Let's Brew Wednesday - 1887 Truman LB

Another preview from my upcoming book, Let's Brew!

In the 1887 Truman (Burton) brewing record a new beer appears. A type of Pale Ale called LB.

My guess would be that that stands for “Light Bitter”. Though with a gravity north of 1060º, it’s not exactly my idea of light. Given the name, I suspect that this is a Running rather than a Stock Pale Ale.

What’s odd, is that despite having some invert sugar in the grist, the attenuation is worse than the Stock Pale Ales we’ve seen. No idea why that should be, though the quantity of sugar isn’t enormous.

One thing I should remind you of. As Truman’s Pale Ales were brewed in a proper Burton brewery, they would have been cleansed in union sets. Note that I didn’t say fermented in union sets. Because that wasn’t the primary function of the unions. And the beer would have already been fermenting for days before it ever went into the unions.

No need to age this one, then. That’s a relief, isn’t it?

1887 Truman LB
pale malt	13.00 lb	92.86%
No. 1 invert sugar	1.00 lb	7.14%
Cluster 180 mins	1.25 oz
Goldings 60 mins	1.25 oz
Goldings 30 mins	1.25 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.50 oz
OG	1064
FG	1022
ABV	5.56
Apparent attenuation	65.63%
IBU	55
SRM	6
Mash at	152º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	180 minutes
pitching temp	57º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1099 Whitbread Ale

Amstel beers in 1956

Continuing with my theme of stuff I didn't really do anything with for years, here's a look at Amstel's beers in 1956.

These are in the archive that's most accessible to me, the Amsterdam Stadsarchief. I really should get down there more often. But it’s hard to justify when I’ve done bugger all with the information I’ve already collected.

It’s a funny set of beer: four flavours of Pils, a Stout and the oh-so-Dutch Oud Bruin.

Starting with the Pils, P is the standard one, of which huge quantities were brewed. Gold is a stronger version, which differs from the standard one by using sugar rather than unmalted grain. It’s still available in Holland. I’ve even tried it myself, though purely for scientific purposes.

E is the export version, presumably destined for the USA. While the watery PL is obviously the UK version. Nowhere else would have wanted a 3% ABV Pils. It also contained sugar rather than unmalted grain.

Most Dutch Lager breweries had a Stout in their range in the first half of the 20th century. Usually they were bottom-fermented. Along with Bok, they were the strongest beer in a brewery’s portfolio. And usually the most heavily hopped.

I love Oud Bruin. Because every time an American tells me every style of beer is brewed in the USA, I always say: “What about Dutch-style Oud Bruin?”. Dark and very sweet, it’s not to everyone’s taste.

Note the very low level of hopping in most of the beers, even Pils, which is supposed to be hoppy.

Amstel beers in 1956
Beer	Style	OG Plato	FG Plato	ABV	App. Atten-uation	kg hops/ 100 kg	hops kg/hl
Gold	Pils	14.50	3.90	5.77	74.21%	1.19	0.23
P	Pils	11.57	2.70	4.76	77.48%	1.17	0.19
PL	Pils	8.00	2.55	2.88	68.82%	1.73	0.21
St	Stout	16.00	7.85	4.53	52.48%	1.17	0.30
OB	Oud Bruin	8.50	2.50	3.18	71.29%	1.10	0.19
E	Pils	11.91	2.80	4.89	77.33%	1.22	0.20
Source:
Amstel brewing log held at the Amsterdam Stadsarchief, document number 1506-555.

Truman (Burton) beers in 1877

Another set of records which I haven't exploited much are those from Truman's brewery in Burton.

There are a couple of random brewing books from the 19th century in the London Metropolitan Archives. And I think I might know why I've not done much with: I found them confusing when I first looked at them. And the fact that there are so many different beers.

The table below has fourteen different beers. But I know it isn't the full set, because 1, 2 and 3 are missing. It's annoying I missed No. 1 in particular. That's an early Barley Wine. Trying to pick a style for the numbered Ales had me a bit stumped, too. Nos. 6 to 9 are a doddle. I know those were all Mild Ales. But what about Nos. 4 and 5?

They're Ales, I know that. But what type of Ales? K4 is a Stock Ale. But what about straight No. 4? I guess I could just call it a Strong Ale. Yes, I suppose that will do.

