Shut up about Barclay Perkins - Let's Brew Wednesday - 1965 Drybrough Keg Heavy
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There’s a name to fill a drinker’s heart with dread: Keg Heavy. Not a well-loved type of beer.
By 1965 it made up a large proportion of what Drybrough brewed, having overtaken 60/- as their most popular product. What was odd about their beer range in the 1950s was that it lacked a 70/-. Keg Heavy seems to have first appeared around June 1960, though there had been a beer of a similar gravity, B/XXP (presumably Bottling XXP), for a while before.
This beer dates from just after Drybrough underwent the worst fate for any brewery: being bought by Watney. no suprise, then, that they were keen on pushing keg. The brewery continued in production until the early 1980s, when Watney finally pulled the plug. In their later years cask beer did make a return, in the form of a 70/- and an 80/-. Never had either, myself, as far as I can recall.
This looks very much like an English Ordinary Bitter. Except for the poor attenuation and the very low level of hopping. It must have been pretty sweet. All those residual sugars probably took on a lovely boiled sweet character after heavy pasteurisation. I’m sure it tasted great.
| 1965 Drybrough Keg Heavy |
| pale malt |
6.00 lb |
74.91% |
| black malt |
0.01 lb |
0.12% |
| flaked maize |
1.00 lb |
12.48% |
| malt extract |
0.25 lb |
3.12% |
| No. 2 invert sugar |
0.75 lb |
9.36% |
| Fuggles 90 min |
0.50 oz |
|
| Goldings 30 min |
0.50 oz |
|
| OG |
1037 |
|
| FG |
1014 |
|
| ABV |
3.04 |
|
| Apparent attenuation |
62.16% |
|
| IBU |
14 |
|
| SRM |
6 |
|
| Mash at |
146º F |
|
| Sparge at |
165º F |
|
| Boil time |
90 minutes |
|
| pitching temp |
62º F |
|
| Yeast |
WLP028 Edinburgh Ale |
|
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