Let's Brew Wednesday - 1952 Lees Best Mild

Best Mild. Sounds so romantic, doesn't it? Not just Mild, but Best Mild. Who wouldn't want the best?

The first reference I've come across to Best Mild is Barclay Perkins XX. This is the beer that appeared in 1931, after a big hike in beer duty. Brewers responded by slashing gravities. Especially of Mild. Barclay Perkins dropped the gravity of their X Ale from 1043 to 1037. But introduced a new beer, XX Ale, at the old X Ale gravity. X was marketed as "Ale", XX as "Best Ale".

WW II saw the gravity of standard Mild drop to 1028. Or the just-about-intoxicating-if-we-attenuate-the-hell-out-of-it level. Postwar, Mild gravities remained at their low wartime level, but some brewers introduced slightly stronger versions. These were sold under the name of Best Mild. Not that they were particularly strong, just 1034 to 1036. Still, better than a 1028 beer.

Lees Best Mild appeared in 1946. It initially had a gravity of 1033 and was party-gyled with K, Lees standard Mild. By 1952, it was being brewed on its own, though in much smaller batches - just 40 barrels, as opposed to 110 barrels of K. By this time there was a significant difference between K and Best Mild: the colour. K was 35 EBC, Best Mild 100. The grists had diverged considerably. K was brewed from pale malt, crystal malt and sugar. The Best Mild grist additionally included brown and black malt.

Before I started looking at actual brewing records, this was the sort of Dark Mild grist I'd expected to find. Ones with dark malts in them, rather than dark sugars. This looks a really tasty beer. Especially for the low gravity. Please brew it and send me a few bottles.



My bullshit is done. Time for Kristen and the detailed recipe . . . . .




-->

JW Lees - 1952 - Best Mild
General info: Finally. FINALLY! This is one beer I've been wanting to do for a long time. This is the stuff my granddad would always drink before my mum was born. Pictures at the old pub with the Lee's Best Mild in hand. What would it have been like to have a pint with the man I’ve always thought? Well, seeing that he went tits up in 1989 it’s not likely I get the chance in the near future. However, I can still drink what he did. Here it is. This one’s for you Mr. Tythcott.
Beer Specifics			Recipe by percentages
Gravity (OG)	1.035		72.5% English Pale malt			1.9% Black malt
Gravity (FG)	1.008		3.9% Crystal 75L			13.8% Invert No1
ABV	3.50%		3.8% Chocolate malt			2% Caramel colorant
Apparent attenuation	75.97%		2% Brown malt
Real attenuation	62.23%
IBU	27.0		Mash	90min@149°F		1.17qt/lb
SRM	51			90min@65°C		2.44L/kg
EBC	100.5
			Boil	1.75 hours
	Homebrew @ 70%				Craft @ 80%
Grist	5gal		19L		10bbl		10hl
English Pale malt	4.74	lb	2.158	kg	257.09	lb	99.33	kg
Crystal 75L	0.26	lb	0.117	kg	13.99	lb	5.41	kg
Chocolate malt	0.25	lb	0.114	kg	13.55	lb	5.24	kg
Brown malt	0.13	lb	0.059	kg	7.00	lb	2.70	kg
Black malt	0.12	lb	0.057	kg	6.78	lb	2.62	kg
Invert No1	0.90	lb	0.411	kg	48.97	lb	18.92	kg
Caramel colorant	2.13	oz	60.9	g	7.21	lb	2.79	kg
	6.403		2.915		354.59803
Hops
Fuggle 5.5% 90min	0.86	oz	24.4	g	53.42	oz	1.291	kg
Fuggle 5.5% 30min	0.29	oz	8.1	g	17.81	oz	0.430	kg
Fermentation	63°F /17.2°C
Yeast	Manchester ale
	1318 London Ale Yeast III
Tasting Notes: Very dark, nearly black, with brilliant ruby highlights. Biscuits, chocolate and a good dose of licorice. Dark caramel and rich dark fruit…cherries and plums. Finishes dry but with a good dose of mouth heft to keep from being watery. Definitely a top notch mild and one that everyone should make at least once.

Winter Warmer

Winter Warmer, an English style, is described thus:

"These malty sweet offerings tend to be a favorite winter seasonal. Big malt presence, both in flavor and body. The color ranges from brownish reds to nearly pitch black. Hop bitterness is generally low, leveled and balanced, but hop character can be pronounced. Alcohol warmth is not uncommon.

Many English versions contain no spices, though some brewers of spiced winter seasonal ales will slap "Winter Warmer" on the label. Those that are spiced, tend to follow the "wassail" tradition of blending robust ales with mixed spices, before hops became the chief "spice" in beer. American varieties many have a larger presences of hops both in bitterness and flavor."