The Pale Ales you could also call IPA, especially as they were brewed in Burton. P1 B (the B standing for bottling) has two claims to fame. In the 1950's it was marketed as a posh bottled beer called Ben Truman, which later also became a keg product. And this 1877 recipe was the base for Goose Island Brewery Yard.

K = Keeper, R = Runner. Though strangely the keeping and running versions of P1 and P2 seem to have the same hopping rate. Which isn't what you'd expect.

One thing all the beers have in common is very heavy hopping. Even the weaker Milds have well over 1 lb per barrel. And those Pale Ales are hopped heavily enough to put the IBUs well over 100.

The boil times are very long. Three hours for the first wort is very unusual. Not so odd in a third wort, but definitely not usual for the first.

Truman (Burton) beers in 1877
Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)	Pitch temp
4	Ale	1081.2	1028.5	6.96	64.85%	12.00	4.92	3			54º
K4	Ale	1083.4	1027.7	7.37	66.78%	12.00	4.16	3	3	3	54º
5	Ale	1076.7	1024.9	6.85	67.51%	12.00	4.17	3	3	3.5	55º
6	Mild	1068.1	1020.5	6.30	69.92%	9.00	2.65	3	2.5		58º
7	Mild	1060.9	1018.0	5.68	70.45%	8.00	2.12	3	3.5	3.5	60º
8	Mild	1055.1	1015.8	5.20	71.36%	8.00	1.67	3	2.5		59º
9	Mild	1050.1				9.14	1.95	2.5	2.5		62º
P1	Pale Ale	1066.5	1016.6	6.60	75.00%	19.00	5.39	3	3.25	3	57º
P1 B	Pale Ale	1069.5	1024.9	5.90	64.14%	20.00	5.86	3.75	3.75	3.75	57º
P1 K	Pale Ale	1068.7	1022.2	6.16	67.74%	19.00	5.37	3	3.5	3.5	57º
P1 R	Pale Ale	1066.5	1019.4	6.23	70.83%	19.00	5.21	3.25	3.25	3.25	58º
P2	Pale Ale	1063.7	1018.6	5.97	70.87%	19.00	5.01	3.5	3.25		58º
P2 K	Pale Ale	1063.2	1020.5	5.64	67.54%	19.00	4.79	3	3	3	58º
Pale Ale	Pale Ale	1055.7	1016.6	5.17	70.15%	17.00	3.85	3	3		62º
Source:
Truman brewing log held at the London Metroploitan Archives, document number B/THB/BUR/35.

Reid Porter and Stout grists in 1845

As promised, a look at the grists of Reid's Black Beers in 1845.

I'll warn you right at the start. They aren't all that exciting. Why? Because before 1880 London Porter brewers used a limited set of ingredients in their beers. Pale, brown and black malt were always present. Sometimes amber malt, too and, very rarely, a bit of sugar. It doesn't matter which brewery you look at, the grists are pretty similar.

About the only difference between the grists at Reid was that the stronger Stouts contained a touch less brown malt. I must admit that surprised me. I'd have expected the more expensive beers to contain more.

You know what might help here? If we looked at the Porter and Stout from another London brewery. How about Whitbread? I have a full set of their records so I know I can make a comparison on the same year.

Whitbread brewed a very similar range to Reid:

Whitbread Porter and Stout in 1845 - 1846
Year	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
1845	Expt	Porter	1057.9	1019.4	5.09	66.51%	21.80	5.13
1845	K	Porter	1060.9	1019.4	5.50	68.18%	16.30	3.79
1845	P	Porter	1063.2	1022.7	5.35	64.04%	11.85	3.04
1846	S	Stout	1069.3	1018.6	6.71	73.20%	13.07	4.10
1845	S Expt	Stout	1072.3	1025.8	6.16	64.37%	22.20	7.21
1846	SS	Stout	1085.0	1030.5	7.22	64.17%	10.87	3.94
1845	SSS	Stout	1095.0	1028.3	8.83	70.26%	16.30	5.91
Sources:
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metroploitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/09/039 and LMA/4453/D/09/040.

Note the similarity of the gravities to those at Reid.

