Cellarmanship in the 1920s (part eight)

Still giving this dead animal a protracted beating. As you do. I need to fill up each day with something.

Here are some handy hints on how to keep your beer engine in good order.

"The beer engine (we refer to it here because it is so closely connected with the cellar) should be thoroughly cleaned, with all taps and pipes, at least once a week. To clean :— Disconnect the pipe from the cask, and drain off the beer (this beer should afterwards be used for rinsing the pipes).

Dissolve half a pound of soda in a bucket of hot water, and draw this liquor through the pipes, and leave them full all night. In the morning, draw off and thoroughly wash out, by pulling a bucketful of cold water through each pipe, then pull through the beer first drawn out, so that the pipes are rinsed with beer.

Great care should be taken that the pipes are properly connected up, and that all washers are in good condition, for, if the engine is allowed to suck in air, the beer will probably become cloudy."
"The Art and Practice of Innkeeping" by Alexander Francis Part, published by Heinemann London, 1922, page 202.

I find it interesting that the beer drained from the pipes was used to rinse them out later. I suppose it makes sense and is quite economical. My guess is that far from all publicans followed such a vigourous weekly cleaning regime. This look at London Porter quality in the period shows just how lacks many publicans were.

These lists of equipment for a pub cellar remind me of the deliberately random lists of shit I'd specify for my Christmas Drinkalongathon.

"The Brewers will, almost always, supply corks, spiles, porous spiles, and scotches, and a supply must always be kept.

The following are among the other implements necessary for a well-equipped cellar :

Beer Dip.
Jar Dip.
Spirit Rod.
Spiral Dip.
Double Slide Rule, and book of instructions for use.
Sike's Hydrometer and Table Book.
Tape measure.
Stave gauging for gauging the thickness of wood.
Plumb Line.
Sample Dipper.
Small Sample Dipper.

All the above are necessary for stock-taking.

The above-mentioned articles are not indispensable in a small house, but the following articles should be in every house:

A Tool-case or Chest.
Scantling.
A Saw.
Mallet.
Beer Taps, various.
Porous Spile.
Hard Spile.
Flannel filter.
Automatic Barrel Tilts.
Lead Piping and Rubber Tubing, several lengths of each. (The latter should be kept off the floor, unless the latter is perfectly dry and smooth.)
Mops.
Pails.
A range of Copper Measures, undented, to hold 5 gallons, 4, 3, 2, 1, and 0.5 gallon respectively.
Funnel for Beer.
Funnel for Spirits.
Cellar Candlestick, with long handle.
Strips of Paper for beer taps.
Filter Papers, Finings."
"The Art and Practice of Innkeeping" by Alexander Francis Part, published by Heinemann London, 1922, page 203.

Some of the items are revealing, as they look like what you'd need for returning slops to a cask. I'm looking at funnel and filter. What else would you be using those for in a cellar? Other. like the lead piping, sound more like potential murder weapons.

Another reason for drinking bottled beer

I’m so pleased that I found these letter in the Yorkshire Evening Post. It explains both why some drinkers eschewed bottled beer and reminds me of my youth.

What’s being described is a autovac or economiser. A way of serving beer that was standard in any Leeds pub with handpulls. But also the reason why when I arrived in the city in 1975 almost every pub used electric pumps.

“Beer overspill
A. M (Leeds 8): It is time the practice "pulling the plug" out of the beer trough was discontinued. This method of getting rid the over-spill is unhygienic.

Every pint or half-pint drawn is swilled over the glass into the trough, and a proportion is drawn back through the pump into the glass. I have no complaint against the publican, as he cannot afford the loss of much beer, but it is time the brewers did something about this so-called modern method of beer saving.”
Yorkshire Evening Post - Wednesday 17 June 1953, page 4.

The point was to serve a pint with a creamy head in a brim measure glass. To get the right effect you needed to pull at least a pint and a quarter to fill a pint. Which would be a lot of beer to throw down the drain. Reusing the overspill as described was the obvious solution.

There’s been some discussion recently of just how traditional a creamy Yorkshire head is. I seem to remember someone saying it only developed after WW II. The description of the Univac as a modern method of saving beer implies that its use was a fairly recent development.

I’ve just searched for autovac and it’s clear from this advert that they were in use before the war:

“DALEX 2-pull Beer Pump, fitted with auto-vac, no waste; nearly new. McGowan, Craven St., Hull.”
Yorkshire Evening Post - Saturday 18 July 1936, page 2.

The “no waste” promise is a sure sign they expected to owner to be pulling tight, creamy heads.

