Wednesday 19 February 2020

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1942 Barclay Perkins X

Half way through the war, things weren’t looking great for X. The gravity is down 4.5º on the previous year.

Lots has also been happening with the recipe. It’s a great example of the effect of wartime shortages on beer grists. There’s a bit of everything: pale malt, lager malt, light amber malt, torrefied barley, flaked barley, crystal malt and sugar.

Obviously, a recipe as weird and complicated as this wasn’t deliberately developed. They were using whatever fermentable material they could get their hands on. The overall result, however, leaves the adjunct percentage around the same as in 1940. There’s considerably more sugar than in 1941 – about double the amount.

The primings – which added about 2º to the effective OG – would also have darkened the colour. As sold, X was 20 – 25 SRM. The paler version, which was around the colour as brewed, i.e. as indicated in the recipe below, had been discontinued the previous year.

Three types of Mid-Kent hops from the 1940 and 1941 seasons were used, the former having been kept in a cold store.


1942 Barclay Perkins X
mild malt 3.25 lb 51.59%
lager malt 0.75 lb 11.90%
crystal malt 60 L 0.25 lb 3.97%
amber malt 0.50 lb 7.94%
flaked barley 0.50 lb 7.94%
torrefied barley 0.25 lb 3.97%
No. 3 invert sugar 0.75 lb 11.90%
caramel 1000 SRM 0.05 lb 0.79%
Fuggles 105 mins 0.50 oz
Fuggles 60 mins 0.50 oz
Fuggles 30 mins 0.25 oz
OG 1029.5
FG 1006
ABV 3.11
Apparent attenuation 79.66%
IBU 18
SRM 12
Mash at 144º F
After underlet 150º F
Sparge at 165º F
Boil time 105 minutes
pitching temp 61º F
Yeast Wyeast 1099 Whitbread ale

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