Wednesday, 3 July 2019

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1944 Adnams XX

Having started the war at 1029º, XX had little scope for getting much weaker. Especially if you understand how the tax system worked.

Tax was charged on a “standard barrel” – 36 imperial gallons at 1055º. A weaker or stronger beer was charged at a proportional rate. Thus two barrels of 1027.5º made one standard barrel. But there was a restriction. The minimum rate of tax was the equivalent of a 1027º beer. So if you brewed a beer at 1020º, you paid tax as if it were 1027º. Clearly this was a financially unattractive move. Making 1027º the weakest anyone ever brewed.

The biggest change from the 1943 recipe is the replacement of flaked oats by flaked barley. This was a change once again dictated by the authorities. Breweries had to use a certain proportion of flaked barley whether they wanted to or not.

With two coloured malts, the grist is quite unusual for a Mild. Few contained anything darker than crystal and often not even that.

The hops were exactly the same as in the PA, that is English from the 1942 and 1943 harvests.


1944 Adnams XX
mild malt 4.00 lb 66.01%
crystal malt 80 L 0.33 lb 5.45%
amber malt 0.33 lb 5.45%
flaked barley 1.00 lb 16.50%
No. 3 invert sugar 0.33 lb 5.45%
caramel 2000 SRM 0.07 lb 1.16%
Fuggles 120 mins 0.50 oz
Fuggles 60 mins 0.25 oz
Goldings 30 mins 0.25 oz
OG 1027
FG 1006
ABV 2.78
Apparent attenuation 77.78%
IBU 15
SRM 16
Mash at 148º F
After underlet 150º F
Sparge at 165º F
Boil time 120 minutes
pitching temp 60º F
Yeast WLP025 Southwold

Tuesday, 2 July 2019

A wartime car chase

There were shortages of just about everything in WW II. Including some very basic items.

Like beer glasses. They were difficult for pubs to replace because of a general shortage of glass. Which may explain the rather extraordinary actions of this one publican.
 
"STOLE GLASSES FROM PUBLIC HOUSE
LICENSEE’S CAR CHASE DESCRIBED AT WELLS COURT

At Wells City Sessions on Tuesday, Albert Frank Hicks (18), Preston Cottage, Chewton Mendip, and a 16-years-old Binegar lad, pleaded guilty to stealing two half-pint beer glasses, valued 2s., and the property of Richmond Loxton, licensee of the Brittania Inn, Bath-road.

Mr. A. Dixon, prosecuting, said on April 9th last the two lads called at the Brittania Inn and asked to be served wth two lemonades. They were served by Mr. Loxton in the passage. Mr. Loxton returned to the bar, and five minutes later went back to the passage and found that the lads and the glasses had gone. Mr. Loxton got into his car and drove up the Bath-road and overtook the lads, who were cycling, some tHree-quarters of mile up the hill. They admitted taking the glasses but refused to give their names and addresses, and Mr, Loxton, with assistance, got the lads into his car and brought them to the police station.

Mr. Dixon said that although the glasses were of small value he asked the Bench to take a serious view of the case on account of so much of this pilfering of glasses going on. Glasses were very difficult to replace and it was also very difficult to catch the people who take the glasses.

Mr. Loxton, giving evidence, said when he found the lads had gone with the glasses he got into his car and drove after them, taking with him a friend, Mr. George Clare. When stopped the lads at first denied having taken the glasses, but he felt their pockets and each lad had a glass. As the lads refused their names and addresses he got them into the car and drove them to the police station.

Witness said during the past 12 months he had lost over seven dozen glasses.

The lads expressed their sorrow and said they would do nothing of the sort again. In placing the lads on probation for two years, the Mayor reminded them that they had rendered themselves liable to imprisonment. He hoped this would be a warning to them not to do anything dishonest again. He ordered them to pay the costs, 30s. and £2 2s. 0d. towards the advocate’s fee, a total of £1 16s. 0d. each. Asked if they wanted time in which to pay the lads replied, "No,” and paid before leaving the court."
Wells Journal - Friday 05 June 1942, page 3.
Of course, shortages of glasses meant that punters werer far more likely to walk off with a few. I definitely get the impression that a lot more glass stealing went on during the war. Or perhaps it was just reported more as it was seen as a more serious offence than in peacetime.

But chasing after a couple of lads for nicking two half pint glasses does seem a little on the extreme side. They say the glasses were of little value but, at a shilling each, they were worth around double the half pint of beer inside them.

