The idea was to do about 25 minutes on the breweries of the Isle of Wight. In the end I didn’t manage to say much at all about the Island’s breweries - I spent about 3 days biting my finger nails and brushing up on facts and figures, really to no avail. Still, it was an experience and we spent much of the time chatting about the BHS, so I am awaiting a flood of new members!

The programme was Bruce Parker’s Magical History Tour and was looking at the South’s pubs, breweries and vineyards - the link is http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00mtshy should you wish to see more, or even listen for a while. As you will hear, having been called by the programme staff, we got off to a terrible start when he couldn’t hear me - presumably a button needed pressing at their end, but it wasn’t good for the nerves.

It also included an interview with Jeremy Pope (of Eldridge Pope), David Jones on Cowes pubs (he has just produced an excellent book on this topic) and Dave Goddard on Southampton’s pubs.

I don’t think I shall be giving up the day job (retirement)

Cheers

Jeff

Lynn Pearson

Hi Jeff,

I wonder if I can call on the good nature and knowledge of the membership again.

I’ve picked up another glass for my collection and cannot identify the logo. I’ve attached a couple of pictures again.

Best wishes

Rich

John Robinson has raised a query relating to a project, as follows:

I have become involved with a small micro brewery in Warrington , called ‘The Tipsy Angel’. The brewery is located in some out buildings at the rear of the Lower Angel pub in Buttermarket Street , in Warrington.

We are dedicated to producing the old Walkers recipes from the 1960’s, and have had some help from the old Walkers chemist, Stewart Thompson. Ironically Walkers used Marston’s yeast in their beers. And the man accredited with the Burton Union system, was none other than Peter Walker. I will keep you and the BHS informed of progress.

In a follow up message John goes on-

The old recipes made reference to sulphured hops. Is this process still going on, or has the EU banned it? Can you recommend someone who can help?

Walkers was a particularly sulphurous beer with heavy Burtonisation of the water.

Many thanks,

John Robinson

We pointed John to Dr Peter Darby as the leading expert on hops (and member of the BHS editorial board), and he has replied as follows:

John,

No-one in the world now uses sulphur in the kilns during drying of hops. It was prohibited first in the USA and then by the Institute of Brewing and other brewing organisations because of the detrimental effect on yeast function during brewing.

Finding an alternative raises some interesting possibilities. Sulphur is still used during the growing of hops to protect against powdery mildew infection. This is much more a feature of hop growing in the Hereford and Worcester area than any other part of the UK, or indeed elsewhere in the world. It is unlikely that much, if any, residue will carry over from the field – but some might.

Sulphur was used in the kilns to bleach the hops to remove any discoloration due to disease or over-ripeness. As a consequence of its prohibition, hops are now picked much earlier than they would have been 40 years ago to avoid the progressive browning of hops during September as they mature and start to enter senescence. Also to reduce the ingress of disease after the last sprays have been applied in early August. So, the taste and aroma that you seek may have been a result of using hops harvested late in the season, or diseased hops, especially those with powdery mildew.

I hope that this gives an explanation of some of the factors which might have made the hops used in the old recipes of Walkers at the Tipsy Angel Brewery different from today’s hops. To reproduce them, I would suggest you seek low alpha hops from Herefordshire or Worcestershire which have been harvested as late as possible in September, or even early October, and which are not of the highest grade, indicating that they have a small amount of powdery mildew infection. This is only a suggestion. The effects you are talking about are more likely the result of the yeast strain used and the water rather than any contribution from the hops.

Best regards,

Peter

John then circulated a couple of example pages from a Walker’s Brewing Book, which Peter looked at –

Looking at the page from the Walkers book that you attached to the mail below, I see that the hops used had been in store for over a year – the mix used in 1961 had hops mostly from the 1959 harvest of Fuggles in the West Midlands, supplemented by a few hops from Kent from the 1960 harvest. I also note that not all the hops had been sulphured. So, I would add using old stored hops to my suggestion of using lower grade; low alpha hops from the West Midlands.

