Saturday 23 October 2021

Let's Brew - 1879 Adnams X

I was truly shocked when I first came across this beer. The only other 19th-century UK beers I’d seen that were under 4% ABV were Table Beers. This isn’t even the weakest example of Adnams X. One a few moths earlier had an OG of just 1030.5º.

I sort of wonder where X was sold. It seems to have only been brewed occasionally. Basically, whenever they brewed a strong beer, they parti-gyled a few barrels of it. With such a low gravity, they’d have to have shifted it pretty quickly, which makes it unlikely that it was always available.

Adnams didn’t have the most exciting of grists at this point. Base malt and sugar was it for every beer other than the Stout. Nothing really to sink your teeth into.

The hopping rate is quite high. You’ll see that X is one of Adnams most bitter Milds, only being pipped by the strongest, XXXX. There’s a simple explanation for that: this beer was parti-gyled with Tally Ho, one of their most heavily-hopped beers.

1879 Adnams X
mild malt 4.50 lb 66.67%
No. 2 invert sugar 2.25 lb 33.33%
Goldings 105 mins 2.50 oz
Goldings 30 mins 2.50 oz
OG 1037
FG 1009
ABV 3.70
Apparent attenuation 75.68%
IBU 69
SRM 9
Mash at 154º F
Sparge at 172º F
Boil time 105 minutes
pitching temp 64º F
Yeast WLP025 Southwold



 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm guessing if this could be transported through time 100 years into the future, people would think of it as a more heavily hopped version of a typical bitter, like this:

https://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2021/02/lets-brew-1977-boddington-ip.html

qq said...

Is there any rhythm to *when* they brewed it - as a seasonal brew for harvest workers etc?