This customer agrees that the use of an autovac was unhygienic and had taken measures:

“Beer overspill
P. M. (Leeds 7): A. M. (Leeds 8) makes pertinent comment on beer overspill. Until something Is done about serving beer in more civilised, hygienic way. I drink bottled beer (and ask for the bottle and a dry glass).

It would be simple to make glasses taller and mark them with half-pint one pint line. It would then be possible to get both beer and froth inside the glass.”
Yorkshire Evening Post - Friday 19 June 1953, page 4.

His suggestion was taken up. In the early 1970’s it was ruled that autovacs were unhygienic and as a result Leeds pubs ripped out their handpumps and replaced them with metered electric pumps. As the pumps were metered oversized glasses could be used without the risk of serving a long measure. That’s why there were virtually no hand pumps when I arrived in Leeds.

There was only one tiny little problem. Tetley’s didn’t taste right served that way. In 1976 handpumps started to reappear in Tetley’s pubs. Within a few years all the electric pumps were gone.

You know what’s really weird? I feel dead nostalgic for electric pumps. They were everywhere when I started drinking. Are there any still in use?

Cask beer in the 1950’s – Pipes, Taps and Pumps (part two)

This has been the year for interminable series. Though I doubt I’ll ever match the series on draught beer quality in the 1920’s That lasted almost a year. I’m amazed I saw it through.

As for now, we’re back down in the cellar, rubber mallet in hand about to tap a cask.

“As regards taps, we wish to impress upon our readers the necessity for having sufficient of them to tap every cask as soon as it is placed on the stillion. It is then possible to sample the contents from time to time in order to see how they are behaving, without the necessity for boring a hole in the head. This often-indulged practice ruins a head very quickly. When every cask is tapped, the next one due for consumption can be examined in plenty of time, in order to ascertain if it is in good condition. In this way, an awkward situation which often crops up is avoided, when a cask is tapped immediately before being required and unfortunately proves to be thick. To work thus from hand to mouth is only inviting trouble.”
"Brewing Theory and Practice" by E. J. Jeffery, 1956, page 255.

Again, this sounds like very good advice. If you wait to tap a barrel there’s always a chance you’ll disturb it. Drilling through the head sounds just crazy. You can feel the brewer’s exasperation of landlords ruining his casks through stupid practices. It’s clear he wasn’t very impressed with publicans in general.

Now the taps themselves:

“It is satisfactory to note that it has at last been realized that the construction of a beer tap is not only of importance, but that there is room for much improvement in its design. For a long time, the brass tap with the angular neck, and rough internal passage left just as it came out of the casting mould, was in general use. Only the outside was polished up a little in order to make the tap look more attractive. A dirtier and more difficult utensil to clean was never made. Some of these taps are still to be found, but they should be immediately discarded and more modern and cleaner ones substituted. The angular outlet has been dispensed with, and the tap is more like a straight piece of pipe. It is tapered, turned, and perforated at one end. A plug valve as before is situated in the middle, and the remaining open end screwed for the union coupling. A screwed blank cap to fit the open end is provided, and this cap is adjusted for tapping purposes. Were it not for this provision the threads on the screwed ends of the cap might get knocked up by the hammering.

Of still greater importance, the perforated end of the tap can also be unscrewed, thus giving a clear passage through from end to end and making the tap easy to clean. The internal surface of the tap is also made as smooth as glass, so that there is no excuse for any tap being unclean.”
"Brewing Theory and Practice" by E. J. Jeffery, 1956, page 255.

Back in the 1970’s when me and my brother Dave had half a dozen wooden firkins, we used a wooden tap. My guess is that it was never 100% clean after the first time it was used. A brass tap, as described above, would have been much better. But they were too damn expensive.

The old-style brass taps, with an unfinished interior sound almost as bad as our wooden one in terms of hygiene. The perforated end is the bit that goes inside the barrel, the perforations being what the beer gets into the tap through. While holding back and hops in the cask.

Now it’s the turn of beer engines:

“We have often heard beer pumps alluded to as 'devils in disguise'. From the brewer's point of view this description may have been warranted, because, with so many hidden corners in which dirt could accumulate, and with bucket leathers to go soft and slimy, trouble with beer was often traceable to the pumps. It is impossible to imagine how trade in some houses could possibly have been carried on without them, with the cellar some distance away: from the beer-drawer's point of view, a notice to the effect that all beers are drawn direct from the wood is a great selling point."
"Brewing Theory and Practice" by E. J. Jeffery, 1956, pages 255 - 256.

