Let’s Brew Wednesday - 1946 Barclay Perkins XX

You’re probably as relieved as I am that this interminable series of Barclay Perkins Mild recipes is now at an end. Unless I decide to do the 1947 one.

You might be surprised to see that, despite the war having been over for 12 months (this beer was brewed in August 1946), the OG has fallen by 4 points to just 1027.5º. Its gravity has dropped below what that of A, their cheap 4d a pint Mild, had been in 1935.

This OG is about as low as any UK beer would be. There was no point dropping the gravity below 1027º as the minimum duty on beer was charged at that rate. Though I should point out that the effective gravity of this beer was higher as the primings added at racking time were enough to increase it by 3º, making it really 1031.5º. But that’s still pretty damn watery.

As in WW I, the nadir came a year or two after the end of hostilities. The late 1940’s were difficult years in Britain. The war had come at a terrible financial cost. The pound wasn’t a hard currency and imports had to be paid for in dollars, which were in short supply. Which is why there hadn’t been a return to using flaked maize, which needed to be imported.

They must have been short of No. 3 invert, because the quantity has been changed from 9 to 5 quarters and 4 quarters of No. 1 have been added in red. Otherwise the grist is unchanged, consisting of mild malt, SA malt, crystal malt and amber malt. As usual, I’ve substituted more mild malt for the SA malt.

You’ll need to add extra caramel to get the colour right.

1946 Barclay Perkins XX
mild malt	4.25 lb	76.16%
amber malt	0.25 lb	4.48%
crystal malt 60 L	0.25 lb	4.48%
flaked barley	0.25 lb	4.48%
No. 1 invert sugar	0.25 lb	4.48%
No. 3 invert sugar	0.25 lb	4.48%
caramel 1000 SRM	0.08 lb	1.43%
Fuggles 90 mins	0.50 oz
Fuggles 60 mins	0.50 oz
Fuggles 30 mins	0.25 oz
OG	1027.5
FG	1007.5
ABV	2.65
Apparent attenuation	72.73%
IBU	18
SRM	20
Mash at	149º F
Sparge at	165º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	61º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1099 Whitbread Ale