Floating brewery (part two)

More on Mr. Clarke and his ingenious floating brewery.

"He claims for the pints at sea.
'I INVENTED THE FLOATING BREWERY'
BRITISH sailors under operational conditions missed their pint of beer during the war. Conscious of this. the Admiralty asked the Institute of Brewing if beer could be brewed at sea.

The answer was "No," Mr. Stephen Clarke told the Royal Commission on awards to inventors in London yesterday.

Mr. Clarke, head brewer of an Alton (Hants) brewing firm, said that he had solved the problem. He claimed an award for his work on what became known in the Navy as the "Floating Brewery."

Mr. Clarke said that in 1944 he was told that the Admiralty had been informed that it was not possible to brew beer at sea under operational conditions.

"I thought very carefully and decided 'Yes' it could be done." said Mr. Clarke.

He had to drop the original idea of using malt and hops in their usual form because of storage space.

Hop concentrates
"Eventually we got to brewing this beer at sea from malt extract and hop concentrates."

Sea water, distilled and treated, was used.

Mr. Clarke said that the brewery at sea was contained in a hold 70ft. long, 35ft. wide and 18ft. deep. The requirement from such a unit was 250 barrels a week.

During the hearing, the commission adjourned to see a film of the sea-going brewery plant aboard the 7,494-ton converted merchantman Menestheus.

Mr. P. Stuart Bevan, for the Admiralty, submitted that "There was no wartime user of this invention--it was not used until 1945. Therefore, it does not qualify for an award."

The plant was known and in the ingenious fitting of it into a ship Mr. Clarke was enabled to earn a royalty for the use of patented parts of that plant.

The commission's findings will be announced."
Birmingham Daily Gazette - Thursday 29 July 1954, page 2.

I can see why hops would be a problem. They take up an awful lot of space. Malt not quite so much, but still more than malt extract. Never been keen on malt extract beer, myself. When early mircos in the UK brewed from extract in the 1970s, you could always taste it.

This article also says 250 barrels a week so I'm inclined to believe that's the correct figure. Sounds more reasonable than 250 barrels a day.

At least Mr. Clarke had earned something from his invention through his patents.

By the time this argument about the award was going on the Menestheus no longer existed, having sunk the previous year:

"Caledon-built cargo ship abandoned
Seconds after an engine-room explosion on the Caledon-built motor vessel Menestheus, flames swept the ship and left it blazing fiercely. The crew fought the outbreak until the pumps gave out. Then the boats were lowered and the crew—all uninjured—were taken aboard the steamer Navajo Victory, which had rushed to the scene. The Navajo Victory then set off alone for San Diego. The Menestheus, blazing from stem to stern, was abandoned. The Menestheus is a Blue Funnel cargo liner built at Dundee in 1929. She was attached to the navy during the war and helped to lay the minefield from the North of Scotland to the Arctic ice barrier. In 1944 she was converted into an amenities ship for service in the Far East. She was fitted with a cinema and a brewery capable of brewing 2000 pints of mild ale daily."
Dundee Courier - Friday 17 April 1953. page 2.

A sad end to such a useful ship.

Floating brewery

I was very pleased to trip over an item about the Royal Navy's floating brewery. Especially as it led me to find more details about it. And who came up with the idea.

"So the brewery went to sea
Who showed the wartime Navy how to brew its own beer aboard ship? Cheerful, 51-year-old Mr. Stephen Towers Clarke claims the honour.

On July 28, Mr. Clarke, of Windmill-road, Alton, Hants, is appearing before the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors.

He will argue his claim that he thought-up and designed the beermaking machinery for the Navy's "floating brewery," the converted 7,494-ton liner Menestheus, which went out to the Far East just before the end of the war.

Distilled sea water and hop and malt extracts were used to brew 9,000 gallons of bitter and mild ale a day.

FRESH
This overcame the difficulty of carrying and keeping casks of beer in hot climates. Instead of "tired" brew, the Navy got fresh beer.

