So the commercial tinkering goes on!

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Arcs

Landlord.
Joined
May 16, 2019
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I am sure many of you have heard guilty commercial breweries over the years say we've done nothing to our recipe/grain bill. 'It's still the same beer we were producing 40 or 50 years ago and longer'. Baulderdash and hogwash I hear you cry - Guinness being an obvious one on this. But I took a trip to my local home and bargains the other day and saw a bottle of Carlsberg Special brew going for 99p a bottle. I thought to myself, wow that stuff was lethal back in the day, I do really wonder if it's the same 9% abv nonsense it used to be?

So I took the bottle home and routed out this

Carlsberg Special brew clone by Dave Line (ala Brewing beers like those you can buy ) 1977 edition and duly noted the grain bill.

5 1/2 lb Crushed Lager Malt
1 1/2 lb Flaked Maize
3 gallons of water
1 tsp Irish Moss
1 1/2 lb Golden Syrup
3 oz Hallerton hops
30 gm lager yeast

And sipping away at this once monstrosity of a beer back in the day. I was taken aback. This beer was far lighter than its predecessor. It even contained cognac in it and was 7.5% abv. I was rather appalled. Which I found rather amusing. I was expecting this gut wrenching almost whiskey shot taste that I remember from back in the day. It was very ascerbic, yet this was nothing like it. Even shared very little resemblance to the old recipe and did nothing but give me grave disappointment. I hadn't tried this beer in years and psyched myself up for nothing. But why on earth cognac in a lager? I'd probably get more enjoyment from a lager chaser lol.

It seems that not just an Indian curry is being watered down to suit the English palate. Bah!!
 
If I remember rightly one of the issues is the Portman Group who’s guidance states that non resealable single serving drinks shouldn’t contain more than 4 units, unfortunately a lot of supermarkets and retailers follow this, and a 500ml can of Special Brew would put it over the limit. It’s also I would say unfairly targets beer, we all know people who will happily down a bottle of wine in a night which easily contains more than four units. This would also make a lot of imperial stouts, triple IPA’s etc unsalable as well.
 

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