Tuesday, 6 February 2024

UNKNOWN BREWERY : 1876 - 1877 BREWING BOOK : BEERS & ANALYSIS 1876

 How Do All , 

On my first visit to the London Metropolitan Archives,
 I photographed a brewing book of unknown origin ; 
The entries start with a brewing of X Ale on Monday 10 Th June 1876 , 
Continuing within the years outlined until a Parti Gyle brewing of X & X L Ales ,
on Tuesday 5 Th June 1877  . 

The rear of the volume comprises of a few pages of cost price entries set out per brew , 
With columns for gross weights / costs of ingredients used and ,on the opposing page,
The corresponding cost in shillings .

The book is part of the Whitbread collection @ LMA 4453 / D / 02 / 024 .

I Suspect this particular book is an additional record of Whitbread`s own brewings at Chiswell Street ;
Their London home since the Mid 18 Th Century ; this is due to the similarity in handwriting and ,
General layout and nature of the entries contained in this record and , a now tattered photocopy of
a Porter Brewing book entry from the 19 Th century sent to me over 20 years ago by Nick Redman ,
The Whitbread archivist at the time ; It`s something I`ll be looking at on my nect visit to the archives .

                                                 BREWING BOOK 1876 - 1877 
                    AN ANALYSIS & COMMENTARY OF BEERS BREWED IN 1876 

F . A 

The lowest in gravity of the `Pale Ale Type` beers entered up in the 1876-7 book ; 
Using a variety of malts , including in the analysed brewing : 40 Quarters of " Dereham " , 
22 Qtrs of " 1 St Quality Sacc " ;  bittering being provided by a gross weight of 624 pounds of 1875 Crop year hops : 350 Lbs Flint 1875 & 275 Lbs of Lewis 1875 providing a calculated IBU of 56 .
                                              
P . A 

This beer , a relatively rare entrant in this record is , In common with the F A  uses a simple malt
Grist , in this  brewing , 40 Qtrs of " Dereham Saale ", Wort Extension provided by 22 Qtrs of Sugar . Bitterness was  provided by an initial charge of 373 Lbs of " Wide ",
To a collection volume of  257 Wort Barrels @ 1.044.5  ; With the other hop variety employed 
Being Flint at a eye popping 497 Lbs , Providing 76 IBU in total .

X Ale 

X Ale is the most common entry in the 1876 - 1877 brewing book and , as the Quality Mark 
" X " Suggests , this beer is a ` Mild Ale ` ; and in common with the two previous beers , ut.ilised 
A simple malt grist , In the analysed brewing ; 60 Quarters each of " Dowson " & " Fison" ;
Providing 1.046 degrees to an initial collection volume of 98,030 Wort Litres !!! 
Hops employed in this brewing were : 314 Lbs Lewis 1875 , 409 Lbs Americans 1875 ,
And 244 Lbs of " Altmark 1875 " ; these giving an IBU of 24 .
 Yield IN F V of 600 Wort Barrels IN Vessel @ 1.058 after the addition of reserved Wort .
As with a number of other beers , this beer didn`t employ Sugars .

X . L 

The taxonomy of this beer is a bit harder to pin down , though as the Quality Mark ( X . L ) 
Suggests , It`s a Pale beer with a reasonable bitterness at 40 IBU provided by a Hop Grist 
Of 183 Lbs Lewis 1875 , 217 Lbs American 1875 and 163 Lbs of Altmark 1875 .
As with the X Ale , the X . L didn`t employ Sugars on being brewed , with the extract degrees 
Provided by 70 Quarters of " Geldeston" malt , yielding 306 Wort barrels @ 1.049 on Collection.

X X EXPORT ALE 

The quality mark(s) for this beer comprise two X `s side by side with the right hand X 
Overscored by a horizontal line summounted by a number 1 ; to the Immediate right of theis ,
Is a smaller x then P with a symbol resembling a small r above to the right of the P .
The Malts used in this brewing were : 60 Qtrs of " Green old " and 40 Qtrs of Dereham new ;
Providing 531 Wort Barrels at 1.060.25 ; and in common with the F A & Pale Ale , 
Utilising Sugar as a Wort Extender , in this case 1.014.25 degrees .
HOPS : 577 Lbs Americans 1875 , 847 Lbs Preuths ?? 1876  and 545 Lbs Lake 1875 to 58 IBU 

