Wednesday 11 October 2017

Let’s Brew Wednesday - 1946 Barclay Perkins XX

You’re probably as relieved as I am that this interminable series of Barclay Perkins Mild recipes is now at an end. Unless I decide to do the 1947 one.

You might be surprised to see that, despite the war having been over for 12 months (this beer was brewed in August 1946), the OG has fallen by 4 points to just 1027.5º. Its gravity has dropped below what that of A, their cheap 4d a pint Mild, had been in 1935.

This OG is about as low as any UK beer would be. There was no point dropping the gravity below 1027º as the minimum duty on beer was charged at that rate. Though I should point out that the effective gravity of this beer was higher as the primings added at racking time were enough to increase it by 3º, making it really 1031.5º. But that’s still pretty damn watery.

As in WW I, the nadir came a year or two after the end of hostilities. The late 1940’s were difficult years in Britain. The war had come at a terrible financial cost. The pound wasn’t a hard currency and imports had to be paid for in dollars, which were in short supply. Which is why there hadn’t been a return to using flaked maize, which needed to be imported.

They must have been short of No. 3 invert, because the quantity has been changed from 9 to 5 quarters and 4 quarters of No. 1 have been added in red. Otherwise the grist is unchanged, consisting of mild malt, SA malt, crystal malt and amber malt. As usual, I’ve substituted more mild malt for the SA malt.

You’ll need to add extra caramel to get the colour right.


1946 Barclay Perkins XX
mild malt 4.25 lb 76.16%
amber malt 0.25 lb 4.48%
crystal malt 60 L 0.25 lb 4.48%
flaked barley 0.25 lb 4.48%
No. 1 invert sugar 0.25 lb 4.48%
No. 3 invert sugar 0.25 lb 4.48%
caramel 1000 SRM 0.08 lb 1.43%
Fuggles 90 mins 0.50 oz
Fuggles 60 mins 0.50 oz
Fuggles 30 mins 0.25 oz
OG 1027.5
FG 1007.5
ABV 2.65
Apparent attenuation 72.73%
IBU 18
SRM 20
Mash at 149º F
Sparge at 165º F
Boil time 90 minutes
pitching temp 61º F
Yeast Wyeast 1099 Whitbread Ale

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do you know what happened to liquor at this time? Was it watered down, rationed, or sold at higher prices?

Ron Pattinson said...

Anonymous,

I don't think it was rationed, but it was in short supply because production was limited.

Anonymous said...

I like your posts a lot of great recipies :) it's great brewing old recipies and trying them makes me realize more and more how much today's beers are the same and watered down. I brewed a IPA based off your 1839 Reid IPA in your book and it's wickedly good the mashing I guess gave a insanely different flavor and aroma from the malt than I'm used to. Yes I did the wickedly complex and long mash and it took me multiple hours just to do the mash. And I used all whole leaf hops. Which let me tell you the wort was clear from being filtered by the hops going in to my fermenter. Absolutely stunning looking so I can tell it's going to be a tasty beer. :)

Ron Pattinson said...

I really love that reid recipe. Glad to hear yours turned out well.