Bottling in 1901 - True Bottling

I love the name Lott uses for this method. "True bottling." It's a bit like "Real Ale" I guess, in concept. There's the implication that this is the proper way to bottle and that all other methods are just shortcuts.

Unsurprisingly, beers that were to go through this lengthy and demanding process needed to be top quality.

"Bottling Process No. 1.—True Bottling.

In order to brew suitable ale for bottling purposes, it is essential to have all classes of material — water, malt, hops, yeast, &c. — of the best, and any departure from this rule results in failure, more or less. Preferably, bottling ales are all-malt ales, but I can call to mind some very fine samples of bottled pale ale brewed with one-third sugar which, at the public auction to which bottled ales are submitted in Australia, fetched the highest price at the time, and samples of the same beers returned to this country were in almost perfect condition two years from the date of brewing."
Journal of the Federated Institutes of Brewing, Volume 7, Issue 2, March-April 1901, page 192 - 193.

The robustness of British beers in the 19th century was legendary. How many modern bottled beers could travel to Australia and back  unrefrigerated and still be in good condition after two years? Not very many, I can tell you.

Lott continues with a discussion of the most suitable ingredients:

"The use of a moderately hard water is certainly preferable for pale ales, and I believe any trained palate would distinguish beers so brewed from those made with a soft water.

The character of the water will also influence the selection of copper hops as regards the amount to be used and the length of time they will be boiled, but in all cases a large proportion of first-class hops will be necessary in the copper, and full weight of the finest-flavoured hops should be used for dry-hopping. The selection of these latter is, I consider, of the greatest importance for bottled ales: the direct effect due to the aroma of the hop is of course obvious, but the indirect effect due to the influence of the dry hops on the secondary fermentation is even more important, "sickness" and other frets being largely influenced by the particular quality of the hops used for hopping down. As regards the brewing process, it may be taken as a pretty definite rule that a high initial heat in the mash-tub and low attenuation at rack are to be aimed at, and a very large proportion of the best bottling ales are racked at about one-fourth their original gravity."
Journal of the Federated Institutes of Brewing, Volume 7, Issue 2, March-April 1901, page 193.

Moderately hard? Surely Burton water is extremely hard? I'm not sure I understand what he's saying there.

I've noticed from looking at brewing records that beers meant to spend a long time between brewing and consumption - Keeping Ales and ones intended for export - tended to only use the latest season's hops. All beers bottled this way would spend many months maturing and conditioning before sale so you would expect them to use fresh, good-quality hops. That usually meant Kent hops in the form of Goldings, Farnhams or some kind of whitebine.

There are some informative details about the brewing process there. Like that beers for bottling were dry-hopped during secondary conditioning. But could the dry hops really cause the beer to "fret"? To my mind "fret" implies a too vigourous secondary fermentation. A high degree of attenuation was, of course, one of the techniques used to keep IPA sounds on the journey to India. Racking at quarter gravity means that the beer had attained 75% attenuation, which was fairly high for this period. In 1901, Whitbread's Ales were racked at between 57% and 77% apparent attenuation, with X Ale around 75%, Pale Ales 70% and KK and KKK 57% to 59%**.

Now it's time to look at secondary conditioning and the bottling process.

"Beers for bottling must be allowed to pass slowly and steadily through their secondary fermentation in the stores, and they should clarify naturally without the addition of finings.

When the secondary fermentation is over, they should be flattened, if necessary, by "porousing," but they should not be allowed to remain flat.

The bottles having been properly cleansed and dried should be corked as soon as they are filled, with corks previously soaked in beer, not in water, and then stored on their sides for a day or two* prior to being stacked upright in the maturing or bottled-ale store. This should be at a temperature of from 55º F. to 60º F., preferably the lower temperature.

Usually a month's storage will have developed a sufficient gas pressure to cause the beer when uncorked to froth and pour out brilliant. The variety of yeast which has been produced during the maturing process will very materially affect this quality: yeasts having a marked caseous habit, such as S. Coagulatus I and II, produce excellent bottled beers, although the latter is not usually associated with such nice flavoured beers, and is therefore undesirable in any quantity in the primary fermentation.

If a particular brewing of ale has been found to develop a high-class bottling ale, the grounds after bottling off the bright ale may be added to subsequent rackings to secure a similar secondary fermentation. The microscopic examination of the sediment of beers for bottling purposes is most valuable.

* This part of the process is now frequently dispensed with."
Journal of the Federated Institutes of Brewing, Volume 7, Issue 2, March-April 1901, pages 193 - 194.

An important part of this method of bottling was to allow beer time to spontaneously drop bright during secondary conditioning in the cask. It was a process which could take a considerable length of time and couldn't be speeded up. I'm not sure what the point was of removing the CO2 from the beer before bottling. It makes sense that casks to be shipped to India would be flattened to stop them becoming over-carbonated during the voyage. But I don't see why you'd want to bottle with flat beer, other than to prevent fobbing when it goes into the bottles.

55º - 60º F is a relatively warm temperature for conditioning in the bottle, only about 10º F cooler than primary fermentation.

The very last paragraph is very significant, especially considering the date this paper was given. It sounds to me as if they were, without realising it, selecting and reusing the yeast which had performed best in secondary conditioning. And what yeast does the job best? Why Brettanomyces. I'd say this is evidence that Brettanomyces was being deliberately added to beer before its official discovery, albeit in a haphazard and empirical way.