I'm confused. Spiced winter seasonal beers. Does anyone know which beers they're talking about?  I can think of two English beers called Winter Warmer: Young's, which is a Burton and Sam Smith's, which is pale. Neither fits the guidelines.

I thought KKKK was the winter seasonal.

Confused. I shouldn't read American style guidelines. They funny up my head.

Zoigl

The bus has been hanging around outside the station. Our bus to Zoigl land.

It's going even further. To the Czech Republic. It doesn't look much like an international bus. More like the ones that pooter about Newark. But we're too excited to worry about that. We get off at the main square of Mitterteich. I'll tell you something. Mitterteich is a site more scenic than Wiesau. A proper little town. With people.

Mike would have walked right past. Luckily my beer radar is operating 100%. Admittedly, the half tree hanging outside is difficult to miss. A happy clinky chatter from inside confirms that there's some zoigling going on. We step inside.

A courtyard is filled with beer garden tables and chairs. We've timed our arrival well, and get seats. Time to look at the menu.

"Those thieving bastards, Mike. They want 1.70 for a half litre. And a couple of the meals cost more than four euros."

"Be serious for once."

Soon two over-priced beers are in front of us.


Hartwich Zoigl: full of beery deliciousnessness. Folkily, beerily good.

"This is perfect. A Zoigl butcher's. How can you get better than that, Ron?"

"We got the best thing on the menu, Ron. It's all meat."

"This is a cornucopia of meaty goodness, Ron."

"Big and small. They're my two favourite beer styles, Mike."

The beer is good. Really good. It slides down quickly, punctuated by mouthfuls of sausage and rye bread. The sausage is great. The bread's pretty good, too. Come to think of it, there's not a single thing I'd change. It's one of those perfect moments. Timeless afternoons that stay fixed in your memory. A treat to take out and savour in the cold, dark days of winter.

This is about as simple as hospitality gets. One self-made beer. Sausage and cold cuts from the in-house butcher. Basic furniture. Yet it's wonderful. Intimate, friendly, human. No clanking machines or blaring boxes. Just chatter and the ching of cutlery against crockery.

Joining in with the chatter and ching of the crowd, we idle away the afternoon. Gloriously. I've rarely felt more relaxed.  Four or five beers are consumed, almost as an aside. It's not just about the beer, though the fact it's Zoigl does add an extra zing. Gestalt. That's what it is. The perfect combination of a few simple elements. Food, beer, atmosphere. All perfection.

Mike had been concerned of disappointment. He needn't have been. It was just perfect.

Hartwich Zoigl
Angergasse 1,
95666 Mitterteich.
www.hartwich-zoigl.de

Kotbusser Bier recipe

Another recipe for an extinct German beer style. Not such a well-known one this time. Kotbusser. I assume it originally came from the city of Cottbus.

I can only remember hearing of the beer in one context: as a recommended source of yeast for Berliner Weisse. The recipe is fairly intriguing. What with its mix of grains and the weird way the hops are processed. You take a look:

"Brewing Kotbusser Bier according to Hermbstädt

This beer is very similar to Broyhahn, but is not solely from barley malt, rather prepared from a mixture of barley and wheat malt, along with an additions of hops. The method used to brew the above beer is not known, however, Hr. geheimer Medicinatrath Hermbstädt insists that, through experiments, he has succeeded in producing a beer that could be set alongside a true Kotbusser. For a brew of 2000 Berlin quarts [2,290 litres], the following materials are required.

1) 25 Berliner bushels (1500 pounds [750 kg]) pale barley malt.

2) 20 Berl. bushels (800 pounds [400 kg]) pale wheat malt.

3) 5 bushels (200 pounds [100 kg]) oats.

4) 6 pounds [3 kg] of the best hops.

5) 20 pounds [10 kg] honey.

6) 20 pounds [10 kg] raw sugar.

After the malts have been ground and mixed well, they are doughed in with 3000 Berl. Quarts [3,435 litres]of water at 36 ° R [45º C]. and well worked through, so that every part is completely permeated by water. For the second infusion, take the same quantity of boiling water, mash well for a full hour long, and give the mash a half hours' rest in a covered mash tun and before drawing off the wort, which is then evaporated down by a gentle boil to 2000 quarts [2,290 litres]. After the honey and raw sugar have been dissolved in the wort, it is passed through straw, the hop extract is added and it is cooled in the coolship down to l4 ° R [17.5º C]..

For the purpose of the fermentation it is put into a fermenting vessel with 10 quarts [11.45 litres] of yeast and when the yeast has reached its highest level, it is removed and the fermented wort taken off the sediment of yeast and transferred to the barrels stored in the cellar. When the ejection of yeast from them slows, the casks are bunged. After 24 days, the beer is usually drinkable.

