New book proof

The proof copy of my latest book, "Can we stay longer?"

I must say that it's looking dead cool. And it's in colour. One of my best, I think. Though I doubt I'll seel many copies. Or any, based on past experience.


Buy your copy now.

A film about the Velkepopovice brewery in the 1920s

This is one of the most detailed films I've seen about brewing from this sort of period. Absolute gold.



Some really cool stuff in there. Especially the bit about adding 4% Kräusen to the "kvasnicové pivo" (yeast beer). then showing exactly how the Kräusen was added to the cask before it was filled. Then saying that the beer had to rest in the pub for 10 days before serving.

Add to that showing how they pitched the lagering vessels and you've got some great stuff.

Northern bottled Pale Ale after WW II

Bitter had kicked off the war generally weaker in the rest of England than in London. But, just like WW I, WW II tended to iron out regional differences.

I’ve so much data for the post-war period that this section is going to be vert table-heavy. Though it is mostly for bottled Pale Ales rather than draught ones. Which is a bit of a shame. But it reflects who was responsible for collecting the samples: Whitbread. While they sampled plenty of draught Pale Ales from London and its environs, from breweries further away they mostly only analysed bottled beers.

These examples are a bit stronger than those from London. There’a a simple explanation: they’re from a few years later when gravities had bounced back a little. The average of 1036.4º is very close to overall average OG, which was around 1037º for the whole of the 1950s.

As in London, the rate of attenuation is high, averaging over 80%.

Some stronger Pale Ales were brewed in the North, too:

Northern strong bottled Pale Ale after WW II
Year	Brewer	Beer	Price per pint (d)	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour
1955	Hewitt Bros.	Pale Ale	23	1040.8	1008.4	4.21	79.41%	28
1953	Westoe	Export	30	1042.2	1008.3	4.41	80.33%	23
1953	Duttons	Special	28	1045	1007.2	4.93	84.00%	28
1953	Vaux	Special Export Pale Ale	30	1046.9	1010.4	4.75	77.83%	30
1951	John Smith	Magnet Ale	26	1047.1	1011.5	4.62	75.58%	24
1948	Duncan Gilmour	Export Quality Golden PA		1053.1	1011.8	5.38	77.78%	21
1951	John Smith	Pale Ale		1059.4	1016.9	5.52	71.55%	22
	Average		27.4	1047.8	1010.6	4.8	78.07%	25.1
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.

A couple would have been considered pretty strong even before WW II. I suspect that the John Smith beer was for export. I know that they shipped beer to Belgium and the lack of a price was often a sign of a beer which wasn’t sold in the UK.

Northern bottled Pale Ale after WW II
Year	Brewer	Beer	Price per pint (d)	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour
1955	Samuel Smith	Taddy Ale	22	1032.6	1007.2	3.30	77.91%	23
1955	Catterall & Swarbrick	XL Pale Ale	22	1034.1	1005.1	3.77	85.04%	19
1955	Moors & Robson	Pale Ale	16	1034.1	1007.3	3.48	78.59%	14
1950	T Taylor	Special Pale Ale	28	1034.7	1008.3	3.42	76.08%	24
1955	Thwaites	Pale Ale	27	1034.7	1005.5	3.80	84.15%	17
1955	Hydes	Pale Ale	21	1034.9	1004	4.03	88.54%	23
1955	Newcastle Breweries	Amber Ale	20	1034.9	1007.5	3.56	78.51%	30
1951	Peter Walker	SB Ale	19	1035.1	1005.7	3.82	83.76%	28
1955	Tennant Bros.	Lion Pale Ale	27	1036.6	1009.9	3.46	72.95%	23
1955	Tetley	Bitter	25	1037.1	1004	4.32	89.22%	23
1955	Birkenhead Brewery	India Pale Ale	21	1037.2	1007.2	3.90	80.65%	21
1955	Threlfalls	Blue Label	22	1037.4	1008	3.82	78.61%	19
1948	Carlisle State Brewery	Pale Ale	20	1037.5	1006.5	4.03	82.67%	17.5
1955	Hey & Son	Gold Cup Ale	25	1037.6	1006.6	4.03	82.45%	19
1955	Moors & Robson	Red Cap Bitter Beer	20	1038.1	1008.1	3.90	78.74%	15
1951	Peter Walker	Pale Ale	21	1038.5	1007.3	4.06	81.04%	24
1953	Duttons	DPA Pale Ale	24	1038.9	1005.2	4.39	86.63%	20
1955	Greenall Whitley	Pale Ale	22	1039.1	1008.1	4.03	79.28%	20
1950	Tennant Bros.	Pale Ale		1039.4	1012.2	3.52	69.04%	27
	Average		22.3	1036.4	1007.0	3.82	80.73%	21.6
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.