Next we'll be looking at how the composition of beer changed after bottling.





** Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/01/066.

Bottled beer in the 1840's

Northern Liberator, Saturday 12 December 1840, page 8.

I been done me some thinking again. It was that article of Lott about bottled beer. The types of Ale that he said were bottled. "I've got a spreadsheet of details taken form price lists. Let's see what bottled beers are in there." That was my thought. Nothing that's going to rewrite human history. But it's mine.

The spreadsheet has over 3,500 entries. Best I cut it down into more digestible chunks by limiting it by date. So we're going to start with the first bottled beers I have, from the 1840's. And what a fascinating bunch they are. That tell quite a story.

I don't have a huge number of examples, only 50-odd in total. And quite a large number of those are for a single brewery, Aitchison. Though that in itself tells a story.  It's no coincidence that a Scottish brewery should feature so prominently in the table. Because Scotland was the part of Britain where bottled beer became common the earliest.

Surprisingly, much Scottish was already being packaged in bottled form in the 18th century. More than 100 years before the rise in popularity of bottled beer in England.

But my mean reason for putting together the table below was to see which styles were being bottled. It provides some confirmation of Lott's assertion that the only Ales bottled were IPA, Mild Ale and Strong Ale.

First, I need to explain a little about the styles I've assigned to the beers, in particular those of Aitchison. I've ended up calling most of them "Edinburgh Ale", though some could equally well be classified as Strong Ale and others as Mild Ale. The problem is that it's not always possible to tell which group a beer belongs in by the description. Is "Superior Ale" a Mild Ale or a Strong Ale? I've no idea. Of course, it could be both.

 Newcastle Courant, Friday 17 April 1840, page 1

You can see that there was still a certain fluidity in the name given to IPA, with Pale India Ale, Pale Export India Beer and India Ale being used as well as the later standard India Pale Ale and East India Pale Ale. There's an intriguing set of brewers for the IPA's - Bass and Allsopp from Burton, Hodgson & Abbott of London, plus the Scottish brewers Aitchison and Tennent. It's an indication of just how quickly some Scottish brewers started brewing IPA.

There are, indeed, quite a few Strong Ales in the table. Especially when you consider many of the ones I've classified as Edinburgh Ales are also Strong Ales. Even more confusingly, the only beers identified as Mild Ales are also pretty strong, as shown by the prices of 5 and 7 guineas per hogshead. That makes them 105 shillings and 147 shillings respectively. In 1847, William Younger's 100/- had an OG of 1090º and their 140/- one of 1112º*. I assume Aitchison's Mild Ales were of a similar strength.

As I would have expected, there are several Stouts, including Guinness. Their beers were mostly sold in bottled form in England. By the 1840's, Guinness was already selling over 40,000 barrels of Stout annually in England. Sales grew exponentially in the second half of the 19th century, as this table shows.

Guinness Extra Stout sales 1840 - 1890 (barrels)
	1840	1850	1860	1870	1880	1890	1900
GB	42,209	44,410	82,690	178,556	207,695	352,109	458,630
Ireland	25,021	26,979	52,594	93,854	201,348	261,359	437,613
Total	67,230	71,389	135,284	272,410	409,043	613,468	896,243
Source:
A Bottle of Guinness, Please by David Hughes, pages 276-279.

The most unexpected beers are the Scottish Table Ale and Dinner Ale. These would have been very low gravity beers for the period. William Younger's Table Ale was between 1033º and 1037º in 1847*. I would be surprised if Aichison's were over 1040º. Scottish brewers had a good reputation for Table Ale and sold quite a lot of it in England. Part of the description probably explains why such a weak beer could be bottled successfully: "highly hopped."

I think that's me all explained out. There's nothing left for me but to leave you with the table:

