Let's Brew - 1928 Barclay Perkins KKKK

At some point in the late 1920s, KKK seems to have become KKKK. Not sure the reasoning behind the name change. Perhaps it was intended to distract from the fall in gravity. It had been more than 50 years – since 1871 – that Barclay Perkins had brewed a KKKK.

I know for certain that KKKK was a winter-only beer. If adverts are to be trusted, it looks like it was served from a pin on the bar counter. It was also aged – this version was brewed in May. Which would have made it around 6 months old when served.

The name may have changed, but the recipe is mostly unchanged. The balance between SA (for which I’ve substituted mild) and pale malt has shifted a little in the latter’s favour. Everything else is about the same. Except No.3 invert has replaced No. 2.

A combination of Mid-Kent Goldings from the 1927 crop and Mid-Kent Tutshams from 1926 make up the copper hops. While the dry hops are East Kent Goldings from 1927. All the hops were cold stored.

1928 Barclay Perkins KKKK
pale malt	4.75 lb	28.57%
mild malt	8.75 lb	52.63%
crystal malt 60 L	1.25 lb	7.52%
No. 3 invert sugar	1.75 lb	10.53%
caramel 1000 SRM	0.125 lb	0.75%
Goldings 150 mins	2.50 oz
Goldings 60 mins	2.50 oz
Goldings 30 mins	2.50 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.50 oz
OG	1079
FG	1027
ABV	6.88
Apparent attenuation	65.82%
IBU	85
SRM	23
Mash at	150º F
Sparge at	164º F
Boil time	150 minutes
pitching temp	58º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1099 Whitbread Ale

This recipe is in my two new books, Strong! vols. 1 & 2 and Strong! vol.2.

Barclay Perkins Porter and Stout adjuncts before WW II

More excruciating detail about Barclay Perkins beers around the time of WW II. I'm still pondering whether to turn all of this into a standalone book or not.

In the first half of the 20th century, the use of adjuncts was very widespread. Usually in the form of flaked maize, though a few breweries, such as William Younger, used grits. So, it’s no shock to see that most of the Stouts contain some. 10-15% was typical, considerably less than the 5% here.

I think that it’s explained by the presence of another unmalted grain, roast barley. The two combined come to around 15%, about the typical adjunct percentage. Nowadays many associate roast barley with Stout but that wasn’t true in the UK. The vast majority of breweries used black malt instead. I can only recall two which used roast barley: Barclay Perkins and Guinness. The latter is doubtless the cause of the association.

Over 11% of the grist seems an awful lot of roast barley. Especially when there were another 15% of roasted grains in the grist. These beers must have been very roasty. Like drinking an ashtray.

I’m not sure if the oats were malted or flaked as the brewing records aren’t specific. The quantity is tiny, in any case so it doesn’t really matter. A token quantity so some could be sold as Oatmeal Stout. Oddly enough, it turns up in parti-gyles where I’m pretty sure none were going to be marketed as oatmeal. For example, IBS and RNS.

There’s a huge contrast with the two Export Stout, which contain no unmalted grains of any kind.

Barclay Perkins Porter and Stout adjuncts before WW II
Year	Beer	roast barley	flaked maize	oats	total
1936	TT	11.07%	4.92%	0.61%	16.60%
1936	LS	9.25%	4.62%	0.29%	14.16%
1936	BS	11.07%	4.92%	0.61%	16.60%
1936	OMS	11.07%	4.92%	0.61%	16.60%
1936	RNS	11.63%	4.43%	0.28%	16.34%
1936	IBS	11.63%	4.43%	0.28%	16.34%
1936	BBS Export				0.00%
1937	IBS Export				0.00%
Source:
Barclay Perkins brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number ACC/2305/01/621.

Kulmbacher Export 1878 - 1929

A quick post in Kulmbacher, prompted by a Twitter discussion.

