Saturday 11 May 2019

Let's Brew - 1914 Whitbread X

The first years of WW I were the last hurrah for strong Mild, unfortunately.

Since dropping the stronger XK in 1905, Whitbread were down to brewing just a single Mild, X Ale. Ironically, the war would prompt them to brew multiple Milds again. Though not necessarily in a good way, as some were ridiculously weak. As you’ll see in later recipes.

The grist hadn’t got any more complicated, consisting of just pale malt and sugar. There were four types of pale malt, however, including some made from Indian-grown barley. Once again, I’m guessing as to the sugar type. This time, I’ve gone for No. 3 invert. It seems a fair enough bet, as another brew of X Ale from a couple of months earlier definitely contained No. 3. They just always be bothered to note it down.

There were three types of hops: Pacific hops from the 1913 harvest, plus two types of Mid-Kent hops from the same year, some of which had been kept in a cold store.

It’s odd to think that fewer than ten years after this was brewed 1055º would seem ridiculously strong for a Mild.


1914 Whitbread X
pale malt 10.75 lb 91.49%
No. 3 invert sugar 1.00 lb 8.51%
Cluster 115 mins 0.50 oz
Fuggles 60 mins 1.00 oz
Fuggles 30 mins 1.00 oz
OG 1055
FG 1017
ABV 5.03
Apparent attenuation 69.09%
IBU 35
SRM 10
Mash at 148º F
Sparge at 168º F
Boil time 115 minutes
pitching temp 60º F
Yeast Wyeast 1099 Whitbread Ale


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








and hardback formats:

2 comments:

Neeall said...

Would this have been darkened at all? I thought milds had gone dark by this point?

Ron Pattinson said...

Neeall,

by no means were all Milds dark in 1914. This beer probably was colour adjusted at racking time. To about 15-16 SRM, based on the colour of the beer in 1923.