The hops are subjected to two extractions in the Hopfenblase [literally hop bladder], the first time with 40 [46 litres], the second time with 25 quarts [29 litres] of water and each time for 80-10 hours. The residue from the second extraction is pressed out. The spent grains are immersed again in 1000 Berlin quarts [1,145 litres] of boiling hot water and the recovered wort is boiled with the pressed-out hops for half an hour, again passed through the spent grains, cooled, pitched with 3 quarts [3.4 litres] of yeast and made into Kovent."

"Grundsaetze der Bierbrauerei nach den neuesten technisch-chemischen
Entdeckungen" by Christian Heinrich Schmidt, 1853, pages 446-447.

One small point. I'm not sure if the pounds are metric or Prussian. Prussia swapped officially to the kilogram in 1855. Not that it makes a great deal of difference, as they were very similar in size. 1 Prussian pound = 467.711 grams. And, just for reference, 1 Prussian quart = 1.14503 litres.

The proportion of the grains was 60% barley, 32% wheat and 8% oats. I got the OG to around 1090 with my calculation, which seems very high. (The only analysis I have of a Kotbusser gives an OG of 1026.)  The hopping rate is very low. The brew was about 14 imperial barrels.Six pounds of hops gives a hopping rate of just 0.43 lbs to the barrel. Not sure what effect the small amount of honey and sugar would have. It seems way too little to me to be worth the trouble.

There are more recipes in this book. Perhaps they will follow. If I can be bothered to translate them.

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1951 Lees "C" Ale

What a rare treat this is. It seems like only yesterday we were speculating about what a "C" Ale might have been like. And now here's a recipe. Cool or what?

I'm still none the wiser as to what the C might stand for. But I do t least have a pretty good idea of what the beer itself was like. Dark, moderately strong, medium hopping. Sounds like a variation on the Burton/weaker Old Ale theme.

Lees didn't brew their "C" Ale for long. Just for a few years at the end of the 1940's and beginning of the 1950's. Other brewes in the region, such as Groves & Whitnall, had already brewed one in the 1890's.

Here's a quote from page 12 of "Manchester Breweries of Times Gone By, Vol 2":

"The brewery's [Openshaw] included best mild and bitter, Grade A pale ale, Openshaw Stout and also a "C" Ale. "C" Ale seems to have been a local brew, the origin of which is uncertain. Groves and Whitnall of Salford became well known for their version of "C" Ale in the 1890s; it was discontinued during the last war but reintroduced in 1950. John Henry Lees of Moss Side also brewed a "C" Ale, as did Wilsons Brewery."

That's me about done. Time for Kristen to do his thing . . . .




-->

Lee's - 1951 - C-ale
General info: Finally, after hundreds of logs, scouring the planet, we finally have found it. A 'C'-ale. What is it? I have absolutely no idea! Its some sort of very dark ale (112EBC), coloured mostly with coloured malt extract and caramel color, with a touch of hops and a good portion of regular invert and a vast amount of pale malt. How to explain this? Well, you really gotta taste it. So get out there and make it. Take pictures and lets compare!
Beer Specifics			Recipe by percentages
Gravity (OG)	1.054		56.9% English Pale malt 1			1.1% Black malt
Gravity (FG)	1.012		17.1% English Pale malt 2			15.2% Invert No1
ABV	5.54%		2.8% American 6-row			2.5% C.M.E.
Apparent attenuation	77.59%		4.3% Crystal 75L
Real attenuation	63.56%
IBU	20.0		Mash	90min@149°F		1.13814863102999qt/lb
SRM	57			90min@65°C		2.38L/kg
EBC	112.3
			Boil	1.75 hours
	Homebrew @ 70%				Craft @ 80%
Grist	5gal		19L		10bbl		10hl
English Pale malt 1	5.68	lb	2.585	kg	307.98	lb	118.99	kg
English Pale malt 2	1.70	lb	0.775	kg	92.40	lb	35.70	kg
American 6-row	0.28	lb	0.129	kg	15.40	lb	5.95	kg
Crystal 75L	0.43	lb	0.197	kg	23.47	lb	9.07	kg
Black malt	0.10	lb	0.048	kg	5.68	lb	2.20	kg
Invert No1	1.51	lb	0.689	kg	82.13	lb	31.73	kg
C.M.E.	4.06	oz	116.0	g	13.75	lb	5.31	kg
	9.715		4.423		540.80426
Hops
Fuggle 5.5% 90min	0.72	oz	20.5	g	44.80	oz	1.082	kg
Fuggle 5.5% 30min	0.24	oz	6.8	g	14.93	oz	0.361	kg
Fermentation	63°F /17.2°C
Yeast	Manchester ale
	1318 London Ale Yeast III   -
Tasting Notes: Deep dark fruits. Very little roast. Quite similar to a Caribbean stout. No real hop character but enough to clean up the finish. Lots of biscuits and bread from the pale malt. Very different but smooth.

That's one legendary but obscure beer style done. Where next? Broyhan, perhaps.