London draught Pale Ale on the eve of WW II

In the capital, two or even three draught Pale Ales was standard. Fitting the 6d, 7d and 8d per pint niches, when sold on draught. Though, as you can see in the table below, 7d and 8d Bitters were the norm.

7d Bitters had gravities in the high 1040º’s, and 8d Bitters ones in the mid-1050º’s. These gravities and prices had remained constant since the early 1920s, with the exception of the years 1931 to 1933, when there had been a disastrous tax increase. Brewers’ reaction was to reduce gravities to leave retail prices the same, rather than raise prices by 1d per pint as the government had expected.

You can see that there wasn’t a huge amount of variation in the strength of beers in each class. That isn’t coincidence. Brewers were well aware of the gravities of their rivals’ beers, despite them not being made public. I’m sure that all the larger breweries, just like Whitbread and Truman, had their rivals’ beers analysed. It’s only drinkers who were in the dark as to how strong their beer was.

The rate of attenuation is fairly high, at least 75% in all but two examples. The ABVs are accordingly also quite high, with the Mann’s example even hitting 6% ABV. There would never be a London-brewed Bitter of a similar strength again.

London draught Pale Ale in 1938
Year	Brewer	Beer	Price per pint (d)	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour
1938	Barclay Perkins	PA	7	1043.9	1011.3	4.23	74.26%
1938	Charrington	PA	7	1046	1007.2	5.06	84.35%
1938	Taylor Walker	Pale Ale	7	1043.1	1015.7	3.54	63.57%
1938	Truman	Pale Ale	7	1048	1006.8	5.38	85.83%	24
1938	Watney	Pale Ale	7	1048.8
1938	Whitbread	Pale Ale	7	1048.6	1011	4.89	77.37%	27
	Average			1046.4	1010.4	4.62	77.08%
1938	Courage	PA	8	1050.2	1012.7	4.87	74.70%
1938	Mann	PA	8	1052.4	1006.5	6.01	87.60%	27
1938	Watney	PA	8	1055	1012.2	5.57	77.82%	27
1938	Wenlock	Pale Ale	8	1054
	Average			1052.9	1010.5	5.48	80.04%
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.
Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/01/105.
Truman Gravity Book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/C/252.

Let's Brew - Russell 4d Ale

Continuing my Mild series for no other reason than I fucking love Mild. Here's another Mild recipe. But not from one of the usual suspects.

Russell’s was a decent-sized regional brewery based in Gravesend, Kent. It was purchased by the Russell family in 1856, became a limited company in 1893. When Truman bought the company in 1930, Russell owned 223 tied houses.

4d Ale, as a type, is a hangover from WW I. A low-gravity Mild Ale in the weakest price-controlled gravity band. In London it was only brewed in small quantities, out it the sticks, it was more popular. Presumably amongst the price-conscious dinkers.

I keep banging on about how simple old recipes were. And how Dark Mild didn’t contain any dark malts. But here’s an old beer that contradicts both those assertions.

With three different malts – four if you count the English and Californian pale malts as different – the bill is quite varied. Three types of sugar, glucose, invert and Tintose, complete the picture. These appear as glucose, No. 3 invert and caramel in the recipe below.

The hops were English from the 1926, 1927 and 1928 harvests, Poperinge from 1928, Oregon from 1927 and samples. The cheapskates. The first time I encountered generic “samples” was in a wartime record and I assumed it was an example of making do. Since I’ve spotted them in records from unstressed times, as here.

1929 Russell 4d Ale
pale malt	5.00 lb	76.34%
crystal malt 60 L	0.25 lb	3.82%
black malt	0.125 lb	1.91%
flaked maize	0.75 lb	11.45%
glucose	0.25 lb	3.82%
No. 3 invert sugar	0.125 lb	1.91%
caramel 2000 SRM	0.05 lb	0.76%
Cluster 90 mins	0.25 oz
Strisselspalt 90 mins	0.25 oz
Fuggles 60 mins	0.50 oz
Fuggles 30 mins	0.50 oz
OG	1029
FG	1006
ABV	3.04
Apparent attenuation	79.31%
IBU	22
SRM	15
Mash at	144º F
After underlet	146º F
Sparge at	167º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	62º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1099 Whitbread Ale

I'm totally aware that the label is for a totally different brewery.


