Brewing Like the British
Let’s face it. Brewers in England brew at home for very
different reasons than brewers in the United States. In the United Kingdom
take-home beer is very expensive, and people brew at home so that they can save
money. In this country take-home beer is very cheap, so brewers are brewing at
home to improve on the quality.
Of course there’s more to it than that; the $3,000 RIM
system could only have been invented, much less sold, in the States. The
American trait of applying technology to everything has led to some remarkable
innovations. The English homebrewer is much more likely to be opening a can of
extract and boiling it on the stove than worrying about excessive wort
splashing causing hot-side aeration.
They’ll be sprinkling a dried yeast sachet on top of the
plastic bucket rather than doing step-up propagation on their live Belgian
Abbey pure yeast culture.
A friend of mine once did a survey for a national British
tabloid about the various homebrew kits available and concluded that they were
all good if you just followed the directions exactly. In other words don’t try
to be creative.
An important thing to remember about British beer is that
the tax or excise duty on beer is very high. When I last brewed professionally
in the United Kingdom, more than 50 percent of the sales price of a cask of ale
was excise duty. The duty is assessed directly proportionally to the beer’s
alcohol content. The stronger the beer the higher the tax, the more expensive
the pint.
This means two things: 1) that British beers tend to be
fairly low in alcohol, and 2) that beers for export, which are exempt from
duty, are brewed stronger. Also, there has always been a tendency for British
brewers to brew stronger beers for export, so they may be more likely to “hold
up to” both the long sea voyage and also the low serving temperatures
encountered in “the colonies.”
An exciting day for me at my brewery in England was the day
I managed to surreptitiously get hold of a case of beer destined for export
from a famous London brewery. It had the same name on the label as the
brewery’s domestic product, but instead of the usual 1.055 original gravity,
this stuff was 1.072. A completely different beer but labeled with the same
name.
Malt and Mashing
Although around half of the British beer market consists of
Euro-style lagers such as Harp, McEwans, Skol, Orangeboom, Carling Black Label
and, yes, Budweiser, you likely have no interest in learning how to brew them.
When you think of British brewing you tend to think of the styles that are
unique to the British Isles: bitter, best bitter, extra special bitter, brown
ale, mild, sweet stout, Scottish ale, India pale ale, old ale, and barleywine.
One of the first considerations when brewing beers that
taste just like the British beers is replicating the ingredients they are
using. While, generally speaking, malts, hops, and yeast available in America
are similar, the differences among them are important and add up to quite large
differences in the final beers.
Barley varieties grown in England are grown with ale brewing
in mind and have certain characteristics that go along with British brewing
practice and technology. Maris Otter, Pipkin, and Halcyon, for example, are low
in nitrogen (contribute less protein for haze formation). Golden Promise is a
variety prized by Scottish brewers for the rich, malty flavor it provides.
British grains are malted more slowly to give a more even
grain-to-grain modification. Then they are kilned to a lower moisture content,
which results in more flavor and a malt that mills easily using a simple
two-roller mill. In a simple infusion mash the low moisture makes it easier to
hit the correct mash temperature.
In America barley varieties tend to be grown to suit the
farmer’s needs, and brewers invest in the technology to better utilize it.
Brewers mash using a simple single-temperature infusion mash, varying the
temperature around 147° to 152° F. Colors come from amber, crystal, chocolate,
and roasted malt and roasted barley, or caramel sugars added to the kettle or
directly to the beer.
Any pH adjustment is likely to come from calcium added to
the mash or inorganic acid added directly to the kettle. Due to the relative
insolubility of gypsum and the difficulty of getting it into solution in the
mash water, it is usual to add the dry gypsum to the malt as it goes through
the mill.
Another area in which British and American brewers differ is
in the length of the mash run-off. A method of brewing known as the parti-gyle
system is still in operation in many British breweries. A single large mash tun
feeds two or three kettles with wort of different strengths. They are boiled
separately with different hop amounts, then blended in different proportions
to arrive at two or three different beers of different strengths from the same
mash.
This means a couple of things. First, the mash runs off for
several hours and second, the last runnings are often very weak (as low as
1.002) and contain a good deal of astringency. This is perhaps why English
beers are a little more bitter tasting than the hopping rate may suggest.