19th-century Scottish Stock Ale

As in England these were essentially aged versions of Mild Ale. One of the unusual features of Scottish brewing is the large number of very strong beers which were sold young. A much lower percentage of strong Scottish beers were aged.

Being expected to last for years, Stock Ales were hopped more heavily than the equivalent Shilling Ale. S and XS were the Stock equivalents of 100/- and 120/-, respectively, the main difference being that they contained double the amount of hops.

There’s some overlap between the higher value Shilling Ales and Stock Ales. Half of the batch of 1868 XXS below, for example, was packaged as 140/-. As these stronger Shilling Ales were already heavily hopped, there was no real difference with the Stock Ale recipe. Presumably the only difference was how quickly the beer was sold.

The hopping rate declined over time, though, admittedly, it did start at a ridiculously high level. Even in 1868, with 3 lbs or more per barrel, they weren’t lightly hopped beers.

William Younger Stock Ales in 1849
Date	Year	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
7th Apr	1849	S	1097	1031	8.73	68.04%	12.00	4.92
13th Nov	1849	S	1095	1028	8.86	70.53%	10.31	4.85
12th Nov	1849	XS	1108	1036	9.53	66.67%	11.50	6.73
Source:
William Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/2/3.

William Younger Stock Ales 1851 - 1868
Year	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
1851	S	1098	1027	9.39	72.45%	12.90	6.35
1851	XS	1109	1036	9.66	66.97%	11.61	9.00
1851	XXS	1126	1052	9.79	58.73%	12.00	9.00
1858	XS	1102	1032	9.26	68.63%	10.00	6.27
1858	XXS	1113	1036	10.19	68.14%	9.76	6.25
1859	XXXS	1128	1053	9.92	58.59%	9.78	7.26
1869	XXXX	1089	1021	9.00	76.40%	11.67	5.76
1868	S	1077	1032	5.95	58.44%	6.86	2.79
1868	XS Export	1092	1033	7.81	64.13%	6.82	3.70
1868	XXS	1102	1045	7.54	55.88%	4.91	3.25
1868	XXXS	1129	1066	8.33	48.84%	7.60	6.33
Sources:
William Younger brewing records held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document numbers WY/6/1/2/5, WY/6/1/2/14 and WY/6/1/2/21.

The above is an excerpt from my excellent book on Scottish brewing:

Which is also available in Kindle form:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Q8XHBL2

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1939 Barclay Perkins Sparkling Beer

Here's a treat for you - another wartime British Lager.

Though you may already have drunk this beer. If you attended the historic Lager festival at Urban Chestnut in St. Louis a couple of years ago. It was one of the recipes I provided. The beer went down surprisingly well.

First appearing just before WW II, Sparkling Beer was a strange beast. Brewed as a Lager, but nothing about its branding revealed that fact. Which is a bit strange.

As it doesn’t appear on any UK Barclay Perkins price lists, I’m pretty sure it was never sold domestically. Rather, it seems to have been designed as a long-life beer for ships’ stores, export and the military. Which is probably why it was often in canned form.

Amber in colour, a style Nazi would probably pin it down as a Vienna Lager. But I don’t think that was the brewery’s aim. Guessing what their aim might have been is another matter.

The grist is an odd mix of lager and crystal malt. With quite a lot of Saaz hops. It’s not very complicated, but doesn’t look much like either a UK of a continental beer. The Saaz were from the 1937 and 1938 harvests, both kept in a cold store.

A strange beer, which one that lived on quite a while after Barclay’s original London Lager brands disappeared.

1939 Barclay Perkins Sparkling Beer
lager malt	9.50 lb	88.37%
crystal malt 80 L	1.25 lb	11.63%
Saaz 90 min	1.25 oz
Saaz 60 min	1.25 oz
Saaz 30 min	1.25 oz
OG	1048
FG	1014
ABV	4.50
Apparent attenuation	70.83%
IBU	39
SRM	10
Mash at	158º F
Sparge at	175º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	45º F
Yeast	Wyeast 2042 Danish lager

Malzbier between the wars (part two)

Time for more watery Malzbier fun with Schönfel. Though this time there are some of almost normal strength.

