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Another preview from my upcoming book, Let's Brew!

In the 1887 Truman (Burton) brewing record a new beer appears. A type of Pale Ale called LB.

My guess would be that that stands for “Light Bitter”. Though with a gravity north of 1060º, it’s not exactly my idea of light. Given the name, I suspect that this is a Running rather than a Stock Pale Ale.

What’s odd, is that despite having some invert sugar in the grist, the attenuation is worse than the Stock Pale Ales we’ve seen. No idea why that should be, though the quantity of sugar isn’t enormous.

One thing I should remind you of. As Truman’s Pale Ales were brewed in a proper Burton brewery, they would have been cleansed in union sets. Note that I didn’t say fermented in union sets. Because that wasn’t the primary function of the unions. And the beer would have already been fermenting for days before it ever went into the unions.

No need to age this one, then. That’s a relief, isn’t it?


1887 Truman LB
pale malt 13.00 lb 92.86%
No. 1 invert sugar 1.00 lb 7.14%
Cluster 180 mins 1.25 oz
Goldings 60 mins 1.25 oz
Goldings 30 mins 1.25 oz
Goldings dry hops 0.50 oz
OG 1064
FG 1022
ABV 5.56
Apparent attenuation 65.63%
IBU 55
SRM 6
Mash at 152º F
Sparge at 170º F
Boil time 180 minutes
pitching temp 57º F
Yeast Wyeast 1099 Whitbread Ale


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