Friday 3 September 2010

Burton and Old Burton

Sometimes it's hard to work out what beers in brewing records were marketed and sold as.

Which is where this little price list from Barclay Perkins comes in handy. It gives both the brewhouse and retail names of their beers.



KK was Burton and KKKK Old Burton. I bet you're wondering what those beers were like. Let's take a look, shall we?

First Barclay Perkins KK or Burton:


17th February Barclay Perkins 1933 KK

type
qtr
weight qtr
lbs
%
pale malt
Dereham California
8.5
336
2856
26.33
pale malt
Dereham MA
10
336
3360
30.97
pale malt
Page SA
5
336
1680
15.49
maize

3
336
1008
9.29
crystal malt

1.5
336
504
4.65
sugar
Martineau No.3
6
224
1344
12.39
sugar
caramel


96
0.88
total

34.00

10848
100.00

lbs
type
year
%

hops
90
Fox MK Fuggles
1931
33.09

hops
49
Rogers MK Golding Varieties
1930
18.01

hops
42
Saaz
1930
15.44

hops
91
Mainwaring MK Fuggles
1930
33.46

hops
0


0.00

hops (lbs)
272




hops (lbs/barrel)
1.69




hops (lbs/qtr)
8.00




dry hops (oz/brl)
3




boil time (hours)
2.25




Hopping:
at inch:
91
Mainwaring MK Fuggles
1930



49
Rogers MK Golding Varieties
1930


after 1 hour boil
90
Fox MK Fuggles
1931


after 1.5 hour boil
42
Saaz
1930

pitching temp (ºF)
59




gravity (lbs barrel)
19.39




gravity (OG)
1053.70




gravity (FG)
1015.50




ABV
5.05




apparent attenuation
71.14%




barrels wort
161




extract (lbs/barrel/qtr)
90.6




extract
3080.4




Colour
74




Source:
Barclay Perkins brewing records


Now KKKK or Old Burton:


16th February Barclay Perkins 1933 KKKK

type
qtr
weight qtr
lbs
%
pale malt
Dereham California
5.625
336
1890
28.89
pale malt
H and D T PA
10
336
3360
51.37
crystal malt

1.375
336
462
7.06
sugar
Martineau No.2
3
224
672
10.27
malt extract

0.5
224
112
1.71
sugar
caramel


45
0.69
total

20.50

6541
100.00

lbs
type
year
%

hops
110
Reeves MK Golding Varieties
1932
50.00

hops
55
Reeves MK Goldings
1931
25.00

hops
55
Rogers MK Goldings
1930
25.00

hops (lbs)
220




hops (lbs/barrel)
3.31




hops (lbs/qtr)
10.73




dry hops (oz/brl)
4




boil time (hours)
2.50




Hopping:
at inch:
55
Reeves MK Goldings
1931



55
Rogers MK Goldings
1930


after 1 hour boil
55
Reeves MK Golding Varieties
1932


after 1.5 hour boil
55
Reeves MK Golding Varieties
1932

pitching temp (ºF)
58




gravity (lbs barrel)
27.65




gravity (OG)
1076.60




gravity (FG)
1028.00




ABV
6.43




apparent attenuation
63.45%




barrels wort
66.5




extract (lbs/barrel/qtr)
89.1




extract
1826.55




Colour
90




Source:
Barclay Perkins brewing records


I was a bit surprised at how the grists differed. I'd expected the KKKK to be pretty much a scaled up version of KK. That's not the case. As you've no doubt noticed, KK was Californian malt, SA malt, MA (Mild Ale) malt, crystal malt, No.3 invert sugar and a touch of caramel. KKKK, on the other hand, contained Californian malt, PA malt, crystal malt, No.2 invert sugar and caramel.

And, despite being brewed on consecutive days, the hops used were almost completely different: all Goldings or Golding Varieties for KKKK: Golding Varieties, Fuggles and Saaz for KK.

At about 6.5% ABV, KKKK was about as strong as draught beer came in the 1930's.

And, because I'm such a generous soul, here are the equivalent beers from Fuller's. First their Burton, BO.



26th June 1935 Fuller's BO

type
qtr
weight qtr
lbs
%
pale malt
English
19
326
6194
26.67
pale malt
Australian
19
326
6194
26.67
pale malt
Australian
16.5
326
5379
23.16
pale malt
Chilean
2.5
326
815
3.51
flaked maize

10
336
3360
14.47
sugar
glucose
3
224
672
2.89
sugar
Intense

224
338
1.46
sugar
Tri ?? BP

224
235
1.01
sugar
BP


37
0.16
total

70.00

23224
100.00

lbs
type
year
%

hops
131
Pemfret
1934
24.95

hops
394
Suninens??
1934
75.05

hops (lbs)
525




hops (lbs/barrel)
1.6




hops (lbs/qtr)
7.50




boil time (hours)
1.5
1.75



pitching temp (ºF)
60




gravity (lbs barrel)
20.20




gravity (OG)
1055.95




gravity (FG)
1014.40




ABV
5.50




apparent attenuation
74.26%




barrels wort
515.5




extract (lbs/barrel/qtr)
93.94




Source:
Fuller's brewing records


Now their Old Burton Extra:


26th June 1935 Fuller's OBE

type
qtr
weight qtr
lbs
%
pale malt
English
19
326
6194
26.67
pale malt
Australian
19
326
6194
26.67
pale malt
Australian
16.5
326
5379
23.16
pale malt
Chilean
2.5
326
815
3.51
flaked maize

10
336
3360
14.47
sugar
glucose
3
224
672
2.89
sugar
Intense

224
338
1.46
sugar
Tri ?? BP

224
235
1.01
sugar
BP


37
0.16
total

70.00

23224
100.00

lbs
type
year
%

hops
131
Pemfret
1934
24.95

hops
394
Suninens??
1934
75.05

hops (lbs)
525




hops (lbs/barrel)
1.9




hops (lbs/qtr)
7.50




boil time (hours)
1.5
1.75



pitching temp (ºF)
60




gravity (lbs barrel)
24.40




gravity (OG)
1067.59




gravity (FG)
1019.94




ABV
6.30




apparent attenuation
70.49%




barrels wort
515.5




extract (lbs/barrel/qtr)
93.94




Source:
Fuller's brewing records


As BO and OBE were party-gyled with each other, the grist and hopping are identical.

So here are my definitions of 1930's Burton and Old Burton.

Burton: OG 1050-1055, 5-5.5% ABV, 80-100 EBC, 1.5-1.75 lbs hops/barrel.
Old Burton: OG 1065-1075, 6-7% ABV, 80-110 EBC, 2-3.5 lbs hops/barrel.

There. Two more new styles. What a productive day it's been.

14 comments:

Bill said...

Good stuff but does Papazian agree with your new style inventions? What I find so interesting is they would use 4 variations of a pale malt in recipes and the hops bill were a crapshoot. Is there a difference between Fox fuggles and Mainwaring fuggles? Did they ever make the same beer twice?

Ron Pattinson said...

First Stater, I'll have to ask Charlie if he agrees next time I see him.

They were just Fuggles from different producers or dealers.

They did make the same beer twice. Te whole point in using several types of pale malt (and several types of hops) is to even out any differences between different batches of ingredients. I assume large breweries who are very keen on cosistency do something similar today.

Oblivious said...

Fullers today by their malt from a number of different suppliers.

Anonymous said...

Nice the Burton recipes!

Jeff Renner said...

Any idea what the BP first hop additions "at inch:" mean? How long was this addition boiled?

Ron Pattinson said...

Jeff, good question.

My guess is: when all the wort was in the copper.

Inch usually refers to the level of liquid relative to the top of the vessel. It was how they measured the volume.

But I could be totally wrong. As it's a bit of jargon, that doesn't necessarily follow any logic.

Jeff Renner said...

The colon leads me to think that there is supposed to be a figure written in indicating the level of wort in the copper when the hops were added.

Ron Pattinson said...

Jeff, it always says "at inch" in the logs without any number after it.

"at makeup" is another one.

Ironman said...

Any idea what Pemfret or Suninens are? Should I just use goldings?

Ironman said...

Any idea what hops Fullers was using? Should a modern brewer substitute goldings?

Anonymous said...

Any tips about the types of weird sugars used by Fuller's? I think the sugars are pretty important for this style, and if the first recipes of KK and KKKK are pretty clear with the Martineau N.3, the Fuller's sugars seems odd, and not used in so great a quantity.

Ron Pattinson said...

Ironman, they'll be the dealer or the growers name.

During WW I, when the hop industry came under government control, the different types of hops were classified into four groups: Goldings, Golding Varieties, Fuggle's and Tolhursts. Though many of the hops classified as Golding Varieties had little relation to Goldings. The differentiation was based as much on the use of the hops as on genetic relationship. Hops with the most delicate flavour were put into the Golding Varieties group. Such hops were often used for dry-hopping, while stronger flavoured Fuggle's and the lower-quality Tolhursts were used in the copper.

There were two main types of Golding Varieties. The Cobb, selected from a garden of Canterbury Whitebines in 1881, which had a good flavour but poor preservative power. It was very good as a dry hop. The Tutsham cropped well but was of only average quality.

Tolhursts were a collection of low-quality, but heavy-cropping, varieties which were widely planted after WW I, when new hop gardens needed to be developed quickly. By 1940 it had gone out of favour on account of its poor flavour and preservative power and was no longer widely grown.

Ron Pattinson said...

ealusceop, Fullers used a lot of proprietary sugars. I'm not sure what they all are, but I would guess that at least some are dark caramelised sugar.

Thomas Barnes said...

@Ron: Big U.S. brewers do exactly as you suggest, using a whole variety of different hops (albeit at trivial levels) to bitter and flavor their products. Not only does it help to even out differences between batches, but also makes it easy to slightly tweak the recipe if one particular variety isn't available.

While it's seldom mentioned outright, I'd assume that historic brewers had a very keen appreciation of how hops degraded over time. It's very likely that they adjusted their recipes accordingly.

Do brewing logs show brewers using more hops when brewing using older hops?