Mr. Clarke, married, with two children, is head brewer of an Alton firm. He first went into the beer business when he was 14, and still likes his glass of light ale.

He would say nothing about his claim yesterday. "Let's wait until after the hearing," he said.
Daily Herald - Saturday 17 July 1954, page 2.

9,000 gallons is 250 barrels. Which is a fair old amount. Assuming 6 brew days a week, that comes to 75,000 barrels a week. A decent-sized brewery, I'd call that.

The ship must have had a pretty decent duistillation plant to provide enough water to brew that quantity of beer. But they didn't brew with staright distilled water. As this next article makes clear, it was treated to make it more suitable for brewing.

"HE TURNED SEA WATER INTO BEER
A MAN claimed in London yesterday that his wartime invention gave the British sailor his pint of beer at sea.

He is Mr. Stephen Clarke, head brewer of an Alton (Hants) brewery, and he claimed an award for inventing the "floating brewery."

He told the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors how the beer was made.

The "brewery" was built into a bold of the 7,404-ton converted merchant-ship Menestheus, he said.

Malt extract and hop concentrates were used to make the beer - with distilled and treated sea water.

The "brewery," said Mr. Clarke. was capable of producing 350 barrels of beer a week.

The Admiralty described the snip as an "amenity ship," containing theatre, cinema, reading and writing rooms."

But, said Mr. Clarke. this description was "unromantic." In fact, the ship was a brewery plant.

Mr. Clarke said that in 1944 he was told that the Admiralty had asked the Institute of Brewing whether it was passible to brew beer at sea. "The answer was 'No'," said Mr. Clarke. "but I decided it could be done."

Treat and the Liffey The president. Lord Justice Cohen questioned Mr. Clarke on the reason for treating distilled water for brewing.

"The salts are nevessary." Mr. Clarke said. "They are the reason why Burton-on-Trent has become famous."

Lord Justice Cohen: Ah. yes, and the Liffey in Dublin.

Mr. P. Stuart Bevan. for the Admiralty, said the first brewing took place in the Menestheus in December, 1945.

"There was no wartime use of this invention." he said. "Therefore it does not qualify for an award in any event."

And he added: "It is with distress that I have to recommend a nil award in so meritorious a subject matter."

The Commission's findings will be announced."
Daily Mirror - Thursday 29 July 1954, page 4.

I wonder which article got the brewery's capacity right? There's a big difference between 250 barrels a day and 350 barrels a week.

It's amazing how people always assume that Guinness used water from the River Liffey to brew. I don't think I can recall a single case where a brewery used river water. Other than London breweries using New River water. But, then again, that wasn't a real river but a man-made supplier of drinking water.

Sad that Menestheus never brewed any beer during the war. So Mr. Clarke couldmn't get an award for his useful invention.

Next we'll find out more about the brewery and the fate of the Menestheus

Mild Ale as entertainment

Random searches for terms like Mild Ale in the newspaper archive turn up some odd stuff. Like this about what sound like a rathe r incompatible couple.

"THE TORY WIFE AND SOCIALIST HUSBAND
MRs. LOUISA Colledge complained that her husband pulled the bedclothes off her if she fell asleep while he was talking on his favourite topic — politics — a Judge said yesterday.

And In politics particularly. went on Mr. Justice Stevenson in the Divorce Court, Mr. and Mrs. Colledge were "dissimilar and incompatible".

Mrs. Colledge, 37, was "prim, careful and precise, and a Conservative way of thinking." Her husband, George, 34, was unimaginative and, by comparison with his wife, rough and uncouth - and a sincere believer Socialism."

Mrs. Colledge. a shorthand typist. of Meadowside Cambridge-park, Twickenham. asked for a decree on the grounds of cruelty. Mr. . Colledge, a clerk. of Redlees-close, Isleworth, denied cruelty.

The Judge said Mrs. Colledge alleged that her bashand referred to her aad her family as parasites

"I hove no doubt there were sharp and bitter political arguments between them." continued the judge.

