Saturday, 23 November 2024

Let's Brew - 1880 Chapman XXX

At first, this beer confused the hell out of me. Why the hell was XXX weaker than XX? It made no sense. Then I looked at the brewing record more closely.

The hopping rate tipped me off first. At over 10 lbs per quarter (336 lbs of malt) it’s much higher than the 7lbs of XX. And almost as high as for PA. This line made it pretty obvious what this beer really was:

        “Ran into No. 4 vat.”

This is clearly a Stock Ale. One which is vatted. In relatively small vats, as 47.5 barrels were split over two vats.

The recipe is similar to X and XX, consisting of just pale malt and fructose. Though the proportions are quite different. There’s only 21% sugar as opposed to 33% in the weaker beers. I’m sure this is because XXX was intended to be matured for a long period.

The hops were the same as in XXX: Sussex from the 1880 crop, and two types of Mid-Kent from 1878.

How long did it stay in the vats? I’m guessing at least a year. Possibly even more. 

1880 Chapman XXX
pale malt 10.75 lb 79.63%
No. 1 invert sugar 2.75 lb 20.37%
Fuggles 90 mins 3.25 oz
Fuggles 30 mins 3.25 oz
Goldings dry hops 2.25 oz
OG 1067
FG 1012.5
ABV 7.21
Apparent attenuation 81.34%
IBU 65
SRM 8
Mash at 147º F
Sparge at 172º F
Boil time 90 minutes
pitching temp 57º F
Yeast WLP023 Burton Ale

 


2 comments:

daRobFather said...

Ron, I read your blog every day, both for the brewing content and the travel. Keep it up!

Question, for your xxx stock ale recipe, did you increase the Invert #1 content (4+ pounds!) so that a 21st-century, single-strain ferment would yield attenuation similar to what the 1880 brewers achieved after a year of aging, presumably in brett soup? Follow-up, did 19-century brewers ever take and record for you any final gravity readings after many months/years of aging? I.e., how much extra attenuation did they achieve during aging? I’ve been brewing for 25+ years, but my experience with brett is limited to just one batch of barleywine with 6 months on brett-c, and I didn’t measure much additional attenuation, from like 1.029 to 1.028. I got close to, but did not hit my goals for FG and ABV. It tastes marvelous, nevertheless. Ultimately, I’m wondering how much more attenuation I should expect on a future batch if I were to use a different brett strain, or should I simply follow your lead and use a greater proportion of sugar to more closely hit my targets.

Ron Pattinson said...

That was a mistake in the recipe. Which I've now corrected.

In this case, the FG is after primary fermentation. So already quite low. Obviously after some time in the vat the FG would have ended even lower.

Usually, the only time I can get the real FG of Stock Ales is when I have an analysis of the beer as sold.