Let's Brew - 1939 Boddington Stout

Unlike some other Northern breweries, Boddington retained a Stout in their portfolio. Albeit not a very stout one.

To put the strength of Boddington Stout into context, Guinness Extra Stout is a good marker. In 1939 that was 1055º. Leaving Boddington’s a good bit off the pace at just 1045º. Especially considering it was a bottled product.

The grist is a bit of an odd one, including as it does a large proportion of wheat. It’s in all their other beers, too, but in much smaller quantities. I assume its main purpose here is to help head retention. I’m not 100% sure that it was in malted form. That’s just a guess based on its position in the brewing record.

The bulk of the sugar is made up of something simply described as B. I’ve no idea what that was and have substituted No. 3 invert sugar.

In addition, there’s also rather a lot of high dried malt and a little black malt. Though a lot of the colour comes from the caramel. It’s the only one of Boddington’s beers where all the pale malt is English. In all the others there’s something simply described as “foreign”.

The hopping is quite heavy and consists of several types of hops: Oregon (1937 Cold Store), English (1937, 1937 Cold Store and 1938). They leave something which could in no way be described as a Sweet Stout.

1939 Boddington Stout
pale malt	2.25 lb	21.95%
high dried malt	3.75 lb	36.59%
wheat malt	2.25 lb	21.95%
black malt	0.50 lb	4.88%
No. 3 invert sugar	1.00 lb	9.76%
caramel 1000 SRM	0.50 lb	4.88%
Cluster 130 mins	0.50 oz
Fuggles 130 mins	0.50 oz
Fuggles 90 mins	1.00 oz
Goldings 30 mins	0.75 oz
OG	1045
FG	1013
ABV	4.23
Apparent attenuation	71.11%
IBU	40
SRM	46
Mash at	149º F
Sparge at	162º F
Boil time	130 minutes
pitching temp	60º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1318 London ale III (Boddingtons)