"In addition to them, there were a number of stronger beers, mostly with 7-9% and sometimes also with 10-12% E. gravity, which soon bore this, now that name, and to which the multiple wheat malt beers (beers made from barley and wheat malt), Hannoversch Broihan (also a wheat malt beer of 7-9% gravity flavored with cloves, cinnamon, anise, etc.), Werdersches Bier, the Braunbier of the Kretschmer breweries in Breslau, the beers produced in East and West Prussia, and many others. They were all poorly attenuatted and mostly deeply dark in color. Some agricultural areas were offered a so-called harvest beer in the summer, which was brewed strong and well-hopped.

Mostly made from pure barley malt, but often with the addition of sugar, which could account for up to 20% of the mash material, they were more or less characterized by a mild and malty-sweet taste."
"Obergärige Biere und ihre Herstellung" by Dr. Franz Schönfeld, 2nd edition, Verlag von Paul Parey, Berlin, 1938, page 133 - 134.

None of that sounds very Reinheitsgebot-compliant. I can't remember coming across Broyhan having so many spices added to it before. Though I know that spices were used to flavour beer. Even in Bavaria, where for a while coriander was allowed.

That's odd with the harvest beer. In the UK, beer intended for harvesters was weaker than standard beer, as it was intended to refresh rather than intoxicate.

"The fermentation took place either in vats or in barrels, from one-ton pieces up to casks of 6-7 tons.

The fermentation period was finished in 2-3 days at the usual temperature of 15-18 ° C.

For barrel fermentation, especially when using small barrels, slightly higher temperatures (20-22 ° C) were advantageously chosen, so that the yeast could be better discharged.

The barrels lying at an angle during the main fermentation were straightened after the yeast growth had ended and, with constant refilling and keeping it full up to the the bung, left to rest for 1-2 days for a short fermentation and 8-10 days for a longer fermentation."
"Obergärige Biere und ihre Herstellung" by Dr. Franz Schönfeld, 2nd edition, Verlag von Paul Parey, Berlin, 1938, page 134.

Barrel fermentation sound rather like a ponto: having the barrel at an angle tso excess yeast could be discharged and refilling with fresh wort.

Here are a few beers of these types:

Broyhan and Braunbier 1850 - 1890
Year	Brewer	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	pH
1884	Hannover, Städtisch	Einfacher Broyhan	Broyhan	1031.4	1022.5	1.03	27.67%	3.78
1884	Hannover, Städtisch	Doppelter Broyhan	Broyhan	1053.4	1043.6	1.20	17.55%	3.99
1850	Unknown, Halberstadt	Halberstädter Breyhan	Breyhan	1034.7	1012.7	2.84	62.59%	3.32
1850	Freundes	Braunbier	Braunbier	1056.9	1036.6	2.60	34.57%	3.56
1850	Unknown, Berlin	Werder'sches Braunbier	Braunbier	1030.4	1012.0	2.37	59.74%
1850	Unknown, Berlin	Berliner Braunbier	Braunbier	1058.1	1041.4	2.12	27.63%	3.52
1879	Remmer	Einfach Braunbier	Braunbier	1038.5	1016.4	2.85	57.40%
1879	Unknown, Bremen	Braunbier	Braunbier	1059.1	1010	6.42	83.08%
1879	Unknown, Bremen	Braunbier	Braunbier	1057.3	1014	5.63	75.57%
1879	Unknown, Bremen	Braunbier	Braunbier	1049.9	1022	3.59	55.91%
1879	Unknown, Bremen	Braunbier	Braunbier	1049.5	1012	4.87	75.76%
1879	Unknown, Bremen	Braunbier	Braunbier	1044.5	1012.5	4.15	71.91%
1879	Unknown, Bremen	Braunbier	Braunbier	1061.1	1012	6.41	80.36%
1890	Löwenbrauerei	Doppelbraunbier	Braunbier	1029.9	1015.5	1.85	48.24%	3.65
Sources:
Wahl & Henius, pages 823-830
“Archive der Pharmacie”, 1855, pages 216-217
Handwörterbuch der reinen und angewandten Chemie by Justus Liebig, Johann Christian Poggendorff, Friedrich Wöhler, 1858, page 1038
"Chemie der menschlichen Nahrungs- und Genussmittel" by Joseph König, 1889, pages 806 - 851
"Handbuch der chemischen technologie" by Otto Dammer, Rudolf Kaiser, 1896, pages 696-697

You'll see that some of the beers are stronger than Schönfeld writes. Five of the beers in the table have an OG of over 14º Balling. Some are also pretty sour.

