This is part of a sample chapter. In addition to the text here, the book version will include a recipe or two. Your comments are welcome.
X Ale
X Ale, or standard Mild Ale, was the most popular type of beer. It formed over 50% of output, even of some of the large London Porter breweries like Whitbread and Truman.
Amongst the London brewers there was a trend to brew a much reduced range of X and K Ales. XX and XXX were dropped. Mostly just the weakest remained, X. The stronger slots were left to Stock Ales, KK and KKK. Increasingly, the Stock Ales were referred to as Strong Ales and X Ales as Mild Ales. This relationship would last little changed until the 1950's.
For example, in 1881, Whitbread brewed X, XL and XX. By 1910, only X remained. The gravity of X was starting to move downwards, too. Whitbread's was 1061º in 1881, but was down to 1057º in 1910. Much worse was to happen after 1914, when Mild Ales bore the brunt of gravity cuts.
X Ales had pretty simple recipes: pale malt and sugar. Though some brewers had taken advantage of the 1880 Free Mash Tun Act to use adjuncts like maize or rice. No modern Mild bears much resemblance to such Ales. Colour mostly came from dark No.3 invert sugar or caramel. Sometimes small amounts of amber or black malt were used, but this was more the exception than the rule.
What differentiated Mild from Pale Ale wasn't colour or gravity, but a lower hopping rate and higher FG which made them maltier, sweeter and fuller-bodied.
X Ales were hopped at a rate of 7 to 8 pounds per quarter in the 1880's, falling to 5 to 6 pounds per barrel by 1910. PA and IPA were hopped at about double that rate.
Surprisingly, Bitters like PA and IPA generally had a lower percentage of malt in the grist than X Ales. Whitbread's X had 10% sugar in the grist, their PA and IPA 20%. This, too, must have helped Mild Ales to taste more full-bodied than the Bitters.
X | |
OG: | 1050 – 1057º |
FG: | 1009 - 1018 º |
ABV: | 5 – 6% |
Apparent attenuation: | 70 – 85% |
EBC: | 40 - 90 |
lbs hops per barrel | 1 – 1.5 |
IBU: | |
Grist: | English 2-row pale malt, foreign 6-row pale malt, English mild malt, crystal malt, amber malt, black malt, No.3 invert sugar, caramel, maize |
Hops: | Mid |
Noakes 1915 X | |
Malt | |
Californian pale malt | 11% |
English 2-row pale malt | 57% |
black malt | 0.5% |
crystal malt | 5% |
No.3 invert sugar | 25% |
CDM sugar | 1% |
Hops | 100% |
Californian hops | 50% |
Oregon hops | 50% |
Fuller's 1910 X | |
Malt | |
Californian 6-row pale malt | 18% |
Australian pale malt | 17% |
English 2-row pale malt | 36% |
No.1 invert sugar | 9% |
No.3 invert sugar | 10% |
luscious priming sugar | 4% |
caramel | 0.64% |
flaked maize | 6% |
Hops | |
East Kent hops | 45% |
Mid Kent hops | 45% |
Oregon yearling hops | 10% |
Barclay Perkins 1906 X | |
Malt | |
Californian 6-row pale malt | 25% |
English 2-row pale malt | 54% |
No.3 invert sugar | 10% |
maize | 11% |
caramel | 0.10% |
Hops | |
Worcester hops | 33% |
American hops | 33% |
Mid Kent yearling hops | 33% |
Barclay Perkins 1914 X | |
Malt | |
Indiian 6-row pale malt | 10% |
English 2-row mild malt | 14% |
English 2-row pale malt | 39% |
amber malt | 7% |
No.3 invert sugar | 20% |
maize | 10% |
caramel | 0.12% |
Hops | |
Mid Kent hops | 33% |
East Kent hops | 33% |
Mid Kent yearling hops | 33% |
Whitbread 1914 X | |
foreign 6- row pale malt | 32% |
English 2-row pale malt | 61% |
No.3 invert sugar | 7% |
Pacific hops | 22% |
Mid Kent hops | 78% |
Fuller's 1910 X | |
Malt | |
Californian 6-row pale malt | 18% |
Australian pale malt | 17% |
English 2-row pale malt | 36% |
No.1 invert sugar | 9% |
No.3 invert sugar | 10% |
luscious priming sugar | 4% |
caramel | 0.64% |
flaked maize | 6% |
Hops | |
East Kent hops | 45% |
Mid Kent hops | 45% |
Oregon yearling hops | 10% |
2 comments:
If this is a preview, I'll be buying it when it comes out. This is incredibly interesting info. Thanks again for taking the time to share all of this.
Bill, yes, this is a preview of the 1909 Beer Style Guide. Though it's still a little rough around the edges.
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