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17-04-2023, 07:23
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Home brewing was very big in the 1970s. Not because drinkers wanted to recreate exotic brews they'd tried on their travels, No. The reason was much more prosaic. Price. People just wanted cheap beer.
Despite what some might tell you, home brewing was never illegal in the UK. It just required a licence. It was pretty easy to avoid paying for a licence, if you put in a bit of effort. But, even as late as 1960, over 1,000 such licences were issued. In 1963 such licences were abolished, meaning home brewers no longer technically needed to buy a brewing licence.
"Until 1963 there were two kinds of brewers’ licences: that for a Brewer-for-Sale and that for Brewers other than Brewers-for-Sale, e.g., farmers brewing for their own and their employees’ consumption. The latter were abolished (with some small exceptions) in 1963."
"1971 Brewers' Almanack", page 64.Of course, home brewers were included in this group, too. In some parts of the UK, notably the West Midlands, home brewing remained popular well into the 20th century. I wonder how many farmer were still brewing for their own use in the 1960s? Do any still brew today? This was a very long tradition and, at the start of the 19th century, such domestic brewers accounted for a considerable percentage of beer brewed in the UK. Particularly in England.
Me and my brother started brewing around 1972. We kicked off in the classic way: buying Geordie beer kits from Boots. I'm not sure why, but Boots was the main source of home brewing ingredients and kit. Any decent-sized branch had a section dedicated to home brewing.
We shifted through the gears quite quickly. Moving from kits to buying malt extract, hops and grains to steep. But malt extract always leaves a strange tang. The best extract beers we brewed were Stouts where the roast from steeped grains covered up the funny taste.
Soon we moved up another level. One of the classic pieces of kit for early all-grain brewers was a burco boiler. Intended for washing clothes, it was easily converted to use as a mash tun. With a plastic dustbin as fermenter, we were fully kitted out.
Initially, we bottled everything. In the old returnable half-pint and pint bottles. Onto which we hammered crown corks. Quite a lot of work. We were always careful to ferment all the way out in primary, then add sugar to each bottle for secondary fermentation.
The range of ingredients available was pretty limited. It wasn't too mad with malt. You could get pale, crystal, chocolate and black malt. Hops were much worse. Mostly not sold by variety, but just as generic "hops". From what I can recall, they seemed to be, logically enough, English types. Probably mostly Fuggles or similar.
The yeast sold at Boots was similarly vague in origin. But there was a way of getting commercial yeast. The simplest to acquire was Guinness, as it was bottle-conditioned at the time. Just drink most of the bottle, then top up the dregs with malt extract or sugar and a little water. Stick some cotton wool in the neck and leave it in the airing cupboard for a few days. Hey presto, lovely yeast for pitching.
And Guinness yeast was really good. It was easy to get a started going and it fermented really well. One of the best yeasts I've ever used.
Another source of commercial yeast was cask beer. All you needed was a lemonade bottle and a funnel. Buy a pint of cask beer in the pub, decant it into the pop bottle. When you get home, add half a teaspoon of sugar and wait a couple of days. When a layer of yeast sediment had developed and the beer was carbonated, you could drink the beer and then make a yeast starter from the dregs.
After a while, we got hold of a five gallon cider barrel. Off-licences often used to sell draught cider back in those days, served from such a small plastic barrel. It made life much easier, doing away with all that bottling mess. Though you needed to drink the beer fairly quickly. A week to ten days was about the longest it would last.
I can remember having a barrel of Mild my brother brought up to Leeds towards the end of my first year at university. The very hot summer of 1976. We sat drinking glasses of iced Mild on the balcony of my student flat in North Hill Court.
We also took advantage of Newark being a brewing and malting town. My brother got hold of a sack of pale and a sack of mild malt from one of the maltsers. And from Courage we bought half a dozen wooden firkins at some ludicrously knock-down price.
We were all kitted up, finally. We just had to drink nine gallons in a week or so. Not such a problem, as we brewed session-strength beers, mostly.
Brewing licences 1881 - 1969
Year ending 31st March
Brewers for sale
Other brewers - not for sale
Total
No.