The traditional mash stand of an hour and a half is very
much rooted in tradition. The brewer would start the brewing day by mashing in
very early, then he would go home for breakfast and change clothes before
returning to “set taps.”
Water is another area in which there is a great deal of
variation. The water in London is hard due to the chalky soil, the water in
Scotland is soft, and in Burton-on-Trent the water is very high in calcium and
sulfate, so the different beer styles all require their own specific water
treatments.
Hops and Boiling
Whole-flower hops are much more commonly used in Britain
than in the United States because most brewers have not invested in whirlpools
and still use the traditional hop back. This is an open vessel with screens in
the bottom that uses the hop leaves to strain the wort through, much as the
screens in the mash tun. Homebrewers can use their mashing vessels in much the same way.
There are classic British hops, which deserve “noble”
status. Fuggle is a mellow, well-rounded variety that is ideal for a true
English flavor, while East Kent Goldings is an edgier, more assertive hop that
imparts a distinguished English aroma.
The commonly used hop varieties have remained the same over
the years, but many British brewers are using American hops. One famous
real-ale brewery uses a lot of Mount Hood hops.
Many British brewers will add extracts, sugars, and syrups in
the kettle to increase the gravity of their stronger beers. I once produced a
session bitter that had 20 percent invert sugar (glucose/fructose mix) as part
of the grist, and that was added to the kettle, where it would dissolve more
easily.
Yeast and Fermentation
Fermentation characteristics are a prominent part of the
flavor profile of British beers. The higher fermentation temperatures,
controlled early temperature rise, open fermentation vessels, yeast skimming,
and relatively short aging period all contribute unique characters to British
beers.
Yeast strains are prized for their resilience and hardiness
(resistance to mutation) and for their ability to remove themselves from the
fermentation when their work is done (flocculation) perhaps more than the
flavors they produce. After the bulk of the sugar is converted to alcohol, CO2,
and flavor compounds, English ale yeast rise to the surface of the fermenter on
bubbles of CO2. Once there, they can be scooped from the surface, or “skimmed.”
This yeast is the most viable (alive) and is prime yeast to
be used for subsequent repitching. It should be relatively free of dead cells,
trub, and bacteria and so perhaps will need to be repropagated less often. I
know of one brewery that has been using the same strain for more than 200
years.
Alternatively the beer may be transferred to another vessel,
or “dropped,” leaving the yeast behind. This allows the top crop of yeast to be
mixed with some of the bottom crop. Some British breweries still use mixed
yeast cultures, where more than one strain is present in the pitching yeast
(although this practice is not as widespread in England as it is in Belgium).
Some brewers prize the flavors generated by their yeast so
much that they design a unique fermentation system to cater to their needs.
Marstons in Burton-on-Trent still uses the last remaining Burton Union
fermentation system, and Sam Smith’s in Tadcaster has Yorkshire Square
fermenters. The Burton Union system uses a series of barrels and troughs to
settle yeast that is non-flocculent, while the Yorkshire Square system uses
two-chambered vessels and pumps to keep a very flocculent yeast in suspension.
British brewers often find that the fermentations have to be
occasionally stirred or “roused” to keep the yeast in suspension until its work
is done. I remember that most pitching yeast strains in British breweries have
a degree of contamination present. A wise old brewer once told me that at least
one of the major brewers would only reject a pitching yeast if the
Lactobacillus rod count was more than 6 percent of the total cells (a far
higher percentage than that allowed at most breweries).
Viability was always high, and the yeast was always stored
in open buckets in a refrigerator where the yeast cells would be in contact
with air. Hence lag phases at the start of fermentations were usually short.
This resulted in a rapid drop in pH; indeed British beers have a lower overall
pH and protection from the effects of too much contamination. Wort was usually
aerated simply by dropping it into the vessel from a great height, and yeast
were often “fed” either with a commercial yeast food or by adding some yeast to
the kettle during boiling.
If your fermentations are sluggish and your yeast don’t grow
too well, then try sprinkling some dried yeast in the wort while it’s boiling.
