London X Ales in the 1830's

Mild. Not written anything about it for a while. It must be time to give it another go. I know, early London X Ales. They're fun.

The 1830 Beer Act is one of the most important pieces of British legislation regarding beer. Its main provision was the shifting of taxation from finished beer to the raw materials. Another which had an even bigger impact on brewing was with regard to a new type of licence. The beer-only or beerhouse licence. These were issued automatically (once a few basic criteria had been filled) without the need for approval from local magistrates. Thousands of beer houses opened almost immediately.

This new market caused a rethink amongst the large London Porter brewers. Before 1830 most of them brewed no Ales at all, concentrating 100% on Porter and Stout. They had tied customers in the London pub trade, but the tie was only for Porter and Stout, not for Ale, which was supplied by other brewers. Beer houses appeared just at the time when Porter's long ascendancy began to be challenged by Mild Ale. Mild Ales popularity surged along with beer house number. It was a trend the Porter brewers couldn't afford to ignore and in the 1830's they started to brew Ales.

I love these early Milds. My favourite historical recreation brew is Pretty Things version of an 1830's Truman XXXX Ale. It's a ridiculously simple beer with just one type of malt and one type of hops. I do wish other commercial brewers would give this type of Mild a go. I think there would be a ready market for them. Even the session-strength X Ales of just 6-7% ABV.

London X Ales in the 1830's
Date	Year	Brewer	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)	Pitch temp	max. fermen-tation temp	length of fermen-tation (days)
5th Dec	1836	Whitbread	X	Mild	1077.0	1029.4	6.30	61.87%	6.55	2.33	2	2	3	63.5º	74.5º	4 + 2
17th Feb	1837	Whitbread	X	Mild	1066.2	1030.5	4.73	53.97%	7.65	2.15	2	2	3	63º	72º	5 + 4
13th Dec	1838	Barclay Perkins	X	Mild	1072.6	1013.0	7.88	82.09%	6.32	2.30	3			58.5º	º
31st Dec	1838	Reid	X	Mild	1073.4				6.75	2.06	1	3		60º
3rd Dec	1831	Truman	X Ale	Mild	1072.3	1021.6	6.71	70.11%	7	2.33				62º	77º	8
3rd Mar	1836	Truman	X Ale	Mild	1075.3	1024.9	6.67	66.91%	6	2.07				60º	70º	8
15th Mar	1837	Whitbread	XX	Mild	1091.4	1035.5	7.40	61.21%	6.05	2.35	2	2	3	59º	74º	6 + 2
27th Dec	1838	Reid	XX	Mild	1088.6				8.8	3.12	1.5	3		57º
25th Jul	1839	Barclay Perkins	XX	Mild	1088.6	1015.0	9.74	83.08%	9.10	4.21	3.75			58º	76.5º	5 + ?
24th Dec	1831	Truman	XX Ale	Mild	1083.1	1030.5	6.96	63.33%	6	2.63				59º	77º	10
18th Jul	1835	Truman	XX Ale	Mild	1092.5	1027.7	8.57	70.06%	10	4.46				59º	71º	10
11th Nov	1836	Whitbread	XXX	Mild	1102.8	1036.0	8.83	64.96%	6.09	2.80	2	2	3.5	62.5º	74.5º	5 + 4
3rd Aug	1839	Barclay Perkins	XXX	Mild	1104.4	1017.6	11.49	83.15%	8.17	4.93	3.25			58.5º	77º	6 + ?
18th Mar	1839	Reid	XXX	Mild	1105.3				8	3.75	1.5	3		57º
1st Dec	1831	Truman	XXX Ale	Mild	1086.4	1016.6	9.23	80.77%	8	4.00				62º	º	13
11th Aug	1835	Truman	XXX Ale	Mild	1109.4	1034.3	9.93	68.61%	10	4.65				59º	69º	9
23rd Dec	1836	Whitbread	XXXX	Mild	1114.7	1039.3	9.97	65.70%	7.00	3.64	2.17	2	2.5	60º	73º	7 + 1
21st Nov	1835	Truman	XXXX Ale	Mild	1116.3	1045.4	9.38	60.95%	8	5.97				58º	69º	12
Sources:
Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives document number LMA/4453/D/01/001.
Barclay Perkins brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives document number ACC/2305/1/550.
Truman brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives document numbers B/THB/C/115 and B/THB/C/119.
Reid brewing record held at the City of Westminster Archives document number 789/266.

Looking at the gravities of the beers in the table, I'm struck by how similar the gravities are across the different breweries. I suspect that they were keeping an eye on each other's gravities and prices. One word about beer strengths. In general, the large London brewers made stronger beers than other brewers. Their economies of scale and high degree of mechanisation meant that they could brew more cheaply than their smaller competitors. As prices were constant across different brewers, lower production costs were expressed in greater strength.

X Ales had gravities around 1075º, XX Ales 1090º, XXX Ales 1105º and XXXX Ales 1115º. So they basically started at around double the gravity of modern Milds and worked up from there. Why isn't there any wailing about modern Milds being completely inauthentic? I know, because only IPA is judged by early 19th-century standards. I still can't work out why that is.

You can see that the attenuation is all over the shop, from a low of 54% to a high of over 80%. The ones at the top end are more the exception. In general, Milds of this period had about 65% attenuation. Around 10 points lower than you would expect today.

In common with all 19th-century British beers, they contained a shed-load of hops. Not quite the several shed-loads of a Pale Ale, but still serious quantities. There's still a fair bit of variation in hopping rates amongst the beers in the table. Some of that is probably explained by when they were brewed. Summer brews normally received more hops than winter ones.

Fermentation temperatures are one thing that seem to have changed little over the years, remaining in the 60-70º F range right up until after WW II.

Excuse me if I haven't mentioned the ingredients. In my defence, they are pretty dull. Pale malt and Kent hops. See what I mean? There's not much to be said about them.

What next? X Ales in the 1840's? It's a possibility.