London XX Ale 1880 - 1899

We now move up a class to XX Ale. Or whatever a specific brewery might call a Mild stronger than X Ale.

The stronger X Ales had been rapidly disappearing as the 19th century rolled on. A few were still clinging on in the 1880s and 1890s. Not many, though. And only those one level up from single X. Mighty beasts like XXX and XXXX Ale were long gone.

Barclay Perkins and Truman were down to just X Ale by 1890. Fullers XX lasted a little longer, struggling on to the mid-1890s. Only at Whitbread was a stronger Mild still being brewed at the end of the century.

Initially, XL, which had been brewed since 1860, was replaced by XK in 1888.   Renamed, more like, as the new beer was the same strength and had an identical recipe. XL as a brewhouse name I can understand. “L” usually stands for London. Brewers in the capital Sometimes brewed different-strength beers for the local market and what they called the “Country”. Basically, anywhere else. With beers intended for London being stronger.  XL makes sense in this case.

XK is another matter entirely. The K suffix at this point usually indicated a Pale Ale. Fullers also had a beer called XK, and that’s exactly what that was. A Pale Ale. In the context of a Mild Ale, it makes no sense. But, hey, there’s no complete consistency in these sorts of designations.

The hopping rates per quarter (336 lbs) of malt are generally similar to X Ale. No shock there, as most of the examples were parti-gyled with their weaker sibling. Being stronger, however, the rate per barrel was inevitably higher.

London XX Ale 1880 - 1899
Year	Brewer	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
1880	Barclay Perkins	XX	1079.5	1024.1	7.33	69.69%	13.38	4.98
1886	Barclay Perkins	XX	1076.0	1022.7	7.05	70.11%	12.00	3.86
1881	Whitbread	XL	1076.5	1022.7	7.11	70.29%	7.35	2.56
1885	Whitbread	XL	1071.7	1024.9	6.19	65.25%	8.04	2.51
1890	Whitbread	XK	1069.0	1019.0	6.61	72.45%	8.02	2.46
1895	Whitbread	XK	1069.3	1019.0	6.65	72.56%	8.01	2.52
1899	Whitbread	XK	1064.5	1019.0	6.02	70.56%	6.53	1.84
1887	Fullers	XX	1064.8	1023.3	5.50	64.10%	6.64	1.93
1893	Fullers	XX	1068.4	1016.9	6.82	75.30%	7.62	2.25
1880	Truman	40/- Ale	1067.9				10.8	3.68
	Average		1070.8	1021.3	6.59	70.04%	8.84	2.86
Sources:
Barclay Perkins brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers ACC/2305/1/579 and ACC/2305/1/584.
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/047, LMA/4453/D/01/050, LMA/4453/D/01/056, LMA/4453/D/01/061 and LMA/4453/D/01/065.
Fullers brewing records held at the brewery.
Truman brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/C/161.