My dad, in common with a lot of men of his generation, is a Londoner. The Griffin Brewery, home of Fuller's, would still be his local brewery if he hadn't joined up at 15 and spent the next 30 odd years in the pay of HM Queenie and Sons, PLC. Dad spent a lot of time in Germany, and has something of a love for good lagers, especially Schwarzbier. However, the one beer that Dad talks about more than any other is Mann's Brown Ale, the first (if I remember rightly) modern bottled brown ale. Again if I remember rightly, modern brown ale was essentially the bottled version of draught mild.
As you can imagine, I don't get home to the UK very often and so having my parents coming to stay is something special, more so because a couple of days after they arrive it is Dad's birthday. What better then than to attempt a recreation of Mann's Brown Ale? I am planning to brew this in the next week or so, and the recipe at the moment looks like this:
- 80% Maris Otter
- 10% Caramel 120
- 4% Chocolate Malt
- 4% Wheat Malt
- 2% Roasted Barley
- 14 IBU Kent Golding for 60 minutes
- 6 IBU Kent Golding for 15 minutes
- Windsor yeast
Just checked expecting to find that Mann's BA used to be stronger: it was 2.5% in 1972!
ReplyDeleteAccording to Martyn, in 1902, when it was first released, the beer was 2.7%. Most of the sweetness apparently came from being under attenuated.
ReplyDeleteI would drink the hell out of that beer. I might consider not eating in lieu of it.
ReplyDeleteNice gesture for dad’s birthday, but unless you are desperate to taste this beer yourself it seems unnecessary – your dad can buy Mann’s Brown Ale back home at Morrison’s or Lidl.
ReplyDeleteLast I heard, since my parents came home from Central France to live north of Inverness, Dad has become something of a devotee of Black Isle Brewery.
ReplyDeletePart of this though is to test my skills at brewing low gravity, but hopefully tasty beer.
I'm pretty sure Mann's wasn't 2.7% in 1902. It was over 4% in the 1920's, so I'd guess it was at least 5% before WW I.
ReplyDeleteModern Brown Ale didn't start off as bottled Mild, but sort of turned into that eventually.
From page 133 of Martyn's 'Amber, Gold and Black':
ReplyDelete"The next year, 1902 (though one source claims 1899) Thorpe introduced a new bottled beer, Mann's brown ale, promoted as 'the sweetest beer in London'. It was part of a trend toward sweeter beers that included the development of milk stout in the same decade. Its recipe included wheat malt for head retention, and roasted barley for colour and flavour. Its sweetness came from its low attenuation: despite an OG of 1033 its abv is just 2.7%."
The earliest analysis I have is from 1921 (courtesy the Whitbread Gravity Book):
ReplyDeleteOG: 1040.6
FG: 1004.5
ABV: 4.71
App. Attenuation: 88.92%
It stayed in the low 1040's through the 1920's and 1930's, though the level of attenuation gradually fell to about 70%.