Strongest of Mew Langton’s beers by far was XXXX Ale. That’s quite a common name for an Old Ale. What’s unusual is that they didn’t produce any other X Ales. Not even a single X.
A pretty expensive beer. An Imperial pint bottle sold for 6d. Or treble the price of a pint of draught Mild Ale. Unusually, it only seems to have been available in bottles, as there are no casks listed in the price list I’ve seen.
It’s not a beer they brewed very often. In the period October 1884 to December 1885, this was the only brew. And there were only 54 barrels of it. Along with 84 barrels of 4d. In a parti-gyle that I don’t totally understand.
There’s nothing at all fancy or complicated about the recipe: a single type of pale malt and a whole load of Farnham hops. You really can’t get any simpler than that.
No doubt because of the quantity of grain, two mash tuns were used. There was an infusion, an underlet and a small sparge in each. Followed by a rather large sparge which seems to have been specifically for 4d.
The Farnham hops were pretty fresh, all coming from the 1884 harvest. Just a few months old when this beer was brewed in early march.
| 1885 Mew Langton XXXX Ale | ||
| pale malt | 23.50 lb | 100.00% |
| Goldings 120 mins | 4.50 oz | |
| Goldings 60 mins | 4.50 oz | |
| Goldings 30 mins | 4.50 oz | |
| Goldings dry hops | 1.00 oz | |
| OG | 1101 | |
| FG | 1030 | |
| ABV | 9.39 | |
| Apparent attenuation | 70.30% | |
| IBU | 127 | |
| SRM | 7.5 | |
| Mash at | 149º F | |
| Sparge at | 185º F | |
| Boil time | 120 minutes | |
| pitching temp | 61º F | |
| Yeast | Wyeast 1275 Thames Valley ale | |
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1 comment:
That would take the mouth off you
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