It’s not unusual to have a beer to celebrate a significant birthday but Peter Sutcliffe, who is CAMRA’s brewery liaison officer for Sambrook’s Brewery in Wandsworth, has gone one better. Working with the redoubtable John Hatch at Sambrook’s, he has recreated a beer which was being brewed in the year of his birth by the brewery of which his maternal grandfather, Stanley Robson, was the managing director and major shareholder.
The brewery was Moors’ and Robson’s Breweries Ltd of the Crown Brewery in Francis Street, Hull. It was formed in 1888 to consolidate a number of smaller firms. The last remaining member of Moor family left the business in the 1920s under a cloud and was bought out by Stanley.
Stanley came from a large family, even by Victorian standards, with nine boys and nine girls surviving childhood and he fought in and survived World War One. In contrast, Stanley had just the one son, Peter, who joined RAF Bomber Command in World War Two and was killed on his first sortie, over Hamburg in 1942. Peter is named in his honour.
Possibly because Stanley had no-one to pass it on to, the company was sold in 1961 to Hewitt’s of Grimsby, with the brewery closing two or three years later. Peter does however remember his grandfather saying that it had gone for a good price. Stanley also had daughters and Peter observes that, these days, one of them could have become involved in the business and he believes that his mother would have been more than capable of making a go of it.
The take-over may not have helped Hewitt’s. It may have raised their profile because, within the year, they, in turn, were taken over by United Breweries, who later merged with Charringtons.
The beer itself is called Red Cap and is a 4.3% ABV traditional bitter. Being a Northern beer, it is intended to be served through a sparkler. It is brewed using Admiral hops, with East Kent Goldings being added at the ‘late copper’ stage. The malt is 95% Maris Otter, supplied by Thomas Fawcett & Sons maltings in Castleford, Yorkshire, and 5% flaked maize. This mix is typical of Yorkshire ales of the period.
The photo shows the original version on the bar at Sambrook’s tap, although the recipe was tweaked for Peter’s big day on 27 July.