"The husband may well have used the word parasite Bet it may well be that the wife did not realise it was a poilUcal term In the kind of political disputation to which the husband was addicted.

Mild Ale
Mr. Colledge's sole source of relaxation appeared to be to spend many evenings every week drinking mild ale in a public house, said the judge. He said he drank four pints on weekdays and six pints on Saturdays.

The wife—adjusting herself to her husband's ways. said the judge  accomplled him to the public house and drank half a pint to his pint.

Each claimed that drinking made the other mere irritable, said the judge, and arguments begun in the public house were continued at home in bed.

But the judge said that however bitter the arguments, they did not amount to cruelty. He dismissed Mrs. Colledge's petition."
Daily Mirror - Thursday 20 February 1958, page 9.

At least the wife drank Mild. A husband with a pint and his wife with a half pint was a common enough sight when I first drank in pubs way back in the 1970s.

Though when the Cardigan Arms was my local there was a couple in their fifties who were also frequent drinkers. The man used to have a pint of Mild and the woman two halves. Which looked weird. But back then women, especially older ones, would never have considered drinking a pint.

Some pubs wouldn't serve women pints and others insisted on women drinking from stemmed glasses. Times, happily, have changed. Dolores wouldn't have been very happy having to drink halves.

1929 Bohemian Lagerbier

A little divergence here from my usual UK fare. A foreign recipe. And a Lager one at that.

As you can probably guess by the lack of brewery name, this recipe isn't taken from a brewing record. Instead it's one I've assembled from information found in technical brewing publications. I can't remember which one off the top of my head. But I'm pretty sure it was in German.

This is the type of beer usually associated with the Czech Republic: a Pale Lager of around 5% ABV.

I could also call this by its Czech name, Světlý Ležák, though that is rather harder for most to pronounce. It literally translates as Pale Lagerbier.

The mashing scheme, a triple decoction, is pretty damn complicated. I doubt I could be arsed to go through the process myself. Very time consuming. I’m not going to get involved in any argument about whether there’s any point to decoction mashing with modern malts. I’ll leave that to the experts.

The key to this type of beer is good quality, very pale, two-row barley and good Czech hops. Not complicated, is it? Followed by three months lagering at about 1º C. Should produce a lovely drinking beer (as opposed to a stare at and sip beer).

1929 Bohemian Lagerbier
pilsner malt 2 row	10.75 lb	100.00%
Saaz 120 mins	1.00 oz
Saaz 90 mins	1.00 oz
Saaz 45 mins	2.00 oz
OG	1048
FG	1012
ABV	4.76
Apparent attenuation	75.00%
IBU	52
SRM	3
Mash triple decoction
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	41º F
Yeast	WLP800 Pilsner Lager

This and about three dozen other Lager recipes, can be found in my book Let's Brew!


http://www.lulu.com/shop/ronald-pattinson/lets-brew/paperback/product-23289812.html

The UK hop industry in 1889

Britain's hop industry has seen plenty of ups and downs over the years. Currently, it's about its lowest ever ebb. Though the last couple of years have seen a small increase in the acreage dedicated to hops after years of continual decline.

Worrying about the state of the industry is nothing new. Being a hop farmer is a precarious existence. The yield varies massively from year to year, as does the price. And, unlike barley which also has uses as food or animal feed, brewing is the only place hops can be employed. That's a lot of variables, all of which are out of the famer's hands.

