You may be shocked to see that XX has only lost 1º in gravity since the start of the war. But the reality is slightly more complicated.
This recipe comes from October and the X Ale above from May. There’s a big difference between the beers from early in the year and those from later. A brew of XX from May had an OG of just 1039º. What was going on?
Funnily enough, when this stronger example was brewed was exactly the time when the Republic of Ireland and the UK were having a trade tussle. The Irish government banned the export of beer to the UK as a lever to get more grain from the UK. The Republic provided 90% of the beer drunk in Northern Ireland, so cutting off supplies was a big problem. The UK government eventually caved in and supplies of Guinness were resumed.
You’d expect the weaker beer to be brewed now, not earlier in the year. Irish average OG hit its wartime nadir of 1043.63º in 1943, then rose back 1º, where it remained for the rest of the war.
There’s very little to the recipe. Mostly base malt and one type of hops. Only the tiny amount of black malt prevents it from being a SMASH recipe. The hops, incidentally, were English and from the 1942 harvest. Pretty fresh, especially compared to what Perry used pre-war.
| 1943 Perry XX | ||
| pale malt | 10.75 lb | 99.17% |
| black malt | 0.09 lb | 0.83% |
| Fuggles 150 mins | 0.75 oz | |
| Fuggles 60 mins | 0.75 oz | |
| OG | 1046 | |
| FG | 1012.5 | |
| ABV | 4.43 | |
| Apparent attenuation | 72.83% | |
| IBU | 20 | |
| SRM | 8 | |
| Mash at | 149º F | |
| Sparge at | 160º F | |
| Boil time | 150 minutes | |
| pitching temp | 60º F | |
| Yeast | Wyeast 1084 Irish ale | |
This recipe is from my recently-released Blitzkrieg!, the definitive book on brewing during WW II.
The second volume contains the recipes. But not just that. There are also overviews of some of the breweries covered, showing their beers at the start and the end of the conflict.
Buy one now and be the envy of your friends!
Both volumes are also available on Kindle:
Volume 2
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5 comments:
The trade tussle in question you are thinking about was the 1932 to 1938 Anglo-Irish trade war.
Oscar
Oscar,
I'm talking about a different trade dispute that happened during WW II, when Ireland banned the export of beer to the UK
Oh thanks though I reckon the earlier trade dispute did play a role in the downfall of the smaller independent breweries.
Oscar
With the Republic being a neutral nation I would have thought that - despite general shortages and some food rationing - there would have been no "political" reasons for the Irish government to require the lowering of beer gravities during the war as happened in the UK?
Bribie G,
they had the same reason to cut beer gravities as in the UK: grain shortages.
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