The threat of a custodial sentence for such a small theft does seem pretty extreme, wartime or not.

The Britannia Inn still exists.


Monday, 1 July 2019

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Whitbread Double Brown grists 1939 - 1945

One of the features of the war was a rapid change in recipes to cope with government restrictions and the availability of ingredients. The six years of the war saw more changes than would usually have taken place over a couple of decades.

Whitbread Double Brown is a good example of constant recipe tinkering. There’s not a single type of malt which was in every wartime version. Admittedly, pale malt and PA malt were very similar. But I find the chopping and changing between chocolate and crystal malt rather more surprising.

The explanation of the presence of mild malt in the 1941 version is that it was parti-gyled with XX Mild. Before the war, Double Brown was always brewed single-gyle. During the early war years, it was first parti-gyled with 33, Whitbread’s Burton, then with XX Ale.

I can think of no simple explanation for the presence of wheat malt. Except, again, that it was on account of the parti-gyling with XX. In 1940 and 1941 XX suddenly acquired a small percentage of wheat malt. Perhaps for head retention.


Whitbread Double Brown grists 1939 - 1945
Date Year OG pale malt PA malt chocolate Malt crystal malt mild malt wheat malt
21st Sep 1939 1054.5 25.27% 52.17% 2.45%
11th Apr 1940 1054.1 6.35% 85.71% 3.17%
14th Aug 1940 1049.3 5.92% 79.93% 2.96%
20th Nov 1940 1047.3 81.42% 11.63%
31st Jan 1941 1046.1 20.17% 12.10% 58.49% 2.02%
13th Oct 1944 1044.2 74.80% 3.25%
24th Aug 1945 1043.3 66.49% 3.17%
Sources:
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/107, LMA/4453/D/01/108, LMA/4453/D/01/111 and LMA/4453/D/01/112.

Sunday, 30 June 2019

Whitbread Double Brown 1939 - 1945

Brown Ale wasn’t immune to the downward pressure on gravities during the war. Especially examples like Whitbread Double Brown that were quite strong.

Over the course of the war the gravity of Double Brown fell 11 points, or around 20%. Though an increase in the rate of attenuation in the later war years meant that the ABV wasn’t much lower in 1945 than 1939. I’m sure drinkers appreciated the extra alcohol, but it must have considerably changed the character of the beer, leaving it with much less body than pre-war versions.

Anything over 4% ABV was pretty strong by the end of the war. In 1945, average OG was just 1034.5º.  And most Mild Ales barely scraped in at 3% ABV.

There was also a 20% reduction in the hopping rate, from 8.5 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt to 6.25 lbs. This was the result of a reduction of the quantity of hops made available to brewers in June 1941.


Whitbread Double Brown 1939 - 1945
Date Year OG FG ABV App. Atten-uation lbs hops/ qtr hops lb/brl
21st Sep 1939 1054.5 1018.0 4.83 66.97% 8.49 1.92
11th Apr 1940 1054.1 1017.0 4.91 68.58% 8.50 1.82
14th Aug 1940 1049.3 1011.5 5.00 76.67% 8.50 1.71
20th Nov 1940 1047.3 1016.5 4.07 65.12% 8.42 1.62
31st Jan 1941 1046.1 1015.5 4.05 66.38% 8.10 1.54
13th Oct 1944 1044.2 1008.5 4.72 80.77% 6.77 1.22
24th Aug 1945 1043.3 1008.0 4.67 81.52% 6.25 1.16
Sources:
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/107, LMA/4453/D/01/108, LMA/4453/D/01/111 and LMA/4453/D/01/112.

Saturday, 29 June 2019

Let's Brew 1944 Fullers Dinner Ale

1944 is still much very alve in my head. The sensible one, not the crazy one that keeps saying "kill everyone". But who of us doesn't have a crazy head hiding somewherre inside?

On with another typically flacid wartime recipe.

Light Ale is a tricky beer style to pin down. When did it start and what the hell was it? Watery bottled Bitter, in essence.

If that makes it sound dull, that’s right, It wasn’t the most exciting beer style in the world. Just a low-gravity, easy-drinking beer for the cost-conscious consumer. Who didn’t want to take the gamble of draught Ordinary Bitter, which could be of very variable quality.