"Mr. Barclay Field on the Hop Industry.—At the Edenbridge Fat Stock Show dinner Mr. Barclay Field presided, and, replying to some observations from Mr. R. Norton, M.P., said that, as an owner of property and as a tenant farmer, farming something like 1,200 or 1,500 acres of land, he could fully sympathise with his friends around him, and regretted he could not speak more hopefully of the agricultural interest. He had grown hops every year at a loss, and he quite felt that the hop industry was not at all in a satisfactory state. Mr. Norton had given them various reasons why that was the case. In the first place, the hon. member mentioned that hop substitutes were used. Now, as far as he (the president) knew—and he had pretty good means of ascertaining—he did not believe there was the slightest danger of the hop industry being hurt in that direction. He did not believe that any large firm would use any such thing at all. It was supposed in 1882 that a large quantity of substitutes would be used; but, as a matter of fact, the quantity was very small. The market was forced by the supposition that they would be used, and prices went up. In that year hops went up to an unjustifiable price, and brewers were induced to try if they could not do with less. The result was that they found they could, and to that fact the present system of brewing was owing. The real thing that had injured the hop industry was the introduction of ice. Every brewer now had an ice-making machine, and he could brew in July as well as he could in October. Nor did they require anything like the same amount of hops. That was his experience. He believed, however, there was a growing disposition on the part of brewers to prefer English hops to any others; and unless they rose again to prohibitive prices English hops would always be preferred, because they were known to be the best. They had every reason to expect better times. There was a time when he should not have said the same, but there was no doubt the English brewers had bought up the hops this year, and next year if farmers could grow a really good crop of good quality they would have no difficulty in getting rid of them."
"The Brewers' Guardian 1889", 1889, page 393.

There was a good reason foreign hops were imported: the UK simply couldn't grow enough to satisfy the demands of brewers. As you can see from the table below, in the 1890s an average of around 179,000 cwt of hops were imported each year into the UK. Or around 20% of the hops used.

The numbers go up and down, but during between 1880 and 1900 the acreage of hops in the UK declined by almost 25%. Though an increase in yield meant the quantity of hops produced actually increased.

Hop production and imports 1857 - 1900 (cwt)
year	Acreage	UK production	yield per acre	net imports of foreign hops
1857	50,974	426,049	8.35	18,711
1860	46,271	99,667	2.15	68,918
1870	60,594	700,000	11.55	127,853
1880	66,698	440,000	6.60	195,987
1890	53,961	283,629	5.26	181,698
1891	56,142	436,716	7.78	176,834
1892	56,259	413,259	7.35	185,716
1893	57,564	414,929	7.21	168,316
1894	59,535	636,846	10.70	204,087
1895	58,940	553,396	9.39	193,738
1896	54,217	453,188	8.36	148,660
1897	50,863	411,086	8.08	223,747
1898	49,735	356,948	7.18	168,130
1899	51,843	661,426	12.76	180,233
1900	51,308	473,894	9.24	141,307
Sources:
1928 Brewers' Almanack, page 119
“100 Years of Brewing” 1903, page 656.

Did ice machines affect the demand for hops? Perhaps. It had been standard practice to hop beers more heavily in the summer than in th winter. Would have artificial refrigeration change this? I'm not sure it would, as the beer needed protection after it left the brewery, not whaile it was in it. Pub cellars wouldn't be refrigerated for a long time to come.

There's another reason why hop usage might be falling: the move away from Stock Ales. Keeping Porter, for example, died out in the 1870s. That required far more hops than Running Porter, which became the only type made. The move from Stock PAle Ale to Running Pale Alewould similarly have caused a reduction in the quantity of hops used per barrel of beer.

The first year I have details of hops susbtitutes is 1902. When 173 cwt. of hop substitutes were used and 647,547 cwt. of hops. Pretty clearly substitutes weren't replacing hops and the use of them was minimal.

American tied houses

The late 19th century was a vert capitalist time in the UK. With many investing in shares in limited companies. Breweries were especially popular investments in the 1880s and 1890s.

But, at a certain point, all the large - and many of the not so large - breweries had already converted to limited companies. What did investors do? They started to look abroad. The USA - presumably partly because of the common language - was a popular choice. British investors sometimes purchased breweries outright or, as in the case of The Peter Schoenhofen Brewery, simply bought shares. These investments didn't always work out well.

From this report it's clear that Schoenhofen was quoted on the London stock exchange. Which would have made it much simpler for UK investors to get involved.