Note how cleanliness is a recurring theme. Soft and slimy bucket leathers sound pretty vile. Yet another way for beer to get infected. It took me a while to work out what the last sentence meant. By “drawn direct from the wood” he means as opposed to being first filled into a jug in the cellar, then into the glass.

This doesn’t sound good:

“The trouble involved in replacing bucket leathers has been responsible for much evil with pumps. "When the pumps get worn, beer passes back into the casks and disturbs the sediment. We are therefore more than delighted to note that it is now possible to obtain pumps in which no leather or any similar soft material is used in connection with the plungers. In fact, an all-metal plunger is fitted. The improvement is a great one, and should in itself advertise the use of such a type of beer pump.”
"Brewing Theory and Practice" by E. J. Jeffery, 1956, page 256.

I’m not sure I see how beer can get from the pump back into the cask, but it’s obviously not a good idea. Not just from the point of view of sediment. It could also get dirt into the cask.

Finally, more good advice about cleanliness:

“Before leaving the subject of beer pipes, taps and pumps, we would impress upon the users of them the absolute necessity for cleaning the whole system with hot water and soda or better still one of the newer detergents at least once a week in winter, and twice a week in summer. A clean pipe is easy to keep clean if systematic attention is given to it, but once allowed to get fouled, it is extremely difficult to sterilize. Incalculable harm and loss of trade will result from dirty pipes.”
"Brewing Theory and Practice" by E. J. Jeffery, 1956, page 256.

How true is that last sentence. When I was in Brooklyn last year I ate in a Polish restaurant with Dann and Martha of Pretty Things. Despite there being a couple of draught Lager on the menu, Dann chose something bottled, unlike me. It tasted a bit weird. I gave Dann a taste and he said: “Dirty pipes. That’s why I went for a bottle.”

Fining and secondary fermentation next. Before we get to the fascinating topic of ullage.

American Chilled and carbonated draught beer (part two)

We're back in 1890's USA, looking at the tricky problem of how to get highly carbonated beer into a barrel without it frothing all over the place.

What we're talking about is basically keg beer. The Americans were miles ahead of British brewers in brewing this type of beer. While chilled and carbonated bottled beer was adopted relatively quickly in Britain, it wasn't until after WW II that keg beer was produced on any scale. We all know about Watneys introducing keg beer in the 1930's, but there had been an earlier attempt.

In his delightful book "Seventy Rolling Years", Sydney Nevile mentions an attempt by Worthington to introduce American-style draught beer around 1911. It failed because drinkers didn't like the taste. I can understand why the situation was different in the USA. There drinkers had been exposed to draught Lager, which was more similar to this type of keg beer than British cask Ale.

We'll start with the technical stuff:

"The ale leaves the filter at a temperature of 35° to 36C F., in an absolutely brilliant state, and highly charged with carbonic acid, and it has now to be racked into casks whilst still under pressure, and in such a manner as to allow of these being completely filled and bunged down, without any "fobbing," or loss of ale or gas.

These are by no means easy conditions to fulfil, and a great deal of mechanical ingenuity has been exercised in devising suitable racking machinery.

Some of the machines are of a very complicated nature, but there is one which, for simplicity and effectiveness combined, leaves nothing to be desired; this is the racking machine of the Golden Gates Manufacturing Company of New York.

The cold and carbonated ale from the fillers, without being released from its initial pressure, is, in the first instance, conducted into a large copper main, fixed horizontally on wall brackets at a suitable height in the cellar. This main is furnished with any desired number of cocks, to which flexible pipes are attached, and these flexible pipes are furnished at their free ends with metal faucets of a peculiar construction, which admit of being easily and tightly connected with a special metal valve fixed into the tap-hole of each cask. This valve in its normal position, is closed, but on giving the faucet a quarter turn the valve opens, and, on opening the cock above, the ale flows into the cask.
Journal of the Federated Institutes of Brewing, Volume 3, Issue 6, November-December 1897, pages 472 - 473.

I find this interesting: they're filling the barrels through the tap hole. How strange. That's now got me wondering if these were German-style or British-style barrels. The difference being that a British barrel has the tap hole at the bottom of one of the barrel heads, whereas a German barrel has it as the bottom of one of the barrel sides.

This next bit is really clever. I suspect this is exactly how highly-carbonated beer is filled into kegs today.

"It is evident that if the bung-holes of the cask were left open when the main cocks were turned on, the rush of ale into the cask, under the high pressure existing in the main, would result in an enormous amount of "fobbing," which would prevent the cask from being properly filled, and would result in a waste of ale and loss of gas. This is prevented by the following simple device.