It is difficult to read the writing to try and find the farms which supplied the hops. The Kent farm is clearly Ladysden Farm and is labelled EK. This is a bit of a contradiction because the farm is most likely to be at Ladysden, Winchet Hill near Goudhurst which is not in East Kent. I would guess, therefore that the EK refers to the variety and is likely to be East Kent Goldings. The Hereford farms are less obvious but could just be read as Pomona and Dormington. These were part of the same estate in 1959 and were certainly growing Fuggles.

Best regards,

Peter

What a fascinating exchange. My thanks to both Peter and John – hopefully it will encourage other similar discussions on this forum.

24 Whitwell Lane, Stocksbridge, Sheffield S36 1GE   - 0114 288 5238

The National Archives, Kew TW9 4DU details at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk. Date: 13 October 2-3pm. Free. “You are supposed to get a ticket on the day, but I can’t imagine it will be over-subscribed, so just turn up.”

I copy the flyer below and hope to see you there

Jeff

“Brewers and Barmaids”: Researching Brewery and Publican Ancestors

There is perhaps nothing more English than the public house. Once every village had an alehouse, while towns offered licensed premises to suit every taste and pocket. The trade employed large numbers of workers in a variety of roles. In 1901 the number of licensees alone peaked at more than 100,000. As a result many of us have ancestors who worked behind the bar or made the beer which was enjoyed by all social classes and travelled around the world. Using material at The National Archives and county record offices this talk will tell the story of Britain’s pubs and breweries and describe the key sources which can be used to trace ancestors who ran pubs or worked in breweries.

Simon Fowler has worked at The National Archives on and off for over thirty years and is now a freelance writer and historian and recently wrote a guide to pub and brewery records for the Family History Partnership. At present he is organising the annual conference of the Pub History Society which will take place on 26 November.

See http://beerblog.genx40.com/archive/2011/september/doesbrewing

Alan, in turn, was commenting on Des De Moor’s Blog entitled ‘Brewing’s disputed histories’ - See http://desdemoor.co.uk/brewings-disputed-histories/

Worth a look, and possibly a response

Happy researching

Jeff

Hi there
I’ve been asked to investigate a pub sign (harrow area) for a pub that has now closed and the land is up for redevelopment.

I am trying to track down something about the history of it and I’m trying to track down some information about the gold hand insignia and date of 1856 on the sign.

I have attached a couple of images of it.

What we are trying to work out is whether the sign itself is from 1856 (which I feel it probably wasn’t) or if it’s the date of the brewery and the gold hand is the insignia for the brewery.

I wondered if you may be able to help please. Any help would be greatly appreciated thanks!

Best regards
Steven Gregory

Ray Anderson has replied as follows:

Dear Steve, 

The gold hand insignia and the date 1856 were associated with Ind Coope Burton Brewery Ltd of Burton-on-Trent. This was the name taken by the Burton brewery of the brewing conglomerate Allied Breweries in c. 1977. The date 1856 comes from when Ind Coope & Co., of Romford opened a second brewery in Burton. The inn sign cannot be earlier than the late 1970s. The gold hand was until the mid 1970s a red hand and the device been used by Samuel Allsopp and Sons from c. 1850. The colour was changed in the 70s because of association with the red hand of Ulster. 

Allsopp’s was another Burton brewery which joined up with Ind Coope in 1934 to form Ind Coope & Allsopp Ltd, and merged with Joshua Tetley & Son of Leeds and Ansells Ltd of Birmingham in 1961 to form a company which took the name Allied Breweries in 1963. Allied sold 50% of its beer business to Carlsberg in 1993 and the rest in 1997. Carlsberg in turn sold the Burton brewery to Bass in 1998. Bass was taken over by Interbrew of Belgium in 2000 and was sold on to Coors of the USA in 2002. The old Allied and Bass breweries in Burton are still operating in Burton today to form the country’s biggest brewery complex. It is run by what is now Molson Coors.

Cheers

Ray Anderson

Hi Jeff we are trying to attract members of other organisations connected with similar interests to ours to join us at meetings.
Our AGM is taking place at Windsor and Eton brewery on Saturday 24th September from 11am and we would like to invite members of BHS to join us.
cheers David Taylor

If you would like to go I would suggest dropping David a line at - david.deraled@talktalk.net