Let's Brew - 1893 Tomson & Wotton X

Here are the first results of my jaunt to Maidstone during the week. The Kent Archives have one Tomson and Wotton brewing book. A personal notebook rather than the official brewing record. Pretty complete information, though.

A provincial Mild Ale here. But not too far from London. And that seems to be reflected in the strength. As this is closer to a London X Ale than Adnams X Ale.

As with most Milds of this period, there’s not much to the recipe. Just one type of base malt and a dash of sugar. No description of the sugar. So I’ve guessed No. 2 invert, as usual. And that’s it.

What about hops? Two types: East Kent from the 1888 harvest and Californian from 1891. Fairly old, then.

No dry hopping, but there was another addition. It says in the log: "mixed in 4.75 barrels of O.A." into the 91 barrels of Mild. I take the O.A. to be Old Ale. An interesting case of blending. 

1893 Tomson & Wotton X
pale malt	11.00 lb	95.65%
No. 2 invert sugar	0.50 lb	4.35%
Cluster 90 mins	1.00 oz
Goldings 60 mins	1.00 oz
Goldings 30 mins	1.00 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.50 oz
OG	1050
FG	1014
ABV	4.76
Apparent attenuation	72.00%
IBU	44
SRM	6
Mash at	152º F
Sparge at	180º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	60º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1099 Whitbread ale