Let's Brew - 1939 Boddington CC

Boddington’s Strong Ale, CC, had been around for a while, pre-dating WW I.  Surprisingly, it wasn’t much weaker in 1939 than it had been in 1913, when its gravity was 1062º.

There was quite a tradition of Strong Ales in the Manchester area. A tradition which continued well past WW II. CC itself managed to stick around until at least the 1950s. I suspect that it was a bottled beer, though it may have been sold on fraught occasionally in the winter.

The grist is similar to their XX Mild, based around pale and crystal malt. Though proprietary the sugars are slightly different, I’ve interpreted them again as being No. 3 invert. There’s also rather a lot of caramel, which is responsible for the finished beer’s dark brown colour.

As was typical at Boddington, a large number of different types of hops were employed. In this case five. As this example was brewed before the outbreak of war, it’s no surprise to see some foreign hops in the mix. They were Oregon and Styrian, both from the 1937 harvest and kept in a cold store, plus English from the 1937 and 1938 harvests.

1939 Boddington CC
pale malt	7.25	57.63%
crystal malt 60 L	1.50 lb	11.92%
flaked maize	2.75 lb	21.86%
flaked wheat	0.33 lb	2.62%
malt extract	0.125 lb	0.99%
No. 3 invert sugar	0.500 lb	3.97%
caramel 1000 SRM	0.125 lb	0.99%
Cluster 220 mins	0.75 oz
Fuggles 90 mins	0.75 oz
Fuggles 60 mins	1.50 oz
Goldings 30 mins	1.50 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.50 oz
OG	1056.5
FG	1015
ABV	5.49
Apparent attenuation	73.45%
IBU	67
SRM	18
Mash at	148º F
Sparge at	162º F
Boil time	220 minutes
pitching temp	62º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1318 London ale III (Boddingtons)