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19-06-2013, 08:10
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Here are the first results of my last archive harvesting trip to London. Lots of lovely details of Barclay's Lager.

First let's take a look at the types of Lager Barclay Perkins brewed. In the 1920's, they brewed just two: Export and Dark. Both had pretty respectable gravities for the period. Between 1925 and 1930 the average OG of beer brewed in Britain was about 1043º*). Dark and Export, at 1057 and 1050 respectively, were both well above the average.

A third Lager, romantically called Draught, appeared in 1932. That they could justify brewing a draught beer as well as bottled ones is an indication of the success of Barclay's Lager. As is the increase in the batch size of Dark and Export from 1932 onwards. In the case of dark, from 65 to 105 barrels, for Export from 125 to 200 barrels. It's worth pointing out that far more Export was brewed than Dark. Its batches weren't just larger, there were more of them. Draught Lager was weaker and closer to average gravity.

I've included tables of foreign Lagers for comparison purposes. A bit of compare and contrast never goes amiss.

It's easiest to find a comparable beer with Barclay's Dark. I'm pretty sure Münchener was the style they were aiming for. The Barclay's beer has an OG at the top end of the German examples. The FG is pretty similar to the German beers, as is the attenuation of around 65%. Barclay's Dark seems to match the specifications of the Munich style quite well.

Barclay's Export also looks similar to its German equivalent, this time from Dortmund. Though this time it's at the bottom end of the German range in terms of OG. The FG's match up pretty well, too, roughly between 1010º and 1014º. The attenuation is also pretty similar at 75-80%.

This is where it gets tricky as I'm not sure what style Draught is aiming for. If I hadn't seen the hopping rate, I might have said Pilsener. But it's not very well hopped, falling between Dark and Export in terms of hops per quarter. It seems to match best with a German Lagerbier or a Danish Lager, though I'm not sure that I'd want to read too much into that.

The hopping rate is quite modest for all the Lagers. In 1924/25, these were Barclay's hopping rates:




beer
lbs hops/qtr


X Ale
6


XLK (Ordinary Bitter)
7.5


PA
9


KK
9


KKK
14


Export Brown Stout
14


Russian Stout
16


Source:


Barclay Perkins brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number ACC/2305/01/611



You can see that the most highly hopped Lager, Export, only had the same level of hopping the least highly hopped top-fermenting beer.

The boil times are short compared to those of Barclay's other beers. Their Pale Ales and Milds were boiled for 2.25 and 2 hours. Their Porter, Stouts and K Ales were all boiled for more than 2 hours.

Unsurprisingly, the fermentations were much cooler than for their top-fermenting beers, which were pitched at 60-63º F and rose to 70-73º F. The logs from the 1920's indicate that they used Carlsberg yeast harvested from earlier brews. Later logs just say which previous gyle the yeast had been harvested from. It may well still have been Carlsberg yeast. I wonder if they were also culturing it, as was common in larger continental breweries.

Next time we'll be looking at grists and mashing techniques. Lots more surprises there.




Barclay Perkins Lagers 1925 - 1934


Date
Year
Beer
Style
OG
FG
ABV
App. Atten-uation
lbs hops/ qtr
hops lb/brl
boil time (hours)
Pitch temp
max. fermen-tation temp
length of fermen-tation (days)
colour


16th Apr
1925
Dark
Dunkles
1057.6
1020.1
4.96
65.10%
4.64
1.29
1.5
48.5º

14
88


4th Feb
1926
Dark
Dunkles
1057.4
1019.0
5.08
66.90%
4.64
1.26
1.5
48º

12
84


12th May
1927
Dark
Dunkles
1057.5
1020.2
4.93
64.87%
4.64
1.26
1.5
48º

15
80


6th Jan
1928
Dark
Dunkles
1057.2
1020.7
4.83
63.81%
4.64
1.24
1.5
48º

15
80


13th Jan
1928
Dark
Dunkles
1057.3
1020.4
4.88
64.40%
4.64
1.23
1.5
48º

15
84


7th Aug
1930
Dark
Dunkles
1057.3
1019.4
5.01
66.14%
4.64
1.25
1.5
48º

15
88


15th Aug
1930
Dark
Dunkles
1057.3
1020.2
4.91
64.75%
4.64
1.27
1.5
48º

15
88


7th Aug
1931
Dark
Dunkles
1057.4
1019.7
4.99
65.68%
4.68
1.18
1.13
48º

15
84


11th Jul
1932
Dark
Dunkles
1057.3
1021.0
4.80
63.35%
4.68
1.22
1.33
51º

12
84


12th Sep
1932
Dark
Dunkles
1057.3
1021.3
4.76
62.83%
4.68
1.24
1.33
48º

15
86


24th Jul
1933
Dark
Dunkles
1057.5
1016.7
5.40
70.96%
4.68
1.18
1.5
48.5º

16
84


9th Apr
1934
Dark
Dunkles
1057.5
1020.8
4.86
63.83%
4.68
1.27
2.17
46º
52.5º
11
88


