Saturday 2 July 2022

Let's Brew - 1913 Boddington XXX

The only Boddington Mild to retain its 1901 name was XXX. Though it had lost 7º in gravity. Don’t ask me why it hadn’t become BBB.

It might look impressively strong for a Mild to modern eyes. But in London it would only have counted as a single X. A base-level Mild.

Other than the introduction of flaked maize, not much has happened to the grist. Still mostly base malt. Just a tiny bit less of it. The sugar is a pure guess. It’s most likely some type of invert. I’m pretty sure about that. Pretty sure, but I could be totally wrong.

I find it odd that the three Mild recipes, while pretty similar, are by no means identical. I suppose that, as Boddington didn’t parti-gyle, they didn’t need to use exactly the same recipe for each.

The hopping rate had fallen considerably, from 5.7 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt in 1901 to 3.6 lbs.

The hops were the same as in BB. Copper: English from the 1909, 1911, and 1912 harvests; Californian from 1911. Dry hops: English from the 1911 and 1912 seasons; Californian from 1911.

1913 Boddington XXX
pale malt 10.25 lb 87.23%
flaked maize 1.00 lb 8.51%
No. 3 invert sugar 0.50 lb 4.26%
Cluster 155 mins 0.50 oz
Fuggles 60 mins 0.75 oz
Fuggles 30 mins 0.75 oz
Cluster dry hops 0.125 oz
Fuggles dry hops 0.25 oz
OG 1052
FG 1017
ABV 4.63
Apparent attenuation 67.31%
IBU 27
SRM 7
Mash at 154º F
Sparge at 168º F
Boil time 155 minutes
pitching temp 62º F
Yeast Wyeast 1318 London ale III (Boddingtons)

2 comments:

Grant said...

7 SRM sounds light for a mild. Was the the scale different then or was the style different to modern iterations?

Ron Pattinson said...

Grant,

before 1880 all Mild was pale in colour. Even in the 1980s, Boddington Mild wasn't properly dark.