Let's Brew - 1890 Adnams XX

Proof here that beers were constantly evolving, no matter how much breweries might claim to be using age-old recipes.

For a start, there’s been a big drop in gravity – a full 10º. Sadly, as Adnams no longer have any of their brewing records, I’ve no idea exactly when the reduction in strength occurred. Not all at once, would be my guess. However it happened, that’s a substantial reduction. Leaving a rather watery-looking beer for an XX Ale.

There’s still not much to the recipe: base malt, rather a lot of sugar and a touch of caramel. The use of the latter leaves the colour rather hanging in the air. The exact shade being crucial. I’ve opted for a middling dark type, which leaves the beer semi-dark. Something which seems to have been becoming a common hue for Mild around this time.

Few details are revealed about the hops in the brewing record. Simply that some were English and the rest Altmark. That’s a region of North Germany just to the left of Berlin. It’s where the Prussian established a hop-growing industry in the 19th century using sets acquired from Bohemia. Which is why I’ve used Saaz in the recipe. Not sure how accurate that is, but it’s the best I can come up with.

1890 Adnams XX
pale malt	5.75 lb	69.03%
No. 2 invert sugar	2.50 lb	30.01%
caramel 1000 SRM	0.08 lb	0.96%
Saaz 30 mins	2.50 oz
Fuggles 90 mins	1.00 oz
OG	1044
FG	1012
ABV	4.23
Apparent attenuation	72.73%
IBU	38
SRM	14
Mash at	154º F
Sparge at	160º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	59º F
Yeast	WLP025 Southwold

Berliner Weisse (part six)

Only a small quantity of hops were used: 375 to 500 g of hops per 100 kg of malt. These weren’t boiled in the copper in the usual way. They were boiled in the water than was used for mashing and were present through the whole mashing process. The hops helped filter the mash, important with a grist containing so much wheat.

There were two reasons for not boiling. The first was to preserve the lactobacillus on the malt, though Schönfeld’s own investigation found none in the spent grains. He concluded that the mash temperature was enough to kill it and the souring organism must come from another source. The second was flavour. A wort that had been boiled for a long time tasted differently from an unboiled one and Berliners were used to the latter.

The cooled wort was pitched with a symbiotic yeast and lactobacillus mixed culture. The proportion of yeast to lactobacillus was 4:1, 5:1 or 6:1. Acidity developed during primary fermentation through the action of the lactobacillus. A high degree of attenuation for the time -  66% to 75% - was achieved during primary  fermentation. Attenuation was helped by diastase remaining in the wort which, in conjunction with CO2 and lactic acid, broke down the maltodextrins into more easily fermentable sugars.

When primary fermentation was complete, the beer was kräusened with young beer in a proportion 2:1, 3:1 or 4:1. It was then either delivered to pubs in barrels for later bottling by the publican or bottled at the brewery. The gravity was higher than today, 9-12º Plato, but 10-35% water was often added at bottling time.

Adding a Schuss – a flavoured syrup – to Berliner Weisse was already an established practice:

“A great favourite with the ladies is the frothy Berlin white beer, drunk out of large bowl-shaped glass, and with a liqueur-glass of raspberry syrup added to it.“
Dundee Evening Telegraph - Wednesday 01 November 1905, page 6.

Berliner Weisse (part five)

Berliner Weisse entered the century in robust health. New-fangled Lager beers had dented its popularity a little, but it remained one of the city’s favourite styles. That was to change as the century progressed, as its popularity slowly declined.

Situation around 1900:

•    Weissbier had been brewed in Berlin for centuries.
•    Between 1892 and 1897 the number of top-fermenting breweries in Berlin increased from 47 to 71. In the same period, production of top-fermenting beer increased from 1,000,000 hl to 1,300,000 hl.
•    In Berlin, 33% of beer brewed was top-fermenting.
•    The two largest top-fermenting breweries each produced about 150,000 hl a year.
•    In the early decades of the 19th century Berlin Weissbier brewers regularly refreshed their yeast with fresh Bitterbier yeast brought in from Cottbus. If they kept repitching harvested yeast, their beer was too sour.
•    Many of the breweries were very small – if we take out the two largest, they averaged only around 15,000 hl a year.

