Wednesday 26 December 2018

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1939 Tetley XXX

A special strong recipe as a treat for Boxing Day. I hope you enjoy it.

Going into WW II, Tetley’s range of beers was rather odd. Not at all the usual mix of styles. One of the oddities was a genuinely Strong Ale, XXX.

In effect, it was a super-strong Mild, being parti-gyled with X2. I’ve no real idea how long it had been around as a product, as this is the only example of it that I have, unfortunately. Looking in the Whitbread Gravity Book, there’s a 1928 entry for a beer called Tetley Imperial Ale with an OG of 1089º. I’m pretty sure that must be XXX.

The recipe, though uncomplicated, does pose some problems. On account of the sugar, most of which was something called Albion “A”. I’ve substituted No. 2 invert sugar. The base malt, as for Tetley’s other beers, was an even split of English and Californian.

The hopping rate is slightly higher than for the weaker Milds at 5 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt, rather than 4.5 lbs. The hops themselves, however, were the same, Kent from the 1937 and 1938 crop and Worcester from 1937. All the 1937 hops had been kept in a cold store.


1939 Tetley XXX
pale malt 16.25 lb 82.80%
No. 2 invert 3.25 lb 16.56%
caramel 2000 SRM 0.125 lb 0.64%
Fuggles 120 mins 1.25 oz
Fuggles 90 mins 1.25 oz
Fuggles 30 mins 1.00 oz
OG 1091
FG 1030
ABV 8.07
Apparent attenuation 67.03%
IBU 33
SRM 24
Mash at 154º F
Sparge at 165º F
Boil time 120 minutes
pitching temp 62º F
Yeast Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire Ale

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