There is another copper main running parallel with the racking main, and in connection with a reservoir of compressed air or carbonic acid gas which is always maintained at a pressure just below that of the ale to be racked. There is a series of taps in this second main, also furnished with flexible tubes terminating in faucets, which can be connected with metal valves fitted into the bung-hole of each cask. Before filling the ale into the casks these connections are made, and a back pressure is produced in the empty cask, just a little less than that of the ale in the racking main, so that when the racking taps are turned on, the ale quietly fills the cask and forces back the compressed air into the air reservoir. By means of a small glass sight-feeder it is known when the cask is fall; the racking tap is then closed and both faucets are removed, the valves at the same time closing automatically. In this way every cask can be quite filled with the bright carbonated ale without the slightest frothing, and without loss of any gas or ale.

The metal valves, which are permanently fixed in the tap-hole and bung-bole of the cask, can only be opened by inserting the faucet, or a key of a certain construction, and when the cask has to be tapped such a faucet in attached to the coupling of the beer-engine through which the ale is to be drawn, and the valve is unlocked by a quarter-turn of the faucet. In order to keep the ale fully charged with gas during its consumption, it is usual in the saloons to have a small hydraulic motor air-pump, which is connected, also by a faucet, with the second valve in the bung-hole, the ale being thus drawn under air pressure. The ale can be iced, either by packing ice round the cask itself or by drawing it through a coil of pipes surrounded by ice in ice-cold water. From what I have already said about the previous treatment of the ale, it will be evident that although ice-cold it will be perfectly brilliant, and highly charged with carbonic acid.

As a rule, beer of this class, if well brewed, will retain its brilliancy for at least three weeks on comparatively slow draught, and it can be treated in the cellars of the consumer in exactly the same manner as lager."
Journal of the Federated Institutes of Brewing, Volume 3, Issue 6, November-December 1897, pages 473 - 474.

With all the description of very fizzy keg beer, it's odd to suddenly read the word "beer-engine". It sounds as if they were still pulling this beer through a handpump. Interesting, eh? Though it was assisted with air pressure. It sounds like a mxture of the English system of serving beer and the Czech one (before 1990 with sir rather than CO2 pressure).

You can see the attraction to the publican of a beer that you could keep on for three weeks. Much more convenient than fiddly cask beer. Now here's a thought: when was the last cask-conditioned beer produced in the USA? It sounds like the large brewers, at least, had already abandonned it by the 1890's.

This next section was the one that most caught my attention because it discusses the flavour of the beer. Up until now, we've only been looking at purely technical considerations.

"There is, however, one point which, I have no doubt, will strike you all, as practical brewers. Such an ale will not possess any of those fine, well-matured qualities which we associate with an after-fermentation in the cask. The cold-storage process, when carried out exactly as I have described it, necessarily stereotypes the qualities which the beer possesses at racking, since all secondary fermentation after leaving the racking vessel is precluded, owing to the temperature of storage being lower than that at which the top fermentation yeast can retain its activity. This is a fault which the American brewers appear scarcely to have recognised at present, but it is one which will no doubt be remedied before long, especially as it admits of such easy alteration. All that is required is to store the ale, for a week or two after leaving the brewery, in vats at an ordinary temperature of 55° F., or thereabouts, with the addition of some dry hops, until it is somewhat matured by a natural process of after-fermentation. It can then have its temperature reduced and pass on to the cold-storage vats, and from there be passed through the usual process of carbonation and filtration.

There are already one or two brewers in the United States who are so far modifying the cold-storage system as to mature the ale previously, in the manner I have just indicated, and the result has proved eminently satisfactory. It is on these lines that I would recommend any one in this country to go who may be desirous of giving the system a trial, for without a certain amount of previous maturation by ordinary storage it is not possible to obtain all those qualities which are desired by a critical public. The combination of the two systems, limited maturation, and cold storage with its attendant filtration and carbonation, give a beer which, if consumed within a reasonable time, is as near perfection as anything can be."
Journal of the Federated Institutes of Brewing, Volume 3, Issue 6, November-December 1897, page 474.

What a lovely turn of phrase this is: "The cold-storage process . . . necessarily stereotypes the qualities which the beer possesses at racking". That's a nice way of saying that you're lumbered with how the beer tastes at racking time as it won't mature.