Schönfeld, who worked at the VLB (Berlin’s brewing school), specialised in top-fermenting beers and described the method of brewing Berliner Weisse around 1900 in great detail. He had first-hand experience, having visited many of the Weisse breweries.

The proportion of wheat had risen. The grist now consisted of three or four parts wheat malt to one part barley malt. In some breweries an infusion mash was employed, in others a decoction. 

Let's Brew - 1910 Fullers X

The recipe for Fullers X Ale continued to evolve. By 1910 it was starting to adopt its 20th-century form.

What do I mean by that? All the coloured malt has been dropped and it’s been whittled down to three elements: base malt, flaked maize and sugar. And that’s how it remained right through until the 1960s.

Unfortunately, it’s not so clear what the exact shade of this beer was. Simply because a lot of the colour comes from the caramel and I’ve no idea exactly how dark that was. I’ve plumped for quite a dark caramel, which leaves it a typical Dark Mild colour. However, a paler type of caramel would have left it more in the semi-dark twilight zone. One thing is certain: with that No. 3 invert and caramel it definitely wasn’t pale.

On the subject of sugar, the second type of sugar was something called “pale trivert”. No. 1 invert seems like a good substitution.

Gracing the copper were three types of hops, Oregon from the 1907 harvest, Mid-Kent from 1909 and East Kent from 1908. Resulting in a slightly reduced (calculated) bitterness compared to 1897: 33 IBU as opposed to 39.

1910 Fullers X
pale malt	7.75 lb	73.88%
flaked maize	0.67 lb	6.39%
No. 1 invert sugar	1.00 lb	9.53%
No. 3 invert sugar	1.00 lb	9.53%
caramel 2000 SRM	0.07 lb	0.67%
Cluster 120 mins	0.75 oz
Fuggles 90 mins	0.75 oz
Goldings 30 mins	0.75 oz
OG	1052
FG	1011.5
ABV	5.36
Apparent attenuation	77.88%
IBU	33
SRM	17.5
Mash at	151º F
Sparge at	168º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	59.5º F
Yeast	WLP002 English Ale

 

 

London X Ale malts 1900 - 1915

Quite a few coloured malts are still knocking around in the grists. One iteration each of Barclay’s and Whitbread’s X Ales contain brown malt. Quite a lot in the case of the former and just a smidgen in the latter. This was early in the period covered, though.

Three beers have a very small amount of black malt, below 1% in every case. Presumably it was there for colour correction rather than flavour. While the percentage of amber malt in two Barclay’s examples is high enough to have impacted both the colour and the flavour.

As a type of malt specifically developed for beers like Mild Ale, you’d expect there to be more examples of crystal malt. This was certainly the case later in the century, when it became one of the standard ingredients for Mild. The percentages are all quite small, well below 10% in every case.

Fullers is the only brewery to include no coloured malts at all, sticking to just base malt. A tradition they continued for many decades.
 

London X Ale malts 1900 - 1915
Year	Brewer	pale malt	brown malt	black malt	amber malt	crystal malt	total malt
1900	Barclay Perkins	45.00%	23.63%			2.25%	70.88%
1906	Barclay Perkins	75.80%					75.80%
1909	Barclay Perkins	61.06%			10.18%		71.24%
1914	Barclay Perkins	66.04%			7.34%		73.38%
1900	Whitbread	91.30%					91.30%
1905	Whitbread	88.00%	3.00%				91.00%
1910	Whitbread	89.47%					89.47%
1914	Whitbread	93.41%					93.41%
1902	Fullers	67.47%					67.47%
1910	Fullers	74.05%					74.05%
1914	Fullers	75.52%					75.52%
1914	Courage	82.09%		0.83%		6.06%	88.98%
1900	Truman	80.33%		0.12%			80.45%
1905	Truman	79.07%					79.07%
1910	Truman	73.04%				3.91%	76.96%
1915	Noakes	68.86%		0.72%		5.02%	74.60%
	Average						79.60%
Sources:
Barclay Perkins brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers ACC/2305/1/593, ACC/2305/1/599, ACC/2305/1/601 and ACC/2305/1/603.
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/065, LMA/4453/D/01/070, LMA/4453/D/01/076 and LMA/4453/D/01/079.
Fullers brewing records held at the brewery.
Courage brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number ACC/2305/08/247.
Truman brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers B/THB/C/181, B/THB/C/186 and B/THB/C/190.
Noakes brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number ACC/2305/17/34.

