Saturday 1 January 2022

Let's Brew - 1881 Whitbread SS

What better way to kick off the new year than a strong Stout recipe? Yum.

Next branch up the Whitbread Stout tree is SS. What I suppose you would have been called Double Stout. And quite a hefty beer.

It wasn’t one of Whitbread’s most popular beers. Just 9,143 barrels were brewed in 1881, out of a total of 284,391 barrels.  Given its gravity and the extended ageing it received, it must have been an expensive beer.

As you’d expect, the grist is quite similar to XPS. As it is, with just a bit more brown malt and a little less pale. They certainly liked their brown malt in London, especially in stronger Stouts.  As in all Whitbread’s beers, the type of sugar is merely my guess.

I’ve also lowered the FG to reflect the secondary fermentation. About a year in vats with Brettanomyces would see to that. Probably more, really.

Quite a lot of different types of hops: English from 1880, 1881 and 1881; Bavarian from 1881 and something merely described as “samples”.


1881 Whitbread SS
pale malt 12.25 lb 68.06%
brown malt 3.25 lb 18.06%
black malt 0.75 lb 4.17%
No. 3 invert sugar 1.75 lb 9.72%
Goldings 90 mins 2.25 oz
Hallertau 90 mins 1.25 oz
Goldings 60 mins 3.50 oz
Goldings 30 mins 3.50 oz
Goldings dry hops 1.00 oz
OG 1081.5
FG 1020
ABV 8.14
Apparent attenuation 75.46%
IBU 98
SRM 37
Mash at 149º F
Sparge at 170º F
Boil time 90 minutes
pitching temp 57º F
Yeast Wyeast 1099 Whitbread Ale


 

1 comment:

Daniel Boisvert said...

And a happy new year to you, sir.