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I'm feeling pretty stupid. How on earth could I have missed it? Through not looking properly. As simple as that.

What is it I've missed? Hop additions. Despite what I said yesterday, most 20th century Barclay Perkins logs contain them. I blame the way they noted the quantities: in pockets.And the fact it's just a scrawl in the top margin.

Here's an example from 1921:


Could be clearer, could it? Actually, it could.

The first lot of numbers show how many hops went into each of the coppers. 2.25 in copper 1, 2.5 in copper 2, 1.25 in copper 3, 0.5 in copper 4. 6.5 pockets in total. I assume there's a column for each of the three types of hops.

The second set of numbers give the timings of the additions for each copper. 0.5 poc Rogers at Inch; 0.5 poc Reeves at 1 hour. 0.5 poc Rogers at Inch; 0.5 poc Reeves at 1 hour. 0.25 poc Rogers at Inch; 0.25 poc Reeves at 1 hour. 3 poc Rogers at Inch; 0.25 poc Reeves at 1 hour.

All four coppers were boiled for 1.5 hours. So the last addition was half an hour before the end of the boil. The second addition at "inch" (whenever that might be). I assume the remainder were added at the start of the boil.

Rogers and Reeves are the names of hop merchants. The hops used were:


So the Reeves were 1920 Mid Kents, Rogers 1919 mid Kents.

Can you see what the problem is? The hop additions are given in pockets. The hop quantities are given in hundredweights, some unit of 28 pounds and pounds. (A hop pocket was between 1.5 and 2 hundredweights.) The hop additions add up to 6.5 hundredweights. Not a number divisible by three. Even though the quantities for each type of hop are almost identical.

I'm sure all the ionformation is there. I just can't quite make sense of them.Your help will be gratefully received.


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