X Ale grists in the 1880's

It's now time to take a look at the grists from the 1880's X Ales. Dead exciting, I know. But try not to get too enthusiastic. There are a few more instalments in this series still to come.

The grists are beginning to get a bit more exciting, but not much. With one exception: Fullers X and XX. Which use amber malt as a base. That could be a tricky one to recreate, distatic amber not being the easiest malt to lay your hands on. That aside, the brown malt in the one Barclay Perkins X Ale is the only malt other than pale malt in the London Milds. The majority are just pale malt and sugar.

Half of the provincial X Ales, those from Tetley and William Younger, have the simplest grist of all: 100% pale malt. The beers from Usher and Hodgson both contain a smidgen of black malt, presumably as colouring. The Usher beer also has some high-dried malt., whatever that means. It's such a vague term - apparently covering everything from slightly darker pale malt through to almost brown malt. I'll leave you to guess which end of the spectrum this malt lies at.

I'd expected the sugar content in London Milds. All but one Barclay Perkins X Ale contain some. In the 15-20% range that you would expect. But where are the adjuncts? Not a single beer has any maize or rice. I'm surprised.

The provincial brewers seem to have been less keen on sugar. Truman's Burton brewery used a little. Only Hodgson used an amount similar to the London brewers. What they did use though was a bit of black malt. A couple of them. I've seen odd examples very small quantities used in X Ales from the first half of the 19th century. It got more common towards the end of the century, but was still by no means universal.

Unfortunately, in many cases the brewing records don't specify the type of sugar. Is it No. 1 invert or No. 3 invert? Or is it something completely different? No idea is the only answer I can give you. I'd need to go rummaging through their purchase records or stock books (if they still exist) to work that out.

Next time it'll be 1900 or so. At least that's the plan. But you know me. My plans are elastic.

London X Ale grists in the 1880's
Date	Year	Brewer	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	pale malt	brown malt	amber malt	no. 1 sugar	no. 3 sugar	Other sugar
4th May	1886	Barclay Perkins	X	Mild	1055.0	1010.0	5.96	81.87%	6.42	1.61	81.82%				18.18%
24th Jun	1886	Barclay Perkins	X	Mild	1064.0	1015.0	6.49	76.63%	8.00	1.97	72.57%	27.43%
3rd May	1887	Barclay Perkins	XX	Mild	1078.0	1024.9	7.02	68.04%	16.00	5.85	85.71%			14.29%
19th Oct	1886	Whitbread	X	Mild	1061.2	1015.8	6.01	74.21%	9.11	2.38	91.40%					8.60%
12th Nov	1885	Whitbread	XL	Mild	1071.2	1020.8	6.67	70.82%	8.13	2.48	92.31%			7.69%
19th May	1886	Truman	X Ale	Mild	1052.6				8.0	1.88	86.30%					13.70%
19th May	1886	Truman	X Ale	Mild	1058.7				8.0	2.09	86.30%					13.70%
23rd Apr	1887	Fuller	X	Mild	1054.6	1020.5	4.51	62.44%	6.64	1.63			78.75%			21.25%
23rd Apr	1887	Fuller	XX	Mild	1064.8	1023.3	5.50	64.10%	6.64	1.93			78.75%			21.25%
Sources:
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/051 and LMA/4453/D/01/052.
Barclay Perkins brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives document number ACC/2305/1/584.
Truman brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives document number B/THB/C/166.

Provincial X Ale grists in the 1880's
Date	Year	Brewer	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	pale malt	black malt	sugar	high dried malt
11th May	1888	Tetley	X	Mild	1046.0	1016.1	3.96	65.06%	4.31	0.69	100.00%
11th May	1888	Tetley	X1	Mild	1053.7	1016.6	4.91	69.07%	5.31	1.02	100.00%
14th May	1888	Tetley	X2	Mild	1063.2	1016.6	6.16	73.68%	8.40	2.02	100.00%
13th Jun	1888	Tetley	X3	Mild	1071.2	1016.1	7.29	77.43%	12.00	3.57	100.00%
22nd May	1885	William Younger	X	Mild	1048	1009	5.16	81.25%	5.29	0.99	100.00%
24th May	1885	William Younger	XX	Mild	1056	1012	5.82	78.57%	6.19	1.53	100.00%
1st June	1885	William Younger	XXX	Mild	1065	1021	5.82	67.69%	6.67	1.86	100.00%
9th Jan	1885	Thomas Usher	X	Mild	1050	1013	4.89	74.00%	9.00	2.00	94.55%	0.47%		4.98%
18th Jan	1887	Truman (Burton)	A	Mild	1052.1	1012.2	5.28	76.60%	7.19	1.40	95.74%		4.26%
18th Jan	1887	Truman (Burton)	8	Mild	1054.0	1013.9	5.31	74.36%	7.19	1.45	95.74%		4.26%
8th Feb	1887	Truman (Burton)	7	Mild	1061.2	1016.6	5.90	72.85%	5.90	1.46	94.74%		5.26%
19th Jan	1887	Truman (Burton)	6	Mild	1066.5	1019.9	6.16	70.00%	6.64	1.95	89.55%		10.45%
8th Jan	1886	Hodgson	XX	Mild	1063.71				5.23	1.32	81.13%	0.44%	18.44%
Sources:
Tetley brewing record held at the West Yorkshire Archive Service, Leeds document number WYL756/44/ACC1903
William Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive document number WY/6/1/2/31
Thomas Usher brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive document number TU/6/1/1.
Truman brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives document number B/THB/BUR/11.
Hodgson brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives document number ACC/2305/08/253.