BeerMike : The Art of Blended Beers

Old Crafty Hen is quite an unusual beer, it consists of a blend of Old Speckled Hen with the legendary 5X. It is curious mixture for a beer, Old Speckled Hen (4.8%) is a session beer created by Morland Brewery in 1979 to commemorate 50 years of car production at the MG car factory in Abingdon, near where the brewery was based. On the other hand, 5X (12%) is an elusive beast of a beer developed by Greene King Brewery, it is unique among beers in this country as being one of the few long matured oak aged old ales, as Des de Moor notes “following primary fermentation it’s matured for at least a year in two old oak vats holding 100 barrels (16,366l) each, retained by the brewery for the purpose, before being blended with younger beer for release.”[1] 5X has only been used in blends, and has never been commercially released in its unblended form. It has been used in several beers from Greene King including Strong Suffolk (6%) which is a combination of 5X with Best Pale Ale, and Suffolk Springer (6%) which curiously uses a younger version of 5X in the mix. Following the acquisition of Morland Brewery by Greene King in 2000, several years later in 2008, Old Crafty Hen was released. It has been held with high acclaim from beer drinkers and critics, it has been described as having “a bitter sweet aroma mixing dark fruits and toffee with a punch of malts.”[2] Whilst others have mentioned it as being a touch spicy “with hints of sultana and fruit cake, the oak ageing gives the merest hint of vanilla.”[3] Des de Moor adds “the almond and walnut notes and slightly buttery firm malt of Old Speckled certainly show through, matching well with the 5X character.”[4] He describes the beer as having a slightly sour taste, with the slightly stewed malt taking on a chewy and dry mouthfeel.

Old Crafty Hen is a rare example in this country of a blended beer, which is the process of mixing young ale with a stronger old ale. What makes the drink more unique is that it utilizes beer matured in oak vats, which is an uncommon practise in the UK brewing industry. Indeed, Greene King have openly been influenced by the likes of Rodenbach Brewery in Belgium, whom exclusively specialise in brewing blended beers utilizing the same techniques, including the iconic Grand Cru (6.5%), a blend of “young” beer (33%) with an older beer (67%) that has matured in oak vats, Classic (5.2%) which consists of a higher yield of young beer (75%) mixed with old ale (25%) to produce a milder brew, and Fruitage (3.9%) that features a blend of young ale with old ale and 7% cherries. Grand Cru was developed by Eugene Rodenbach who was inspired to develop this beer after studying the production of Porter during a trip to England. Blended beers were once commonplace in pubs in this country during the 18^th and early 19^th centuries. Drinks like Half & Half and Three Threads dominated the scene, the latter consisted of a mixture of stale, mild and pale ale which in turn created a strong brew that measured around 7.5% abv. The origins of three-threads are not as innocence as it seems, as Martyn Cornell mentions his article on the subject, it was a tax fiddle. Following the war with France after William II overthrew James II from the throne, the authorities increased the taxation of beer duty; this particularly applied to barrels of “strong” which increased to 3s 3d pence per barrel, whilst barrels of weaker ale known as “small” only increased to 1s 6d per barrel. The total tax on beer equalled to only half a pence per gallon, which meant strong beer paid the same tax as small beer. This flaw in the system allowed brewers and retailers as Cornell describes “to take a barrel of extra-strong beer and two of small beer, on which a total of 7s 3d of tax had been paid, mix them to make three barrels each equal in strength to common strong beer, which should have paid tax of 14s 3d in total, and save themselves 2s 4d a barrel in tax.” [5] The development of blended beers had unscrupulous beginnings, mired in tax dodging and fraud, and despite the efforts of the excise authorities to fine offenders £5 per mixed barrel, this practise continued. Not only was it a tax dodging exercise, Ted Hausotter from the Homebrewers Association rightly mentions “in the distant past, old beers were blended with new to help make them drinkable, smoothing over sourness from spoilage and harshness from oxidation,” there were many instances of this occurring in pubs across areas like London and this was having an adverse effect on the brewing industry. In a bid to counteract this scourge, Cornell notes “the London beer brewers worked on their brown beer, hopping it more, lengthening the storage times, improving the ways they stored it.”[6] In the process Porter was born, which is often erroneously linked in being inspired by blended beers like Three Threads and Twopenny Ale, a myth first propagated by an article published by the London Magazine in 1802, which claimed that Porter was first developed by Ralph Harwood, who conceived the idea of making entire butt beer (drawn from a single cask) that united the flavours of ale, beer and twopenny. There’s no evidence to support this claim, when in actual fact Porter was developed to compete with the unscrupulous practises engaged by publicans.

