Monday, 3 May 2021

AK sugars during WW II

Given the high percentage of malt in these beers, it's little surprise that they don't contain a huge amount of sugar. Loads of different types, mind.

Only one, No. 2 invert, appears in more than one, Greene King and Fullers. But only in tiny quantities, the largest amount is less than 2.5%. You'll note that it's far less than before the war, when it was just shy of 10%. Doubtless the reduction was due to difficulties in sugar supply.

CWA, the other sugar, I found was described as a starch conversion syrup, that is an enzymatic syrup. I assume it must have been added in the mash tun rather than the kettle. 

Intense was a caramel of some sort. Pretty obvious from both the name and the minute amount employed. Its use will have been for colour correction rather than flavour of fermentable material.

The malt extract used by Shepherd Neame was EDME, a type of diastatic malt syrup. I suppose it's technically a type of sugar, despite being derived from malt. The candy sugar used in one example was presumably employed as primings..

AK sugars during WW II
Date Year Brewer Beer malt extract no. 2 sugar glucose CWA Intense candy
23rd Jan 1940 Greene King AK   2.35%   2.35%    
8th May 1940 Fullers AK   0.63% 0.63%   0.09%  
20th May 1940 Shepherd Neame AK            
25th May 1941 Fullers AK   1.39% 1.39%   0.09%  
4th Feb 1943 Shepherd Neame AK 0.69%          
18th Dec 1943 Shepherd Neame AK 0.66%          
21st Feb 1944 Shepherd Neame AK 0.64%         0.64%
27th Nov 1944 Shepherd Neame AK 0.66%          
22nd Feb 1945 Shepherd Neame AK 0.66%          
7th May 1945 Shepherd Neame AK 1.32%          
Fullers brewing records held at the brewery.
Greene King brewing record held at the brewery, document number AC93/1/14 .
Shepherd Neame brewing record held at the brewery.

Hops next time.



Marquis said...

I used EDME malt extract occasionally when home brewing. East (Anglian) Diastatic Malt Extract.

Mike in NSW said...

EDME stands for English Diastatic Malt Extract, the company founded in 1881 and producing "condensed wort" and other products.

As a home brewer in the UK in the 1970s I used a lot of EDME kits and yeasts, and they are still going strong in cereals and extracts.

A snip from Homebrewtalk

[Edme Limited was established in the early 1880s as the English Diastatic Malt Extract Company. So respected were its brewing syrups that in breweries throughout the UK Edme became a generic term for malt extract. In many breweries, the pipe running from the sugar room to the mash tuns is still known as the "Edme pipe." As the 1994 recipient of the Queen's Award for Export Achievement, Edme has built a reputation for quality English malts available the world over.]

There is still a range of EDME home brew products as well, but I believe they sold these brands to Muntons.

A Brew Rat said...

Interesting that Shepherd Neame used small quantities of diastatic malt extract. I suppose that was also added to the mash rather than the kettle to aid in conversion? I wonder if the malt they were using was highly kilned and thus low in diastatic activity/enzymes and needed that DME to help out on attenuation.

Anonymous said...

Regarding CWA being a starch conversion/enzymatic syrup: This would have been a syrup made by the enzymatic conversion of starch, i.e. a so called high DE (dextrose equivalent) glucose syrup. These were invented in the late 1930's and were known as "wort syrups" in breweries. Essentially it's a malt substitute/wort extender in terms of sugar composition, probably with a higher level of glucose, thus giving it some of the qualities of invert sugar. Before WW2 starch syrups were made by acid conversion, such as dextro-maltose syrup, and were largely unfermentable.