This is one of the dozens of recipes in my book Mild! plus. Which is avaiable in both paperback:

 

and hardback formats:

Make yourself special

By brewing a beer first brewed on your birthday!

I have a literal shitload of brewing records. At least 15,000. Maybe more. I haven't been counting. What I do have is at least one for every day of the year. From January 1st to December 31st.

Even Christmas Day? I hear you ask. Yes, because it wasn't a public holiday in Scotland.

So click on that button just to the left. Get your own unique, personalised recipe. With original waffle from me about the beer and an image of the brewing record, just to prove I'm not fucking you around.


Should you not want to fork out for something individual, hundreds of historic recipes can be found in my outstanding new collection:

Boys Bitter

Time for another book extract. This time from one that covers probably the least fashionable period of UK brewing: the immediate post WW II years.

The name is one which was later – I think in the 1970s – was given to a type of low-gravity draught Bitter found in the Southwest of England. By the 1970s these beers often played the role of draught Mild, which by then had mostly disappeared from the region.

I’m using the term to refer to any draught Bitter under 1036º. It’s a pretty arbitrary distinction, but it stops the tables getting too big.

The rate of attenuation – which is just under 80% - is pretty high. Presumably that’s an attempt to compensate for the low gravity. It leaves the average ABV a respectable 3.5%.

The 1960s didn’t bring about any huge changes to this type of beer, as you can see in the next table.

The average rate of attenuation is even higher than in the 1950s, over 80%. And, surprisingly, the average price per pint is lower, just over 14d rather than almost 16d.

Draught Bitter in the 1950's - Boys Bitter
Year	Brewer	Beer	Price per pint (d)	OG	FG	ABV	App. Attenua-tion	colour
1959	Fuller	Bitter	14	1031.6	1004.1	3.58	87.03%	23
1959	Charrington	BBB	17	1032.8	1007.8	3.24	76.22%	14
1954	Barclay Perkins	XLK	15	1032.9	1004.5	3.70	86.32%
1954	Meux	PA	17	1033.7	1007.3	3.43	78.34%	24
1954	Barclay Perkins	XLK	15	1033.8	1006.9	3.49	79.59%	19
1954	Taylor Walker	EPA	17	1034	1008.6	3.29	74.71%	23
1958	Vaux & Co	Bitter Ale	17	1034.2	1007.8	3.43	77.19%	26
1953	Whitbread	Pale Ale	16	1035.1				22
1957	Ind Coope	Best Bitter	17	1035.2	1008	3.53	77.27%	19
1954	Mann Crossman	KK	17	1035.3	1007.7	3.58	78.19%	19
1957	Charrington	PA	15	1035.5	1004.9	3.98	86.20%	23
1959	Whitaker	Bitter	14	1035.6	1010.2	3.17	71.35%	22
	Average		15.9	1034.1	1007.1	3.49	79.3%	21.5
Sources:
Truman Gravity Book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/C/252.
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.
document from the Steel Coulson archive held at the Scottish Brewing Archives
T & J Bernard's brewing records held at the Scottish Brewing Archive

