Let's Brew - 1878 Adnams SS

Like every brewery in the UK at the time, Adnams brewed a Stout. Though they didn’t produce a Porter. That style was starting to fade away outside of London.

In terms of strength, it looks very much like a standard London Stout. Something line Barclay Perkins Brown Stout.

While London brewers remained faithful to brown malt until the bitter end, by the middle of the 19th century most provincial brewers had adopted far simpler grists, usually consisting of just base malt and black malt. I’ve gone for mild malt as base, as that’s probably closest to the pale malts used in black beers. Why bother with a high-class pale malt when it was going to be covered up with lots of roast?

As was common in the 19th century, the brewing record is very vague about the type of sugar. I’ve opted for No. 3 invert, mostly because this is a dark beer.

I’ve no real idea what the hops were. One is illegible and the other looks like “Kt”, i.e., Kent. I’ve guessed at Fuggles.

1878 Adnams SS
mild malt	8.00 lb	168.42%
black malt	3.75 lb	78.95%
No. 3 invert sugar	1.00 lb	21.05%
Fuggles 105 mins	5.00 oz
Fuggles 30 mins	1.75 oz
Goldings dry hops	1.00 oz
OG	1068
FG	1020
ABV	6.35
Apparent attenuation	70.59%
IBU	65
SRM	38
Mash at	154º F
Sparge at	172º F
Boil time	105 minutes
pitching temp	63º F
Yeast	WLP025 Southwold