28th May
1934
Dark
Dunkles
1057.5
1020.8
4.86
63.83%
4.68
1.19
1.5
46º
53º
12
80


9th Sep
1935
Dark
Dunkles
1057.6
1019.0
5.11
67.05%
4.68
1.15
1.5
46º
55.5º
15
86


7th Jul
1932
Draught
Lager
1043.5
1013.6
3.96
68.74%
5.49
1.01
1.08
48º

15
11.5


19th Jul
1932
Draught
Lager
1043.4
1013.2
4.00
69.59%
5.49
0.97
1.67
49.5º

15
12


10th Jul
1933
Draught
Lager
1043.4
1010.4
4.37
76.04%
5.47
0.94
2
48.5º

12
12


14th Mar
1934
Draught
Lager
1043.4
1011.1
4.27
74.42%
5.47
0.99
2
45º
52.5º
13
13


4th May
1934
Draught
Lager
1043.2
1011.7
4.17
72.92%
5.47
0.99
2
45.5º
53º
11
11


7th Sep
1935
Draught
Lager
1043.5
1010.1
4.41
76.69%
5.47
0.95
2
46º
56º
13
11


1st Apr
1925
Export
Export
1050.5
1014.1
4.82
72.08%
6.54
1.31
1.5
48º

15
14


3rd Feb
1926
Export
Export
1050.6
1015.4
4.66
69.57%
6.00
1.20
1.5
48º

15
13


16th May
1927
Export
Export
1050.7
1013.8
4.88
72.78%
6.00
1.24
1.5
48º

15
12


11th Jan
1928
Export
Export
1050.2
1014.6
4.71
70.92%
6.00
1.26
1.5
48º

15
10


22nd Jul
1930
Export
Export
1050.2
1012.1
5.04
75.90%
6.00
1.21
1.5
47.5º

13
12


13th Aug
1930
Export
Export
1050.3
1012.3
5.03
75.55%
6.00
1.22
1.5
48º

15
10


5th Aug
1931
Export
Export
1050.4
1010.7
5.25
78.77%
6.00
1.16
1
48º

15
11


12th Jul
1933
Export
Export
1049.4
1009.5
5.28
80.77%
6.00
1.19
2
48º

13
10.5


21st Mar
1934
Export
Export
1049.5
1011.6
5.01
76.57%
6.00
1.14
2
46º
52.5º
14
9.5


2nd May
1934
Export
Export
1049.4
1011.1
5.07
77.53%
6.00
1.11
2
46º
52º
10
10


Sources:


Barclay Perkins brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers ACC/2305/1/638, ACC/2305/1/640 and ACC/2305/1/641.





Foreign Lagers 1930 - 1935


Year
Brewer
country
Beer
Style
OG
FG
colour
ABV
App. Atten-uation


1930
average of 4 samples
Germany
Dunkles Münchener
Dunkles
1055.2
1018.6
3.5
4.69
65.15%


1930
strongest sample
Germany
Dunkles Münchener
Dunkles
1056.9
1020.4
3.9
4.72
62.92%


1930
weakest sample
Germany
Dunkles Münchener
Dunkles
1053.6
1016.4
3
4.82
68.27%


1935
Löwenbräu, Munich
Germany
Dark Lager
Dunkles
1055.0
1020.8

4.42
62.18%


1930
average of 14 samples
Germany
Export Dortmunder
Export
1054.0
1012.2
0.73
5.39
76.44%


1930
strongest sample
Germany
Export Dortmunder
Export
1057.2
1014.3
0.84
5.58
73.85%


1930
weakest sample
Germany
Export Dortmunder
Export
1051.2
1009.4
0.66
5.08
80.88%


1930
average of 15 samples
Germany
Lagerbier
Helles
1048.2
1011.0
0.72
4.78
76.25%


1930
strongest sample
Germany
Lagerbier
Helles
1050.5
1012.2
0.78
4.99
74.96%


1930
weakest sample
Germany
Lagerbier
Helles
1045.4
1006.5
0.59
5.10
85.07%


1932
Beck
Germany
Bier
Lager
1051.0
1009.6
6.5
5.40
81.18%


1934
Tuborg
Denmark
Lager
Lager
1044.7
1013.4

4.05
70.02%


1934
Wiibroes Bryggeri
Denmark
Lager
Lager
1043.0
1012.4

3.97
71.16%


Sources:


Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001.


"Van Brouwerij tot Bierglas" by F. Kurris, Doetinchem, 1948, pages 26-27





* Brewers' Almanack 1928, p. 110.

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