Boys Bitter 1960 - 1964
Year	Brewer	Beer	Price	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour
1960	Beasley	Bitter	15	1034.3	1004.5	3.72	86.88%	35
1960	Blatch Brewery	Bitter	14	1031.8	1003.9	3.49	87.74%	20
1960	Burt & Co.	Best Bitter	13	1032.6	1004.5	3.51	86.20%	20
1964	Camerons	Ordinary Bitter	15	1031.3	1006.7	3.07	78.59%	30
1960	Charles Wells	Bitter	18	1034.4	1006.6	3.48	80.81%	18
1960	Charrington	Ordinary Bitter	14	1033.8	1008	3.35	76.33%	18
1960	Clinch	Bitter	13	1034	1006.1	3.49	82.06%	20
1960	Dunmow Brewery	Bitter	14	1033.6	1006.6	3.37	80.36%	25
1960	Fremlin	XXX Bitter	14	1035.5	1005.7	3.72	83.94%	26
1960	Friary	Bitter	14	1033.8	1005.2	3.57	84.62%	20
1960	Fullers	Ordinary Bitter	16	1032.2	1005.3	3.50	83.54%	24
1960	Garne & Sons	Bitter	13	1031.2	1004.3	3.36	86.22%	21
1960	Georges	Bitter	13	1030.9	1004.75	3.40	84.63%
1960	Gray's	Bitter	13	1033.6	1006.1	3.44	81.85%	21
1960	Greenall Whitley	Bitter	14	1034.4	1005.95	3.70	82.70%
1960	Greene King	Ordinary Bitter	13	1033.9	1005.7	3.53	83.19%	26
1964	Hammond	Caledonian Scotch	15	1031.2	1008.7	2.81	72.12%	30
1960	Hammond United	Best Bitter	16	1035.5	1004.05	4.10	88.59%
1960	Harvey's	Bitter	14	1033.8	1006.1	3.46	81.95%	22
1960	Kemp Town	Bitter	12	1031.5	1004	3.44	87.30%	16
1960	Morland	Bitter	14	1035.6	1006.1	3.69	82.87%	18
1960	Morrell	Light Bitter	12	1030.7	1005	3.21	83.71%	17
1960	Morrell	Best Bitter	15	1035.3	1005.3	3.75	84.99%	23
1964	Newcastle Breweries	Sotch Ale	15	1032.3	1005.4	3.36	83.28%	30
1964	Northern Clubs Federation	Ordinary Bitter	13	1033.1	1004.5	3.57	86.40%	25
1960	Rayments	Bitter	12	1030.3	1004.1	3.27	86.47%	18
1960	Rayments	Best Bitter	14	1035.7	1006.4	3.66	82.07%	22
1961	Rhymney	Silver Drum	18	1035.1	1007.1	3.50	79.77%	17
1960	Ridley	Ordinary Bitter	14	1034.2	1009.8	3.05	71.35%	19
1960	Star Brewery, Eastbourne	Bitter	12	1029.5	1003.3	3.28	88.81%	20
1960	Tamplin	Bitter	14	1034.3	1006	3.54	82.51%	24
1960	Thwaites	Bitter	16	1035.8	1006.6	3.80	81.56%
1960	Tollemache	Bitter	16	1033.3	1003.4	3.74	89.79%	20
1960	Usher	Ordinary Bitter	13	1032.5	1007.3	3.15	77.54%	18
1960	Ushers	Bitter	13	1031.9	1008.75	3.00	72.57%
1960	Vaux	Best Bitter	15	1034.8	1005.6	3.80	83.91%
1960	Wenlock	Bitter	16	1035	1008.7	3.41	75.14%	26
	Average		14.2	1033.3	1005.8	3.47	82.50%	22.2
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.
Which Beer Report, 1960, pages 171 - 173.

Intrigued? Then why not buy the whole book. It's full of facty goodness. And lots of homebrew recipes.

http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/austerity/23181344

I'll be in Chicago in a couple of weeks

I know. I've only just got back from Texas. And her I am gadding off to the USA again.

I'll be in Chicago from Friday 26th April to Tuesday 2nd May. The reason for the trip is the launch of my latest collaboration with Goose Island, an aged Porter called Obadiah poundage. The beer is based on an 1840 Truman Keeping Porter. Though we've brewed a matching Runner, too, to blend it with.

If you'd like to try it, the launch is Monday 1st May 29th April at the Goose Island taprrom on Fulton Street.

Should you be around in Chicago on 27th or 28th April and fancy having a beer or two, get in touch.

Texas there I go

I have to be up reasonably early. My flight is at 9:55. And I wouldn’t want to miss out on the bacon.

Working out the time is tricky. The clock in the room is 2 hours and 10 minutes out. Why the hell would that be. I have to keep checking because it gets light quite late.

I don’t lay into the bacon quite as enthusiastically this morning. Not that hungry, for some reason. I can barely force down six rashers. Plus a couple of cups of coffee to liven me up a bit. It’s going to be a long day.

Breakfasted, I’ve just time to polish off my hotel whisky before it’s time to check out and pick up a cab. It’s been a pretty short trip. Over just as I’m getting into it.

My taxi driver is an affable Mexican around my age. As we trundle along the motorway, through the monotonous beige landscape we chat about football. When I tell him I live in Amsterdam, he assumes I’m Dutch and support Holland. I don’t have the heart to tell him I hate the Dutch national team almost as much as I hate Arsenal.

Needing to print my boarding pass, I go to a machine and type in my confirmation number. It can’t find my reservation. I try again, in case I mistyped it first time. It still doesn’t work. An airline employee comes over to help. “You’re flying with United,” she says, looking at my confirmation, “these are American Airlines machines.” I feel pretty stupid.

