At 7.5 % ABV, it’s a Strong Ale in anyone’s book. That was achieved by a very high degree of attenuation for a beer of such a hefty gravity. I’s an odd feature of British beer that, while most of it became quite watery, some strong and very strong beers were almost always knocking about.
There’s nothing very exciting about the recipe. It’s much like their other beers, save for the lack of enzymic malt.
| 1966 Boddington Strong Ale | ||
| pale malt | 11.25 lb | 75.86% |
| crystal malt 80 L | 1.75 lb | 11.80% |
| wheat malt | 0.33 lb | 2.23% |
| malt extract | 0.50 lb | 3.37% |
| No. 3 invert sugar | 1.00 lb | 6.74% |
| Fuggles 90 min | 1.25 oz | |
| Goldings 30 min | 1.25 oz | |
| Goldings dry hops | 0.25 oz | |
| OG | 1065.5 | |
| FG | 1008.5 | |
| ABV | 7.54 | |
| Apparent attenuation | 87.02% | |
| IBU | 29 | |
| SRM | 17 | |
| Mash at | 146º F | |
| Sparge at | 162º F | |
| Boil time | 90 minutes | |
| pitching temp | 62.5º F | |
| Yeast | Wyeast 1318 London ale III (Boddingtons) | |
The above is an excerpt from my overly detailed look at post-war UK brewing, Austerity!
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/austerity/23181344
Which is now also available in Kindle format.
Do you know when Boddingtons last brewed a strong ale, Ron? I think I've seen one in the 1983 GBG so I'd guess some time between then and the late eighties when I first drank their bitter in Manchester pubs and never saw it (or their mild come to that).
ReplyDeleteMatt,
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure. I've brewing records from the 1980s and it's just Bitter and Mild, nothing else. Until they took over Oldham, thene there's Oldhan Bitter and Mild.
That's pretty amazing to get 87% attenuation for a beer with 11.8% crystal malt.
ReplyDelete@A Brew Rat - the post-WWII Boddies yeast was a serious attenuator, it was getting 91.6% AA on the ordinary beer, see http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2018/02/lets-brew-wednesday-1971-boddington-ip.html
ReplyDelete