First, some hard facts:

Kulmbacher Export 1878 - 1929
Year	Brewer	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation
1878	Aktien-Brauerei	Export	1072.9	1022.0	6.61	69.82%
1878	Export-Brauhaus	Export	1059.0	1016.0	5.59	72.88%
1878	Puszta	Export Dunkel	1053.2	1018.2	4.53	65.79%
1879	Eberlein	Export	1070.5	1024.0	6.03	65.96%
1879	Export-Brauhaus	Export	1062.8	1019.3	5.64	69.24%
1879	Kulmbacher Aktien-Br.	Export	1054.5	1017.4	4.80	68.07%
1879	Pätz	Export	1067.5	1021.4	5.98	68.27%
1879	Rizzi	Export	1065.5	1013.2	6.84	79.85%
1879	Sandler	Export	1064.9	1018.2	6.08	71.96%
1884	Aktien-Export-Brauhaus	dunkeles Export	1067.6	1025.9	5.39	61.69%
1884	Export-Brauhaus	Export	1063.5	1023.0	5.24	63.78%
1884	Export-Brauhaus	Export	1063.5	1023.0	5.24	63.78%
1884	Kulmbacher Actien	Export	1068.1	1025.1	5.39	61.56%
1884	Unknown	Export	1052.6	1020.2	4.19	61.60%
1884	Unknown	dunkeles Export	1061.9	1024.0	4.90	61.23%
1885	Kulmbacher	Export	1072.3	1029.8	5.48	57.10%
1887	Kulmbacher	Export	1062.3	1017.5	5.81	70.59%
1890	Aktienexportbierbrauerei	Dunkles	1080.4	1029.2	6.63	63.67%
1890	Kulmbacher	Export	1062.6	1022.8	5.00	63.58%
1891	Aktien-Brauerei	Export	1062.7	1015.5	6.15	75.28%
1891	Aktien-Brauerei	Export	1068.6	1026.2	5.48	61.81%
1891	Unknown	dunkeles Exportbier	1067.6	1023.0	5.78	65.98%
1893	Aktien-Export-Brauerei	dunkeles Exportbier	1076.9	1025.8	6.63	66.45%
1898	Erste Kulmbacher Export-Bierbrauerei	Exportbier	1077.1	1033.6	5.61	56.42%
1898	Unknown, Kulmbach	Dunkles Kulmbacher	1072.3	1029	5.58	59.86%
1929	Kulmbacher Sandlerbraeu	Dunkles	1062.6	1015.8	6.05	74.76%
Sources:
König, J (1903), Bier in Chemie der menschlichen Nahrungs- und Genussmittel by Joseph König, 1903, pp 1101 - 1156, Julius Springer, Berlin.
Wahl & Henius, pages 823-830
Handbuch der chemischen technologie by Otto Dammer, Rudolf Kaiser, 1896, pages 696-697
Brockhaus' konversations-lexikon, Band 2 by F.A. Brockhaus, 1898
Beer from the Expert's Viewpoint by Arnold Spencer Wahl and Robert Wahl, 1937, page 166.

Now a recipe that was brewed for the Urban Chestnut historic Lager Festival:

1879 Kulmbacher Export
Munich malt 20L	15.25 lb	96.83%
Carafa III	0.50 lb	3.17%
Hallertau 60 mins	3.50 oz
Hallertau 30 mins	3.50 oz
OG	1065
FG	1018
ABV	6.22
Apparent attenuation	72.31%
IBU	80
SRM	30
Mash Kulmbach method
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	48º F
Yeast	WLP830 German Lager

The Kulmbach method of decoction
Another Bavarian method of decoction from Otto (("Handbuch der Chemischen Technologie: Die Bierbrauerei" by Dr. Fr. Jul. Otto, published in 1865, page 128).

As soon as the water in the kettle reaches 50º C, as much as is needed is put into the mash tun to dough in.

After an hour, when the rest of the water has come to the boil in the kettle, this is added to the mash. The temperature of the mash should be 53.75 - 56.25º C. A small amount of water should remain in the kettle so that the temperature of the mash is correct. Or a small amount of cold water is added to the mash. When, after resting, the wort in the mash tun has cleared, this is run off and boiled in the kettle. After just a few minutes boiling, this Lauter mash is added back to the tun and mashed for 45 minutes. The temperature of the mash should be 71.25 - 72.5º C.

