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In the 1960s and 70s, when many brewers were phasing out cask-conditioned ales in favour of keg beer, White Shield became a cult beer for aficionados. In the 1990s, when Bass began to lose interest in sedimented beers in cask and bottle, White Shield was sidelined and moved to smaller breweries within the Bass empire before ending up at King & Barnes in Sussex. When Bass sold its breweries to the American brewing giant Coors there were fears the beer would disappear completely but it was taken back to Burton and brewed in the small Museum Brewery. This is part of a complex that traces the history of brewing in Burton. The brewery, run by Steve Wellington, is the former pilot brewery from the Mitchells & Butlers plant in Birmingham. At first production was a negligible 300 barrels a week but that has grown to around 1,000 and the bottle has been given new labels that stress the heritage of Burton and India Pale Ale. White Shield (5.6%) is brewed from pale malt with a touch of crystal for colour and flavour. Its colour rating is 26, making it quiet dark for the style. The hops are Challenger, Fuggles and Northdown, which create 40 units of bitterness. Challenger and Fuggles are copper hops used for bitterness, with Northdown are added at the end of the boil for aroma. Invert sugar is used in brewing many British and Belgian styles, and you can make it at home. You may know it as Lyle's Golden Syrup or Belgian Candi syrup, but those are little more than treated sugar. You can make it for less than half the cost and impress your friends with some mad 19th-century-ish-candy-making skillz. Here's what you need to make 1 lbs: 1 pound cane sugar (not table sugar; cane sugar imparts more flavor than plain white table sugar) I used "Sugar in the Raw" which is available at most grocery stores. (Natural Cane Turbinado Sugar) 1gram (about 1/4teaspoon) citric acid 1.5 cup water Boiling pot Just dissolve the sugar in the water as water is heating up, add citric acid, and simmer(small bubbles) for anywhere between 20 minutes and 2 hours. You will want to simmer at a low heat and stir frequently to prevent scorching. For a very light sugar, like Lyle's Golden, simmer for 20 minutes. To create something similar to dark candi sugar, boil for close to 2 hours. I simmered for 35 minutes (small bubbles) for this recipe. Brewing Notes: I added Inverted sugar after cooldown and with 2 gallons top off water. Given the difference in color and IBU it should have little effect. 1. First time to use grain with 5 gallon nilon bag stretched over pot so grains would float freely rather than in grain bag. Worked very well 2. First time using hops spider so hops could be added and float freely but ge extracted after cool down. Put hops in center of chiller during cool down. Hop spider not removed until after cool down when chiller was removed. 3. Yeast starter worked great keeping with 1/2 a cup of DME and two cups of water on stir plate for 18 hours. Yeast took off. Had 5 gallons in 6.5 gallon carboy and still had blow off.