Saturday 29 February 2020

Let's Brew - 1966 Boddington Strong Ale

At some point in the 1950s or early 1960s, Boddington dropped their Strong Ale CC. And replaced it with a new, stronger beer simply called Strong Ale.

At 7.5 % ABV, it’s a Strong Ale in anyone’s book. That was achieved by a very high degree of attenuation for a beer of such a hefty gravity. I’s an odd feature of British beer that, while most of it became quite watery, some strong and very strong beers were almost always knocking about.

There’s nothing very exciting about the recipe. It’s much like their other beers, save for the lack of enzymic malt.

1966 Boddington Strong Ale
pale malt 11.25 lb 75.86%
crystal malt 80 L 1.75 lb 11.80%
wheat malt 0.33 lb 2.23%
malt extract 0.50 lb 3.37%
No. 3 invert sugar 1.00 lb 6.74%
Fuggles 90 min 1.25 oz
Goldings 30 min 1.25 oz
Goldings dry hops 0.25 oz
OG 1065.5
FG 1008.5
ABV 7.54
Apparent attenuation 87.02%
IBU 29
SRM 17
Mash at 146º F
Sparge at 162º F
Boil time 90 minutes
pitching temp 62.5º F
Yeast Wyeast 1318 London ale III (Boddingtons)

The above is an excerpt from my overly detailed look at post-war UK brewing, Austerity!

http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/austerity/23181344








Which is now also available in Kindle format.

4 comments:

Matt said...

Do you know when Boddingtons last brewed a strong ale, Ron? I think I've seen one in the 1983 GBG so I'd guess some time between then and the late eighties when I first drank their bitter in Manchester pubs and never saw it (or their mild come to that).

Ron Pattinson said...

Matt,

I'm not sure. I've brewing records from the 1980s and it's just Bitter and Mild, nothing else. Until they took over Oldham, thene there's Oldhan Bitter and Mild.

A Brew Rat said...

That's pretty amazing to get 87% attenuation for a beer with 11.8% crystal malt.

qq said...

@A Brew Rat - the post-WWII Boddies yeast was a serious attenuator, it was getting 91.6% AA on the ordinary beer, see http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2018/02/lets-brew-wednesday-1971-boddington-ip.html