Through the development of the likes of Porter and improved brewing technology, the prevalence of beer blending declined in this country. However, the practise didn’t completely die out, as Andy Hamilton (not the comedy writer) points out popular blends like the Black & Tan which comprises of 50% stout with 50% pale ale, with the heavier stout poured on top of the lighter ale to create a two-tone drink, and Mixed (otherwise known as ‘Boilermaker’ in the West Midlands) which consisted of a shot of whisky added to a pint of beer, became quite popular in pubs during the 20^th century.[7] Moreover, other mixes were also popular including ‘Brown & Mild’, ‘Burton & Bitter’, ‘Lager & Light’ and ‘Mild & Bitter’ which was given the nickname “a pint of twos” in parts of East Anglia.[8] Indeed some pubs had their own unique blends, Lee Middlewood mentions that the Black Horse in Hertford gained a reputation for mixing “its draught Abbot Ale and its strong bottled companion St Edmund’s Ale (both stronger then). A mix of the two ‘Abbot and Eddie’ was a fearsome cocktail.”[9] This pub was owned by Greene King at the time, so it’s possible to assume that this in turn influenced the brewers at their brewery in Bury St Edmunds to subsequently develop blended beers like Strong Suffolk, Suffolk Springer and Old Crafty Hen.

Far removed from its unscrupulous origins, the process of blending beer has become a legitimate practise for breweries. In Belgium, the beer style known as Gueze has become widely adopted by breweries across the country, which is a type of Lambic beer that is created by blending young (1-year-old) beer and old (2- to year-old) aged lambic beer, which is then bottled for a second fermentation, in order to develop and enhance its flavours. In more recent times, breweries have been engaged in producing their own innovative blends. Runaway Brewery in Manchester have recently released a selection of limited released blended beers such as their Tropical Stout (8%) which consists of a blend of two different oatmeal stouts that have been oak aged in Tequila and Rum barrels respectively. Meanwhile at Duration Brewing in King’s Lynn, they recently produced Fermata Friends (6%) in collaboration with Burning Sky Brewery, which features an intriguing mixed of oak aged beer blended with a Saison, and topped up with grapefruit and peppercorns that intensifies the drink’s tartness. Meanwhile, across the pond over in the US, Firestone Walker is well known for their extensive range of blended beers including their flagship Double Barrel Ale (5%) which gets its name from the development process, where the wort is fermented into types of barrels, one in stainless steel, the other oak; then blended together before bottling. Whilst, Tideland Brewery produced Tideland (5%) which consists of a mixture a 15 month barrel aged Imperial Stout with a low ABV young Stout to produce a beer as they describe as having the thick complexity of an imperial stout without the high alcohol content. Meanwhile Lamplighter Brewery has gone back to tradition and developed Three Threads (9.5%), a hefty beast of a beer that consists of a blend of port barrel-aged Barleywine Ale, bourbon barrel-aged Porter, and a young India Pale Ale, to create a rich and full bodied beer as they proclaim, which embraces tradition whilst mixing it with modern innovation.

These recent examples are a classic instance of old traditions meeting modern innovations. Nowadays a whole palette of beer styles can be blended together ranging from IPA, Barley Wine, Stout, Old Ale, Pale and Ruby Ale for instance, topped up with additional flavourings such as fruit, herbs and even wine in some instances. Blended beers have now become a legitimate part of the brewing industry as brewers continue to seek new innovations in flavour. Although Ted Hasoutter notes “most of those blends are done under near-laboratory conditions using pipettes to get exact ratios, by some of the most refined and experienced brewers and blenders in the world.”[10] This scientific form of blending beers which borders on chemical engineering is far removed from the comparatively haphazard efforts of the home brewer, as Andy Hamilton describes “unlike most brewing practices there is no real set way to blend a beer and getting a good blend takes time and effort, it’s really a matter of trial and error and is more of an art than a science.” It’s all to do with getting the correct measurements and proportions of beer, even if it means a lot of it would go down the sink. Overall, the process of blending as Max Brynildson head brewer at Firestone Brewery states “is a relatively simple process that gets the creative juices flowing and lets you play around with beer; there are no hard and fast rules—it’s a free-form art that all comes down to taste.”[11] Thankfully there are many recipes out there that home brewers can get their hands on, as Beer Cartel points out in their article on blended beers[12] there are a number of blends to try at home such as the ‘Black Forest’ which consists of Stout and Kriek, ‘The Pale Russian’ which features a mix of Pale Ale with Imperial Stout, or the curiously named ‘Smoked Pumpkin’ which includes a blend of Pumpkin Ale and Rauchbier for instance. The possibilities are endless, as Brynildson adds “the longer you brew and the more comfortable you get with your materials and your brewing process, the more you realize that there’s so much variation in raw materials.” The modern phenomenon of blending beers is a world away from its lawbreaking beginnings in the 18^th century when brewers and publicans alike sought ways to dodge the high taxation in beer duties for strong ale. We have now come full circle, so the next time you sip a pint of Old Crafty Hen just pause and reflect what has gone into this developing this delicious brew, as there is history in that pint.