Reid Porter and Stout grists in 1845
Beer	Style	OG	pale malt	brown malt	black malt	hops
Com Sea	Porter	1060.9	83.42%	12.02%	4.56%	English
Crs	Porter	1060.9	80.74%	15.15%	4.11%	English
Rg	Porter	1060.4	80.74%	14.85%	4.41%	English
S	Stout	1073.4	82.18%	13.92%	3.90%	English
S Crs	Stout	1074.8	80.74%	14.95%	4.31%	English
SS	Stout	1087.3	85.44%	11.15%	3.41%	English
SS Crs	Stout	1087.3	85.44%	11.15%	3.41%	English
SSS	Stout	1097.0	82.63%	13.49%	3.87%	English
Source:
Reid brewing record held at Westminster City Archives, document number 789/271.

But what about their grists?

Whitbread Porter and Stout grists in 1845 - 1846
Year	Beer	Style	OG	pale malt	brown malt	black malt
1845	Expt	Porter	1057.9	80.3%	16.80%	2.94%
1845	K	Porter	1060.9	80.3%	16.80%	2.94%
1845	P	Porter	1063.2	80.3%	16.80%	2.94%
1846	S	Stout	1069.3	76.6%	20.31%	3.05%
1845	S Expt	Stout	1072.3	80.3%	16.80%	2.94%
1846	SS	Stout	1085.0	76.6%	20.31%	3.05%
1845	SSS	Stout	1095.0	80.3%	16.80%	2.94%
Sources:
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metroploitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/09/039 and LMA/4453/D/09/040.

I can see very little difference, A little more brown and a little less black malt at Whitbread. But they aren't a million miles apart. My guess is that the beers from the two breweries would have tasted pretty similar.

Let's Brew 1877 Truman K4

Truman didn’t just use their Burton brewery for brewing Pale Ales. They also made Burton Ales there.

There’s been a fair bit of confusion in the beer world about Burton Ale. I partly blame allied who, when they released a cask version of Double Diamond, decided to call it Burton Ale. Even though it was a Pale Ale. A Burton Pale Ale to give it its full name.

I can also understand that Pale Ale is the type of beer most associated with Burton. So if you hear something called Burton Ale, it’s natural to assume it’s a Pale Ale. Unless you know the history of brewing in Burton. Then you’ll be aware that Burton was a famous brewing town even before the first Pale Ale was brewed there in the 1870s.

The beers that made Burton originally famous were strong, dark Ales. This type of beer continued to be brewed there after the arrival of Pale Ale, though in the 19th century they had become strong, pale-coloured Ales. The most famous being Bass No. 1, the first beer marketed as a Barley Wine.

K4 is an example of a Burton Ale. Like Bass, Truman numbered their Ales. In their case from 1 to 9. Annoyingly, I don’t have examples of 1 to 3 from the 1877 brewing book. Making 4 the strongest one I have. Though with an OG of over 1080º, it’s not exactly puny.

There’s not a great deal to it: 100% pale malt, American and Kent hops. Combined, they create a golden-coloured beer with a heft bitter bite. Though that would have worn off a little by the time the beer was sold. Because, as the K indicates, the was a Keeper, which would have been aged for at least six months before being sent out.

1877 Truman K4
pale malt	18.75 lb	100.00%
Cluster 180 mins	4.50 oz
Goldings 90 mins	2.25 oz
Goldings 30 mins	2.25 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.50 oz
OG	1083
FG	1028
ABV	7.28
Apparent attenuation	66.27%
IBU	123
SRM	8
Mash at	152º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	180 minutes
pitching temp	54º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1099 Whitbread Ale

Reid Porter and Stout in 1845

While I'm finally getting around to looking at Reid stuff, I may as well do their Porter and Stout, too.

Now I think about it, just like the Ales, these fall into two groups: Runners and Keepers. With Crs designating the latter. Obviously, the big difference between the two groups is the hopping, which is approximately 50% higher in the Keepers.

Other points of note are the crazily long boil times for the Stouts. That must have made for an extremely long brewing day. I don't think I've ever seen a boil of longer than 4 hours anywhere else. I'm not sure what point there is in boiling a beer with a gravity in the 1070's for six hours. Seems like a waste of coal.

The pitching temperature of 65º F for the Porter is quite high, but not that unusual for London Porter. They usually let it ferment quite warm, with peaks of over 80º F not unheard of. I guess they were keen on fermenting it quickly.