"The Peter Schoenhofen Brewery Company, Limited.
A statutory meeting of this Company was held on the 29th ult. at Winchester House. Mr. HALE, who presided, said that there were no accounts to lay before the shareholders, but he had encouraging information. The Company’s agent in Chicago wrote that he had just seen the balance sheet, which, after providing interest on the debentures and preference shares, showed over 17.5 per cent. on the ordinary shares. The Company was turning out 19,000 barrels a month, and they would be able to pay a dividend of 20 or 22 per cent., or double the guaranteed amount — 11 per cent. The brewery premises, situated in the best parts of Chicago, were very valuable, and they had 161 tied houses. Just now barley was 40 per cent. and hops were 20 per cent. cheaper than they had been for the last two years. The chairman also explained that the American alien law would not affect the shareholders. In England, he said, £200,000,000 was invested in the brewing and malting trades, and as much was similarly invested in America.—Mr. RADFORD, representing the American share holders, said that a cable received that morning stated that last month there had been an increase of 1,170 barrels in the output, which meant increased profit.-—-The proceedings then ended."
"The Brewers' Guardian 1889", 1889, page 390.

19,000 barrels a month works out to 228,000 barrels a year. It's not clear whether those are imperial or US barrels, but it's still quite a lot of beer. Enough to put it in the top 20 UK breweries. In 1889 only 18 UK breweries produced more than 200,000 barrels a year nd only 23 over 150,000 barrels.*

But what really struck was the bit about their tied houses. I knew tied houses exicted in the USA before Prohibition. I've seen the Schlitz signs on their former tied houses in Chicago. But it's great to have something concrete on the subject. 161 is a fair number. Though I'm sure well short of the estate of large UK breweries.

The Schoenhofen brewery survived Prohibition and seems to have finally closed sometime in the 1960s.



* "The Brewers' Guardian 1890", 1890, page 322.

1851 William Younger X Mild Ale

Deciding what does and doesn’t count as a Mild Ale in Scotland can be difficult. Unless the brewer was helpful enough to actually call the beer Mild.

Especially when, as at William Younger, the same brew would receive a Shilling or X designation depending on how it was packaged. One batch could magically become both 60/- and X at racking time. Anything filled into hogsheads and intended for bottling had a Shilling name, while what went into barrels for sale on draught had an X name.

There’s not much to say about the recipe, it being just pale malt and Goldings. One salient point about the process should be mentioned: the short boil. Contemporary London X Ales were very similar in other respects – OG and hopping rate – but had longer boils. In the case of Whitbread, the difference was just 15 minutes, but Barclay Perkins boiled their X Ale for a whopping 3 hours.

The true level of attenuation would have been higher, 1029º being the cleansing rather than racking gravity. I’d guess that the actual FG was 1020-1025º.

1851 William Younger X Mild Ale
pale malt	16.75 lb	100.00%
Goldings 75 min	3.50 oz
Goldings 30 min	3.50 oz
OG	1072
FG	1029
ABV	5.69
Apparent attenuation	59.72%
IBU	92
SRM	6
Mash at	153º F
Sparge at	184º F
Boil time	75 minutes
pitching temp	57º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

This recipe - and more than 350 others - can be found in my definitive book on Scottish beer:

http://www.lulu.com/shop/ronald-pattinson/scotland-vol-2/paperback/product-23090497.html

Tied Houses

A subject dear to my heart. Tied house were so much part of the beer scene in my youngs days. I couldn't imagine the system breaking down But break down it did.

Back in the 1970s, something like 80% of UK pubs were tied houses. That is, where a brewery owned either the freehold or leasehold. Of the remaining 20% supposedly "free" houses, a large percentage were effectively at least partially tied through a loan from a brewery. An exception was Scotland, where loan ties were the norm and brewers owned a relativley small number of pubs.

I find this letter about a court case involving a tied house fascinating. Had the landlord won, it would have bought the tied house system crashing down.