Bottled beers in the 1840's
Brewery	Place	year	beer	style	price per dozen	size	source
S. Bloxsome & Company	Bristol	1849	Alloa Scotch Dinner Ale	Dinner Ale	2s 6d		"Chilcott's descriptive history of Bristol", by John Chilcott, 1849
Aitchison	Edinburgh	1840	Edinburgh Ale, strongest and best made	Edinburgh Ale	8s	reputed quart?	Newcastle Courant - Friday 17 April 1840. page 1.
Aitchison	Edinburgh	1840	Strong Edinburgh Ale	Edinburgh Ale	6s	reputed quart?	Northern Liberator - Saturday 12 December 1840, page 8.
Aitchison	Edinburgh	1840	Superior Ale	Edinburgh Ale	4s 6d	reputed quart?	Northern Liberator - Saturday 12 December 1840, page 8.
Aitchison	Edinburgh	1842	Edinburgh Ale	Edinburgh Ale	4s	quart	Morning Post (London) - Monday 04 April 1842, page 1.
Aitchison	Edinburgh	1842	Edinburgh Ale	Edinburgh Ale	6s	quart	Morning Post (London) - Monday 04 April 1842, page 1.
Aitchison	Edinburgh	1842	Edinburgh Ale	Edinburgh Ale	8s	quart	Morning Post (London) - Monday 04 April 1842, page 1.
Aitchison	Edinburgh	1843	Splendid Edinburgh Ale, Strongest	Edinburgh Ale	6s	reputed quart?	Newcastle Journal - Saturday 06 May 1843, page 2.
Aitchison	Edinburgh	1843	Fine Pale Edinburgh Ale	Edinburgh Ale	4s 6d	reputed quart?	Newcastle Journal - Saturday 06 May 1843, page 2.
Aitchison	Edinburgh	1843	Splendid Ale	Edinburgh Ale	4s 6d	reputed quart?	Newcastle Journal - Saturday 05 August 1843, page 1.
Aitchison	Edinburgh	1843	Strongest Ale	Edinburgh Ale	6s	reputed quart?	Newcastle Journal - Saturday 05 August 1843, page 1.
Aitchison	Edinburgh	1843	Prime Strong Ale (Old Bottle 1)	Edinburgh Ale	6s	reputed quart?	Newcastle Courant - Friday 22 December 1843, page 1.
Aitchison	Edinburgh	1843	Prime Strong Ale (Old Bottle 1)	Edinburgh Ale	4s 6d	reputed quart?	Newcastle Courant - Friday 22 December 1843, page 1.
Aitchison	Edinburgh	1844	Edinburgh Ale	Edinburgh Ale	3s	reputed quart?	Newcastle Courant - Friday 10 May 1844, page 1.
Aitchison	Edinburgh	1844	Edinburgh Ale	Edinburgh Ale	4s 6d	reputed quart?	Newcastle Courant - Friday 10 May 1844, page 1.
Aitchison	Edinburgh	1844	Edinburgh Ale	Edinburgh Ale	6s	reputed quart?	Newcastle Courant - Friday 10 May 1844, page 1.
Aitchison	Edinburgh	1846	Rich Flavoured Edinburgh Ale	Edinburgh Ale	4s 6d	reputed quart?	Newcastle Courant - Friday 19 June 1846, page 1.
Aitchison	Edinburgh	1846	Strongest and Best Edinburgh Ale	Edinburgh Ale	6s	reputed quart?	Newcastle Courant - Friday 19 June 1846, page 1.
Aitchison	Edinburgh	1848	Edinburgh Ale	Edinburgh Ale	3s 6d	pint	Hampshire Advertiser - Saturday 25 November 1848, page 1.
Aitchison	Edinburgh	1848	Edinburgh Ale	Edinburgh Ale	6s	quart	Hampshire Advertiser - Saturday 25 November 1848, page 1.
Aitchison	Edinburgh	1840	Highly hopped and attenuated India Ale	IPA	3s	reputed quart?	Northern Liberator - Saturday 12 December 1840, page 8.
Aitchison	Edinburgh	1842	Pale India Beer	IPA	4s	quart	Morning Post (London) - Monday 04 April 1842, page 1.
Aitchison	Edinburgh	1843	India Pale Ale, much esteemed	IPA	3s	reputed quart?	Newcastle Journal - Saturday 06 May 1843, page 2.
Aitchison	Edinburgh	1843	Superior India Pale Ale	IPA	3s	reputed quart?	Newcastle Journal - Saturday 05 August 1843, page 1.
Aitchison	Edinburgh	1843	Pale India Ale	IPA	3s	reputed quart?	Newcastle Courant - Friday 22 December 1843, page 1.
Allsopp	Burton	1845	India Pale Ale	IPA	5s	quart	Glasgow Herald - Monday 20 October 1845, page 2.
Allsopp	Burton	1845	India Pale Ale	IPA	2s 6d	pint	Glasgow Herald - Monday 20 October 1845, page 2.
Aitchison	Edinburgh	1845	Pale Export India Beer	IPA	3s	quart	Newcastle Courant - Friday 09 May 1845, page 1.
Aitchison	Edinburgh	1846	Pale Export India Beer	IPA	3s	reputed quart?	Newcastle Courant - Friday 19 June 1846, page 1.
Aitchison	Edinburgh	1848	Pale India Ale	IPA	3s 6d	pint	Hampshire Advertiser - Saturday 25 November 1848, page 1.
Aitchison	Edinburgh	1848	Pale India Ale	IPA	6s	quart	Hampshire Advertiser - Saturday 25 November 1848, page 1.
S. Bloxsome & Company	Bristol	1849	East India Pale Ale	IPA	3s 6d		"Chilcott's descriptive history of Bristol", by John Chilcott, 1849
Bass	Burton	1849	East India Pale Ale	IPA	4s		"Chilcott's descriptive history of Bristol", by John Chilcott, 1849
Hodgson & Abbott	London	1849	India Ale	IPA	4s 6d		"Chilcott's descriptive history of Bristol", by John Chilcott, 1849
Tennent	Glasgow	1849	India Pale Ale	IPA	4s	quart	Glasgow Herald - Friday 22 June 1849, page 3.
Tennent	Glasgow	1849	India Pale Ale	IPA	2s 6d	pint	Glasgow Herald - Friday 22 June 1849, page 3.
Aitchison	Edinburgh	1845	Mild Ale (5 guineas a hogshead)	Mild Ale	4s 6d	quart	Newcastle Courant - Friday 09 May 1845, page 1.
Aitchison	Edinburgh	1845	Mild Ale (7 guineas a hogshead)	Mild Ale	6s	quart	Newcastle Courant - Friday 09 May 1845, page 1.
S. Bloxsome & Company	Bristol	1849	Dursley Pale Ale	Pale Ale	2s 6d		"Chilcott's descriptive history of Bristol", by John Chilcott, 1849
Unknown	Dublin	1845	XX Dublin Porter	Porter	4s	quart	Glasgow Herald - Monday 20 October 1845, page 2.
Unknown	Dublin	1845	XX Dublin Porter	Porter	2s	pint	Glasgow Herald - Monday 20 October 1845, page 2.
Unknown	London	1849	Brown Stout Porter	Porter	2s 9d		"Chilcott's descriptive history of Bristol", by John Chilcott, 1849
Georges	Bristol	1849	Strong Old Porter	Porter	4s		"Chilcott's descriptive history of Bristol", by John Chilcott, 1849
Guinness	Dublin	1845	Extra Stout	Stout	5s	quart	Glasgow Herald - Monday 20 October 1845, page 2.
Guinness	Dublin	1845	Extra Stout	Stout	2s 6d	pint	Glasgow Herald - Monday 20 October 1845, page 2.
Unknown	London	1849	Extra Brown Stout	Stout	4s		"Chilcott's descriptive history of Bristol", by John Chilcott, 1849
Unknown	Dublin	1849	Extra Stout	Stout	3s 4d		"Chilcott's descriptive history of Bristol", by John Chilcott, 1849
Allsopp	Burton	1845	Burton Strong Ale	Strong Ale	6s	quart	Glasgow Herald - Monday 20 October 1845, page 2.
Allsopp	Burton	1845	Burton Strong Ale	Strong Ale	3s	pint	Glasgow Herald - Monday 20 October 1845, page 2.
S. Bloxsome & Company	Bristol	1849	Strong October Beer	Strong Ale	4s 6d		"Chilcott's descriptive history of Bristol", by John Chilcott, 1849
Aitchison	Edinburgh	1840	Edinburgh Table Ale, highly Hopped, an excellent Stomachic	Table Ale	3s	reputed quart?	Newcastle Courant - Friday 17 April 1840. page 1.
Aitchison	Edinburgh	1840	High hopped Table Ale	Table Ale	3s	reputed quart?	Northern Liberator - Saturday 12 December 1840, page 8.

