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16-03-2014, 06:31
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You must have realised what I'm ip to. I really am going to grind through all the beer styles one by one. We may be done by Christmas, if you're lucky.

First some random fun, courtesy of the newspaper archive:


"ENGINE CRASHES INTO BREWERY
200 BARRELS OF BEER CAUSE A DELUGE
Locomotive That Took the Wrong Turning
Taking the "wrong turning" at the points outside Cannon Street Station, London, yesterday, a 60-ton locomotive and tender ran along a " blind " line, mounted the buffers about fifty yards from the crossing, and crashed into the side of Messrs Barclay Perkins' Brewery at end the track.

The wall of the brewery was smashed in and a girder, with some hundredweights of masonry, was thrown into a huge beer vat, which burst with the impact. More than 200 barrels of beer leaked through to the floor below. The front of the engine remained suspended through top of the wall above the vat.

There was no one the room at the time the crash, and one was hurt."
Dundee Courier - Tuesday 03 August 1926, page 5.
Sounds to me like it crashed into the building marked "Ale Brewery", about half way up on the right:




http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-M9qwVcSB0e0/UwYkKieORQI/AAAAAAAATKQ/4uZ8hh-xoAk/s1600/Barclay_Perkins_brewery_1896_large_scale_OS.jpg (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-M9qwVcSB0e0/UwYkKieORQI/AAAAAAAATKQ/4uZ8hh-xoAk/s1600/Barclay_Perkins_brewery_1896_large_scale_OS.jpg)


Barclay Perkins brewery in 1896



Dangerous places, these breweries. There was always something happening:


"BREWERY EXPLOSION.
An explosion took place at the premises of Messrs Barclay, Perkins, & Co., brewers, Park Street, Southwark, London, in the early morning.

Two men were injured.

The men, H. Nicholls and G. Fenton, arrived at the brewery at 6.30 a.m. They went to store cupboard to get their tools.

They lit a gas jet. Immediately there was an explosion. Both men were blown a distance of ten yards. Nicholls was burned badly about the face.

The men, after first-aid treatment at the brewery, were taken to Guy's Hospital. They were able to go home later.
Evening Telegraph - Thursday 16 February 1928, page 3.What caused the explosion? A gas leak?

Right, on with the beer. It says PA, but that's not what Barclay Perkins called it. They gave thiis beer the snappy name of XLK (Trade). Trade meaning draught. There was a weaker bottled version. Their stronger Bitter, actually called PA, had been discontinued during WW I. It retuend in 1928 at a gravity of 1053. PA was discontinued a second time during WW II and never returned.

In the Pale Ales we'll be looking at there are basically two subtypes: Best Bitter costing 9d per pint (8d in 1923) and Bitter costing 8d (7d in 1923).

Barclay Perkins XLK was a very simple beer: pale malt, No. 2 invert sugar, flaked maize, Golding and Fuggles. Fairly modest hopping of 1.2 lbs per barrel, 3 oz. of dry hops. The attenuation is quite high so it must have been a pretty dry beer.

Let's see how it gets on with scores.



Barclay Perkins Pale Ale quality 1922 - 1925


Year
Beer
FG
OG
ABV
App. Atten-uation
Appearance
Flavour
score
Price


1922
PA
1008.2
1044.2
4.69
81.45%
grey
good
2
8d


1922
PA
1007.6
1046.6
5.09
83.69%
bright
fair
1
8d


1922
PA
1011
1046.5
4.61
76.34%
grey
v fair
2
8d


1922
PA
1008.6
1046.1
4.88
81.34%
bright
good
2
8d


1923
PA
1008.8
1046.3
4.88
80.99%
bright
v fair
2
8d


1923
PA
1007.8
1046.3
5.02
83.15%
fizzy
going off
-2
8d


1923
PA
1008.4
1045.4
4.82
81.50%
not bright
v bitter (yeast?)
-1
8d


1923
PA
1009.4
1045.9
4.75
79.52%
bright
going off
-2
7d


1923
PA
1009
1045.5
4.75
80.22%

going off
-2
7d


1923
PA
1007.8
1041.8
4.42
81.34%
grey
gone off
-3
7d


1924
PA

1045.6


brilliant
good
2
7d


1925
PA
1009.4
1047.4
4.95
80.17%
bright
good
2
7d


Average
1008.7
1045.6
4.81
80.88%


0.25



Source:


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



You can see what a theme clarity is becoming. Just half of these samples were clear, six from twelve. Flavour does slightly better with seven positive scores. And for the first time they get a positve average score: 0.25. How well will that rank them? We'll see.

There's a brewery making a debut appearance in this series next: Benskins. What a treat.

More... (http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2014/03/barclay-perkins-pale-ale-quality-1922.html)