Let's Brew Wednesday - 1889 Harveys X Ale

We’re outside the major cities again with Harveys. Not exactly rurally based, but a fairly small market town.

The surprise here is that the base-level Mild Ale, X Ale, has a similar gravity to a London Mild. And is a good bit stronger than other small-town X Ales from Adnams and Hancock. Why is this? Perhaps because, being not that far from London, they were in direct competition with brewers from the capital.

There’s no malt other than pale base malt. Though there were three types of that: two made from English barley and one from Smyrna, i.e., Middle Eastern, barley. Nothing particularly unusual in that, given that the UK couldn’t grow enough malting barley to service the brewing industry.

The only other element in the grist is No. 2 invert sugar. Which darkens the beer a little, while still leaving it well short of a modern Dark Mild.

The hops, in contrast to the malt, were all English. Specifically, Kent from the 1888 harvest and East Kent from 1887 and 1888.

1889 Harveys X Ale
pale malt	10.25 lb	85.42%
No. 2 invert sugar	1.75 lb	14.58%
Fuggles 85 mins	1.00 oz
Goldings 60 mins	1.00 oz
Goldings 30 mins	1.00 oz
OG	1058
FG	1014
ABV	5.82
Apparent attenuation	75.86%
IBU	35
SRM	9
Mash at	152º F
Sparge at	165º F
Boil time	85 minutes
pitching temp	57.5º F
Yeast	White Labs WLP025 Southwold