Usually a small quantity of wort is left in the kettle and boiled with all the hops for 10 to 12 minutes (hopfenrösten).

The mash in the tun is left to rest for 90 minutes, then it is drawn off and added to the kettle where it interrupts the rösten.

The wort from the first lot of cold water poured over the grains is usually used for topping up the kettle.

Birthday recipe service

Just a reminder of my wonderful birthday recipe service.

For a mere 25 euros, I'll create a bespoke recipe for any day of the year you like. As well as the recipe, there's a few hundred words of text describing the beer and its historical context and an image of the original brewing record.

Just click on the button below.

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1944 Shepherd Neame MB

Here's a recipe from my next book. Which will be published sometime. When I finally finish it. I may be going into too much detail. Just the section on Barclay Perkins is almost as long as my "proper" book.

While all was static elsewhere, there have been some changes with MB. Not the gravity, obviously, as that was already at the minimum level.

With such a weedy OG, it’s just as well Shepherd Neame fermented their beers right out. That, at least, gets it a little above 3% ABV.

There’s less pale malt and more flaked barley. But the big change is in the sugars, where the enigmatic ME has returned, boosting the percentage of malt extract to 5%. Note that, ME aside, all the elements are the same as in 1943. The No.4 invert being my interpretation of “UK CS”. Or is it “VK CS”. It’s hard to be sure due to the dodgy handwriting.

There were English hops from the 1941, 1943 and 1944 harvests. Plus a tiny quantity of Oregon hops from 1942.

1944 Shepherd Neame MB
pale malt	4.00 lb	71.11%
flaked barley	0.50 lb	8.89%
No. 3 invert sugar	0.75 lb	13.33%
No. 4 invert sugar	0.125 lb	2.22%
malt extract	0.25 lb	4.44%
Fuggles 120 mins	0.33 oz
Goldings 60 mins	0.25 oz
Goldings 30 mins	0.25 oz
OG	1027
FG	1004
ABV	3.04
Apparent attenuation	85.19%
IBU	12.5
SRM	10
Mash at	152º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	62º F
Yeast	a Southern English Ale yeast

 

Barclay Perkins Porter and Stout malts before WW II

Barclay’s Black Beers used even more ingredients than their Ales. So many, in fact, that I’ve had to split them into four tables rather than three.

Starting with the malts. Eight of them in total.

Only two malts – brown and amber – appear in every beer. The former is no surprise. London brewers were very faithful to brown malt probably because that’s what gave their Stouts the London flavour.

Most brewers elsewhere had dropped it in the 19th century, preferring a simpler grist of just pale and black malt. The proportion used in the two strongest Stouts is very high at over 10%.

Barclay Perkins, as you may have noticed, were big fans of amber malt. By the 1930s, it wasn’t an ingredient that was much used in UK brewing. Especially not in such relatively large quantities.

Most have a base of mild malt. Which wasn’t particularly unusual. What’s the point in using an expensive pale malt in a beer that’s stuffed with roasted grains? RNS and IBS also have some SA malt, implying that they were aged for a while before sale. While using SA malt as the base in IBS Export is no surprise. It would have provided lots of long-term sustenance for the Brettanomyces.

BBS Export stands out by having a base from the most expensive type. Mild malt cost 50 shillings per quarter (336 lbs), while the two types of PA malt in BBS Export cost 59 shillings and 68 shillings.

All but the two strongest have some crystal malt. I suppose with all that malt, they didn’t need any help in beefing up the body.

Barclay Perkins Porter and Stout malts before WW II
Year	Beer	pale malt	brown malt	black malt	amber malt	crystal malt	mild malt	SA malt	PA malt
1936	TT		4.92%		11.68%	6.15%	49.18%
1936	LS		5.20%		11.56%	7.22%	49.70%
1936	BS		4.92%		11.68%	6.15%	49.18%
1936	OMS		4.92%		11.68%	6.15%	49.18%
1936	RNS		5.26%		11.63%	6.65%	40.43%	8.31%
1936	IBS		5.26%		11.63%	6.65%	40.43%	8.31%
1936	BBS Export	8.93%	10.71%	8.93%	14.29%				42.86%
1937	IBS Export		13.03%	6.24%	15.47%			52.12%
Source:
Barclay Perkins brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number ACC/2305/01/621.

