Let's Brew - 1939 Boddington XX

The biggest seller at Boddington on the outbreak of war was their XX Mild Ale. Not much of a surprise there, as Mild was the most popular style, especially amongst the working class, which made up the bulk of Boddington’s customers.

Boddington only had the one Mild, the others having died in WW I. XX was, in terms of strength, exactly the same in 1939 as it had been in 1920. Which, to be honest, was on the weak side. In the early 1920s, 1042º was a typical strength for standard Mild. That had slipped a little by the end of the 1930s, but something like 1037º was typical.

The grist is quite complicated, with small amounts of lots of different things. Even more complicated than my recipe. There was a small amount of enzymic malt – about 0.125 lbs for this size recipe. I’ve just bumped up the pale malt a little. I’ve specified flaked wheat, but I’ve really no idea what form it was in. The log just says wheat, so it could have been malted.

There were two types of sugar, something simply called “invert” and another listed as fl. I’ve interpreted it all as No. 3 invert.

The hopping is quite heavy for a Mild of such a modest gravity. The hops were Oregon (1937 Cold Store), Styrian (1937 Cold Store), English (1937, 1937 Cold Store, 1938).

1939 Boddington XX
pale malt	4.75 lb	62.46%
crystal malt 60 L	0.67 lb	8.81%
flaked maize	1.00 lb	13.15%
flaked wheat	0.25 lb	3.29%
malt extract	0.125 lb	1.64%
No. 3 invert sugar	0.75 lb	9.86%
caramel 1000 SRM	0.06 lb	0.79%
Cluster 120 mins	0.50 oz
Styrian Goldings 90 mins	0.75 oz
Fuggles 30 mins	0.75 oz
OG	1034
FG	1007
ABV	3.57
Apparent attenuation	79.41%
IBU	33
SRM	14
Mash at	150º F
Sparge at	162º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	62º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1318 London ale III (Boddingtons)