Duty paid £
1881
16,798
16,798
71,876
88,674
1890
11,364
11,364
25,281
36,645
1900
6,447
6,447
12,734
19,181
1910
4,512
382,253
7,006
11,518
1920
2,914
226,745
2,999
5,913
1930
1,418
228,146
12,513
13,931
1932
1,286
205,291
11,139
12,425
1934
1,197
151,338
10,746
11,943
1935
1,144
161,461
10,170
11,314
1936
1,103
173,011
9,767
10,870
1937
1,027
177,319
8,345
9,372
1938
946
188,138
7,791
8,737
1939
885
194,751
7,081
7,966
1940
840
205,567
8,115
6,955
1941
810
198,952
5,349
6,159
1942
788
225,486
5,120
5,908
1943
757
237,040
4,234
4,991
1944
741
239,638
4,024
4,765
1945
703
249,637
3,734
4,437
1946
680
255,863
3,512
4,192
1947
648
248,690
3,224
3,872
1948
625
240,265
3,073
3,698
1949
602
229,913
2,998
3,600
1950
567
212,902
2,673
3,240
1951
539
201,909
2,406
2,945
1952
524
199,122
2,225
2,749
1953
501
199,893
2,015
2,516
1954
479
197,056
1,758
2,237
1955
460
192,395
1,523
1,983
1956
426
192,956
1,396
1,822
1957
416
192,387
1,412
1,828
1958
399
198,331
1,317
1,716
1959
378
191,053
1,189
1,567
1960
358
196,675
1,055
1,413
1961
336
208,378
1,029
1,365
1962
317
219,781
909
1,226
1963
304
218,711
901
1,205
1964
295
222,365
—
295
1965
274
232,469
—
274
1966
246
233,480
—
246
1967
243
237,954
—
243
1968
281
4,437
—
281
1969
210
3,321
—
210
Source:
1881 - 1960 "1962 Brewers' Almanack", page 67.
1961 - 1969 "1971 Brewers' Almanack", page 64.
More... (http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2023/04/looking-back-part-eleven-home-brewing.html)
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Home brewing was very big in the 1970s. Not because drinkers wanted to recreate exotic brews they'd tried on their travels, No. The reason was much more prosaic. Price. People just wanted cheap beer.
Despite what some might tell you, home brewing was never illegal in the UK. It just required a licence. It was pretty easy to avoid paying for a licence, if you put in a bit of effort. But, even as late as 1960, over 1,000 such licences were issued. In 1963 such licences were abolished, meaning home brewers no longer technically needed to buy a brewing licence.
"Until 1963 there were two kinds of brewers’ licences: that for a Brewer-for-Sale and that for Brewers other than Brewers-for-Sale, e.g., farmers brewing for their own and their employees’ consumption. The latter were abolished (with some small exceptions) in 1963."
"1971 Brewers' Almanack", page 64.Of course, home brewers were included in this group, too. In some parts of the UK, notably the West Midlands, home brewing remained popular well into the 20th century. I wonder how many farmer were still brewing for their own use in the 1960s? Do any still brew today? This was a very long tradition and, at the start of the 19th century, such domestic brewers accounted for a considerable percentage of beer brewed in the UK. Particularly in England.
Me and my brother started brewing around 1972. We kicked off in the classic way: buying Geordie beer kits from Boots. I'm not sure why, but Boots was the main source of home brewing ingredients and kit. Any decent-sized branch had a section dedicated to home brewing.
We shifted through the gears quite quickly. Moving from kits to buying malt extract, hops and grains to steep. But malt extract always leaves a strange tang. The best extract beers we brewed were Stouts where the roast from steeped grains covered up the funny taste.
Soon we moved up another level. One of the classic pieces of kit for early all-grain brewers was a burco boiler. Intended for washing clothes, it was easily converted to use as a mash tun. With a plastic dustbin as fermenter, we were fully kitted out.
Initially, we bottled everything. In the old returnable half-pint and pint bottles. Onto which we hammered crown corks. Quite a lot of work. We were always careful to ferment all the way out in primary, then add sugar to each bottle for secondary fermentation.
