Lees gists in 1939

The grists of Lees beers weren’t very exciting, either. They employed so few ingredients that they fit nicely into a single table. There were just four elements, two malts and two types of sugar. Base malt, plus a small amount of black malt, presumably for colour.

The sugars were glucose – something that was quite popular in the 1930s – and what is simply describes as “invert”. The latter is probably one of the numbered inverts. Whether or not exactly the same type of invert was used for both the Bitter and Mild is a good question. In the recipes, I’ve assumed that they were different: No. 2 for Bitter and No. 3 for Mild.

Both beers used the same English hops from the 1936, 1937 and 1938 crops. The age of some of the hops used is the main cause of the lower bitterness in Lees beers as opposed to Boddington’s.

There is very little difference in the recipes for Bitter and Mild. Just a bit more black malt in the Mild. Unless, of course, a different type of invert were used in each.

Lees grists in 1939
Date	Beer	Style	OG	pale malt	black malt	glucose	invert sugar	hops
21st Feb	K	Mild	1035	85.71%	1.59%	6.35%	6.35%	English (1936. 1937, 1938)
2nd Mar	B	Pale Ale	1047	85.65%	0.07%	6.34%	7.93%	English (1936. 1937, 1938)
Source:
Lees brewing records held at the brewery