 

Berliner Weisse (part four)

We're now up to the late 19th century.

Berliner Weisse retained its popularity in, managing to keep the new-fangled Bavarian beer - Lager as we would call it - at bay, at least for a while. It was consumed in specialist pubs, called "Weissbier Ausschank". These were mostly hidden away on quiet side streets and frequented almost exclusively by regulars.

Here’s a description of such an Ausschanke by a British journalist:

“Before every one stood a gigantic tumbler, containing a liquid, pale and clear as Rhine wine, and surmounted by a huge crown of froth. This was the famous "weiss". The liquor being ordered and duly brought, we observed that the quart bottle filled not more than one-third of the large glass, the voluminous bead of froth not only occupying the remaining space but foaming over the sides. Hence the necessity for such capacious tumblers, which a novice is only able to raise to his lips by the aid of both hands. Not so however, the experienced weissbier-drinker, who by long practice has acquired the knack of balancing, as it were, the bottom of the glass on his outstretched little finger, while he grasps the side with the remaining fingers and thumb of the same hand. A preliminary nip of kummel (aniseed) is considered de rigueur, and, this disposed of, the Berliner will drink his four quarts of "kuhle blonde" as weissbier is poetically termed by its admirers - as readily as his native sand sucks in a summer shower;”
Aberdeen Journal - Wednesday 26 February 1879, page 8.

The glasses in which Weissbier was served were indeed enormous, looking more like a small fish tank than a drinking vessel.

Unlike today, Berliner Weisse came in a variety of strengths. In addition to the usual Schankbier – 8-10º Plato, 3-3.5% - there were also ones at Vollbier (12º Plato, 5% ABV), Märzen (14º Plato, 5.5% ABV) or Starkbier strength (16º Plato, 6.5% ABV).

One last surprise, according to Schönfeld, a brewing scientist based in Berlin and who spent his career studying the style in great detail, until 1860 Berliner Weisse was brewed with smoked malt.

You can see from this table that there was a considerable variation in strength in the second half of the 19th century:

Berliner Weisse 1850 - 1908
Year	Brewer	country	Acidity	OG	FG	ABV	App. Attenua-tion
1850	Unknown, Berlin	Germany	0.85	1032.5	1015.9	2.13	50.12%
1850	Unknown, Berlin	Germany		1037.8	1022.3	1.98	40.00%
1887	Berliner Actien Brauerei	Germany	0.363	1022.6	1019.3	1.18	14.21%
1890	Berliner	Germany		1051.05	1013	4.89	73.95%
1895	Berliner Export Brauerei	Germany		1043.5	1009.8	4.40	76.65%
1895	Berliner G	Germany		1039.9	1011.4	3.64	70.60%
1895	Unknown, Berlin	Germany		1040.9	1007.1	4.41	81.97%
1898	Unknown, Berlin	Germany		1038.2	1011	3.52	71.20%
1908	Herman F. Wilms	USA				1.56	0.00%
Sources:
“Archive der Pharmacie”, 1855, pages 216-217
Wahl & Henius, pages 823-830
Handwörterbuch der reinen und angewandten Chemie by Justus Liebig, Johann Christian Poggendorff, Friedrich Wöhler, 1858, page 1038
"Handbuch der chemischen technologie" by Otto Dammer, Rudolf Kaiser, 1896, pages 696-697
Brockhaus' konversations-lexikon, Band 2 by F.A. Brockhaus, 1898 http://books.google.de/books?id=oZ5PAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA999&dq=bierdruckapparat+konversationslexikon#PPA1000,M1
"Pure products" published by The Scientific Station for Pure Products, 1909, page 212

