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The two world wars. Not that pleasant for those caught up in them, but a godsend for me. Loads and loads of material.

In case your memory is a Swiss cheese like as mine, I'll remind you that this is part of the public bar price list series. It will include every one of Barclay Perkins draught beers from the middle years of WW II. Stylistically, this is a personal favourite: KK. Or, as the average punter would have called it, Burton.

I've been poking around in Whitbread's late 19th-century brewing records of late. After a couple of decade's worth, I've stared getting a feel for the qualities of each beer quality (they didn't call them styles back then). For K Ales, it's the hopping that stands out. Lots and lots of good quality hops. Even more than in their Pale Ale.

Of course, that's only logical. K Ales were Keeping or Stock Ales, meant to be matured for many months before sale. For Victorian brewers it was simple. The longer a beer was to be kept, the more heavily you hopped it. The right level of hopping was essential to keep a beer sound without refrigeration. That's the reason for the heavy hopping in British beers in the 19th century. It was all to do with the antiseptic qualities of hops, not flavour.

Today's beer is from a later period. By the middle of the 20th century, true Stock Ales had all but disappeared. Running Ales dominated. This KK is no exception. It wouldn't have been kept for any great length of time before consumption. A couple of weeks at most. During the war years, probably less than that. But, although no longer required for its preservative effect, heavy hopping was still a characteristic of Burton. Wartime hop shortages, however (about which I'll be posting more this week), had driven down the hopping rates of all types. KK remained more heavily hopped than Barclay Perkins Bitter, XLK.

I must write a longer piece on K Ales in general and Burton in particular. I'm still amazed at how quickly it was forgotten as a style. How could that have happened? Will it ever make a comeback? It would be great if it did. I'd certainly drink it down the pub. Hoppy, strong Mild is sort of what it is.Surely that would fit in with modern taste?





On that optimistic note, it's over to Kristen . . . . .






Barclay Perkins - 1942 - KK
General info: With this beer you would think the 'KK' stands for double kitchen sink! There are so many different types of malts and adjuncts. A definite mish-mash of ingredients for such a low gravity beer. Butt loads of hops really make this hop forward and reminiscent of a modern day IPA without the gravity. Lots of complexity. Lots of caramel. Enjoy.
Beer Specifics


Recipe by percentages
Gravity (OG)
1.043


4% Torrefied Barley
10.5% Flaked Rye
Gravity (FG)
1.012


3.6% Amber malt
3.5% Lager malt
ABV
4.13%


1.7% Brown Malt
7% Flaked Maize
Apparent attenuation
72.09%


5.3% Crystal malt
9.3% invert no2
Real attenuation
59.06%


34.9% Mild malt
0% 0
IBU
52.3


36.6% English pale malt
1.7Caramel
SRM
41













EBC
80.9


Mash
90min@151°F


0.97qt/lb





90min@66.1°C


2.04L/kg
Caramel to add
32srm

















Boil
1.5 hours




















Homebrew @ 70%
Craft @ 80%
Grist
5gal

19L

10bbl

10hl

Torrefied Barley
0.28
lb
0.127
kg
15.13
lb
5.85
kg
Amber malt
0.25
lb
0.115
kg
13.71
lb
5.30
kg
Brown Malt
0.12
lb
0.053
kg
6.35
lb
2.46
kg
Crystal malt (70-80L)
0.37
lb
0.169
kg
20.17
lb
7.79
kg
Mild malt
2.44
lb
1.111
kg
132.38
lb
51.15
kg
English pale malt
2.56
lb
1.167
kg
139.00
lb
53.71
kg
Rye, malted
0.73
lb
0.333
kg
39.72
lb
15.34
kg
Lager malt
0.24
lb
0.111
kg
13.24
lb
5.11
kg
Flaked Maize
0.49
lb
0.222
kg
26.48
lb
10.23
kg
invert no2
0.65
lb
0.296
kg
35.30
lb
13.64
kg








