Let's brew Wednesday - Fullers 1920 XX

I know. It isn't Wednesday. Not even Thursday. And there have been many weeks with no recipe at all. Blame Kristen. He had some lame excuse connected with work and family. I don't let either of those get in my way.

One thing that surprised me about the heyday of Mild was this: most breweries only made one. Even when it made up perhaps 40% of sales, there was just a single variant. (I'm talking 1880 to 1914 here.) After WW I, London brewers mostly continued producing something like Government Ale, a just alcoholic type of Mild. A few, however, brewed a stronger Mild. One over 1040.

Which brings us to today's beer, Fuller's XX. X's big brother. Best Mild, you could call it. The perfect beer for a hot summer day. If you add a little ice.


Time for Kristen to do his thing . . . . . . (Feel free to comment on the new format. This is how we're planning to present the recipes in the 1909 Beer Style Guide.) . . . . . .

Fullers - 1920 - XX
General info: Very different from most of the other mild ales of the time this beer makes your eyes lie to you as it is very dark. This beer is composed entirely of pale malts and pale adjuncts with one except, a heavy dose of caramel color. The use of 100% Hallertauer-type hops is very interesting and lends a more elegant quality. All things being equal, this is a very nice, smooth easy to drink beer. A brown liquid for the masses. This beer was gyled into the XX and the weaker X(5H).
Beer Specifics			Recipe by percentages
Gravity (OG)	1.041		45.9% English pale malt			1.8% Caramel color
Gravity (FG)	1.007		35.1% 6-row malt
ABV	4.53%		13.5% Flaked maize
Apparent attenuation	82.93%		3.6% Glucose
Real attenuation	67.93%
IBU	21.0		Mash	90min@150°F		0.96qt/lb
SRM	29.0			90min@65.6°C		2.01L/kg
EBC	76.9
			Boil	90 min
	Homebrew @ 70%				Craft @ 80%
Grist	5gal		19L		10bbl		10hl
English pale malt	3.61	lb	1.644	kg	195.67	lb	75.60	kg
6-row malt	2.76	lb	1.257	kg	149.63	lb	57.81	kg
Flaked maize	1.06	lb	0.483	kg	57.55	lb	22.24	kg
Glucose	0.28	lb	0.127	kg	15.35	lb	5.93	kg
Caramel color	0.14	lb	0.064	kg	7.67	lb	2.96	kg
					425.87
Hops
Hallertauer3.5% 90min	1	oz	28.4	g	63	oz	1.522	kg
Hallertauer3.5% 30min	0.5	oz	14.2	g	31	oz	0.749	kg
Fermentation	69°F /20.6°C
Yeast	Nottingham ale
	WLP002 English Ale Yeast
	Wyeast 1968 London ESB
Tasting Notes: Elegant meadow flowers floral and a touch of spice. A boat load of husky grain with a healthy does of polenta. Absolutely no roast or dark malt character argues with the deep brown color. It finishes very, very dry with a strong black tea character that screams to be paired with something sweet.

Ingredients and technique

Grist & such
The base malt for this recipe was nearly split in two between aged English pale malt and the husky American 6-row. A good portion of flaked maize would have added a touch of corn character, polenta-esque if you will. This was quite a malty beer in that there was only 6% or so of brewing sugars all of which are pale. The caramel colorant added 95% of the color to this beer making it very dark with bright crimson hues. The caramel colorant is absolutely mandatory so either use Sinemar or make your own to replace it

Hops
Another oddity is the fact that all of the hops came from the Alsace region of France which is historically known for growing very elegant Hallertauer-type hops. The hops were neither old nor young but at 21bu there was definitely enough bitterness and hops added to be able to taste them. This beer was not dry hopped.

Mash & Boil
Very straightforward single infusion mash with an underlet and stand for 90min. One could probably shorten it to 60min with all the 6-row in the recipe. A 90 min will suffice to ensure that no raw corn-like flavors carry over to the finished product.

Fermentation, Conditioning & Serving
A warm fermentation added a little spicy note to the beer which was done fermenting in about 4 days. It was then only cask condition for about a week which would have definitely left this beer with some elbows and a ‘raw’ character. Carbonation at around 1.9 vol and served within two weeks.

Gyling & Blending
There were two beers made from this mash. The stronger XX and the weaker X(5H). This mash was broken down into 3 different gyles. The third gyle (the return) was not hopped and not dosed with sugar as can be see by the gravity (1.002). Use water for this gyle. All the sugar and caramel goes equally into each of the first two gyles as does the hop charges. The hopping is equally divided based on the volume of the gyle and the total hopping rate as indicated and added at the times shown above. The volumes are gal, liters, bbls and hL’s as indicated per column.

XX	5gal	19L	10bbl	10hL
G1 - vol	4.70	17.86	9.40	9.40
G1 - grav	1.044	1.044	1.044	1.044
G1 - BU	20	20	20	20
G2 - vol	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
G2 - grav	1.033	1.033	1.033	1.033
G2 - BU	21	21	21	21
G3 - vol	0.30	1.14	0.60	0.60
G3 - grav	1.000	1.000	1.000	1.000
G3 - BU	0	0	0	0
Hopping	0.97oz/gal	7.26g/L	1.88lb/bbl	0.73kg/hL
Totals	OG 1.041	FG 1.007	BU 18.8	Abv 4.5%

5H	5gal	19L	10bbl	10hL
G1 - vol	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
G1 - grav	1.044	1.044	1.044	1.044
G1 - BU	20	20	20	20
G2 - vol	4.65	17.67	9.30	9.30
G2 - grav	1.033	1.033	1.033	1.033
G2 - BU	21	21	21	21
G3 - vol	0.35	1.33	0.70	0.70
G3 - grav	1.000	1.000	1.000	1.000
G3 - BU	0	0	0	0
Hopping	0.97oz/gal	7.26g/L	1.88lb/bbl	0.73kg/hL
Totals	OG 1.031	FG 1.005	BU 19.5	Abv 3.3%