There have been some pretty wild assertions about hundreds of Weissbier breweries in Berlin in the early 19th century. I won’t name names, but the source of this story is a writer not renowned for historical accuracy. The reality was somewhat different, as this table shows: 

Number of Weissbier breweries in Berlin (in brackets limited companies)
1844	12	1872	17	1895	34 (4)	1916	23 (2)
1849	13	1875	17 (3)	1899	49 (4)	1918	11 (2)
1855	12	1877	19 (3)	1905	51 (4)	1920	9 (2)
1860	13	1880	25 (3)	1909	39 (5)	1924	12 (3)
1865	13	1885	35 (4)	1912	38 (4)	1928	14 (2)
1870	16	1890	40 (4)	1914	25 (2)	1933	14 (2)
						1940	10 (1)
Source:
"Die Berliner Weisse", by Gerolf Annemüller, Hans-J. Manger and Peter Lietz, 2008, page 319.

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1897 Fullers X

Loads of changes to the recipe of Fullers X over the decade since 1887. Which is good, otherwise this recipe would be pretty redundant.

The gravity has increased by a tiny amount, just 1º. Not really enough to bother mentioning. Oh damn, I just did.

Amber and crystal malt have both been dropped and a rather smaller amount of brown malt added. The other change isn’t quite so clear cut. In this period, Fullers never bothered specifying the exact type of sugar they were throwing into the copper. For the 1887 recipe, I guessed No. 2 invert. In the log for this brew, they do list the colour: 54. Which is on a Lovibond scale I recognise and is around 14 SRM. To hit that shade, No. 2 just won’t work. While No. 3 is pretty close. And pretty close to properly dark.

The hops are pretty boring, just a single type of Mid-Kent from the 1896 crop. Pretty fresh, then.
 

1897 Fullers X
pale malt	7.25 lb	73.05%
brown malt	0.175 lb	1.76%
No. 3 invert sugar	2.50 lb	25.19%
Fuggles 90 mins	1.75 oz
Fuggles 30 mins	1.75 oz
OG	1050.5
FG	1013.5
ABV	4.89
Apparent attenuation	73.27%
IBU	39
SRM	15
Mash at	150º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	59º F
Yeast	WLP002 English Ale

 

London X Ale adjuncts and sugars 1900 - 1915

Most X Ales by this point contained unmalted grains. Just one of them, as everyone seemed to have settled on flaked maize. Flaked rice had clearly had its day.

Not so with sugar, where there’s a stack of different types. Which illustrates the increasing sophistication in its use. Unsurprisingly, No. 3 – the classic Dark Mild sugar – is the most popular. Possibly even more so than the table suggests. Other sugar includes a lot of unspecified sugar and there’s a good chance than some of those were No. 3.

Overall, the quantity of sugar has increased, from 13.5% to 14.4%. Additionally, every single example includes at least a little. And some more than just a little, the outlier being the 1902 Fullers at 29%.

Glucose makes its first appearance. It wouldn’t be its last. Fullers, in particular were big fans of glucose, making extensive use of it in the first half of the 20th century. Caramel also pops up more regularly, presumably for colour correction. 

