Let's Brew Wednesday - 1901 Boddington IPA

I’m not sure where this beer fits in with modern concepts of “English IPA”. Though I’ve always considered the American definitions of that style as what they thought it should be rather than reflecting IPAs actually brewed in the UK. BeerSmith tells me that this beer is too hoppy for the style. There you go then.

To me, this is too weak to be classed with a contemporary Burton IPA. They had gravities around 1065º, a good ten points stronger. And were far more heavily hopped. So, what makes this an IPA? That’s what the brewer called it. Simple as that. Another brewery might well have called it just Pale Ale. There’s absolutely no logic to this stuff.

There’s a slight variation in the recipe here, in that the type of sugar is different. While in the Mild Ales the sugar is described as “Garton”, here it’s simply called “invert”. As this is consistent, I have to conclude that it’s a different type of sugar. I’ve plumped for No. 2. It could just as easily have been No. 1, which was mostly employed in classier Pale Ales.

Unlike in the Mild Ales, there’s no Ouchac malt, just English and Californian.

Hops came mostly from England, there types, backed up my one Californian. All undated, sadly.

1901 Boddington IPA
pale malt	11.25 lb	91.84%
No. 2 invert sugar	1.00 lb	8.16%
Cluster 130 mins	1.00 oz
Fuggles 90 mins	2.00 oz
Goldings 30 mins	2.00 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.50 oz
OG	1054.5
FG	1017
ABV	4.96
Apparent attenuation	68.81%
IBU	68
SRM	7
Mash at	154º F
Sparge at	165º F
Boil time	130 minutes
pitching temp	60.5º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1318 London ale III (Boddingtons)