Let's Brew Wednesday - 1939 Adnams X Ale

Adnams Mild ended WW I pretty weak. And it didn’t get much stronger, rising from 1026º in 1921 to 1029º in 1923. Where it remained until the outbreak of the next war.

That’s quite a contrast with London, where most Mild Ales between the wars were either 6d beers at around 1043º or 5d beers at around 1037º. Adnams had clearly gone for a 4d beer. Mild Ales of this strength did exist London, but were brewed in tiny quantities. Adnams Mild increased in gravity sometime after WW II, being 1032-1034º in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

The grist, with three different types of malt is more complex than in most Mild Ales of the period. It’s also quite dark. Mild only really went dark brown between the wars. But not all Milds. There were still pale and semi-dark versions.

All I know about the hops is that they were English. There’s no record of the variety of year of harvest in the log, unfortunately. I’ve guessed Fuggles.

Through the use of an underlet, effectively a step mash was performed. There are no details of how long the mash was left to rest between the original strike and the underlet. From what I’ve seen at other breweries, this could be between 25 and 90 minutes.

1939 Adnams XX
mild malt	5.00 lb	79.24%
crystal malt 80 L	0.25 lb	3.96%
amber malt	0.25 lb	3.96%
No. 3 invert sugar	0.75 lb	11.89%
caramel 5000 SRM	0.06 lb	0.95%
Fuggles 120 mins	0.50 oz
Fuggles 60 mins	0.25 oz
Fuggles 30 mins	0.25 oz
OG	1029
FG	1006
ABV	3.04
Apparent attenuation	79.31%
IBU	15
SRM	24
Mash at	148º F
After underlet	156º F
Sparge at	163º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	60º F
Yeast	WLP025 Southwold