There’s nothing much wrong about the grist of this beer. Mostly loads of pale malt, the obligatory flaked barley and a dash of sugar. Plus some caramel to disguise just how watery it was. Though during the war, drinkers became less fussy. They were just glad that there was beer of some kind to drink.

The hops – for those of you who are as obsessive as me – were all English, from the 1943 crop, supplemented with something called hopulon. Which sounds like something a triple jumper would use as performance enhancer.


1944 Fullers Dinner Ale
pale malt 6.00 lb 82.53%
flaked barley 1.00 lb 13.76%
No. 2 invert sugar 0.125 lb 1.72%
glucose 0.125 lb 1.72%
caramel 1000 SRM 0.02 lb 0.28%
Fuggles 90 min 1.00 oz
Goldings 30 min 0.75 oz
Goldings dry hops 0.25 oz
OG 1031.5
FG 1009.5
ABV 2.91
Apparent attenuation 69.84%
IBU 25
SRM 5
Mash at 148º F
After underlet 151º F
Sparge at 168º F
Boil time 90 minutes
pitching temp 62º F
Yeast WLP002 English Ale

Friday, 28 June 2019

Scottish Brown Ale before WW II

As in England, Brown Ale was on the rise between the wars. Which is interesting because in England Brown Ale was often derived from Mild Ale. But in Scotland Mild Ales were extremely rare after WW I. Meaning Brown Ale needed to be created another way.

As many Scottish breweries by this time really only had one recipe and all their beers were really just varieties of Pale Ale, presumably most Brown Ales were just one of these beers coloured appropriately. Not really a problem, as Scottish Pale Ales were already being darkened to a variety of different shades to meet the demands of different local market.

The sample size isn’t enormous, just four beers in total. But it does provide a glimpse into the world of Scottish Brown Ale.

For example, two of the four examples are in the strongest class of Brown Ales. The explanation, I’m sure, is simple. Scottish brewers did a considerable amount of business in the Northeast of England. Where the commonest Brown Ales, Newcastle Brown and Vaux Double Maxim, were of this type. The Usher example below is also quite pale, as were Northeastern Brown Ale.


Scottish Brown Ale before WW II
Year Brewer Beer Price per pint (d) OG FG ABV App. Atten-uation colour
1938 Calder Nut Brown Ale 1039.4 1013.4 3.36 65.99% 80
1931 Usher Brown Ale 7 1050 1013 4.81 74.00% 54
1933 Aitchison Brown Ale 1045.5 1015.5 3.88 65.93%
1934 Aitken Falkirk Brown Ale 1053 1011 5.47 79.25%
Sources:
Younger, Wm. & Co Gravity Book document WY/6/1/1/19 held at the Scottish Brewing Archive
Thomas Usher Gravity Book held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document TU/6/11.
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001.

Thursday, 27 June 2019

Continental Lager returns

Just a quick table today. To give you an idea of the Lagers which were imported into the UK when restrictions were lifted in 1947.

As we've already learned, Dutch and Danish breweries were the quickest to return to the UK market. The speed with which they returned is all the more remarkable given that they were clearly brewing beers specifically for the UK. A quick glance at the OG is enough to prove that.

It's particularly easy to spot in the case of Tuborg and Carlsberg as I also have analyses for the standard export versions, which Whitbread had somehow purchased in Singapore. These are the strength that you expect forr a continental Lager: 4.5-5% ABV.

This is in contrast with the situation before WW II, when both the Carlsberg and Tuborg sold in the UK were the same strength as they were on the continent. I assume that the standard-strength version would have been too expensive for the UK market after the war.


Continental Lager returns
Year Brewer Beer Price per pint (d) OG FG ABV App. Atten-uation colour
1947 Barclay Perkins Draught Lager 26 1033 1006.4 3.46 80.61% 8
1947 Carlsberg Lager 1033 1008 3.24 75.76%
1947 Carlsberg Pilsner 1035.6 1008.5 3.52 76.12% 13.5
1947 ZHB Z.H.B. Lager 30 1032.4 1008.2 3.14 71.91% 11.5
1947 Tuborg Pilsner 1036.6 1009.1 3.57 75.14% 11.5
1948 Carlsberg Pilsner ex Singapore 1049.9 1011 5.06 77.96% 9
1948 Tuborg Export Beer ex Singapore 1043.9 1009.4 4.49 78.59% 9
Sources:
Thomas Usher Gravity Book held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document TU/6/11.
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.

