Let's Brew Wednesday - 1900 Amsdell Winter XX

In a change from the usual plain fare of UK recipes, here's one from the famous brewing town of Albany, New York. And fitting in with March as Mild month, it's a Mild recipe. How wacky is that - a genuine US Mild recipe?

X Ales were one of the mainstays of American Ale breweries in the 19th century. With their origin obviously lying with English X Ales.

The term Mild Ale doesn’t seem to have been used much in the USA. “Present Use”, a slightly old-fashioned term in the UK by 1900, was used to signify the same thing. But mostly they were just called Ales. Usually XX or XXX, for some reason. X Ale, the most popular Ale in England, doesn’t seem to have been a thing in the USA. Probably just breweries bigging up their Ales.

Amsdell’s XX has about the same gravity as a London X Ale of 1900, though the bitterness is a bit lower. (Refer back to 1899 Barclay Perkins X for a full comparison. I can’t be arsed to do it for you.)

The grist has the same ingredients as usual as Amsdell. Except there’s also a little black malt, presumably for colour. It doesn’t specify where it was added, so it could have been in the copper. Where it would have added more colour than in the mash. What was added in the copper was 20 lbs of salt. Which is slightly less than an eighth of an ounce for a recipe of the size below.

1900 Amsdell Winter XX
pale malt	8.25 lb	65.32%
grits	4.00 lb	31.67%
black malt	0.05 lb	0.40%
glucose	0.33 lb	2.61%
Cluster 30 mins	2.25 oz
OG	1056
FG	1022
ABV	4.5
Apparent attenuation	60.71%
IBU	31
SRM	6
Mash at	156º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	30 minutes
pitching temp	58º F
Yeast	WLP051 California V

This recipe is one of many North American ones in my outstanding collection of historic recipes:

http://www.lulu.com/shop/ronald-pattinson/lets-brew/paperback/product-23289812.html