Boddington beers in 1901

Time to take a look at Boddington’s beers at the turn of the 20th century.

For quite a small provincial brewery, they had a surprisingly large range of beers. Especially as they didn’t parti-gyle much.  They brewed four Mild Ales, two Pale Ales, two Stouts and one Strong Ale. Not bad at all.

Especially if you compare it with what they brewed in the 1980’s: one Bitter and one Mild. That was it. Until they bought Oldham, when they added that brewery’s Bitter and Mild. Still not exactly varies. But something similar happened at many of the UK’s older breweries. When bottled beer went out of fashion, brewers dropped their Brown Ales and Stouts, buying them in instead, if needed.

I’ve been wondering recently if the London beers I’ve mostly concentrated on were typical of the country as a whole. Especially after I saw how weak some of the Adnams’ beers were. The set from Boddies has reassured me. As the gravities are pretty much in line with those in London. OK, the weakest Mild has a gravity a bit on the low side. But that wasn’t their big seller. Their two main Milds, XX and XXX, are generally similar to Whitbread’s X and XK.

The same is sort of true of the Pale Ales. Though Whitbread didn’t brew an AK-strength beer, I know 1045 is a typical gravity for this class of beer. Boddies IPA is right in the middle of Whitbread’s set of Pale Ales. The biggest differences I can see are that Whitbread brewed a larger range of Pale Ales and hopped them a bit more heavily.

Taking Boddies Single Stout as a Porter under a different name, the Manchester brewer’s beers are broadly the same as the two weakest Whitbread beers. The hopping, though, again being heavier in the London beers.

Finally, Boddies Strong Ale, BB, which has a higher OG than any of Whitbread’s Stock Ales. In this case, the hopping in Manchester is much lower than in London.

Not forgetting boil times, which were around 30 minutes longer at Boddington. Wonder why that was?

Boddington beers in 1901
Date	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)	Pitch temp
3rd Dec	X	Mild	1045	1010	4.63	77.78%	5.62	1.01	2		60º F
11th Dec	XX	Mild	1052	1016	4.76	69.23%	5.67	1.20	2.17	2.25	60.25º F
2nd Dec	XXX	Mild	1059	1018	5.42	69.49%	5.66	1.35	2.25	2.33	60º F
5th Dec	XXXX	Mild	1068	1022	6.09	67.65%	5.91	1.66	2.33		60.5º F
12th Dec	AK	Pale Ale	1046	1013	4.37	71.74%	8.00	1.48	2.25		59.5º F
19th Dec	IPA	IPA	1054	1015	5.16	72.22%	9.71	2.10	2.25		60º F
12th Dec	DS	Stout	1067.5	1023	5.89	65.93%	5.38	1.56	2.25		60º F
6th Dec	S	Stout	1051	1015	4.76	70.59%	5.50	1.16	2.25		60º F
17th Dec	BB	Strong Ale	1086	1030	7.41	65.12%	8.42	2.63	2.75		60º F
Source:
Boddington brewing record held at Manchester Central Library, document number M693/405/125.

Whitbread beers in 1901
Date	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)	Pitch temp
20th Jun	XK	Ale	1061.2	1017	5.85	72.24%	6.03	1.63	1.75	1.75	60º
20th Jun	X	Mild	1054.2	1014	5.31	74.15%	6.03	1.44	1.75	1.75	60º
25th Jun	2PA	Pale Ale	1053.7	1014	5.26	73.95%	9.85	2.39	1.5	1.42	57.5º
27th Jun	FA	Pale Ale	1051.8	1013	5.13	74.90%	10.92	2.54	1.5	1.75	58º
15th Jun	PA	Pale Ale	1058.4	1017	5.48	70.91%	10.98	2.93	1.5	2	58º
31st May	KK	Stock Ale	1073	1030	5.69	58.91%	12.00	4.03	1.75	2	57º
31st May	2KKK	Stock Ale	1078.7	1033	6.05	58.07%	12.00	4.35	1.75	2	57º
31st May	KKK	Stock Ale	1082.8	1036	6.19	56.53%	12.00	4.58	1.75	2	57º
11th Feb	C	Porter	1054.7	1015	5.26	72.60%	6.86	1.86	1.5	1.75	60º
14th Feb	P	Porter	1055.7	1015	5.38	73.06%	7.52	1.70	1.75	2	60º
25th Feb	CS	Stout	1055.5	1016	5.23	71.18%	6.91	1.79	1.75	2	60º
8th May	S	Stout	1072.5	1028	5.89	61.39%	8.57	3.15	1.75	1.75	57º
20th Feb	SS	Stout	1087.6	1033	7.22	62.31%	8.55	3.74	1.75	2.17	57º
13th Mar	SSS	Stout	1096.1	1042	7.16	56.29%	8.51	4.25	1.75	2	57º
Source:
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/066 and LMA/4453/D/09/095.