The range of ingredients available was pretty limited. It wasn't too mad with malt. You could get pale, crystal, chocolate and black malt. Hops were much worse. Mostly not sold by variety, but just as generic "hops". From what I can recall, they seemed to be, logically enough, English types. Probably mostly Fuggles or similar.
The yeast sold at Boots was similarly vague in origin. But there was a way of getting commercial yeast. The simplest to acquire was Guinness, as it was bottle-conditioned at the time. Just drink most of the bottle, then top up the dregs with malt extract or sugar and a little water. Stick some cotton wool in the neck and leave it in the airing cupboard for a few days. Hey presto, lovely yeast for pitching.
And Guinness yeast was really good. It was easy to get a started going and it fermented really well. One of the best yeasts I've ever used.
Another source of commercial yeast was cask beer. All you needed was a lemonade bottle and a funnel. Buy a pint of cask beer in the pub, decant it into the pop bottle. When you get home, add half a teaspoon of sugar and wait a couple of days. When a layer of yeast sediment had developed and the beer was carbonated, you could drink the beer and then make a yeast starter from the dregs.
After a while, we got hold of a five gallon cider barrel. Off-licences often used to sell draught cider back in those days, served from such a small plastic barrel. It made life much easier, doing away with all that bottling mess. Though you needed to drink the beer fairly quickly. A week to ten days was about the longest it would last.
I can remember having a barrel of Mild my brother brought up to Leeds towards the end of my first year at university. The very hot summer of 1976. We sat drinking glasses of iced Mild on the balcony of my student flat in North Hill Court.
We also took advantage of Newark being a brewing and malting town. My brother got hold of a sack of pale and a sack of mild malt from one of the maltsers. And from Courage we bought half a dozen wooden firkins at some ludicrously knock-down price.
We were all kitted up, finally. We just had to drink nine gallons in a week or so. Not such a problem, as we brewed session-strength beers, mostly.
Brewing licences 1881 - 1969
Year ending 31st March
Brewers for sale
Other brewers - not for sale
Total
No.
Duty paid £
1881
16,798
16,798
71,876
88,674
1890
11,364
11,364
25,281
36,645
1900
6,447
6,447
12,734
19,181
1910
4,512
382,253
7,006
11,518
1920
2,914
226,745
2,999
5,913
1930
1,418
228,146
12,513
13,931
1932
1,286
205,291
11,139
12,425
1934
1,197
151,338
10,746
11,943
1935
1,144
161,461
10,170
11,314
1936
1,103
173,011
9,767
10,870
1937
1,027
177,319
8,345
9,372
1938
946
188,138
7,791
8,737
1939
885
194,751
7,081
7,966
1940
840
205,567
8,115
6,955
1941
810
198,952
5,349
6,159
1942
788
225,486
5,120
5,908
1943
757
237,040
4,234
4,991
1944
741
239,638
4,024
4,765
1945
703
249,637
3,734
4,437
1946
680
255,863
3,512
4,192
1947
648
248,690
3,224
3,872
1948
625
240,265
3,073
3,698
1949
602
229,913
2,998
3,600
1950
567
212,902
2,673
3,240
1951
539
201,909
2,406
2,945
1952
524
199,122
2,225
2,749
1953
501
199,893
2,015
2,516
1954
479
197,056
1,758
2,237
1955
460
192,395
1,523
1,983
1956
426
192,956
1,396
1,822
1957
416
192,387
1,412
1,828
1958
399
198,331
1,317
1,716
1959
378
191,053
1,189
1,567
1960
358
196,675
1,055
1,413
1961
336
208,378
1,029
1,365
1962
317
219,781
909
1,226
1963
304
218,711
901
1,205
1964
295
222,365
—
295
1965
274
232,469
—
274
1966
246
233,480
—
246
1967
243
237,954
—
243
1968
281
4,437
—
281
1969
210
3,321
—
210
Source:
1881 - 1960 "1962 Brewers' Almanack", page 67.
1961 - 1969 "1971 Brewers' Almanack", page 64.
More... (http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2023/04/looking-back-part-eleven-home-brewing.html)