Let's Brew - 1888 Tetley X3

There are certain beers where, in the absence of a price list to tell you exactly what they were marketed as, it’s hard to be certain about the style just from the brewing records.

It’s particularly tricky at the top end of Mild Ales. Is it still a Mild Ale or is it an Old Ale? Or even just Strong Ale? This is a good example. The X implies a Mild Ale and it sits neatly atop three other beers in the style.

However, the hopping rate is much higher than even for X2 – 12 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt compared to 8 lbs. That’s 50% higher. One of the features of beers meant for ageing was a higher level of hopping, leading me to infer that X3 was probably an Old Ale. I could be wrong. Without more evidence, it’s impossible to be sure.

No complication of any sort in the grist, other than there being two types of base malt, pale malt and mild malt.

Rather more complexity in the hopping, where there are four different types: Kent from the 1886 and 1887 harvests, Worcester from 1886 and Bohemian from 1887. To account for the age of some of the examples, I’ve cut the original hopping rate by 20%. 

1888 Tetley X3
pale malt	8.00 lb	49.23%
mild malt	8.25 lb	50.77%
Fuggles 180 mins	4.50 oz
Saaz 120 mins	1.50 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.50 oz
OG	1071
FG	1016
ABV	7.28
Apparent attenuation	77.46%
IBU	71
SRM	6.5
Mash at	152º F
Sparge at	165º F
Boil time	180 minutes
pitching temp	63º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire Ale Timothy Taylor