Let’s Brew Thursday - 1945 Barclay Perkins XX

I’m almost done with watery Barclay Perkins Milds. But not quite. Just two to go.

This beer was originally brewed in July 1945, after the war in Europe had ended, but while fighting was still going on in the Pacific. Which must have seemed pretty weird. In London the blackout was finally lifted and the lights had come back on, but British servicemen were still dying in the Far East.

How does this differ from their 1944 Mild? Not very much, is the short answer. It still contains the same malt: SA malt, crystal malt and amber malt. The only difference there is that mild malt makes up most of the base. The non-malt sources of fermentables are much the same: No. 3 invert sugar and flaked barley.

The one radical departure is the inclusion of malt extract. I’m guessing the reason behind that was the enzymes, but I could be wrong. It’s such a small amount that I struggle to find another reason for its inclusion.

Other than that, the proportion of sugar has increased, from just over 9% to almost 15%. Not sure why that should be. It was too soon after the German surrender for the sugar supply to have improved. And sugar and sweets remained rationed for several more years.

Quite a lot of the hops – more than half – were from the 1942 and less than a quarter from 1944. To account for that, I’ve reduced the total hops from 1.50 ozs. to 1 oz.

This was another heavily primed beer, with the primings raising the effective OG a full four gravity points to 1035.4º. Given that there would have been a secondary fermentation in the case, the eventual strength would have been over 3% ABV.

One last note. As brewed, this beer will come out about 14 SRM. You’ll need to add more caramel to get the colour of the beer as served in the pub.

1945 Barclay Perkins XX
mild malt	3.75 lb	55.35%
amber malt	0.67 lb	9.89%
crystal malt 60 L	0.50 lb	7.38%
flaked barley	0.67 lb	9.89%
malt extract	0.125 lb	1.85%
No. 3 invert sugar	1.00 lb	14.76%
caramel 1000 SRM	0.06 lb	0.89%
Fuggles 90 mins	0.50 oz
Fuggles 60 mins	0.50 oz
Fuggles 30 mins	0.25 oz
OG	1031.5
FG	1010
ABV	2.84
Apparent attenuation	68.25%
IBU	14
SRM	20
Mash at	150º F
Sparge at	165º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	60.5º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1099 Whitbread Ale