Barclay Perkins Porter and Stout before WW II

A very technical post today. With all sorts of lovely details of Barclay Perkins Porter and Stout. Three tables, you lucky devils.

Even for a London brewer, Barclays produced a very large variety of Stouts, seven in all. Many of them were produced in tiny quantities. The exceptions being LS and BS which were pretty mainstream products.

Porter was just clinging on at this point, after declining precipitously immediately after WW I. It wouldn’t be around much longer. By the late 1930s, Barclay Perkins brewed it in tiny batches of a couple of dozen barrels. It could only have been on sale in a handful of pubs.

The other beers are various types of Stouts, not all of which were available in their pubs. For example, I’m pretty sure that RNS was a beer for the Royal Navy. Barclay Perkins supplied beer to merchant ships – in the form of Sparkling Beer – so why shouldn’t they also provide beer for the Navy?

Working through the other beers, LS = London Stout, BS = Best Stout, OMS = Oatmeal Stout, IBS = Imperial Brown Stout (Russian Stout) and BBS Export. Not sure what that last one was, other than strong. OMS was the same as BS really, just with a tiny amount of oats. IBS Export was the full-strength version of Russian Stout. One of a handful of beers brewed to a pre-WW I gravity.

Most were heavily primed, increasing the effective OG, in some cases considerably:

Beer	OG before primings	OG after primings	% increase
TT	1032.5	1038.7	18.84%
BS	1051.5	1057	10.68%
OMS	1051.5	1053.5	3.86%
RNS	1053.8	1059	9.60%
IBS	1060.4	1063.4	4.98%
Source:
Barclay Perkins brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number ACC/2305/01/621.

Only the two strongest Stouts, BBS Export and IBS Export, and the weakest, LS, received no primings.

The rate of attenuation is low for every single beer. Even the highest – for RNS – is still just below 70%. Clearly, they were trying to leave the beers with a considerable body.  In the case of IBS Export, however, the racking gravity would have been considerably higher than the true FG. A couple of years in the company of Brettanomyces would have a bout halved the FG in the table.

The hopping rates vary from reasonably high for the weaker examples to extremely high for the two strongest. Few beers in the 1930s were hopped as heavily as BBS Export and IBS Export.

As with their Ales, Barclay Perkins had colour standards for their Porter and Stout. Most of them were pretty dark. Some extremely dark.

Barclay Perkins Stout colour standards in 1946
I.B.S.	270 - 350
B.S.	270 - 320
L.S.	270 - 320
B.B.S. Ex.	350 - 400
I.B.S. Ex.	350 - 420
Source:
Barclay Perkins brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number ACC/2305/01/627.

Barclay Perkins Porter and Stout before WW II
Year	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
1936	TT	Porter	1032.5	1011.0	2.85	66.20%	6.93	0.95
1936	LS	Stout	1046.6	1015.0	4.18	67.81%	7.00	1.31
1936	BS	Stout	1051.5	1017.5	4.50	66.02%	6.93	1.50
1936	OMS	Stout	1051.5	1017.5	4.50	66.02%	6.93	1.50
1936	RNS	Stout	1053.8	1016.5	4.94	69.35%	8.13	1.79
1936	IBS	Stout	1060.4	1020.0	5.34	66.88%	8.13	2.25
1936	BBS Export	Stout	1079.5	1029.5	6.61	62.87%	14.93	5.46
1937	IBS Export	Stout	1104.5	1041.5	8.33	60.29%	15.21	6.46
Source:
Barclay Perkins brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number ACC/2305/01/621.

Barclay Perkins Ale hops before WW II

Finally, we get to the hops. Always fascinating. With the odd exception, they were all English.

That Saaz were used to dry hop PA Export, a really top-class beer, demonstrates the regard in which they were held by British brewers. The same goes for Styrian Goldings.