The Keepers would all have been aged in vats. Six months for the Porter and six to twelve months for the Stouts. The Runners, on the other hand, would have been sold no more than a few weeks after racking.

Next time we'll look at their grists.

Reid Porter and Stout in 1845
Beer	Style	OG	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)	Pitch temp	max. fermen-tation temp
Com Sea	Porter	1060.9	12.80	3.08	1.5	1.5	4.5	65º	76.75º
Crs	Porter	1060.9	15.67	3.76	1.5	1.5	4.5	65º	77º
Rg	Porter	1060.4	8.46	1.93	1.5	1.5	4.5	65º	76.5º
S	Stout	1073.4	12.05	3.76	3	6		58.5º	74.5º
S Crs	Stout	1074.8	15.00	4.94	3	6		58º	77º
SS	Stout	1087.3	11.62	4.55	3	6		57.5º
SS Crs	Stout	1087.3	14.92	6.15	3	6		58º
SSS	Stout	1097.0	12.61	5.94	3	6		56º	78.5º
Source:
Reid brewing record held at Westminster City Archives, document number 789/271.

Reid Ales 1852 - 1853

Did I mention my new book? It's just about done. Just the last few recipes to polish off and I can send it off to the printers. So to speak.

Let's Brew! it's called. Containing a couple of hundred recipes, of which almost half are brand new. You could see it as an add-on pack for The Home Brewer's Guide to Vintage Beer.

Why am I mentioning this? because one of things I was prompted to do while writing it was to take a closer look at some of the brewing records I had inexplicably neglected. Which included those of Reid.

Reid was one of the big Porter brewers in the 19th cntury and remained one of the largest breweries in London, and hence the UK, in the early part of the 19th. After which it began to fall behind the likes of Whitbread, Barclay Perkins and Truman.

In the frist half of the 19th century they brewed Ales as well as Porter and Stout, though inexplicably dropped the Ales in the 1860's or 1870's. As at other London breweries, their Ales fell into two groups, Mild Ales indicated by a number of X's and Stock Ales indicated by a number of K's.

Even the weakest, X Ale, their lowest gravity Mild was quite a strong beer. Mild Ales of 3% ABV or so are a relatively recent development, only really becoming the norm in the 1930's. Their XXX Ale, at 9.5% ABV, looks nothing like a modern Mild. Waich it isn't, as it was also pale in colour and pretty bitter.

All of these beers, with the exception of X Ale, which contained a tiny amount of black malt, were 100% pale malt. The main difference between the X's and the K's was the level of hopping, which was higher in the latter. Which makes total sense as they were meant to be aged for six months or more.

Reid Ales 1852 - 1853
Year	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)	Pitch temp
1852	X	Mild	1069.3	1024.9	5.86	64.00%	12.26	3.63	1.5	3	57º
1852	XXX	Mild	1097.0	1025.8	9.42	73.43%	10.72	4.90	1.5	3	57º
1853	KK	Stock Ale	1083.1	1018.3	8.57	78.00%	13.42	4.81	1.5	3	56º
1853	KKK	Stock Ale	1095.6	1023.5	9.53	75.36%	13.10	5.71	2	4	57º
1853	KKKK	Stock Ale	1116.3	1031.6	11.21	72.86%	13.56	7.23	2	4	56.25º
Source:
Reid brewing record held at Westminster City Archives, document number 789/273.

Despite closing in 1898 on their merger with Watney and Combe, the Reid name lived on as a brand for Watney Stout well past WW II.

1837 Reid DBSt

Now here’s a strange thing. The very first brewing records I ever looked at were Reid’s. Yet I’ve never published any of their Porter and Stout recipes. Just an IPA and a Pale Ale recipe in my Home Brewer’s Guide to Vintage Beer.

Not so bad, now I think about it. As including a few in this book will make it a more tempting purchase. Which is the idea. I do hope to flog a few copies. Some fresh recipes should help. Some old ones, too. The initial draught was very 20th-century dominated.

This is a pretty typical early 19th-century Double Stout. It has the classic pale, brown and black malt combination that London brewers loved. It was a mix that they continued to use well into the 20th century. At least those that were still open Reid closed in 1899, after merging with Watney and Combe.