"TO THE EDITOR OF “THE BREWERS’ GUARDIAN."
SIR,—-Allow me, through the medium of your columns, to point out a case of considerable importance to brewers generally, and one which I hope will be taken up by our Country Brewers’ Society, should the scale turn in any but the way one would naturally expect it.

The case in question was resumed on Wednesday last, the 4th inst., at the Chancery Court of Lancaster, before the Vice-Chancellor (Sir H. F. Bristowe). It is an action brought by Messrs. Clegg & Wright and Mr. Robert Cain, brewers of Liverpool, against Mr. Benjamin Hands, lessee of the “Alexandra" Hotel, Upper Hill-street, Liverpool, for an injunction to restrain the latter from selling any ales or stouts except those supplied by or through the plaintith. Now, it seems that the defendant (Mr. Hands) is the lessee of a public-house, the property of Messrs. Clegg & Wright, and some short time ago Messrs. Clegg & Wright sold their business to Mr. Robert Cain, who is the largest brewer in the city of Liverpool; Upon the consignment of Clegg & Wright’s business to Mr. Cain, the defendant refused, and still refuses, to deal with Mr. Cain, on the grounds that the article supplied by this gentleman is not of the quality supplied by Clegg and Wright. The defendant has never dealt with Mr. Cain, and his line of defence seems to rest entirely upon hearsay, and here, I venture to say, rests the rider which will turn the scale. Independent of this, I consider, sir, that upon this case rests one of the most important points in connection with licensed property, for the simple reason should a brewer feel disposed to part with his business, any “tied" houses he may have that are leased to tenants, such tenants may, according to the line of defence, absolutely refuse to deal with anybody but the party or parties from whom their lease was obtained, and the clause in any lease explaining the fact that the lessor has power to assign his business to a second party falls to the ground, and the once “tied" tenant becomes free to deal from whom he wishes, independent of the fact that his lease may have been a hiring lease, that the rent he pays may (as it is in many cases) be even less than the rent paid by the brewer, or, on the other hand, not capable of bringing back interest upon the money invested in the property by the owner.

All I ask is justice, and I have taken the trouble, Sir, to write this letter with the hope that every paper in the interests of the brewing trade will publish full reports of this case, since it is the turning-point of a great financial difficulty, upon which many brewers have already been put to considerable annoyance and expense.

I am, Sir, yours faithfully,

R. D. BAILEY, F.C.S.
The Laboralory, “City” Brewery,
Gloucester."
"The Brewers' Guardian 1889", 1889, page 390.

If the lease of a tied house couldn't be transferred from one brewer to another, it would have a big negative effect on their value. Brewers had invested huge sums buying up pubs and would suffer big paper losses if their value fell considerably. It woulkd also make buying up rival brewers unattractive if it didn't include their tied houses. Most buyers weren't interested in the brewery itself, just its pubs.

Obviously, the landlord of the Alexandra Hotel must have lost the case. Otherewise the tied house system of my youth wouldn't have existed. At least not in the form I knew.

The Alexandra Hotel seems to have closed sometime in the last ten years.

Number time

Numbers, numbers, numbers. Our faithful friends. That don't lie. Unlike those unreliable human bastards.

I like this set because it doesn't just cover alcoholic drinks, but hot drinks, too. In fact, that's where all the interest is. Especially tea and coffee.

The two started not that far apart. But while tea consumption doubled between 1852 and 1872, coffee consumption fell by more than 50%. Though the big winner was cocao, the consumption of which quadrupled over the period covered.

Other highlights: beer consumption rising a bit, foreign rising in the first 20 years then falling back, domestic spirits declining, foreign and colonial spirits rising.

The increase in tea consumption, unsurprisingly, seems to coincide with the expansion of tea production in India.

It would be interesting to see the numbers longer term, especially the tea to coffee ratio.