I like Horace Brown's naive belief that American brewers would realise their beer didn't taste that great and would go to the expense of warm-conditioning for a couple of weeks. My guess is that, as American drinkers didn't seem to mind the taste of the cold-conditioned Ale, brewers didn't see the point of the extra trouble and expense of warm-conditioning.

It's an interesting claim at the end. If matured for a bit before chilling, this keg beer was about as good as beer could get. Not sure I agree with that. I've yet to find any beer that can beat well-handled cask.

Fermenting, maturing and serving Porter in 1813

You'd think March was Porter month from the amount I've posted on the topic. In reality, every month is Porter month here. You might have guessed from the title that this post discusses the steps from fermentation to serving.

The stuff about the temperature sort of tallies with what I see in brewing records. In the 1820's, Barclay Perkins were pitching at 63º to 67º F after which the temperature rose to around 80º F. Though the stronger Stouts were pitched much lower, at 58º to 59º F. By the end of the 19th century, their pitching temperatures were down to 60º to 62º F.

"The different worts after boiling are spread out thin in the coolers, and their temperature brought down to between 60 and 70 degrees, at which all the three worts are mixed together in a great vessel called the guile tun or square, where yest being put to it the liquor is fermented. The temperature at which the wort is set to working in the square, and the heat at which the several mashes are made, have greater influence than any other circumstances upon the quality of the beer. The greater the working heat is, the more rapidly the fermentation proceeds : therefore in summer, when the natural heat of the air is such that the working will advance perhaps more rapidly than the brewer wishes, he counteracts this by cooling the wort down as low as possible : on the other hand, in cold weather the fermentation must be encouraged by commencing it at a greater temperature : in general it may be stated to be between 60 and 70 degrees, at the discretion of the brewer, and in some degree regulated by the kind of porter he wishes to produce, and the malt from which he has extracted his wort. The fermentation is continued in the square as long as the head of yest which floats upon it continues to increase in depth ; but when the head shews signs of diminution the liquor is fit for cleansing. This is putting it into a great number of small casks, which, by dividing the beer into small quantities, lowers its temperature and tends to check the fermentation. The same end is also attained by causing the yest to flow off as fast as it is produced, and keeping the casks always filled up as they diminish by working, to leave no room for a head of yest to gather upon the surface of the beer. After the fermentation is concluded the beer is put into immense casks called store vats, where it is kept till wanted for sale. By keeping it begins to clear itself, and grow fine ; but it is seldom kept long enough to become perfectly so. It is when wanted drawn off from the store vats into casks, and then sent away ; and the consumer puts into the cask a small quantity of fining, sent out with the porter by the brewer, who calls it in the rough when his liquor requires fining.

The finings are made of isinglass dissolved in sour beer brewed from the wort of the fourth mash, or sour beer obtained from the waste of any of the processes. A small quantity of this fining beer being put into the cask precipitates the minute fecula, and soon renders the liquor quite fine. The flavour of the draught porter in London is almost universally obtained by compounding two kinds, the due admixture of which is palatable, though neither are good alone. One is mild, and the other stale porter; the former is that which has been lately brewed, and has rather a bitter mawkish flavour ; the latter has been kept longer, and is in some degree acid. This mixture the publican adapts to the taste of his several customers ; he effects the proportion of mixture very readily by means of the Beer Pumps, described under that article (see pl. 24). These will be found to have four pumps, but only three spouts, because two of the pumps throw out at the same spout. One of these two pumps draws mild, and the other the stale Porter; and the publican, by dextrously changing his hold to the next handle works, either pump, and draws both kinds of beer at the same spout; and an indifferent observer supposes that since it all comes from one spout it is entire butt beer, as the publican professes over his door, and which vulgar prejudice has decided to be the only good porter, though the difference is not easily distinguished."
“Pantologia: A new cyclopaedia Vol IX”, 1813, (doesn’t have page numbers)

Using sour beer for preparing finings has one pretty obvious disadvantage: it's a good way of introducing an infection. You can't help wondering how often such finings buggered the beer in addition to clearing it. Later in the century brewers moved over to using other dilute acids in which to dissolve finings.

I'm not sure what to make of the final section about the strange beer engines. Is it to be believed? Was this really common practice? Certainly a couple of decades later brewers were advised not to send out their Porter mild, but to always blend it themselves. Mostly to reduce the possibility of the publican adulterating the beer.

And the flavour descriptions: mild Porter was "bitter mawkish" and stale Porter "in some degree acid". I think I can understand what the second means. But the first? The word mawkish has fallen into disuse and doesn't really say a lot to me.

That might be it (at least for a day or two) about Porter. But you never know, I might find something else I just have to share.