One note about the malt. In this period they were still using volume quarters. Which means the quarters were different weights for different types of malt. I’ve assumed 336 lbs for pale malt and 252 lbs for brown and black malt.

The hops in the original were one third 1837 season EK, two thirds 1836 season MK. I’ve knocked down the hopping a bit to account for those older hops. It worked out to almost 11 ozs. for an Imperial gallon batch. Which is quite a lot. Then again, they hopped everything like crazy back then.

The original mashing scheme was more complicated, with two mashes and a sparge. The tap heats for those three were 143º F, 156º F and 152.5º F, respectively. That’s actually quite simple for the time. Three or four mashes were common.

action	water (barrels)	water temp.	tap temp.	time
mash	190	160º F	143º F	90
mash	100	182º F	156º F	50
mash	40	174º F	152.5º F	45

To really recreate the original you’ll need patience. And a vat. The original was vatted, probably for around 12 months.

1837 Reid DBSt
pale malt	15.75 lb	78.75%
brown malt	3.50 lb	17.50%
black malt	0.75 lb	3.75%
Goldings 90 mins	3.00 oz
Goldings 60 mins	3.00 oz
Goldings 30 mins	3.00 oz
Goldings dry hops	1.00 oz
OG	1084.2
FG	1026
ABV	7.70
Apparent attenuation	69.12%
IBU	91
SRM	33
Mash at	152º F
Sparge at	174º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	61º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1099 Whitbread Ale

Deutscher Porter

The brewing of Porter in Germany has a long and pretty much uninterrupted history. The first references I’ve found are from the 19th century.

German Porter developed its strongest roots in the DDR. Porter was a fairly common style brewed by dozens of breweries. I can be certain of that because I’ve seen the labels. In character, they resembled very closely the type of Porter described by Olberg: strong and quite heavily hopped. Beers which would have been called Stout in the UK.

Sadly, all the examples of that style of Porter seem to have disappeared. Several breweries in the East do currently brew a beer called Porter, but it’s completely different in nature: much weaker and very sweet. Pretty awful beers, to be honest.

Time for some Olberg paraphrasing:

German Porter is brewed in the following way: using, for example, 300 kg. pale malt, 50 kg. dark malt and 45 kg. Farbmalz (pale coloured!) and 80 kg. of sugar. 8 to 10 kg. of hops are used.

Because of the use of large quantities of Farbmalz and dark malt, which have little diastase, a kettle mashing scheme or a thick mash and lautermash are recommended.

Mashing in is at 35º C, after which the mash is left to rest for 30 minutes, then the temperature is raised to 65º C, left for at least 45 minutes for saccharification to take place and then raised to the mash out temperature of 75º C. The lauter tun should be well heated up with warm water first.

Another method is to mash in in the tun and raise the temperature to 55º C with hot water, move two-thirds of the mash to the kettle where it is raised to the  saccharification temperature (65º C) and held for as long as necessary. It’s then boiled for 10 minutes and returned to the mash tun where it raises the temperature to 65º C. There’s now a second lautermash which only boils for 5 minutes. When return to the rest of the mash this raises the temperature to the mash out temperature of 75º C.

After a rest of 35 to 40 minutes, the wort is run off. The sparge should preferably run off at 72 to 74º C because the Farbmalz and dark malt are often made very fine through milling and can clump together and make the run off very slow. If the sparge water isn’t 75 to 78º C (75º C in the mash tun) the sparge will run off very slowly and lengthen the mashing process.

The wort is boiled for three hours. The OG is 16 to 18º Balling. There are two hop additions, a third of the hops when the copper is falling and two thirds an hour before the end of the boil.

Top-fermenting yeast is used. Barrel fermentation is usually preferred with a pitching temperature of 21 to 22º C.
Source: Olberg, Johannes (1927) Porter, deutsch in Moderne Braumethoden, pp 89 - 90, A. Hartleben, Wien & Leipzig.

Lots of useful information, plus some confusing stuff. How can Farbmalz be coloured? Or perhaps he just means you should use the pales type of Farbmalz?

Note that they loved fiddly mashing schemes, recommending either a three-step mash or a double decoction. No-one in the UK would have employed such a complicated mashing scheme at this point.

The hopping rate works out to about 7lbs per quarter of malt. Which is roughly the same amount as Barclay Perkins and Whitbread used in their Stouts in the 1920’s.