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The grists, in terms of malts, weren’t exactly exciting. Other than P, all Fullers beers contained just a single malt. Though, at this point, there were three types of pale malt: English, Californian and Cape.

Even P only contained one coloured malt, black malt. This was pretty unusual for London, where brewers were very faithful to brown malt. Whitbread, for example, including brown malt in their Stouts right up until Chiswell Street closed in 1974. Fullers dropped it in the early 1920s.

The only other grain Fullers used was unmalted flaked maize. Which was the commonest adjunct in UK brewing. A few breweries used maize in the form of grits and some preferred flaked rice, but generally flaked maize was the adjunct of choice.

There was rather more variety in the sugars Fullers employed. Glucose and Intense in the Milds and Burtons; No. 2 invert, glucose and intense in the Pale Ales. While P contained two types of caramel and another coloured sugar called Special Dark.

Other than in P, the sugar content was quite low at under 5% of the grist. 10-15% was more typical. The lack of No. 3 invert in the Milds and burtons is surprising. It was pretty standard in dark Ales by this point.

Fullers grists in 1939 (grains)
Date Beer Style OG pale malt black malt flaked maize
30th Oct X Mild 1032.7 80.46% 14.78%
6th Nov XX Mild 1042.7 80.85% 13.94%
24th Oct AK Pale Ale 1033.4 81.33% 14.79%
17th Oct XK Pale Ale 1039.4 82.64% 14.58%
24th Oct PA Pale Ale 1051.1 81.33% 14.79%
9th Nov P Porter 1038.5 66.93% 8.37% 8.37%
18th Oct BO Strong Ale 1055.5 81.66% 13.87%
8th Nov OBE Strong Ale 1069.6 81.00% 14.44%
Source:
Fullers brewing records held at the brewery


Fullers grists in 1939 (sugars)
Date Beer Style OG no. 2 sugar glucose carameline London caramel Sp. Dark Intense
30th Oct X Mild 1032.7 3.28% 1.48%
6th Nov XX Mild 1042.7 3.72% 1.50%
24th Oct AK Pale Ale 1033.4 2.46% 1.23% 0.18%
17th Oct XK Pale Ale 1039.4 1.30% 1.30% 0.19%
24th Oct PA Pale Ale 1051.1 2.46% 1.23% 0.18%
9th Nov P Porter 1038.5 2.79% 2.39% 11.16%
18th Oct BO Strong Ale 1055.5 3.08% 1.39%
8th Nov OBE Strong Ale 1069.6 3.35% 1.21%
Source:
Fullers brewing records held at the brewery



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