* William Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/2/3.

Butcher's Tears

Life's been good to me recently. First there was the Kimchi Farm Festival just a tram ride away. Then the following weekend a brewery tap opening that was a mere walk away. Result.

Breweries are popping up like the hollyhocks that sprout from the cracks in the pavement in my neighbourhood (Hoofddorpplein buurt, if you're wondering). Two have addresses no more than a ten-minute walk away from my flat. One of those being Butcher's Tears, who officially opened their tasting room last Saturday.

I'm beginning to really spoil Dolores, taking her out two weekends in a row. We struggled to hit that number in a year after the end of the Happy Time*.

"I hope they make some normal beer. Not just that weird strong rubbish." Dolores sounded a little concerned.

"Yes, I'm sure they do. Look, there are a couple on the list that are only 5 or 6%." Which there were.

Amsterdam has lots of odd little corners. Bits of countryside, light industry and housing that have been engulfed by the city's sprawl. Karperweg is one of them. On its northern side crouches a row of single-storey garages; while a hotchpotch of an electricity substation, ambulance station, houses and scraps of industry stretches along its southern flank. It's on this side, just before it hits a dead end, that Butcher's Tears is located.

We get there just after kickoff and it's pretty quiet. Just a dozen or so people hanging around outside sipping beer.

"What would you like, Dolores?"

"Nothing too strong."

"I'll get you the Imperial Stout, then."

Only joking. There isn't an Imperial Stout. I'd have been on it like a ferret up a trouser leg. Or maybe not, given what happened earlier in the week at the beer hacks' do. I get Dolores one of the weaker beers and the strongest for myself.

Dolores has found us a bench to sit on.

"That's a result." I say, passing her a glass. "The beer's free."

"You should have got us two each, then."

"There's no rush." I say pointing at the queue of two people at the bar.

We've asked Will along. He did tip us off about the Kimchi Festival, after all. Probably be down later, he told us. Some pathetic excuse about wanting to watch the football.

We work our way through all the beers over the course of a few rounds. Each one takes longer to fetch, as it starts to fill up. Some swapping of beers goes on when we decide we prefer each other's beer. I'm surprisingly unkeen on the dark one, Lipreader, I think it's called, but luckily Dolores is more enthusiastic.

"I quite like this one," I say passing Dolores my Mercenary to taste, "it smells really nice." Which it does.

"Ugh. It's one of those grapefruit beers. I thought you didn't like them?"

"They have their place."

It really is very pleasant. Lovely aroma, not just of grapefruit, but of pineapple and other tropical fruits, too. I stick with it for a couple more. But it's starting to get really crowded. The queue now stretches out of the tap room almost to where we're sitting.

"Everyone must have called their friends and told them about the free beer." Dolores suggests. She might well be right. When they run out of glasses, it's apparent the crowd is larger than expected.

We're just about to leave when Will arrives.

"The beer's free." Dolores tells him.

"I'd have come earlier if I'd known that."

We stay for one last round with Will before starting on the long trek home.

"We could take a 15 bus back." I'm feeling lazy. Very lazy. It's only two stops.

"I don't have my OV chip card." That's put paid to that then. Walking it is.




I realise that I haven't really described the pub. It reminds me, in a way, of somewhere like Kernel in London. A very simple, almost impromptu venue, with plain whitewashed walls, simple table and benches. There's a light industrial chic thing going on. The brewery itself is next door to the tap room.