Wednesday, 26 June 2019

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1944 Fullers Porter

No end in sight of my 1944 trip. Don't tell me if you're getting bored as I'll just ignore you.  The whole point of this blog is that I can write what the fuck I want. Sorry about that.

When did Fullers stop brewing Porter is a really difficult question. And one I don’t feel fit to answer. Apologies for the disappointment, but, unlike some other beer writers, I decline to just make shit up to conform to my theories. However much that would make my life easier.

Fullers were really odd for a London brewery. Their Stout met its demise in the early 1930s, leaving them with P as their only Black Beer. In contrast, the larger London brewers such as Barclay Perkins and Whitbread, continued to brew multiple Stouts in addition to Porter.

What immediately strikes me about this beer is the absence of brown malt. An ingredient most London brewers clung onto with remarkable tenacity. Right until the bitter end when their breweries closed after WW II.

The lack of flaked oats present in earlier versions tells me that Fullers had abandoned selling a version as Oatmeal Stout.

Thin watery – though most likely a few degrees stronger after priming – it’s not the most appealing-looking beer.


1944 Fullers Porter
pale malt 4.25 lb 62.23%
black malt 0.75 lb 10.98%
flaked barley 0.50 lb 7.32%
No. 4 invert sugar 1.00 lb 14.64%
caramel 2000 SRM 0.33 lb 4.83%
Fuggles 105 min 0.75 oz
Fuggles 30 min 0.75 oz
OG 1030.5
FG 1011.5
ABV 2.51
Apparent attenuation 62.30%
IBU 20
SRM 45
Mash at 149º F
After underlet 152º F
Sparge at 170º F
Boil time 105 minutes
pitching temp 62º F
Yeast WLP002 English Ale

Tuesday, 25 June 2019

Carlsberg quick off the mark

We saw a few days ago how in March 1947 the government announced that it was going to allow the importation of Lager into the UK. Carlsberg didn't hang around in making a return to the the British market.

A new company was set p that same month solely for the purpose of importing Carlsberg into the UK:

"NEW SCOTTISH COMPANIES
. . .
Carlsberg Scottish Importers Ltd., to set up agency in Scotland for the distribution of Carlsberg beer throughout tho United Kingdom and Northern Ireland. Subscribers —Alex. A. Willis, sales manager, Ermouth Road, Bromley. Kent, and R. C Martin, company director, Abney Court, Bourne End, Bucks. Capital £5000 in shares of £1 each."
Dundee Evening Telegraph - Friday 21 March 1947, page 7.
And just a couple of months later Carlsberg was already on the shelves. Though the retailer seemed a little uncertain about its origin, claiming in the advert below that it came from Holland:

"DOMINIC THE WINE SHIPPERS For HAYSEL THIRSTS—!
Order NOW because bottled BEER is none TOO plentiful yet — we JUST manage to SCRAPE ALONG from week to week; BUT we have all the best BEERS from all the best BREWERS— Barclays, TRUMANS, Watneys, MANNS, Fremlins, HAMMERTONS, Kenwards, WHITBREADS, George Beer and Rigdens, and OTHERS too, at 2/1 to 2/3 per QUART and 1/- to 1/2 per pint. Barclays LAGER, Grahams GOLDEN, and RED TOWER, all at 11/6 per dozen half-pints. "Z.H.B." and CARLSBERG (Dutch) Lagers at 17/- per dozen half-pints. PILSNER URQUELL Original Czech LAGER at 24/- dozen large bottles. ALES & STOUTS from any Brewer in SMALL CASKS - 4.5 gals. or 9 gals.--at 3 days' notice for PERFECT CONDITION. Please try and let us know YOUR needs well in ADVANCE. For a really REFRESHING drink on a HOT day in the HAYFIELD try our famous DEVON-CREAM Cider—STILL, sweet, DELICIOUS - at 1/9 per quart flagon; or in 6 gallon CASKS at 37/6. KENTISH KOB medium sweet DRAUGHT Cider at 1/4.5 per QUART flagon; or 27/6 per 6 gallon CASK SPARKLING sweet Cider at 1/6 per quart flagon. Bottles, cases and cadre CHARGED extra and ALLOWED in full on RETURN. Pure FRUIT SQUASH — Orange, Lemon, Utile Juice, Grapefruit — at 2/6 per bottle — and PLENTY in stock; ONE bottle diluted with water makes NEARLY A GALLON of still lemonade. ALGERIAN BURGUNDY at 7/9 per bottle is EXCELLENT value, and CAN be DILUTED with double the quantity of water or LEMONADE to make a VERY refreshing and invigorating drink. We DELIVER any quantity — small or large — and our VANS cover ALL WEST SUSSEX down to Brighton, Worthing and Chichester, EVERY week. Send us a CARD, Or 'PHONE Horsham 1023.
PETER DOMINIC & CO LTD WINE & CIGAR SHIPPERS - BEER & CIDER BOTTLERS
PHONE HORSHAM 1023."
West Sussex County Times - Friday 18 July 1947, page 5.
Not that the imported ZHB and Carlsberg Lager were considerablt more expensive that domestically brewed dversions such as Barclays, Grahams and Red Tower. Though neither was particularly cheap, the domestic version being 11.5d per half pint and the imported ones 17d. For 13d you could have bought yourself a full pint of Mild Ale, which would have been a simialr strength.

