Wednesday 10 April 2019

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1904 Tetley XX

To get you all in the mood for  Mild Month, here's another old Tetley recipe. Though it bears little resemblance to modern Mild.

The strongest of Tetley’s many Mild Ales during the Edwardian period was XX. By 1904 a Mild of this strength  - 7.5% ABV – was very much the exception.

I’m not sure where exactly XX was sold, but I’m guessing in pubs. As it’s a draught rather than a bottled beer. Though there’s no way you’d manage an 8-pint session on this beast. It’s just too strong.

Unlike some of its weaker brothers, XX didn’t come in a pale version, just a dark one. With the colour coming from a combination of No. 3 invert sugar and caramel. Which is pretty typical for Dark Mild. The only malts are the base malt: pale and mild. There’s no coloured malt of any description.

The hops were Worcester from the 1903 harvest (kept in a cold store) and Kent, also from 1903, but not kept in a cold store. Fuggles for both seems a reasonable guess.


1904 Tetley XX
mild malt 6.50 lb 42.28%
pale malt 6.50 lb 42.28%
No. 3 invert sugar 2.25 lb 14.63%
caramel 1000 SRM 0.125 lb 0.81%
Fuggles 90 mins 2.50 oz
Fuggles 30 mins 2.50 oz
OG 1073.7
FG 1016.6
ABV 7.55
Apparent attenuation 77.48%
IBU 48
SRM 21
Mash at 150º F
Sparge at 165º F
Boil time 90 minutes
pitching temp 60º F
Yeast Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire Ale Timothy Taylor



This is one of the dozens of recipes in my book Mild! plus. Which is avaiable in both paperback:





and hardback formats:

1 comment:

Mike in NSW said...

Somewhere on the web, can't find it at the moment, there's a massive Victorian account of the life of the poor and destitute in London in the mid to late 19th century. Many casual dock workers were paid partly in beer that was supplied by the contractor himself out of a barrel he had delivered to the dock. The author described how some would drink a pint, some two pints, and some poor wretches even drank four pints [shock horror].
Four pints would be just a tease nowadays.