Wednesday 1 May 2019

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1864 Lovibond XX

I have the luxury of having every single page of the Lovibond brewing book for 1864-65 photographed. Mostly because it’s one of the three brewing books I personally own.

That’s how I know that, contrary to expectations and usual practice, XX was Lovibond’s most popular beer. At every other brewery I’ve looked at, X Ale was the most popular. And while X was usually parti-gyled with XXX or XXXX, XX was always brewed single-gyle.

The gravity of XX Ale varied a bit, the weaker examples being around 1063º and the stronger ones 1069º.  Which places it in much the same class as the X Ale from the larger London breweries. Whitbread X, for example, was around 1066º at this time  and Barclay Perkins X 1062º

The malt bill is incredibly simple – just one type of base malt and that’s it. The hops are identical to those used in X Ale, that is Kent and American yearlings, plus new Kent.


1864 Lovibond XX
mild malt 15.75 lb 100.00%
Cluster 60 mins 0.75 oz
Goldings 40 mins 0.75 oz
Goldings 20 mins 0.75 oz
OG 1069.5
FG 1015
ABV 7.21
Apparent attenuation 78.42%
IBU 25
SRM 7
Mash at 148º F
Sparge at 165º F
Boil time 60 minutes
pitching temp 55º 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:


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Ron ,
I noticed your comment about the original gravities of Lovibond`s X X varying quite a bit ; did the attenuation point rise and fall accordingly ? ,
Cheers
Edd

Aaron Bennett said...

I know this is probably a dumb question, but how do you get 120 minutes of hopping in a 60 minute boil?

Ron Pattinson said...

Aaron,

that's what's known as a mistke. Now fixed.

Aaron Bennett said...

Thanks, Ron -- wasn't trying to be a smartass, just wondering where I missed the boat. I might make this recipe in a few weeks.