 As I always say on such occasions: drink Mild!

Monday, 24 June 2019

Imported Lager returns

WW II brought an almost complete halt of beer imports to the UK, other than Guinness from the Republic of Ireland.

The main impact of the lack of imports was a disruption of Lager supplies. Prior to WW II, Guinness excepted, almost all the beer imported into the UK was continental Lager. Wartime circumstances would have made it impossible to import, whatever the UK government might have wanted. The main pre-war sources - Denmark, Belgium, Czechoslovakia and Germany were all under Nazi control by the summer of 1940.


"VEG. PRICE CONTROL LIKELY TO DO HARM, STRACHEY DECIDES
ALL kinds of green vegetables may be imported from abroad under an open general licence from now until June 15, the Food Minister, Mr. Strachey, told the Commons yesterday.

He said that he had reluctantly decided that price control of green vegetables without rationing might do more harm than good while supplies are short.

So many would disappear under the counter that working-class households would be little better off.

Supplies of potatoes, he said. were now improving rapidly and should be nearly normal bv the end of this week. Unless prices of root vegetables dropped quickly to a reasonable level, he would either arrange for imports or impose price control. Other replies by Mr. Strachey.

COCKTAILS.— Sale of low strength cocktails and inferior liquor will be banned after this month.

LAGER BEER.- Some imports" of lager beer from continental countries are to be allowed.
Daily Mirror - Tuesday 25 March 1947, page 3."
https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000560/19470325/033/0003
The sources of imported Lager remained much the same when the trade resumed. Though It wasn't until the early 1950s that imports from Germany resumed.

Great news that low-strength cocktails had been banned. That must have lifted everyone's spirits.


Sunday, 23 June 2019

Provincial Brown Ale before WW II

It wasn’t just in London that Brown Ale was on the rise between the wars. The style was popular enough to appear in pretty much every brewery’s range. Though there was a considerable diversity in terms of strength and colour.

Rather fewer provincial examples were around the 1042º average OG of all beer. And there examples that are much weaker than London examples, some even under 1030º. In the case of Adnams, I know exactly why their Brown Ale was so weak. Like most smaller breweries, their Brown Ale was a tweaked version of their Mild. As that beer was piss weak, it followed that their Brown Ale would be, too.

One easily identifiable regional trend is in the Northeast. The two examples from there – Newcastle Brown and Vaux Double Maxim are notable for being both stronger and paler than most examples of the style. 50 and 62 are pretty low values for a Brown Ale. I’d expect a minimum of 80. Their gravities are both over 1050º which was unusual, but not totally unknown, in other parts of the country.

My guess is that all the ones stronger than Best Mild (around 1040-1043º) were their own separate brew and not based on a Mild Ale. For the simple reason that Mild didn’t usually get any stronger than that in the 1930s.

Note how common the name Nut Brown was. It has absolutely nothing to do with nuts or even with the flavour of the beer. I suspect that this Christmas carol is the source of the phrase. I've seen it in so many 19th-century collections of songs that it must have been very well known:

    The nut-brown ale, the nut-brown ale,
    Puts downe all drinke when it is stale,
    The toast, the nut-meg, and the ginger,
    Will make a sighing man a singer.
    Ale gives a buffet in the head,
    But ginger under proppes the brayne;
    When ale would strike a strong man dead,
    Then nut-megge tempers it againe,
    The nut-brown ale, the nut-brown ale,
    Puts downe all drinke when it is stale.
    "Christmas Carols, ancient & modern" by William Sandys, 1833, page lxiv.