Provincial England Mild Ale during WW I

XX Ale was Adnams biggest-selling Mild Ale. And one they brewed right through the war. Since it started off with a far lower gravity than standard London Milds, the relative drop in gravity was much smaller. In the later stages of the war it formed the vast majority of the beer Adnams brewed.

In 1918 it had the same OG as Courage X Ale, even though that it had started the war with a gravity more than 12 points lower, 1042º as opposed to 1054.6º. It’s a good example of the war levelling out strength differences across the UK.

The Adnams XX recipe was amended several times during WW I.

The most obvious change is the disappearance of flaked maize in 1918. It’s something that’s seen at every brewery. Obviously, it simply wasn’t available. Either because maize wasn’t being imported or it was being diverted for food use. The proportion of maize when it was used is fairly low. 10-15% of the grist was common.

The occasional use of glucose and No. 3 invert was almost certainly due to supply problems. Glucose pops up quite often in wartime recipes while before the war it was quite rare.

Adnams XX Ale 1914 - 1920
Date	Year	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
10th Aug	1914	1042	1007.0	4.63	83.33%	4.20	0.73
30th Apr	1915	1042	1008.9	4.38	78.90%	4.33	0.76
18th Aug	1915	1041	1004.4	4.84	89.19%	4.46	0.76
18th Nov	1915	1040	1006.4	4.45	84.07%	4.46	0.76
31st Mar	1916	1038	1005.5	4.29	85.42%	4.59	0.75
2nd Oct	1916	1035	1005.5	3.90	84.17%	4.91	0.73
1st Jan	1917	1035	1006.1	3.82	82.59%	4.91	0.79
19th Mar	1917	1034	1005.0	3.84	85.34%	4.91	0.72
14th May	1917	1027	1003.3	3.13	87.69%	5.33	0.62
29th May	1917	1024	1003.3	2.74	86.15%	5.10	0.53
4th Apr	1918	1024	1004.2	2.63	82.69%	5.82	0.59
10th May	1918	1022	1003.9	2.40	82.37%	6.14	0.58
30th July	1918	1022	1002.8	2.54	87.41%	6.16	0.60
27th Nov	1918	1022	1002.8	2.54	87.41%	6.14	0.59
11th Apr	1919	1022	1002.8	2.54	87.41%	6.14	0.60
2nd Sep	1919	1027	1005.0	2.91	81.53%	7.53	0.86
19th Jan	1920	1027	1003.3	3.13	87.69%	5.23	0.71
Source:
Adnams brewing records held at the brewery,

Adnams XX Ale grists 1914 - 1920
Date	Year	OG	pale malt	crystal malt	medium malt	flaked maize	no. 2 sugar	no. 3 sugar	glucose	cane blocks	tintose
10th Aug	1914	1042	31.1%	6.2%	43.5%	6.2%				12.4%	0.6%
30th Apr	1915	1042		6.4%	73.7%	6.4%			4.3%	8.5%	0.6%
18th Aug	1915	1041		6.6%	72.9%	6.6%	4.4%			8.8%	0.6%
18th Nov	1915	1040	39.7%	6.6%	33.1%	6.6%		4.4%		8.8%	0.6%
31st Mar	1916	1038	41.1%	6.8%	30.8%	6.8%	4.6%			9.1%	0.7%
2nd Oct	1916	1035	33.1%	7.3%	36.7%	7.3%	4.9%			9.8%	0.8%
1st Jan	1917	1035	33.1%	7.3%	36.7%	7.3%	4.9%			9.8%	0.8%
19th Mar	1917	1034	14.7%	7.3%	55.1%	7.3%	4.9%			9.8%	0.8%
14th May	1917	1027	10.6%	5.3%	63.7%	5.3%	7.1%			7.1%	0.9%
29th May	1917	1024	12.4%	6.2%	61.9%	6.2%	4.1%			8.2%	1.0%
4th Apr	1918	1024	22.0%	5.5%	55.0%	5.5%	7.3%			3.7%	0.9%
10th May	1918	1022	22.9%	5.7%	57.1%	5.7%				7.6%	1.0%
30th July	1918	1022	11.7%	5.8%	64.2%	5.8%	7.8%			3.9%	0.8%
27th Nov	1918	1022	35.0%	5.8%	46.6%		7.8%			3.9%	1.0%
11th Apr	1919	1022	11.7%	5.8%	69.9%			7.8%	3.9%		1.0%
2nd Sep	1919	1027	0.0%	5.0%	80.7%					13.4%	0.8%
19th Jan	1920	1027	16.8%	4.2%	67.1%					11.2%	0.7%
Source:
Adnams brewing records held at the brewery,