Wednesday 15 April 2020

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1942 Truman XXX

I'm continuing my series of WW II Burton ales ith one which, very unusually, was brewed in Burton-on-Trent. Though it would have been mostly - if not entirely - consumed in London.

This beer was brewed in a weird parti-gyle. Why weird? Because it was brewed alongside two Pale Ales - P1 Bottling and P2. And XXX is identical to P2. You would expect a Buryon to be parti-gyled with Mild Ale rather than Pale Ale. And that was often the case.

What was fermented as P2 was split, at racking time, into 90 barrels of P2 and 53 barrels of XXX. I assume that XXX was primed with some sort of caramel at racking time. It would have to be to hit the expected colour for Burton Ale or around 20 SRM. I’ve added to the recipe sufficient caramel to hit that colour.

It does sort of tally with some 1950s descriptions of Burton of being like a strong, dark Bitter. In this case, it was literally that. What’s weird is that XXX was still often parti-gyled with the Milds. Whose recipe was different, for one thing the Milds contained crystal malt, which the Pale Ale grist didn’t.

Surely people must have noticed the difference between the two versions. Particularly as the Mild parti-gyle was more lightly hopped than the Pale Ale one. Perhaps drinkers had just got used to the taste of their beer changing regularly. You’ll have noticed that the recipes are different for every year of the war. The situation with regard to raw materials was constantly changing and brewers were forced to adapt.


1942 Truman XXX
pale malt 7.00 lb 71.79%
high dried malt 1.50 lb 15.38%
flaked barley 0.50 lb 5.13%
No. 1 invert sugar 0.50 lb 5.13%
caramel 1000 SRM 0.25 lb 2.56%
Fuggles 90 mins 0.50 oz
Fuggles 60 mins 0.50 oz
Goldings 30 mins 0.33 oz
Goldings dry hops 0.50 oz
OG 1042
FG 1008
ABV 4.50
Apparent attenuation 80.95%
IBU 17
SRM 20
Mash at 150º F
Sparge at 160º F
Boil time 90 minutes
pitching temp 60º F
Yeast Wyeast 1028 London Ale (Worthington White Shield)

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