The cells will be destroyed and will add to the nutrients in the wort.
Conditioning and Serving
Of course much of the beer produced in Great Britain is
destined to be bulk conditioned, filtered, and pasteurized then kegged,
bottled, or canned. Some of it is filled out of the fermenter into the
container in which it will undergo its maturation and then ultimately shipped
to the customer and drunk from that same container. This is known as
cask-conditioned beer and is probably the beer style for which Britain is most
famous.
This beer is clarified using isinglass finings, which cause
the yeast to form larger clumps that settle to the bottom of the vessel more rapidly.
This rapid clarification method avoids the need for filtration, which will
strip some color and flavor compounds from the beer. English beers are
traditionally served at 50° to 55° F, so the need for chill-proofing the beer
is not there.
Reinheitsgebot is a German Word
Remember that Reinheitsgebot is a German word; not only can
the British not pronounce it, they also don’t obey it (although one English
brewer who produced a natural lager went to the trouble of sending a sample to
Germany to get it certified as “pure.”)
As a rule the British are quite happy to use hop extracts
and essences, sugars and syrups, acids in the kettle, coloring agents, even
preservatives in the beer. If your Scottish ale doesn’t taste sweet, then add
some sugar to the finished beer; the Scottish brewers do. If you’re
disappointed in your ESB’s hop aroma, then add hop oil to the beer; a major
British producer does. Make a porter by blending your amber ale with your
stout. You can take some black malt and boil it in a muslin bag to make an extract
that can be used to adjust the color or roast flavor of any beer.
Beer Is for Drinking
Although the venerable bard of beer, Michael Jackson, hails
from the moors of Yorkshire, it is important to realize that most British beer
drinkers, and perhaps brewers, subscribe to the following opinion put forth
recently by a former head brewer of one of the Big Six British breweries:
“I have to admit that the whole of my social background and
my professional experience has convinced me that beer is the drink of the
masses. It is not intended to be the exclusive preserve of a discerning,
bibulous elite, nor savoured, knowingly and ostentatiously, by our rulers or
those who would influence opinion.
Even less, should the minute details of its ingredients,
production, flavour, aroma, or physiological effect be the subject of prolonged,
intense, intellectual or sensual debate. No, beer is made for quaffing, in
large quantities and often.”
__________
Thoughts on Style
I’ve always been interested in the history of India pale
ale. I was always aware that early British brewers made very strong beers with
huge amounts of hops (the alcohol and hops preserve beer) for shipment
overseas. I could never reconcile this fact with the two local brewers who
offered draft IPAs that would barely survive a trip out of the county. They
were both excellent beer, although a little light in gravity. Also, if I were a
British soldier stationed in hot, humid India, the last thing I would want to
drink is a 9 percent alcohol, 100 IBU ale.
A recent conversation with a British malt salesman and
brewer may shed some light on this dilemma. He proposed that the strong beer,
which was shipped to India, was watered down with local water when it arrived
and that the early British brewers were just high-gravity brewing, something
that every large brewer in the world does today. I suspect that some of the
concentrated beer was made available to the officers.
Another style often ignored is mild. So called because mild
is the opposite of bitter, in the same way that sweet is the opposite of dry.
Milds are always brewed to a low gravity, are malty and smooth, and have very
little bitterness.
When I brewed in England old ales were between a special
bitter and a barleywine. The original gravities were around 1.060 and all had
the word “old” in the name. Old ale has also become a name for very strong
beers, brewed occasionally and designed to be aged a very long time. Gales
Prize Old Ale, Lee’s Harvest, and Thomas Hardy are fine examples. An old friend
was once head brewer of Mackesons and told me the finished beer was
“sweetened” with lactose.
I am often asked “just how bitter are bitters?” British brewers
use hops at a rate of around one pound per imperial barrel, which corresponds
to one pound in 43 US gallons (less than two ounces per five-gallon batch). The
guidelines for British bitter at the Great American Beer Festival call for
bitterness levels between 20 and 40 IBUs. A good deal of the bitter character
may come from the extended running of the mash.
Another misconception is that Scottish brewers use
peat-smoked malt for brewing. Only the whiskey distillers mash with it.
