And does it have connection to the enigmatic "C" Ale, that type of Strong Ale only found in the Manchester area? I've no idea, to be honest.
The biggest surprise is that CC was only briefly dropped during WW I, for about a year between October 1917 and November 1918. Brewing strong beers became virtually impossible after April 1st 1918, when the average gravity of all the beer a brewery produced couldn't be more than 1030º. Pretty difficult to brew a beer of 1060º and stick to that rule.
Brewers had to be careul. The average was totted up every quarter and brewers who exceeded the permitted average faced fines. Boddington took this so seriously that they kept track of the weekly average in their brewing book:
Like all of Boddington's beers, CC wasn't very heavily hopped in comparison to London beers. A London-brewed Burton Ale was hopped at around 12 lbs per quarter of malt - about treble the rate of CC.
It's surprising how well the OG bounced back after the war. The average drop in gravity between 1914 and the early 1920's when things stabilised again was about 19%. CC's fall was just 4%. Barely even significant. Its gravity did fall a little more between the wars, but in 1939 was still a very respectable 1056º.
| Boddington CC 1914 - 1921 | |||||||
| Date | Year | OG | FG | ABV | App. Atten-uation | lbs hops/ qtr | hops lb/brl |
| 9th Jul | 1914 | 1062.0 | 1020.0 | 5.56 | 67.74% | 3.53 | 1.18 |
| 7th May | 1915 | 1059.0 | 1019.0 | 5.29 | 67.80% | 3.75 | 1.20 |
| 27th Oct | 1915 | 1058.0 | 1018.0 | 5.29 | 68.97% | 3.64 | 1.17 |
| 18th May | 1916 | 1062.0 | 1017.0 | 5.95 | 72.58% | 3.87 | 1.33 |
| 20th Dec | 1916 | 1062.0 | 1017.0 | 5.95 | 72.58% | 3.53 | 1.23 |
| 31st Jan | 1917 | 1059.0 | 1018.0 | 5.42 | 69.49% | 3.53 | 1.46 |
| 11th Oct | 1917 | 1056.0 | 1018.0 | 5.03 | 67.86% | 4.41 | 1.32 |
| 12th Nov | 1918 | 1058.0 | 1020.0 | 5.03 | 65.52% | 3.97 | 1.27 |
| 24th Dec | 1918 | 1061.0 | 1021.0 | 5.29 | 65.57% | 3.97 | 1.31 |
| 10th Feb | 1919 | 1059.0 | 1020.0 | 5.16 | 66.10% | 3.97 | 1.26 |
| 24th Mar | 1919 | 1060.0 | 1020.0 | 5.29 | 66.67% | 3.97 | 1.29 |
| 17th Jun | 1919 | 1061.0 | 1019.0 | 5.56 | 68.85% | 4.22 | 1.35 |
| 13th Oct | 1919 | 1060.0 | 1020.0 | 5.29 | 66.67% | 3.82 | 1.29 |
| 30th Mar | 1920 | 1058.0 | 1016.0 | 5.56 | 72.41% | 4.06 | 1.18 |
| 7th Oct | 1920 | 1057.0 | 1020.0 | 4.89 | 64.91% | 3.82 | 1.20 |
| 5th Oct | 1921 | 1059.5 | 1019.0 | 5.36 | 68.07% | 3.53 | 1.16 |
| Sources: | |||||||
| Boddington brewing records held at Manchester Central Library, document numbers M693/405/126 and M693/405/126. | |||||||
Hi Ron ,
ReplyDeleteI've only seen the Boddingtons ledgers with the 'C' ale in , and I believe that the second world war finished it off as a beer , as I've not seen a post WW2 Manchester area record with it in.
Though who knows what defunct breweries records are out there !, though the Groves & Whitnall records (pre WW 2 ) were probably destroyed when the brewery was received a hit during 1941-2? .
Does anyone out there have any pre 1939 Manchester area brewing records in their collections ?, I'm sure you'd like to see them , as would I !!
Cheers
Edd
Edd,
ReplyDeleteI've a Lees "C" Ale from the 1950s.
Hi Ron ,
ReplyDeleteI'm only looking for defunct breweries brewing records, I'd be interested in any you know of , I've got Boddingtons and Wilson's records , but that's it for Manchester .
Cheers
Edd