Butcher’s Tears
Karperweg 45,
1075LB Amsterdam.
http://butchers-tears.com/
Open Wednesday and Sunday 16:00 - 21:00.


* Happy Time = before we had children. 

Bottling in 1901

I have strange interests. My listeners' faces when I start rattling on about one of my obsessions tell me that. Confusion, pity, boredom. I'm lucky if it's just those and not anger, aggression, loathing.

Bottling is one of those topics. I find it a fascinating story, how a relativley obscure form of packaging beer rocketed to popularity only to fall back down to earth again. But it wasn't just the popularity of bottling beer that was very dynamic, the methods of producing it underwent rapid change as well. Within a few decades it went from an expensive product produced by a long natural process to a relativley cheap commodity churned out in a few days.

Judging by the author Frank E. Lott's comments, the rise of bottled beer had taken the brewing industry by surprise.

"About a year ago when looking through the Transactions of the various Institutes of Brewing, I was surprised to find that the subject of bottled beers had never received any special notice, which is the more surprising when one considers that it is during the past ten years or so, that what was formerly a distinct business of its own has been more or less universally incorporated into the general work of the brewery.

In Burton, for instance, when I first came here four and twenty years ago, not one of the twenty-eight firms then established in the town bottled ale for general use; now I believe there are only two or three of the present nineteen firms that do not do so. I will not venture to say what proportion of the beer consumed in this country is bottled die, but I am very sure that the sale of bottled ale, or at any rate what is called bottled ale, has increased at an enormously greater rate than the sale of draught ale, and consequently it should be a question of very great interest to all brewers."
Journal of the Federated Institutes of Brewing, Volume 7, Issue 2, March-April 1901, page 191.

When he talks about "a distinct business of its own" he means that brewers did not themselves bottle. That task was performed by specialist bottlers, who received hogsheads of beer and labels from the brewery which they then packaged and sold themselves. It's a practice that still continued long after breweries had started to bottle themsleves. You can see its traces in many labels for the 1920's and 1930's, where the bottler's name appears along with the brewer's.

It's not surprising that brewers should have wanted to get into the business of bottling. There was money in it. Serious money, as the popuularity of beer in this form boomed. It was a big change. In the 19th century the vast majority of beer drunk at home was draught. Larger households and the better off would buy casks of beer direct from the brewery. The less well off would send their children to fetch jugs of draught beer from a pub or off-licence.

Lott succinctly summarises the three methods of bottling beer:

"Bottling Processes.
Formerly bottling ale meant a very distinct and definite process, for which specially brewed ales were alone considered suitable, and practically only three kinds of ale were bottled — India pale, mild, and strong; now - it is common practice to bottle all kinds of ales, and there is a considerable variety of bottling processes differing very materially from each other. We can, however, classify these different methods under three somewhat distinct headings:—

Firstly, the old-fashioned method of true bottling, requiring specially brewed ales properly matured in cask, and time to develop condition and flavour in bottle.

Secondly, the newer process, forced bottling, by which more or less newly brewed ales are clarified artificially by the action of finings, and, after bottling, forced rapidly into condition by storage at a high temperature.

Thirdly, the comparatively modern process, artificial gas bottling, or carbonatintg, in which the ales, filtered or otherwise flattened and clarified, are bottled under an artificial pressure of carbonic acid gas, separately manufactured. This process might also be called the American process, having been first used for bottling lager beer in the States."
Journal of the Federated Institutes of Brewing, Volume 7, Issue 2, March-April 1901, page 192.

I was a little confused at first by his claim that only three types of Ale were bottled: IPA, Mild Ale and Strong Ale. "What about Stout?", was my immediate reaction. That's a beer that regularly pops up in bottled form in old adverts. Then I realised he was using Ale in the strict sense of the word, that is, not including Porter and Stout.

The presence of Mild Ale in the list surprised me. Given its enormous popularity in the late 19th century, it's odd how rarely Mild was bottled. The same is equally true of Porter.

My inital reaction was that of those three methods, only the first and third are still used. But that's me being overly romantic about modern bottle-conditioning. It's actually the second method that's used today. No-one, with the exception of Belgian Lambic brewers, really carries out a secondary conditioning in casks.

The last method is the commonest today. With the optional extra of pasteurisation. By the 1920's it already beciome the standard method of producing bottled beers, with only a few specialities like Burton Pale Ales, strong Stouts, Strong Ales and Guinness sticking with bottle-conditioning.

Next time we'll be looking at the three different bottling processes in detail.

Dantzig Black Beer imports

Nothing very fancy today. Just a random bunch of references to that old favourite, Dantzig Black Beer.

Frankly, I'm confused. On the one hand, I'm surprised by how many mentions of it I've found in newspapers. On the other, given how regularly and widely it was imported, it's odd how little reference there is to it actually being consumed. Mostly it's just announcements of it arriving in port.

Several northern ports received shipments of Dantzig Black Beer. There was Hull:

HULL, DECEMBER 22.
For HAMBURG, The FAME, ALEXANDER GRANT, Master (A constant Trader.) To sail with convoy the 24th inst.
BLAYDES, LOFT, GEE, & Co.
ON SALE,
A quantity of Podolia FLAX-
26 Casks of RAPE OIL
HORSE HIDES (dryed)
Ermland YARN from 12 a 25
Dantzig BLACK BEER (One property.)
22d Dec. 1800.
Hull Packet - Tuesday 23 December 1800, page 3.