Consumption of various drinks per head 1852 - 1888
	British Spirits.	Foreign and Colonial Spirits.		Foreign Wines.	Beer.	Tea.	Coffee.	Cocoa.
Year ended Dec. 31.	Gallons per Head	Gallons per Head	Gallons per Head Spirits of all kinds	Gallons per Head	Barrels per Head	Pounds per Head	Pounds per Head	Pounds per Head
1852	0.918	0.177	1.095	0.231	0.610	1.993	1.274	0.121
1862	0.644	0.177	0.821	0.334	0.661	2.694	1.178	0.124
1872	0.843	0.285	1.128	0.526	0.884	4.005	0.978	0.244
1882	0.809	0.236	1.045	0.406	0.766	4.673	0.884	0.338
1885	0.732	0.221	0.953	0.379	0.746	5.021	0.899	0.402
1886	0.707	0.235	0.942	0.359	0.739	4.877	0.861	0.413
1887	0.700	0.220	0.920	0.366	0.747	4.948	0.790	0.434
1888	0.693	0.243	0.936	0.358	0.744	4.950	0.815	0.486
Sources:
"The Brewers' Guardian 1889", 1889, page 307.

Birthday recipe

There's a new button on the left. "Birthday recipe"

Let me explain what it means. Egotist that I am, I've deliberately photographed brewing records on my birthday. Which is why I could have a festival of birthday beers for my 60th birthday party.

I'll be honest here. I need to earn more dosh from my beer activities. Dolores has made this very clear. "You need to earn more money from your beer crap, Ronald."

OK, Dolores. Stop hitting me. I'll sort this out.

Want a special beer for your birthday? Or any other significant event. I can sort you out with a recipe for any given date. I've so many brewing records, I've multiple recipes for any given date.
For a mere 25 euros, I'll provide a home brew recipe for any date. Along with an image of the relevant brewing record to prove I'm not just making it up.

For just 25 euros. Bargain.

Crowley AK grists 1914 - 1919

I continue to lumber my way through the details of various AKs that I've found over the years. I've just discovered another one that I've totally untapped: Kidd AK. Which is a weird one because it only appeared after WW I. I've just never extracted the data from Kidd's post-war records.

More of that later. We're here to discuss Crowley AK. More specifically, its grists during the years of WW I. That's yet another double obsession hit: AK and WW I. Is it me who's lucky or you? MAybe it's both of us.

At least Crowly's version is a bit more interesting than the last lot of Fullers AK we lookd at. No shock there, as the table covers war years. Always lots going on then. At least in terems of gravity. Which, as you can see, dropped steadil until the summer of 1918, after which it rose again. Though it still ended lower than in 1914. 24% lower, to be precise.

Crowley's beers, though not all-malt before the war, certainly contained a high percentage of malt. In the case of AK, at least 90%. During the later war years, it really did go al malt. Probably because they were having trouble getting the type of sugar they wanted.

CDM stands for Caramelised Dextro-Maltose, in case you're wondering. It's a sugar that was used for colouring purposes. Not sure what Laevuline is, but Laevulose is an old name for fructose. I suspect that it's either fructose or something similar.

Odd that Crowly threw some choclate malt in the grist in late 1918. I assume that was for colouring purposes.

Crowley AK grists 1914 - 1919
Date	Year	OG	pale malt	chocolate Malt	No. 3 sugar	CDM	laevuline
16th Jun	1914	1047.1	92.59%		7.41%
7th Jan	1915	1045.7	91.46%		8.54%
7th Jan	1916	1042.9	89.29%		7.14%	1.19%	2.38%
13th Jan	1916	1041.6	90.36%		7.23%		2.41%
22nd May	1917	1033.2	92.02%		6.13%		1.84%
10th Jul	1917	1036.0	100.00%
1st Jan	1918	1033.2	100.00%
4th Jun	1918	1030.5	98.36%			1.64%
23rd July	1918	1027.7	100.00%
26th Sep	1918	1030.5	96.39%	3.61%
12th Feb	1919	1034.6	100.00%
12th May	1919	1036.0	100.00%
Source:
Brewing record held at Hampshire Archives and Local Studies, document number 37M86/2.

