Saturday 10 March 2018

Let's Brew - 1974 Boddington IP

The 1971 recipe above was taken from the start of a brewing book. This is taken from the end of that same book.

And, surprise, surprise, the recipe has changed again. The gravity has fallen again. Back in 1951, the OG was 1040º, in 1966 1038.5º, in 1971 1035.5º and now 1034.5º. There’s a definite trend there.

The percentages of the different elements of the grist have changed a little. There’s a bit less pale malt, a bit more lager malt and sugar. The sugars are still DMS, Fla and BR, 2 cwts of each.

The hopping rate had fallen again. It’s down from almost 7 lbs per quarter of malt in 1947 to just over 5lbs. Making this not a very bitter beer. I know, it’s not what I expected when I started looking at Boddington’s records. The description of the hops is very basic. All I know is that they were English.


1974 Boddington IP
pale malt 4.50 lb 60.00%
lager malt 1.25 lb 16.67%
enzymic malt 0.25 lb 3.33%
wheat 0.25 lb 3.33%
flaked maize 0.25 lb 3.33%
No. 2 invert sugar 1.00 lb 13.33%
Fuggles 90 min 0.75 oz
Goldings 30 min 0.75 oz
Goldings dry hops 0.25 oz
OG 1034.5
FG 1004
ABV 4.03
Apparent attenuation 88.41%
IBU 20
SRM 6
Mash at 150º F
Sparge at 162º F
Boil time 90 minutes
pitching temp 63º F
Yeast Wyeast 1318 London ale III (Boddingtons)

4 comments:

Phil said...

Fascinating - maybe people were tasting the beer they remembered, even as early as 1974.

Thom Farrell said...

I wonder how Boddingtons developed such a cult following? It sold quite cheaply and obviously it was rather unusual for its paleness. Perhaps the secret was exceptional cellar skills throughout its tied estate?

Robp said...

I'm late catching up with this blog, so a bit tardy.

I'm from Cardiff, not The Midlands/North, so I suppose I don't have that emotional attachment to Boddies but I drank a fair bit late seventies onwards because it was fairly common. I only ever remember it as being OK but unremarkable.

Now if we were going to discuss BrA1ns...

Unknown said...

I can't find a recipe that shows the alpha acids of the hops - any ideas?