For SALE, REAL SPRUCE BEER, just arrived from Dantzic direct.
TOMLINSON & BOOTH.
HULL, October Ist, 1814.
Hull Packet - Tuesday 04 October 1814, page 2.

Liverpool:

VIN DE BOURGOUGNE.
Very superior BURGUNDY WINE, in Bottles, Selected with great care, and bottled in France for Private Tables. A few Cases only being left, will be disposed Of on reasonable terms.
Also, Dantzig BLACK BEER, in Kegs and Half-kegs.
Apply to B. H. DOWNING, 40, Chapel-walks, POOl-lane.
Liverpool Mercury - Friday 15 December 1826, page 4.

And Newcastle:

DANTZIG BLACK BEER.
ON SALE, Part of a Cargo, recently landed from the Elise, 10s. 6d. per Keg,
BY GEO. FINLAY,
WINE MERCHANT, BIGG-MARKET.
Newcastle. 9th Jan. 1846.
Newcastle Journal - Saturday 10 January 1846, page 2.

ALLSOPP'SPALE AND BURTON ALES.
The above ales are now being supplied in the finest condition in bottles and casks.
Also, just landed, PRIME DANTZIG BLACK BEER, in kegs.
By GILPIN AND COMPANY, 107, Pilgrim-street, and 7, Manors.
Newcastle Guardian and Tyne Mercury - Saturday 02 February 1867, page 1.

Note the mention in several of the above of "kegs". The term was usually used to refer to small barrels rather than the type of barrel in which beer was delivered.This confirms the small size of the barrels used to export Dantzig Black Beer:

"Danzig. The demand for Jopenbier was very limited, as in the English manufacturing districts, the main sales locations for this article, most workers were unemployed because of the American war. The sale price was 70 fr. per 1/4 T. free on board. Manufactured were 22300, exported 24300 1/4-T. Value of 56700 Th; of the shipped amount a great part was sent to England on credit and stored there unsold. The stock at year-end was 8000 1/4-T."
"Preussische Statistik" 1863, page 101.

1/4 T I assume means a quarter Prussian tonne. That had a capacity of 114.503 litres, or a little over 25 gallons, making a quarter tonne about 6.25 gallons, or a little smaller than  between a pin and a firkin. The total volume of those 1862 exports to Britain were 4,250 barrels. Not a huge amount. Then again, in 1860 only 3,592* barrels of beer were imported into Britain. Though, as Black Beer had a special status, I'm not sure if it was included in those statistics. It still means that Black Beer was the most popular foreign beer.

And finally . . . a medicinal use for Black Beer:

Infallible Cure for Colds.—Two tablespoonfuls of Dantzig black beer, taken with hot water, sugar, and about half-a glass of old rum, or malt whiskey, immediately before going to bed, is said to cure the most obstinate and long-standing colds, and has succeeded where every other remedy failed.
Bucks Herald - Saturday 07 January 1843, page 7.

There may be more, depending on how my searches with variations in the spelling work out.


* Brewers' Almanack 1928, p. 115

Summer book offer reminder

A reminder that, in an homage to the summer, I'm offering my vaguely season-of-the-sun-related books at a discount of 20%*.

"Don't do it." was Andrew's advice. Since becoming my business mansger he's changed.

"But Lager is everyone's idea of a summer drink."

"Everyone but you, dad. You keep drinking that monk stuff however hot it gets."

"I drank loads of Lager this summer."

"Only when you were in Bavaria. You had no choice then."

"You're spoiling the mood."

Back to book plugging.

Buy Lager! at a discount of 20%!











This is where I drank Lager this summer. (Voluntarily, depite what Andrew might have you beleive.) At least the places described inside this book are. Some real crackers.

Like Neder, in Forchheim. God, I love that place. Wonderful beer too. A straightforward Export, served straight from the cask. just like . . . .

Or Spital, in Regensburg. Stonking meatballs lubricated by a drinking Dunkles with a view of the Danube thrown in for free. Matronly waitresses in Dirndls, too. Heaven on earth.

Find out all about these and many more belting boozers in the definitive guide Bavarain beer spots.  By buying Trips! (South) at a discount of 20%!














I'm exhausting my mindless cheerfullness battery. Right, what's this one about? Lot's of things. Decoction mashing, obviously. Probably way too much detail about that. The part about Lager styles over history has more laughs, but a rather sad ending. While the stuff about extinct German top-fermenting styles is like a real downer. I cry when they all die at the end.

Bet you can't wait to read it after that ringing recommendation, eh?.

Well, you're in luck. Decoction is also available for the rest of the summer at a 20% discount!

















* This offer lasts until the end of summer. Which is when I say it is. Definitely not before the end of August, obviously. And not as late as December. Somewhere between those two. When I say. (Unless I forget, which has happened before. In which case it might drag on past Christmas.) And limited to the Lulu paperback version of the three books mentioned in this post, namely Lager!, Decoction! and Trips! (South).

GBBF 2013

I've felt better. In fact pretty much any morning, serious illness excepted, I've felt better. Bloody Imperial Stout.

At least I had all my possessions, camera, phone, trousers. That was a good sign. Fortunately, a full English breakfast was included with the price of the room. Rarely have I been more in need of one. Two eggs, tinned tomatoes, toast and a pile of bacon. A mountain of bacon. Loads of orange juice and some tea, too. Had to rehydrate.

