Boddington beers after WW II

Unsurprisingly, Boddington’s range hadn’t expanded during WW II. Sure, there were still four beers, but two of them were essentially the same.

Bottling IP was introduced in 1943, presumably as a variant of Bitter for bottling. Originally it was 4º weaker: 1037º to the 1041º of standard IP. But cuts in the gravity of IP left the two pretty much the same by the end of the war. I can’t really see why the bothered making two only marginally different beers.

Boddington beers after WW II
Year	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	dry hops (oz / barrel)
1946	XX	Mild	1028	1005	3.04	82.14%	6.92	0.78	0.00
1946	Bottling IP	Pale Ale	1037	1006	4.10	83.78%	6.76	0.97	2.33
1946	IP	Pale Ale	1038	1006	4.23	84.21%	6.46	0.96	2.31
1945	St	Stout	1038	1010	3.70	73.68%	5.33	0.81	0.00
Source:
Boddington brewing record held at Manchester Central Library, document number M693/405/129.

CC, Boddington’s Strong Ale, seems to have never returned after the brewery was shut down for 8 months in December 1940 after sustaining serious bomb damage. Though it did make a comeback in 1951.

A big increase in the rate of attenuation means that Boddington Bitter remained over 4% ABV, despite the reduction in gravity. High attenuation also dragged their Mild just over the 3% ABV level.

Boddington beers OG before and after WW II
		1939	1945/46
Beer	Style	OG	OG	% fall
XX	Mild	1033.8	1028	17.04%
Bottling IP	Pale Ale		1037
IP	Pale Ale	1045	1038	15.56%
St	Stout	1045	1038	15.56%
CC	Strong Ale	1056
Source:
Boddington brewing record held at Manchester Central Library, document number M693/405/129.

In reality, the effective OG of at least some of the beers would have been a degree or two higher due to the addition of primings at racking time. Entries for primings appear in the brewing book. Unfortunately, it doesn’t record where these went and in what quantities.

To put those falls into context, average OG fell from 1040.93º in 1939 to 1034.54º in 1945.  That's a 15.61% reduction. Which is near a damn it an exact match for the drop in IP’s gravity. While the OG of XX fell a little more than the average.

The hopping rate was also reduced in the course of the war. Something Boddington had no control over.

Boddington hopping rates before and after WW II
		1939		1945/46		% fall
Beer	Style	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
XX	Mild	7.91	1.15	6.92	0.78	12.57%	32.50%
Bottling IP	Pale Ale			6.76	0.97
IP	Pale Ale	6.92	1.39	6.46	0.96	6.67%	30.58%
St	Stout	7.54	1.51	5.33	0.81	29.27%	46.17%
CC	Strong Ale	8.10	2.17
Source:
Boddington brewing record held at Manchester Central Library, document number M693/405/129.

What’s slightly odd is that the hopping rate for Mild, in terms of lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt, was higher than that of Bitter. The exact reverse of what you would expect. However, due to the greater strength of IP, its rate per barrel was higher.