London X Ale adjuncts and sugars 1900 - 1915
Year	Brewer	flaked maize	no. 3 sugar	glucose	caramel	other sugar	total sugar
1900	Barclay Perkins	11,63%				17,50%	17,50%
1906	Barclay Perkins	10,11%		2,81%	0,06%	11,23%	14,10%
1909	Barclay Perkins	10,18%			0,04%	18,54%	18,59%
1914	Barclay Perkins	8,20%				5,76%	5,76%
1900	Whitbread					8,70%	8,70%
1905	Whitbread		9,00%				9,00%
1910	Whitbread		10,53%				10,53%
1914	Whitbread		6,59%				6,59%
1902	Fullers	3,21%			0,71%	28,61%	29,32%
1910	Fullers	6,56%	8,75%		0,65%	10,00%	19,39%
1914	Fullers	6,29%	12,59%	5,59%			18,18%
1914	Courage					11,02%	11,02%
1900	Truman	8,93%				10,63%	10,63%
1905	Truman	8,79%			0,44%	11,71%	12,15%
1910	Truman	9,13%				13,91%	13,91%
1915	Noakes	0,54%	23,91%		0,48%	0,48%	24,87%
	Average	7,60%					14,39%
Sources:
Barclay Perkins brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers ACC/2305/1/593, ACC/2305/1/599, ACC/2305/1/601 and ACC/2305/1/603.
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/065, LMA/4453/D/01/070, LMA/4453/D/01/076 and LMA/4453/D/01/079.
Fullers brewing records held at the brewery.
Courage brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number ACC/2305/08/247.
Truman brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers B/THB/C/181, B/THB/C/186 and B/THB/C/190.
Noakes brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number ACC/2305/17/34.

London X Ale 1900 - 1915

It wasn’t only wars which negatively affected UK beer strength. A steady creep of tax increases also had an impact. Not the massive ones seen in WW I and WW II, but still enough to exert a downward pressure on gravities.

This second set of London X Ales has an average gravity of almost 5º lower than the ones from the last two decades of the 19th century. With a to be expected lowering of the alcohol content by 0.5% ABV. Especially as the average rate of attenuation remained exactly the same at just a shade over 75%.

The largest change, however, is in the hopping rate. Looking at the one which is gravity-neutral – per quarter (336 lbs) of malt – it’s fallen by 35%. A fall large enough to have changed the character of the beers. Especially as there wasn’t a switch to higher alpha acid hops. Because of the fall in gravity, the rate per barrel has fallen even more: 45%. 

London X Ale 1900 - 1915
Year	Brewer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
1900	Barclay Perkins	1052.8	1010.0	5.67	81.11%	8.01	1.75
1906	Barclay Perkins	1053.0	1012.7	5.33	75.96%	6.01	1.28
1909	Barclay Perkins	1053.9	1014.4	5.22	73.28%	7.50	1.65
1914	Barclay Perkins	1051.8	1013.9	5.02	73.26%	6.52	1.36
1900	Whitbread	1056.5	1013.0	5.75	76.97%	6.64	1.61
1905	Whitbread	1053.2	1013.0	5.32	75.56%	5.10	1.19
1910	Whitbread	1056.5	1016.0	5.36	71.69%	5.38	1.29
1914	Whitbread	1052.1	1010.0	5.57	80.80%	6.04	1.29
1902	Fullers	1051.0	1011.9	5.17	76.63%	5.43	1.21
1910	Fullers	1052.6	1014.7	5.01	72.08%	5.17	1.21
1914	Fullers	1050.7	1011.6	5.17	77.05%	5.44	2.38
1914	Courage	1054.6	1019.4	4.65	64.47%	4.96	1.05
1900	Truman	1052.6				8.18	1.87
1905	Truman	1052.6				6.27	1.51
1910	Truman	1056.8				4.26	1.06
1915	Noakes	1044.9	1010.5	4.54	76.54%	2.59	0.48
	Average	1052.8	1013.2	5.21	75.03%	5.84	1.39
Sources:
Barclay Perkins brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers ACC/2305/1/593, ACC/2305/1/599, ACC/2305/1/601 and ACC/2305/1/603.
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/065, LMA/4453/D/01/070, LMA/4453/D/01/076 and LMA/4453/D/01/079.
Fullers brewing records held at the brewery.
Courage brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number ACC/2305/08/247.
Truman brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers B/THB/C/181, B/THB/C/186 and B/THB/C/190.
Noakes brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number ACC/2305/17/34.