It's pretty easy to spot the British at this type of buffet breakfast. They're the ones, like me, with heaps of bacon. The foreign vistors mostly stick to cereal or nibble on toast. The girls. (Admittedly many of them were girls, so I guess that lets them off.)

I'd some time before checkout after stuffing my face. Time for a little light napping. I hoped it would make me fell a little less shit. Not sure it worked.

At Euston, I was keen on picking up a Metro to see how many runs Australia still needed to win the test. I was shocked when I got one in my sweaty hands. The game was over! The Aussies had indeed collapsed miserably again. Starting just after I'd stopped watching. Bloody typical, missing all the best bits.

Olympia is a far superior location to Earl's Court for the GBBF in every respect except one: accessability. It's on a stupid little spur of the underground that only has a service when there's an event on. They were only running a train every half hour, which explained the crowd of T-shirt encased bellies on the platform at Earl's Court.

I was tempted to follow the advice on the board to take a Wimbledon train to West Brompton and then an Overground train from there. But, not knowing that route, I stayed put. I ended up waiting 25 minutes. The festival had already been open 15 minutes when the special train finally trundled in.

After arriving at Olympia, it wasn't just a question of strolling in. Due to my own stupidity, I'd arranged to meet my shoolfriend Henry at the first session of the festival. Having forgotten that it was the trade session, not open to the general public. I remembered a few days before the festival started and realised that I needed to get press accreditation . . . but it was too late to go through the normal online process. In a panic, I emiled the Writer's Guild chairman, Tim Hampson, who was able to sort it out for me. It did mean that I had to pick up my pass at the press office.

I soon had my pass, a glass and a programme. Cool. Then I looked at what it said on my badge:

"Ron Pattinson
Beer Advocate Magazine Shut up"

Mmm. Looked like I was making a statement about BA Mag.

My brilliant idea for a meeting point was the Wells & Young bar. You haveto meet somewhere and I'd heard they had cask Russian Stout. Sadly, it turned out they weren't selling it until 15:45. Just when I was scheduled to leave. I had to make do with their seasonal beer instead.

Henry didn't arrive at 12:30 as promised. But several other people I know drifted past and stopped for a few words.

About an hour late, Henry made an appearance. Clutching a pathetic little third of a pint glass.

"Why the hell did you get that? You can always get a third pulled into a pint. You can't get a pint in a third."

Henry had no logical explanation: "I thought I'd be able to knock back a load of quick thirds."

"Couldn't you just as easily do that with a pint glass?"

As I'd been standing around for an hour waiting for him to show up, I suggested we found some seats. My old men feet can't be doing with too much standing. Sets off my gout. And my grumbling. By the time I hit pensionerhood, I think I'll have the necessary moaning off pat.

We got to discussing Henry's plans for a brewery. He's got the premises and planning permission, but is still a little daunted by the amount of cash needed to buy the brewing kit. I can understand enitrely. I'm not sure I'd want to sink my savings into something as risky as a brewery. Not that I tild Henry that:

"You should go ahead and do it. What's the worst that could happen?"

"I lose all my money and my house."

"See, it's not that bad."

They were serving Harvey's Imperial Stout. I thought I'd best have one as I couldn't remember whether I'd had one at the writer's Guild do.

"You can only get only get thirds." Henry said, explaining the gobfull of beer lurking at the bottom of my pint glass.

"Probably just as well after last night." I've made a mental note never to session Imperial Stout again.

The chairman of Newark CAMRA, sitting at a nearby table, spotted Henry and came over to insult his girly glass. Well, that and have a bit of a chat.

Large numbers of people inexplicably came and crowded around where we were sitting. Inexplicable only until Roger Protz appeared on the stage and we realised they were about to announce the Champion Beer of Britain. The sound quality was shit and I struggled to understand him. Though I could discern the overall winner: Elland 1872 Porter.

I looked it up in the programme. "6.5% sounds too strong for a Porter of that date. 5 or 5.5 % would be more like it." I'm always like this when the topic of historic beers comes up. It's a miracle anyone still drinks with me. "I wonder where the recipe comes from?"

On my round, Henry suggested "Get that strong Stout from Greene King."

I couldn't see a strong Stout, but there was 5X. I assumed that was what Henry meant. Funny he didn't realise what it was. Especially as just 10 minutes earlier we'd been discussing Strong Suffolk and bemoaning the fact you couldn't normally buy straight 5X.

A very pleasant drink, with the sherry notes typical of an aged beer. But I was a little taken aback by its lack of extremeness: "I expected it to be more sour. The brewery says the reason they don't sell it straight is that it's too sour. Seems that's bollocks."

It was another that only came in thirds. Though mine was near as dammit to the half pint line.

"I told you that a pint glass was a better idea."

With a 7 PM Easyjet flight at Stansted to catch, I daren't risk lingering past 4 PM. So that's when I duly buggered off on the tube/train/flight/taxi trek back home.

My taxi driver from Schiphol tried to overcharge me by 12 euros, cheeky bastard. Having taken exactly the same route just a week before, I was having none of it and paid him the correct fare. First time that's ever happened to me in Amsterdam, have a taxi drive try to rip me off. What is the world coming to?

Quiz again

Here's a picture of another pub in the same town:

With Little Dave looking very natty.