I'm not sure of its exact date but, judging by the language and spelling, it's no later than the 17th century and possibly 16th century.

In the 19th century, the phrase “nut brown ale” was regularly used to conjure up nostalgic images of the good beer of the past or to describe beer served at feasts. It was not a specific kind of beer, simply a florid description of celebratory beer.

Provincial Brown Ale before WW II
Year Brewer Beer Price per pint (d) OG FG ABV App. Atten-uation colour
1936 Birkenhead Nut Brown Ale 6 1038.6 1010.5 3.64 72.80%
1938 Eldridge Pope Dorset Brown Ale 8 1038.2 1009.5 3.72 75.13% 90
1938 Fremlin Brown Ale 7 1041.8 1012.8 3.76 69.38%
1938 Green Lutonian Nut Brown Ale 6 1028.3 1003.8 3.19 86.57%
1932 Hoskins City Brown Ale 6 1036.6 1009.7 3.49 73.50%
1932 Ind Coope Nut Brown Ale 7 1037 1008.2 3.74 77.84%
1937 Mew Langton Brown Ale 1048 1012.8 4.57 73.33%
1933 Morgans SK Brown Ale 10 1042 1012.4 3.83 70.48%
1931 Newcastle Breweries Brown Ale 1056 1014 5.46 75.00% 62
1932 Northampton Brown Ale 1038 1009.8 3.66 74.21%
1938 Read Nut Brown Ale 1030.5 1007.6 2.97 75.08% 85
1935 Samuel Smith Taddy Nut Brown 1042.1 1011.9 3.91 71.73%
1938 Simonds Brown Ale 1031.6 1008.2 3.03 74.05% 130
1934 Adnams Brown Ale 1031.5
1932 Tennant Nut Brown 1032 1008.9 2.99 72.19%
1938 Tollemache Brown Ale 8 1044.9 1008.9 4.69 80.18% 80
1938 Unwin Darker Brown 1040.8 1007 4.40 82.84% 105
1938 Vaux Double Maxim Ale 1053.2 1009.3 5.73 82.52% 50
1932 Ward Nut Brown 1035 1007.6 3.56 78.29%
Average 7.25 1039.3 1009.6 3.91 0.76 86.0
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001.
Younger, Wm. & Co Gravity Book document WY/6/1/1/19 held at the Scottish Brewing Archive
Truman Gravity Book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/C/252.

Saturday, 22 June 2019

Let's Brew - 1944 Adnams PA

I'm quite enjoying the 1944 theme to my hombrew posts, so why stop now? Especially when I already have so many recipes written from that year. There's a good reason for that.

It's all connected with my next book, which is about brewing in WW II. I'm sort of getting back to my original book concept, which was a history of UK brewing 1700 to 1973. Two of my most recent books, Armistice! amd Austerity!, are really chapters of that book. Which shows how overambitious the ptoject was. The completed book would have been over 2,000 pages.

But let's get back to the recipe in hand. As Adnams beers were comparatively weak in 1939, they underwent a surprisingly small change in strength during the war.

Their Bitter, PA, started the war at just 1039º and, though it had fallen by 1944, it was just by three gravity points. Bugger all, really, compared to the beers of some other breweries. In general beers brewed in fairly rural locations, such as Southwold, tended to be weaker than those brewed in large urban centres.

The biggest change in terms of the recipe is the addition of an unmalted grain. Pre-war, Adnams beers were all brewed from just malt, hops and sugar. In 1943, however, the government dictated the use of oats, in response to a bumper crop. But that only lasted one year. The next, the government decided brewers should all use a percentage of flaked barley. Which is what we see in this iteration of PA.

As usual with Adnams, I know little about the hops other than that they were all English and from the 1942 and 1943 harvests.


1944 Adnams PA
pale malt 7.25 lb 87.88%
flaked barley 0.50 lb 6.06%
No. 1 invert sugar 0.50 lb 6.06%
Fuggles 120 mins 1.00 oz
Fuggles 60 mins 0.50 oz
Goldings 30 mins 0.50 oz
Goldings dry hops 0.50 oz
OG 1036
FG 1010
ABV 3.44
Apparent attenuation 72.22%
IBU 27
SRM 4
Mash at 149º F
After underlet 151º F
Sparge at 165º F
Boil time 120 minutes
pitching temp 60º F
Yeast WLP025 Southwold