Wednesday 13 October 2021

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1878 Adnams XXXX

Here’s a Mild Ale which challenges modern concepts of the style. Strong and heavily hopped, no-one would describe such a beer Mild today.

That said, it wasn’t as strong as the Milds brewed in London. In the 18760s, Whitbread X Ale had an OG of 1062º and XX Ale 1076º. In general, breweries out in the sticks, like Adnams, tended to brew weaker beers, especially when it came to Mild.

Though it wasn’t parti-gyled with XX, the grist is essentially the same. With just a single type of malt and another of sugar, there’s not a great deal to it.

The brewing record says nothing about the hops, other than the quantity. I’ve just guessed that they were Goldings.


1878 Adnams XXXX
mild malt 9.00 lb 72.00%
No. 2 invert sugar 3.50 lb 28.00%
Goldings 105 mins 4.00 oz
Goldings 30 mins 4.00 oz
OG 1067
FG 1018
ABV 6.48
Apparent attenuation 73.13%
IBU 91
SRM 13
Mash at 154º F
Sparge at 172º F
Boil time 105 minutes
pitching temp 63º F
Yeast WLP025 Southwold


 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I know it was legal to use sugar in 1878, but it was pretty uncommon right? Or had it caught on by this point?

Ron Pattinson said...

Anonymous,

it had grown more popular in the 1870s, but its use really took off after 1880.