Quiz update

I'm so pleased with myself for finding this mystery pub on Streetview:

that I'm going to show you what it looks like now:

You can see that it's move upmarket from a Hostinec to a Restaurace. Personally, I much prefer the old signage. And the attractive grey colour of the upper storey.

The Brewery of Barclay, Perkins and Co. (part two)

We're getting to the meat of the brewery now - the brewhouse itself:

"The Brewhouse is 225 feet long by 60 in width, and of prodigious height, with an elaborate iron roof, the proportions reminding us of Westminster Hall. Within this compass are complete sets of brewing apparatus, perfectly distinct in themselves, but connected with the great supply of malt from above, of water from below, and of motive force from the steam-engine behind, vast coolers, fermenting vats, &c. Each of the copper boilers cost nearly 5000l., and consists of a furnace, a globular copper holding 320 barrels, and a cylindrical cistern to contain 120 barrels, an arrangement equally beautiful and useful from its compactness and the economy of heat. There is no continuous floor; but looking upwards, whenever the steamy vapour permits, there may be seen at various heights, stages, platforms, and flights of stairs, all subsidiary to the Cyclopean piles of brewing vessels. The coals, many tons per day, are drawn up from below by tackle, and wheeled along a railway.""Curiosities of London" by John Timbs, 1867, pages 60 - 61.

The brewhouse indeed sounds impressive. Westminster Hall, the oldest part of the House of Parliament is 68 by 240 feet and its hammer roof means that there are no columns to obstruct the view.  It's one of the most spectacular medieval buildings in Britain.

It's not very clear from the description, but those are London coppers. It was a very heat efficient design. The cistern mentioned is a sort of holding tank placed above the copper. Wort waiting to be boiled in the copper is placed in it and is pre-heated by the wort already boiling below it. London Porter brewers, who boiled later worts for three or four hours had a big financial incentive to use as little fuel as possible in boiling.

These coppers were closed with good reason: Porter brewers wanted to boil under the pressure that this would create to encourage maillard reactions to darken the wort. Pale Ale brewers preferred open coppers as they wanted to keep their worts as pale as possible.

This next part was a quote in the original:

"The hot water is drawn from one of the copper boilers to the corresponding mash-vat below; and machinery working from a centre on a cog-rail that extends ever the circumference of the vat, stirs the malt. The mash-vat has a false bottom, which in due time lets off the wort through small holes to an under-pan, whence it is pumped back to the emptied copper, from whence it receives the hot water, and there, mixed with hops, it is boiled, and again run off into a vast cistern, where passing through a perforated bottom, it leaves the hops, and is pumped through the cooling tubes or refrigerators into the open cooler, and thence to the fermenting cases; whence, in a few days, it is drawn off into casks, again fermented, and when clearer put unto the large vat."
"Curiosities of London" by John Timbs, 1867, page 61.

He's obviously describing internal rakes in the first sentence. Though, buy this date, I would have expected them to also have an external Steel's masher which would have performed most of the mixing of the water and malt. Internal rakes were still needed for the complicated mashing scheme that Barclay Perkins employed.

Looking at an X Ale brewed in March 1867, there were four stages to the process: an initial mash, an underlet, a sparge and a second mash. The rakes were essential for the underlet phase, when more water was added to the mash from below. The rakes were used to distribute this extra water through the mash.

The bit about receiving hot water in the copper sounds like bollocks. At this period they didn't water down the wort before boiling. That only became necessary after WW I when gravities had dropped considerably. In the 19th century the problem was getting worts strong enough, one of the other reasons later worts were boiled for very long periods.

The fermenting cases I guess are the squares. And the casks it was drawn into most likely pontoes, which were used to cleanse the beer of yeast. By the 1860's not much of the Porter would have still been vatted. The practice fizzled out in the 1860's and 1870's and by the end of the latter decade London brewers had ripped out most of their large vats. Only the stronger Stouts continued to be vatted.

"The surface of one of the fermenting cases nearly filled is a strange sight: the yeast rises in rock-like masses, which yield to the least wind, and the gas hovers in pungent mistiness over the ocean of beer. The largest vat which contains about 3500 barrels of porter, which, at the retail price, would yield 9000l. The "Great Tun of Heidelberg" would hold but half this quantity.

Nearly every portion of the heavy toil is accomplished by the steam-engine. The malt is conveyed from one building to another, even across the street, by machinery and again to the crushing rollers and mash vat. The cold and hot water, the wort and beer, are pumped in various directions, almost to the exclusion of human exertion. With so much machinery and order, few men comparatively are required for the enormous brewing of 3000 bushels of malt a day. The stables are a pattern of order. The mane of each horse is painted upon a board over the rack of each stall. The horses are mostly from Flanders, are about 200 in number, and cost from 70l. to 80l. each."
"Curiosities of London" by John Timbs, 1867, page 61.

3,500 barrels is indeed effing huge.Though I'm not sure the author has got the value of the beer in that vat correct. Porter retailed for 2d a pint, or 48 shillings a barrel. I make that £8,400.

3,000 bushels a day sounds about right. Barclay's big sellers - Porter and X Ale - both took about two bushels of malt to brew a barrel. So that equates to around 1,500 barrels a day, which was around the real output of the brewery.

Horses, especially the big, heavy horses used to pull drays weren't cheap. 70 or 80 quid is the equivalent of a couple of years' wages for a labourer.