Help Finding Old English Beer Recipes Around 1918-1932

[bluedoors]

G'day all,
My great grandfather was a brewer back in England and I'm trying to find recipes similar to what he would have brewed so that I can brew it myself.

I'm hoping someone on here may be able to help me. I've spoken with my Gran and have the following information to go on.

we think he worked for the brewery from around 1918 until around 1932 - he may even have worked for them before he went off to WWI.
the brewery was owned by George Bridgewater and it was situated behind the Victoria Inn
in those days in the "Black Country" (the region where my Great Granny & Grandad were brought up that is just WSW of Birmingham) there were quite a lot of small breweries that supplied just a handful of tied pubs in the nearby towns/villages/streets
As well as working at the brewery, Great Grandad managed two pubs - the "Bird in Hand" at Brierly Hill and then, later, the "Victoria Inn" in Dudley Wood Road, Netherton
we think the owner (George) went bankrupt due, it is said, to fast women and slow horses!
we don't have details of the beers but the standard beers for the Midlands were - Mild & Bitter.

Any assistance or pointers to archives would be greatly received.

 

[felten]

Maybe you could have a squiz at http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/ or sending a message to the guy who runs it.

 

[Shed101]

G'day all,
My great grandfather was a brewer back in England and I'm trying to find recipes similar to what he would have brewed so that I can brew it myself.

I'm hoping someone on here may be able to help me. I've spoken with my Gran and have the following information to go on.

we think he worked for the brewery from around 1918 until around 1932 - he may even have worked for them before he went off to WWI.
the brewery was owned by George Bridgewater and it was situated behind the Victoria Inn
in those days in the "Black Country" (the region where my Great Granny & Grandad were brought up that is just WSW of Birmingham) there were quite a lot of small breweries that supplied just a handful of tied pubs in the nearby towns/villages/streets
As well as working at the brewery, Great Grandad managed two pubs - the "Bird in Hand" at Brierly Hill and then, later, the "Victoria Inn" in Dudley Wood Road, Netherton
we think the owner (George) went bankrupt due, it is said, to fast women and slow horses!
we don't have details of the beers but the standard beers for the Midlands were - Mild & Bitter.

Any assistance or pointers to archives would be greatly received.

Good on your granddad :icon_cheers:

Don't know the source of any specific recipes, although I reckon aiming for something like Banks's Mild wouldn't be a bad bet. It's the right part of the country.
http://www.marstonsbeercompany.co.uk/our_b...bankss-mild.asp

Until about the 1960s Bitter was very much the wealthier man's option. Mild would have been the working man's drink... in copious quantities.

Due to austerity measures, wars, forthcoming depression, etc, alcoholic strength was dropping in that era, even Milds which could have been surprisingly strong were weakening.

The Mild refers not to the strength, but to it being very fresh, never more than a couple of weeks old, so it's fairly sweet. In Victorian times Mild could have been any strength, hoppy or not, etc, etc, but it had to be young.

Breweries were fast disappearing in the era too, not just 'cos of the birds and hosses, but a number of factors like the temperance movement (Teetotal British PM Lloyd George's (PM 1916-22) maiden parliamentary speech was about Temperance!), bigger brewers muscling in on the little ones and so on. Until this time all towns had their own breweries ... lucky bastards!

 

[MHB]

Try here: - Durden Park Beer Circle and the book is well worth buying
MHB

 

[super_simian]

Maybe you could have a squiz at http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/ or sending a message to the guy who runs it.

BOOM! Read that site, read it well. If you want a list of all the "Let's Brew" recipes, they are collected and updated HERE. I can spend hours reading them. Hours...

 

[Bribie G]

Missed this thread until now. Yes Barclay Perkins guy is brilliant. The thing about brewing prewar beers is that most modern malts and hops used in the UK were introduced from the 1960s, even favourites like Maris Otter and Challenger hops are fairly modern. If you are looking for Midlands styles, I'd stick with a fairly middle of the road malt such as Perle or Halcyon, and use a shedload of Fuggles that would have been sourced mostly from Herefordshire down the road from Brum. For colour, a healthy dose of caramelised sugar would be typical - I don't know if you can still get Parisian Essence in the supermarkets, it would be similar to what they would put in many of their dark milds.

Also, in the interwar years the use of maize and sugar was still very widespread due to wartime shortages and financial reasons during the depression. You could go 5% maize or sugar, or even more and be quite authentic for the era, and use a liquid Wyeast like English Cask.

 

[Malted]

BOOM! Read that site, read it well. If you want a list of all the "Let's Brew" recipes, they are collected and updated HERE. I can spend hours reading them. Hours...

Give the monkey a banana, that's a terrific link!

 

[bluedoors]

Thanks for the tips. That barclay perkins is great and has given me some direction.

i've tracked down the pub that the brewery was behind
http://www.the-victoria-inn.co.uk/index.html

But they don't have an email address so i'll try and give them a call and see if the current owners know anything of its history.

 

[Fourstar]

old brewing texts are just as good if you want to do the research yourself.

http://www.archive.org
http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=br...diatype%3Atexts