Shut up about Barclay Perkins - Let's Brew Wednesday - 1958 Lees Best Mild

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This is strange. It's Wednesday and here's a Let's Brew Wednesday post. I'll try not to let it happen again.

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The 1950's. What an exotic decade. Teddy boys, CND and Best Mild. I'd happily spend a fortnight there.Just looking at the bare bones of Lees beers - OG, FG, ABV - nothing much changed in the 1950's. But take a close look at the ingredients they were using and you'll see a dramatic transformation. I'm not sure of the exact date when it happened. Late 1955 or early 1956. Out go all the dark malts, in comes a lorryload of sugars.

Getting hold of long runs of brewing records is dead useful. For Lees, I've a complete set for the years 1930 to 1963. They reveal the erratic nature of change. Long periods where the beers remain identical, then sudden recipe changes. It's a fascinating process. Where often an external event - a rise in beer duty, wartime rationing of ingredients, technological advances -prompts the change. Maybe one day I'll write my thesis on the topic.

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Anyway, back to the specific beer in question: Lees Best Mild. In the late 1950's Lees were brewing two Milds. One, with the inspired name of Mild, had been kicking around for quite a while. It appears, under its older name of K, in the earliest Lees log I've seen, from 1884. Its strength was gradually whittled away by the two world wars and the gravity was down to 1028º in 1948. Which is the year Best Mild was introduced, with a gravity of 1032º. Not a great difference in gravity. But a big differnce in the recipe and the colour. Mild was 35 EBC, Best Mild 100.

During the 1950's the gravities edged up a little, settling down at 1032º for Mild and 1035º for Best Mild. A minimal difference in strength, but still pretty different in terms of recipe and colour. Best Mild was dark and must have been pretty sweet, with all the lactose and other sugars. The oats are a nice touch. I wonder what they brought to the party?

One general point about Lees beers. They were all pretty different from each other. The London brewers tended to brew different-strength versions of the same recipe. Lees didn't. Their two Milds are a good example of this. As are their Bitter and strong bottled Pale Ale, Export. The recipes are very different. Just thought you might like to know that.



I think that's me done. Time for Kristen and his recipe . . . .

JW Lees - 1958 - Best Mild

General info: Best Mild, the later years. The previous version we have seen has a ton of tasty dark malts and just a little bit of sugar. Here, 6 years post-hence, things have changed tremendously. The pale malt is split between 3 different types of English malt, a touch of American 6-row making this beer only 45% malt! SUGAR! At 34% this is the highest I've seen. 5 different types including invert, treacle, lactose and cane sugar. All giving a good enough body to finish definitely higher than the former version. Leave out the caramel and its still 80 EBC!

Beer Specifics

Recipe by percentages

Gravity (OG)

1.039

45% English 2 Row
6% treacle
Gravity (FG)

1.012

11.2% American 6 Row
3% lactose
ABV

3.60%

4.5% Flaked Maize
3% cane sugar
Apparent attenuation

69.37%

5.8% Flaked Oats
0.5% caramel colorant
Real attenuation

56.83%

21% Invert no1
0%
IBU

24.2

Mash

90min@149°F

0.94qt/lb

SRM

51

90min@65°C

1.96L/kg

EBC

100.5

Boil

1.75 hours

Homebrew @ 70%

Craft @ 80%

Grist

5gal

19L

10bbl

10hl

English 2 Row

3.21

lb

1.461

kg

174.12

lb

67.27

kg
American 6 Row

0.80

lb

0.365

kg

43.53

lb

16.82

kg
Flaked Maize

0.32

lb

0.146

kg

17.41

lb

6.73

kg
Flaked Oats

0.41

lb

0.188

kg

22.39

lb

8.65

kg
Invert no1

1.50

lb

0.682

kg

81.26

lb

31.39

kg
treacle

0.43

lb

0.195

kg

23.22

lb

8.97

kg
lactose

0.21

lb

0.097

kg

11.61

lb

4.48

kg
cane sugar

0.21

lb

0.097

kg

11.61

lb

4.48

kg
caramel colorant

0.04

lb

0.017

kg

2.07

lb

0.80

kg

Hops

Fuggle 5.5% 90min

0.74

oz

20.8

g

45.59

oz

1.101

kg
Fuggle 5.5% 30min

0.35

oz

9.9

g

21.71

oz

0.524

kg

Fermentation

63°F /17.2°C

Yeast

Manchester ale


1318 London Ale Yeast III -

Tasting Notes: No biscuits, no chocolate, no really malt of any sort. Nearly all dark fruits and that deep, mouth coating feeling you get from proper milk stouts. Much more reminiscent of Harvey's Nut Brown that anything. Not as sweet but you can dose it up on the back end if need be.

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