My third book, Guile Brews, revisits the Cornish beers of my youth, from the St Austell Brewery and the Devenish - Redruth Brewery, along with selected beers from Irish and English regional breweries. The crafty use of many different gyling techniques in the brewing processes are represented in Guile Brews with 82 curated recreation recipes and related brewing history.
My aim was to see how styles had evolved. I visited archives and breweries that represented beers from 1857 to the 1990s. I went to Cork and rummaged in the Murphy’s brewing books for an appreciation of Irish Stouts, also to Banks’s Park Brewery in Wolverhampton to investigate that quintessential Midlands brew, Mild, and similarly to Stratford-upon-Avon for 113 years of Flowers IPA.
U.K. brewing practice made extensive use of adjuncts like sugar. To explore sugar manufacturers I delved into the Kendall and Son’s archive and also the Manbré and Garton records.
The brewery books from each brewery revealed their own permutation of gyles, parti-gyles, use of return wort, and some used methods for high gravity brewing.