Let's Brew - 1911 Russell X

As at most breweries, X Ale, base level Mild, was one of the most popular beers. And a good bit stronger than today’s version of Ordinary Mild.

The gravity is a touch lower than in equivalent London beers, which were mostly a few degrees over 1050º.

It’s not a very complicated grist. Just base malt, maize and sugar. Though the malt is split 50-50 between English and foreign. Barley that is. It would all have been malted in the UK. Described as “pale invert”, I’m pretty sure that the sugar was No. 1 invert.

It’s interesting to see what is happening with the colour. I’d describe this as semi-dark, which is about right for the period. Few Milds had gone properly dark brown, but many were dark enough to be easily distinguishable from Bitter.

Just two types of English hops, two thirds from the 1910 harvest, the other third from 1908. 

1911 Russell X
pale malt	7.00 lb	72.99%
flaked maize	0.75 lb	7.82%
No. 1 invert sugar	1.75 lb	18.25%
caramel 1000 SRM	0.09 lb	0.94%
Fuggles 90 mins	0.75 oz
Fuggles 90 mins	0.75 oz
Fuggles 30 mins	0.75 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.50 oz
OG	1048
FG	1012
ABV	4.76
Apparent attenuation	75.00%
IBU	27
SRM	12
Mash at	147º F
Sparge at	168º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	60º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1768 English Special Bitter