Why is it odd? Because of its strength. Or maybe I’m just too used to looking at London beers. This beer was originally brewed just as WW I was breaking out. At the time, a standard London X Ale had and OG of around 1055º and an ABV of 5.5%. With a gravity of just 1042º, Adnams XX looks more like a 1920’s Mild.
But maybe I shouldn’t be do surprised. Before WW I, breweries didn’t really compete on price. The cost of a barrel of beer of a certain type was the same whichever brewery you bought it from. Large, efficient breweries, such as those in London, instead of discounting the price simply made their beer stronger. As quite a small, rural brewery, Adnams wouldn’t have been able to brew as efficiently as Whitbread or Truman.
The grist is pretty simple, though there are three types of malt: pale, crystal and “medium”. For the latter I’ve substituted mild malt. Other than that, there’s a bit of flaked maize and sugar. The latter mostly in the form of “cane blocks”, but also a little tintose, which was presumably a type of caramel used for colour corrections. Not sure what colour that was 5000 SRM is a guess on the dark side.
The hops I only know to have been from Oregon and East Kent. I’ve interpreted those as Cluster and Goldings, respectively. You could replace the Goldings with Fuggles or some other appropriate English hop.
| 1914 Adnams XX | ||
| pale malt | 2.75 lb | 30.32% |
| mild malt | 4.00 lb | 44.10% |
| crystal malt 80 L | 0.50 lb | 5.51% |
| flaked maize | 0.50 lb | 5.51% |
| cane sugar | 1.25 lb | 13.78% |
| caramel 5000 SRM | 0.07 lb | 0.77% |
| Cluster 105 mins | 0.50 oz | |
| Goldings 60 mins | 0.50 oz | |
| Goldings 30 mins | 0.50 oz | |
| OG | 1042 | |
| FG | 1008 | |
| ABV | 4.50 | |
| Apparent attenuation | 80.95% | |
| IBU | 23 | |
| SRM | 25 | |
| Mash at | 152º F | |
| Sparge at | 170º F | |
| Boil time | 105 minutes | |
| pitching temp | 60º F | |
| Yeast | WLP025 Southwold | |
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