But the overwhelming majority if the hops were from Kent and the classic English varieties of Fuggles and Goldings. You can discern a class divide in the hopping. The Mild Ales are all Fuggles, the Pale Ales a mix of Fuggles and Goldings and the expensive beers all Goldings, at least in the copper.

The vast majority of the hops were from the two most recent harvests and the older ones had all been cold stored. That’s what the CS in the table signifies. Cold storing greatly reduced the decline in alpha acid, especially during the first 18 months.

Barclay Perkins Ale hops before WW II
Year	Beer	Style	hops
1936	DB	Brown Ale	Worcester (1935 CS), MK (1935 CS), MK Goldings (1934 CS)
1939	A	Mild	MK Fuggles (1938 CS), Kent  Fuggles (1938), MK  Fuggles (1937 CS)
1939	X	Mild	MK Fuggles (1938 CS), Kent Fuggles (1938), MK  Fuggles (1937 CS)
1939	XX	Mild	MK Fuggles (1938 CS), Kent  Fuggles (1938), MK  Fuggles (1937 CS)
1939	IPA (bottling)	IPA	MK Fuggles (1938 CS), Kent W (1938), MK Goldings (1937 CS); Styrian dry hops
1939	XLK (bottling)	Pale Ale	MK Fuggles (1938), Kent W (1938), MK Goldings (1937 CS); no dry hops
1939	XLK (trade)	Pale Ale	MK Fuggles (1938), Kent W (1938), MK Goldings (1937 CS); EK Goldings (1938) dry hops
1939	PA	Pale Ale	MK Fuggles (1938), Kent W (1938), MK Goldings (1937 CS); Styrian Goldings (1938) dry hops
1936	PA Export	Pale Ale	EK Goldings (1935 CS), MK Goldings (1934 CS); Saaz (1935 CS) dry hops
1936	KK	Strong Ale	Kent (1935 CS), MK Goldings (1934 CS); EK (1935 CS) dry hops
1937	KK (bottling)	Strong Ale	MK Fuggles (1936 CS), EK Goldings (1935 CS); Saaz (1936 CS) dry hops
1936	KKKK	Strong Ale	EK Goldings (1935 CS), MK Goldings (1934 CS); EK Goldings (1935) dry hops
Source:
Barclay Perkins brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers ACC/2305/01/621 and ACC/2305/01/623.

Let's Brew - 1923 Boddington CC

WW I doesn’t seem to have treated CC too badly. It came out of the other side only 5º weaker. Not bad at all.

Amazingly, the grist has got even simpler. As the flaked maize has been dropped. A conscious decision by Boddington as all the rest of their beers, with the exception of Stout, did contain maize. Leaving just base malt and sugar. There were however, two types of pale malt, both English.

As Boddington were totally vague about the type of sugar being used – it’s in a column simply headed “Sch’rne” meaning just “sugar” – I’ve had to guess what it might be. No. 3 invert seems the most likely option for a dark beer like CC.

Boddington normally used four or five different copper hops and this beer is no exception. Pacific from the 1921 harvest, English from 1922 and Hannover from 1923. There were so few of the last, just 5 lbs out of a total of a total of 160 lbs, that it’s not worth including them in the recipe.

One of the odd features of Boddington is that they used American hops as dry hops. Which really shocked me as I’ve always read that UK brewers hated the flavour of American hops. In this case the dry hops were Pacific from the 1921 harvest, English from 1921 and Hannover from 1923.

1923 Boddington CC
pale malt	12.00 lb	95.05%
caramel 5000 SRM	0.125 lb	0.99%
No. 3 invert sugar	0.50 lb	3.96%
Cluster 155 mins	1.00 oz
Fuggles 90 mins	0.75 oz
Fuggles 60 mins	0.75 oz
Goldings 30 mins	0.75 oz
Cluster dry hops	0.25 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.25 oz
OG	1057
FG	1018
ABV	5.16
Apparent attenuation	68.42%
IBU	47
SRM	20
Mash at	152º F
Sparge at	168º F
Boil time	155 minutes
pitching temp	62º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1318 London ale III (Boddingtons)

This recipe is in my two new books, Strong! vols. 1 & 2 and Strong! vol.2.