PORTER
 
Porter , one of the mainstays of Whitbread`s production in the 18 Th and early 19 Th centuries;
Continued to employ a grist comprising Pale , Brown and Black malts ;
Gyle 9 : Thursday 3 Rd August 1876 @ 120 Qrs Whittington , 30 Qrs Brown and 11 Qtrs Black.
As with the X & X L ales , the Porter didn`t use Sugars in the brewing ; with the malts as above
Providing 962 Wort Barrels @ 1.042.25 to an initial hops charge of 507 Lbs Clyer ;
The other hops used were 573 Lbs Americans and 381 Lbs Bavarians , giving 36 IBU 

EXPORT STOUT 

Entered upin a similar fashion to the XX Export Ale ; ` X P t S ` with the ` t ` positioned above the 
P of X P in a smaller size . The Export Stout is another rare entrant in the 1876-7 book;
With the brewing on Saturday 2 Nd December 1876 using 78 Quarters of Malt :
29 Qtrs Dereham , 25 ` F / J & K ; 18 Qtrs Brown and 6 Qtrs of Black Malt providing 378 Wort Brls
At a gravity of 1.048.5 with 1.011.5 of Sugar employed as a Wort Extension tool as per above .
the bitterness in this brew was prodided by 412 Lbs Americans 1873 , 301 Lbs Dawson 1873 ;
And 651 Lbs of Winch 1876 , Giving an IBU of 86 .

S . S / DOUBLE STOUT  & S S S / Stock Stout ? 

The Stouts in this book are generally entered as multiples of the letter S , with the number of letter
S emplyed denoting the quality of the Stout in production .
As with the Export Stout , this brewing used sugars as Wort Extenders ;S S @ 1.008.75 , 
With the S S S sugars@ 1.010 degrees .Malts used were a blend of Pale , Brown and Black .
HOPS : 334 Lbs Bavarians 1875 , 363 Lbs Americans 1875 and a truly Jaw Dropping 1,511 Lbs 
Of  "Pell "  from the 1875 crop .

K . K
 
This beer , as the ` Qaulity Mark ` suggests is a Keeping beer which employed a grist as follows ;
80- Qtrs Green Old and 20 Quarters of Dereham New ; giving ( With Wort Extension ) 
128,961 Wort Litres at Collection at a Gravity of 1.071 ;
To an initial Hop Charge of 499 Lbs Wyles 1875 with later Hops : 600 Lbs American 1876 ,
173 Lbs Collard 1876 and 333 Lbs Word 1876 , giving 56 IBU 

K . K . K  

The ` Big Brother ` of the K K ; Basically a ` Beefed Up ` version with a higher Original Gravity,
Employing the same Malt Grists ; though the Sugars provided as Wort Extension are greater in 
Terms of degrees , with this brewing ( No 123 15/11/.1876 )  having 1.016.25 degrees of Sugars .
The hops employed were : 742 Lbs Americans 1875 to 505 Wort Barrels @ 1.069.75 ;
With later Hops : 723 Lbs ` Pruds ? ` 1876 , 579 Lbs Wyles 1875 and 193 Lbs Lake 1875 . 

 No             DATE          QUALITY          O / Gravity       Racking     Final Gravity    IBU     A B V 
    3   Tue  11/07/1876         F . A                1.050.25          1.006.75 *      1.004             56      6.0   %
  35   Wed 09/08/1876         P . A                1.059.75          1.012              1.006             76      7.1   %

126   Sat   02/12/1876    XX Export Ale     1.071               1.022.25        1.012              58      7.8   %

     2  Mon 10/07/1876        X ALE              1.058               1.012.5         1.008               24      6.6   %
     9  Sat   15/.07/1876      X L ALE            1.064.25          1.016            1.010               40      7.2   %

   19  Thu  03/08/1876       PORTER           1.060.5            1.008.75 *    1.006               36      7.2   %

 102  Sat 02/.12/1876      Export Stout        1.068.75       1.023.25 **     1.012               86      7.5  %
     2  Wednesday 12Th   Double Stout        1.081            1.027.5   **     1.016               50      8.7  %
     3         July 1876         Stock Stout          1.093            1.030.5   **     1.016               46     10.4 %

 115  Thu 02/11.1876          K . K                1.070.25       1.020.25  **     1.012              56       7.7  %
 123  Wed 15/11/1876       K . K . K            1.077.25       1.022.5    **     1.012              82       8.7  %

*   Denotes a Bottling Brew 
** Denotes the C . V / VAT Gravity  

Cheers All ,

Edd  


This Analysis & Commentary C Edd Mather 2024 

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