Durden Park Beer Circle

Burton Union System

Simond’s Bitter (1880)

O.G. 62

For 1 gallon (4.5lt):

   2 lbs 10 oz (1190g) Pale Malt

   8 oz (226g)      Pale Amber Malt

   0.75 oz (22g)  Fuggles hops

   0.16 oz (5g)    Goldings hops

                             in late boil.

   0.1 oz (2 - 3g) dry hopping

Mash grain for 3 hours at 150º F (66±1º C). Raise temperature to 170º F (77º C) for 30 minutes.

Sparge with hot water at 180 - 185º F (82 - 85º C) to O.G. or required volume. 

Boil with Fuggles hops for 90 minutes and add the Goldings hops towards the end of the boil.

Cool and ferment with a good quality ale yeast.

Mature 3 months.

(We acknowledge Courage PLC’s permission to originally publish this recipe extracted from their brewing archive in Bristol)

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William Blackall Simonds established a brewery in Broad Street, Reading in 1785.
At the time it was only one of many small breweries in Reading, but by the mid 19th century it was the largest and most successful.
By 1805 Simonds owned 10 public houses and in 1813 he won an important contract to supply beer to the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.
W.B. Simonds son, Blackall Simonds, took over the brewery and greatly increased the firm’s trade by opening more pubs, facilitated by the 1830 Beer Act which curtailed established brewer’s monopoly of pubs. Blackall took into partnership his two younger brothers, Henry and George in about 1834. When W.B. Simonds retired in 1845 the brewery became H. & G. Simonds.
When the British Army moved to Aldershot in 1872 Simonds gained the contract to supply beer. Overseas branches were formed to deal with the Army’s needs in such places as Malta and Gibraltar.

Simonds was a pioneer of Pale Ale in the 1830's, including Indian Pale Ale which the company exported to the British Army in India. In the 1870s, they developed a lighter beer called 'SB' and in the following decade introduced a new system known as the 'Burton Union Method'

Source: Reading Museum Services

William Black's X Ale (1849)

O.G. 75 

For 1 gallon (4.5lt):

  3.25 lb (1475g) Pale Malt

    1.1 oz (32g)    Goldings Hops

Mash grain for 3 hours at 150º F (66±1º C). Raise temperature to 170º F (77º C) for 30 minutes.

Sparge with hot water at 180 - 185º F (82 - 85º C) to O.G. or required volume. 

Boil with hops for 90 minutes.

Cool and ferment with a good quality ale yeast.

Mature for at least 6 months.

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William Black had fitted out the former Paper Mills by the Wellington Suspension Bridge in Aberdeen as a brewery - the Devanha Brewery. His Devanha Porter - a dark beer resembling stout - became famous throughout the UK, the Brewery being conveniently close to the railway halt at the Cattle Bank. The Brewery continued to be run by William Black & Co. until about 1912, after which it was taken over by Ushers of Edinburgh and used as a bottling plant for Usher's own beers and as a distribution centre. William Black & Co. also ran the Devanha Distillery, built about a mile upstream from the Brewery in 1825; it went out of production in 1909.

Ushers 60/- Pale Ale (1886)

O.G. 60

For 1 gallon (4.5lt):

   2.5 lbs (1135g) Pale Malt

   0.75 oz (21g) Hops

Mash grain for 3 hours at 150º F (66±1º C). Raise temperature to 170º F (77º C) for 30 minutes.

Sparge with hot water at 180 - 185º F (82 - 85º C) to O.G. or required volume. 

Boil with hops for 90 minutes.

Cool and ferment with a good quality ale yeast.

Mature 3 months.  

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David Aikman & Co operated the Cowgate Brewery, Campbell’s Close, Cowgate, Edinburgh, Scotland, from 1817 to 1828, followed by Hutchison, Aikman & Co from 1828 to 1831. The brewery was acquired in 1831 by James Usher & Cunningham, trading as Usher & Co from 1839 and J & T Usher from 1843. J & T Usher moved to the Park Brewery, St Leonard’s Street, Edinburgh, in 1860.

Thomas Usher & Son Ltd was registered in March 1895 as a limited liability company to acquire the business. The company, along with 170 licensed houses, was taken over by Vaux & Associated Breweries Ltd, Sunderland, England, in 1959. Its name changed to Usher’s Brewery Ltd in 1972 and in 1976 it employed 2,500 people and operated 235 tied houses. The Park Brewery was operated by Lorimer’s Brewery Ltd from 1976 and was acquired by Allied Breweries Ltd, London, in 1980. Usher’s Brewery Ltd went into liquidation and the Park Brewery ceased brewing in 1981.

Source:
Richmond, Lesley and Turton, Alison (eds), The Brewing Industry. A Guide to Historical Records, (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 1990).

Samuel Whitbreadd

Whitbread 's London Porter (1850)

In 1742, Samuel Whitbread went into partnership with Thomas Shewell, investing £2,600 in two of Shewell's small breweries, the Goat Brewhouse (where Porter was produced) and a brewhouse in Brick Lane (used to produce pale and amber beers). Demand for the strong, black porter meant the business had to move to larger premises in Chiswell Street in 1750. By 1760, it had become the second largest brewery in London (producing almost 64,000 barrels annually). Five years later (1765), Whitbread bought out Shewell for £30,000. By the end of the century, Whitbread's business was London's biggest producer of beer, producing 202,000 barrels in 1796

Original Porter (circa 1750)

1750 porters would have contained mostly brown malt. These cannot be made satisfactorily from present-day brown malts. This recipe is constructed to meet contemporary descriptions of 1750 porter, i.e. black, strong, bitter and nutritious. It is one of the circle's favourite old beers. It might not be authentic, but it is good!

Younger's Export Stout (1897)

A full bodied succulent stout

O.G. 66 - 68

For 1 gallon (4.5lt):

  1.5 lbs (680g) Pale Malt

  1.0 lbs (454g) Carapils Malt

  2.5 oz (70g)    Crystal Malt

  2.0 oz (56g)    Black Malt

  1⅓ oz (38g)     Fuggles or

                           Goldings hops

Mash grain for 3 hours at 150º F (66±1º C). Raise temperature to 170º F (77º C) for 30 minutes.

Sparge with hot water at 180 - 185º F (82 - 85º C) to O.G. or required volume. 

Boil with hops for 90 minutes.

Cool and ferment with a good quality ale yeast.

Mature 6 months.

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William Youngers was founded in 1749 in Leith they relocated in 1778 to Edinburgh.

In 1858 Andrew Smith and William Younger IV purchased the premises of brewer Alexander Berwick, and built the Holyrood Brewery. The firm's first London office opened in 1861.  The breweries continued to expand and William Younger & Co Ltd was registered in August 1887 as a limited liability company to acquire the business, becoming a public company in 1889. By 1891 the company was producing 400,000 barrels of beer per year and by 1907 the brewery covered 27 acres and brewed a quarter of all the ale produced in Scotland.

Sources: Richmond, Lesley and Turton, Alison (eds). The Brewing Industry. A Guide to Historical Records (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 1990).