Let's Brew - 1940 Barclay Perkins XX (Light)

Another recipe as the result of a Twitter poll. Of the four options - X, XX, XXX and XXXX - XX was a narrow winner, just pipping XXXX. I've picked an example of Barclay Perkins XX from a year into WW II. Not the happiest of times.

It didn’t take long for the war to take a bite out of the OG of XX. It’s down 4º on the year before.

That’s not been the only change. The grist has been fiddled with, too. The quantity of pale malt has been massively reduced, replaced by more mild malt. Flaked rice arrives in place of flaked maize. But there’s about 50% less of it, the slack being taken up by No. 3 invert.

This was parti-gyled with X (Dark). Especially in the early war years, Barclay Perkins rarely brewed any of their Milds, other than X Ale, single gyle. Presumably because the quantities of Ale and XX Ale required were far more modest. This gyle, for example, consisted of 192 barrels of XX and 390 barrels of X.

The hops are also more complex than at first sight. They’re all Mid-Kent Fuggles from the 1939 harvest, but there are three different types.

As with all their Milds, XX was quite heavily primed, raising the gravity by 2.5º. I’ve added an extra 0.25 lb of No. 3 invert to allow for these primings. 

1940 Barclay Perkins XX (Light)
pale malt	0.75 lb	8.94%
mild malt	4.00 lb	47.68%
crystal malt 60 L	0.50 lb	5.96%
amber malt	0.33 lb	3.93%
flaked rice	1.00 lb	11.92%
No. 3 invert sugar	1.75 lb	20.86%
caramel 1000 SRM	0.06 lb	0.72%
Fuggles 90 mins	0.75 oz
Fuggles 60 mins	0.75 oz
Fuggles 30 mins	0.75 oz
OG	1041
FG	1013
ABV	3.70
Apparent attenuation	68.29%
IBU	29
SRM	17
Mash at	144º F
After underlet	152º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	60.5º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1099 Whitbread ale