Let's Brew - 1858 Tetley SP

I'm just realising how few Tetley's recipes I've published. At least on the blog.* Odd given my obsession with the brewery.

Yorkshire isn’t particularly well known for Stout, though, as in all parts of the UK, plenty was brewed there. A brewery couldn’t afford not to have at least one Stout in their range. Drinkers expected the option. Tetley seem to have been particularly enthusiastic brewers of Porter and Stout. Exceptionally so for a Northern brewer.

As you’re probably tired of hearing me say, brewers outside London had mostly dropped brown malt from their Stout grists by the middle of the 19th century. They preferred a simpler grist of just pale and black malt. As is the case with this beer.

In terms of strength, it looks like a London Single Stout of the same period. Does SP stand for “Stout Porter”. Possible. But I wouldn’t bet my house on it. The bitterness level, however looks low. Reid’s 1877 S has more than twice the number of calculated IBUs.

1858 Tetley SP
pale malt	15.75 lb	92.65%
black malt	1.25 lb	7.35%
Goldings 90 mins	1.50 oz
Goldings 30 mins	1.50 oz
OG	1072
FG	1024
ABV	6.35
Apparent attenuation	66.67%
IBU	32
SRM	34
Mash at	150º F
Sparge at	180º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	60º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire Ale

* I have published more Tetley's recipes in various books. This one appears in my excellent Let's Brew!

http://www.lulu.com/shop/ronald-pattinson/lets-brew/paperback/product-23289812.html

Fullers AK grists 1925 - 1939

Remember that really dull table of Fullers AK? Here are the grists for those same beers.

And how, er, hardly, er, what's the word I'm looking for? More interesting. That's it. They're hardly more interesting than the last table. But there is one tiny point to be made.

The recipes is very constant between 1931 and 1939. Essentially identical in every year. But between 1925 and 1931 recipes, there is a significant change. Some of the pale malt has been replaced by flaked maize.  Probably for cost reasons. This set demonstrates something about receipe evolution.

At many breweries, outside of the crisis years of the two wars, recipes remained the same for years on end. Sometimes decades. But every now and again, there might be a sudden change, as here. Then everything would stay the same for years.

Ambitious breweries tended to tinker more. Presumably as they were more cost-driven and the brewers themselves tended to have less influence.

Note that the specifications of the beer didn't change between 1925 and 1931. It remained exactly the same strength. Only the recipe changed in the background a bit. Did anyone notice?

Fullers AK grists 1925 - 1939
Date	Year	OG	pale malt	flaked maize	no. 2 sugar	glucose	intense
17th Jun	1925	1032.2	87.70%	8.18%	2.34%	1.56%	0.22%
22nd Apr	1931	1032.3	81.80%	14.72%	2.18%	1.09%	0.20%
2nd Mar	1932	1032.5	81.65%	14.52%	2.42%	1.21%	0.20%
25th Jun	1935	1033.4	81.71%	14.53%	2.42%	1.21%	0.13%
31st Aug	1937	1033.7	81.67%	15.06%	2.11%	1.06%	0.10%
4th Jan	1938	1033.7	82.67%	14.59%	1.30%	1.30%	0.15%
24th Oct	1939	1033.4	81.33%	14.79%	2.46%	1.23%	0.18%
Source:
Fullers brewing records held at the brewery

Come and see me in Washington DC

I'll be in Washington DC in just over a wek. Mostly habging out with friends, though I do have a couple of things planned.

Including this meet and greet at DC Brau. Where you'll have a chance to buy some of my books, hopefully. I have two very thirsty children to support. Help me buy them vodka and Best Bier.

It should be lots of fun. You can ask me anything you like (beer-related). Though I may not have the answer. I don't know everything. Just a lot.

An Evening with Ron Pattinson
Fri, October 19, 2018, 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM EDT
DC Brau
3178 Bladensburg Road Northeast
#B
Washington, DC 20018
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/an-evening-with-ron-pattinson-in-the-lodge-tickets-51034164560