Boddington IP 1914 - 1921

You may have drunk ythis IPA tourself, without knowing it. Because this is the beer that eventually became Boddington's Bitter.

When I first started drinking in the 1970'a, Boddington's Bitter was very highly regarded and noted to be particularly bitter. Then there was a recipe change that supposedly made it much blander.

Yet when I look at the hopping rate in 1914, it's susprisingly low. Whitbread's IPA, which was a little bit weaker, was hopped at about treble the rate per quarter, a massive 12 lbs. And when I run the 1914 Boddington IP recipe through BeerSmith, it calculates just 43 IBUs.

Obviously, the strength of IP fell during the war. but even at its low point in 1918, it was still 1037º. That's actually quite a decent gravity for that period. And it bounced back quite well post-war, at a level only 13% below that of 1914. The average fall in gravity was 19%.

Boddington IP 1914 - 1921
Date	Year	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
10th Jul	1914	1053	1016	4.89	69.81%	4.00	1.35
6th May	1915	1047	1016	4.10	65.96%	4.52	1.18
14th Oct	1915	1050	1016	4.50	68.00%	4.52	1.23
15th May	1916	1053	1015	5.03	71.70%	4.52	1.42
15th May	1917	1044	1015	3.84	65.91%	4.75	1.16
6th Jul	1917	1046	1016	3.97	65.22%	3.78	1.18
9th Oct	1917	1045	1017	3.70	62.22%	4.75	1.15
26th Apr	1918	1038	1012	3.44	68.42%	5.38	1.11
2nd Aug	1918	1038	1014	3.18	63.16%	5.38	1.16
4th Oct	1918	1038	1012	3.44	68.42%	5.38	1.11
20th Dec	1918	1037	1014	3.04	62.16%	5.38	1.08
8th Jan	1919	1039	1015	3.18	61.54%	5.38	1.07
12th Jun	1919	1042	1013	3.84	69.05%	5.00	1.15
14th Oct	1919	1046	1015	4.10	67.39%	4.44	1.21
8th Oct	1920	1046	1015	4.10	67.39%	4.59	1.16
4th Oct	1921	1048	1015	4.37	68.75%	3.93	1.01
Sources:
Boddington brewing records held at Manchester Central Library, document numbers M693/405/126 and M693/405/126.

Before the war, Boddington brewed two other Pale Ales, AK and PA. Both were dropped in the latter war years.