Luckily this is a pretty quiet airport. There isn’t the usual scrum of confusion around the United baggage drop off. Which is a pleasant change.

Considering how deserted the place is, security takes quite a while. As initially they’re running just a single X-ray machine. Just as well I’m in no rush.

Avoidance of any rushing – and its accompanying stress  - is one of my main objectives while travelling. Waste some extra time waiting? Fine by me. I prefer that to dropping dead. Which, when you hit my age, is an increasingly likely possibility.

No bar visit in San Antonio airport.  I upgraded to first class when I was checking in yesterday. So I’m saving myself for the free whiskey on the plane.

Upgrading barely cost me anything, really. I’d have had to pay $30 for a check-in bag. Then I reckon on drinking $30-$40 worth of whiskey on the plane. The upgrade was just $80. So I’ve only really paid $10-$20 to board early and have a nice wide seat.

We pull away from the gate almost exactly on time. Then park on the tarmac for the best part of an hour, waiting for a departure slot. At least I’ve some free whisky to keep me company. No worry about missing my connection. I’ve allowed four hours, paranoid as I am.

I wander down the baggage reclaim. My flight’s luggage is due on carousel 12, according to the screen. The screen above carousel 12 confirms that. I stand next to it and wait.

The odd bag comes out, but not mine. It doesn’t look like a full load. My legs are getting tired, so I take a seat and pull out my Private Eye.

A young bloke comes up and says: “Are you waiting for bags from the United flight from San Antonio?” Seems I’m not the only one hanging around.

There’s not much carousel activity, but I’m in patient mode. And sit reading my Private Eye a while more. Though I am beginning to be slightly concerned that they might have lost my bag. Then the bloke comes back and say: “Try looking at carousel 9. That’s where I found my bag.”

Sure enough, my bag is sitting there on carousel 9. Time to head to terminal D to check my bag in again.

Houston airport isn’t the best signposted I’ve ever been in

Have a couple of Jim Beams in Hugo’s Cocina. And Meat tacos. Which, at just $11-odd aren’t that bad value for an airport. Not too bulky, either. While I’m eating them, I stare blankly at a TV behind the bar. Quite pleasant to switch off your brain every now and again.

Hugo’s is conveniently close to my gate. I wander along there quite soon, even though my flight has been delayed by 45 minutes. I don’t want to spend too much at the bar. I can feel Dolores looking over my shoulder. And I’ve all of series 9 of Peep Show to watch. That’ll occupy a couple of hours.

I don’t bother with the inflight entertainment and continue watching Peep Show. (Who would have guessed that Super Hans was really called Simon?) At least until the meal arrives. Beef something. They didn’t specify exactly what. I struggle to identify what it might be.

Then it’s kipping time. Which goes remarkably well. I awake just before breakfast is served.

It’s weird going through passport control. Is this the last time I’ll use the EU lane?

My bag comes out pretty quickly. But what’s that? Is it a damp patch? Damn. A bottle must have broken. Opening it up, it’s pretty damp inside. Luckily it contains no books or anything else that could be ruined. There is my coat, which I’ll need to wear on the way home, as it’s pretty chilly.

I wonder what the other passengers on the bus think of my beer-scented attire?




Hugo’s Cocina
Gate D6,
Houston International airport.

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1904 Tetley XX

To get you all in the mood for  Mild Month, here's another old Tetley recipe. Though it bears little resemblance to modern Mild.

The strongest of Tetley’s many Mild Ales during the Edwardian period was XX. By 1904 a Mild of this strength  - 7.5% ABV – was very much the exception.

I’m not sure where exactly XX was sold, but I’m guessing in pubs. As it’s a draught rather than a bottled beer. Though there’s no way you’d manage an 8-pint session on this beast. It’s just too strong.

Unlike some of its weaker brothers, XX didn’t come in a pale version, just a dark one. With the colour coming from a combination of No. 3 invert sugar and caramel. Which is pretty typical for Dark Mild. The only malts are the base malt: pale and mild. There’s no coloured malt of any description.

The hops were Worcester from the 1903 harvest (kept in a cold store) and Kent, also from 1903, but not kept in a cold store. Fuggles for both seems a reasonable guess.