379.71





Hops












Goldings 4.5% 90min (39bu)
1.95
oz
55.2
g
120.68
oz
2.916
kg
Goldings 4.5% 30min (13bu)
0.96
oz
27.2
g
59.44
oz
1.436
kg
Goldings 4.5% dry hop
0.79
oz
22.3
g
48.82
oz
1.180
kg















Fermentation
68°F /20°C












Yeast
Nottingham ale yeast


1028 London Ale Yeast - WLP013 London Ale Yeast


















Tasting Notes: Hop resin and spice. Citrus and deep toasty malt. Toasted biscuits covered in caramel. A bit of figgy raisins and grain husk. Very dry with a mouth filling hop flavor and the resins continue through the finish.



Kristen’s Version:
Here we go, a few more new things. You’ll see I carried on with the ‘bu’ count in each hop addition so one doesn’t need to recalculate. I’m also adding an ‘advanced’ mashing schedule which is below. You may follow the simple single infusion above or the more advanced mashing techniques verbatim from the brewing log. Since the backlash against the ‘what color really was caramel’ thing, I’ve decided to include the number of EBC you need to add with caramel. So, its left to you to add the caramel by your own calculations or leave it out. This way will ensure that each persons beer can be specified down to the type of caramel, lot number, day of production, location, weather and feelings of the producer at the time. Use as you will. I’m also breaking things down into ingredients and processes. Feed back as usually is great. Post or email me directly. Education_director@bjcp.org.

Ingredients

Grist - I’ve made this one with and without mild malt. I prefer it with but it’s a pain to find most times and it really doesn’t add that much. This one does very well with Maris Otter which is pretty much my non-bready UK pale malt of choice. Amber and brown malt are mandatory. www.northernbrewer.com has mild, amber and brown malt and will ship anywhere for a flat rate. You UK guys can get all of them at http://www.brewuk.co.uk. I was referred to them by a buddy so if somewhere else has them, use whatever you’d like. The crystal malt, as always, is the 75L stuff…right about there anyway. I do prefer terrified barley over flaked stuff in nearly every instance as its more elegant and less doughy. The exception would be Guinness-type stouts. At 4% its really not going to make a massive difference here. That being said, the rye is pretty important that it’s the malted type. Nearly 11% does come through and I find that I get more of a spicy ‘rye’ flavor from the malted version than the duller rye from the flaked. I’ve used rye chops also and it worked great but you need to cereal cook it which adds more than you really need to do. Either way, make sure you don’t leave the rye out. Lager malt. Drop it and just add more pale malt. Do note that every low percent ingredient you cut out and replace it can really start making large changes to the whole recipe. Invert No2 does lend a unique ‘fruity’ character but if you haven’t made this before the golden syrup does very well in its place. Use it if you can get it easy or make it. If not, do your best. That goes for pretty much everything in perpetuity throughout the universe, over and over, until the end of time, when it comes to these recipes. Plan ahead. Do your best. That’s all. Don’t lose the forest for the trees. We are trying our best to recreate each recipe to the best of our ability.

Hops - Tonnes of very fresh Goldings. Any Golding’s will do. I used a Nugget hops for the bittering, Brewer’s Gold for the finishing and some home grown Golding’s for the dry hop. The biggest difference you’ll see is if you swap out high AA% hops for the bittering as the extra ‘greenery’ of the low AA% adds a lot to the flavor profile of the beer.

Yeast – For these K-type beers I really like the White Shield strain as it gives a very nice mineral profile, a good dose of fruit and no butter. Dries out well also.

Processes

Advanced Mash – BP at this time did a simple 2-3 step mash. Dough in near the rest temp for about 30min. Another infusion by underlet (search Barclay Perkins) and then a sparge (165F/74C) that was usually quite long. I’ve done both ways, single vs advance, and the advanced just made the sparge much easier and the beer dry out a bit more. You are left up to find the hot liquor temperature needed on your system to achieve the temperatures below.

Mash
ºF
ºC
Time
Dough in
147
64
30
Underlet
152
67
90



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