1904 Tetley XX
mild malt	6.50 lb	42.28%
pale malt	6.50 lb	42.28%
No. 3 invert sugar	2.25 lb	14.63%
caramel 1000 SRM	0.125 lb	0.81%
Fuggles 90 mins	2.50 oz
Fuggles 30 mins	2.50 oz
OG	1073.7
FG	1016.6
ABV	7.55
Apparent attenuation	77.48%
IBU	48
SRM	21
Mash at	150º F
Sparge at	165º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	60º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire Ale Timothy Taylor

This is one of the dozens of recipes in my book Mild! plus. Which is avaiable in both paperback:

 

and hardback formats:

San Antonio day two

The good news is that breakfast in included again. The not quite so good news is that it’s another paper and plastic job.

It’s pretty much identical to the breakfast in the first hotel. Meaning, there is bacon. Plus scrambled eggs and those potato things. I limit myself to just nine tiny rashers today. I wouldn’t want to be a pig.

My room has a great view of the motorway. I could stare at the view all day, if it weren’t for the weather channel and the adverts for prescription medicines on the TV to distract me.

No motorway journey for me, the conference being downstairs in the hotel. But I don’t rush to get down there. The first item on the agenda is a business meeting, which isn’t really appropriate for me.

Leaving me a valuable opportunity after breakfast to read crap on Twitter while watching crap TV. Good to know I won’t look back on this day with regret when I’m on my deathbed. At least I didn’t miss anything on Twitter that day in San Antonio, I’ll think to myself.

The first bit I turn up for is the Bloody Mary bar. No way I’d miss that. It’s at the wonderfully early time of 9:30. Perfect for warming me up for the day.

“I’ve never had a Bloody Mary before.” I confess to a fellow attendee. “Quite nice, aren’t they?” I continue. “Like an alcoholic soup.”

It is weird I’ve never tried one before. I recount the tale of how one of my old locals in Amsterdam, Rick’s Café, used to have a Bloody Mary happy hour at 8 AM.  We’d tip in there sometimes, post-club.  But I always went for the Guinness breakfast. Three pints and then home to bed.

They’re about to close up. Damn. “Could you put another shot of vodka in there, please?”

It gets me right in the mood for the day’s first presentation, which on can seaming.

I’ve noticed that all the talks except mine are extremely technical. Which I can live with. After learning more than I’ll ever need to know about attaching lids to cans, we continue with an in-depth look at keg spears. This one really resonates with me personally.

As it covers aspects of my one and only professional brewing job: filling kegs at the Courage plant in Newark (formerly Holes) in the summer of 1975. I genuinely find it all bizarrely fascinating. Sometimes I suspect my level of nerdy interest when it comes to beer is really getting out of hand.

Lunch comes with more beer. Hey, I’m not arguing. I’m first in the queue for the buffet. Leaving less time wasted queuing and more for drinking.

There’s something soothing, yet fascinating, about the technical detail of the presentations. Or perhaps it’s a full belly and a few beers that’s mellowing me out. What the hell – I’m enjoying myself.

I’m on at 3 PM. Which is a good time. The Bloody Mary and hospitality beers have me nicely warmed up. It doesn’t hurt that I gave the talk just two days ago. Helps me pace it better and remember where the hell I am.

I tell a lot more jokes and get some pretty good laughs. Though a couple don’t get much response. The audience seems pretty interested again. There are a decent number of questions. Which thankfully I can answer. Talking to a room of professional brewers can be intimidating for an amateur like me.

Once the after-talk chat is done, I nip up to the hospitality suite for some more beer and chat. I can never get enough of either. Especially when the talk is about beer.

It’s all very relaxed. Which suits me. I’m an informal sort of bloke. Pretty obvious, if you’ve ever seen the way I dress. Charity shop chic, is how I describe my look. Apprentice tramp, according to Dolores. She’s very harsh at times. One of the reasons I’m being so careful with the pennies.

Someone tells me: “A couple of your gags went over people’s heads. They aren’t all as used to British humour as I am.” That’s good to know. I thought maybe my timing was a bit off. Or my jokes were crap. Naah, that couldn’t possibly be true.

We tip – some of us – back downstairs for some evening nosh. It’s all pretty low-key. But with a beer in my hand and someone to talk to, I’m as happy as Barry. Whoever he is.

Dined and dazed I dumble up to my room. To stare dumbly as lights dizz and dazzle along the motorway.

The last of the hotel whisky helps me crawl between the cracks into the cavern of sleep.