Wednesday 3 March 2010

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1955 Whitbread XXX

It's March. We all know what that means: Mild Month. Time for another Mild recipe.

Remember my Andrew Campbell post about Mild? Didn't think so. In that case, check out the link.

Best Mild. It's a term that's pretty much extinct. In the distant past of my drinking youth, there were still a couple of breweries brewing multiple Milds. Thwaites was a good example. Though their ordinary Mild has long since been discontinued and their Best Mild is now called Nutty Black.

Today's beer is a Whitbread's Best Mild. It  was introduced in the 1950's when things began to look up economically in Britain and beer strengths had started edging up to a level actually capable of intoxicating. Whitbread Triple X as Campbell called it, was one of his examples of a best Mild. Though it barely creeps into his definition of the category with a gravity of just 1034.

I can't think of much else to say. . . . Buy more of my books! . . . . erm . . .erm . . .



Here's Kristen, coming to my rescue . . .




-->
Whitbread - 1955 - XXX ale
General info: Best ale. Anytime the work 'best' is used rarely does it signify the 'best' of anything. It usually equates to a low gravity bitter-type beer. However when I hear XXX I think big, strong and mean. This apparently is not always true. The XXX is gyled with the best ale for some reason which is not clear to me. The gravity difference is a miniscule. 1.004 and the BU's are nearly exactly the same. That being said, this beer is quite tasty in its use of sugar and mild malt.
Beer Specifics

Recipe by percentages
Gravity (OG)
1.034

80.6% Mild malt

Gravity (FG)
1.008

4.9% Crystal malt

ABV
3.34%

3.2% Invert No1 sugar

Apparent attenuation
75.80%

11.3% Invert No3 sugar

Real attenuation
62.09%







IBU
27.3

Mash
145min@148°F
0.99qt/lb

SRM
10


145min@64.4°C
2.07L/kg

EBC
20.0










Boil
60 min













Homebrew @ 70%
Craft @ 80%
Grist
5gal
19L
10bbl
10hl
Mild malt
5.15
lb
2.346
kg
279.58
lb
108.02
kg
Crystal malt
0.31
lb
0.141
kg
16.82
lb
6.50
kg
Invert No1 sugar
0.20
lb
0.093
kg
11.04
lb
4.26
kg
Invert No3 sugar
0.72
lb
0.329
kg
39.24
lb
15.16
kg

6.390

2.909

346.67797



Hops








Goldings 4.5% 60min
0.86
oz
24.4
g
53.25
oz
1.287
kg
Goldings 4.5% 30min
0.42
oz
12.0
g
26.35
oz
0.637
kg









Fermentation
65°F /18.3°C















Yeast
Nottingham ale yeast

1098 British Ale Yeast   - WLP007 English Dry









Tasting Notes: Lots of toasted malt and fruit. Apricots and pomme fruit. A little bitterness supports the thin middle and dries out entirely in the end. The toasty malt comes back along with a hint of caramel and some deeper dark sugars. Refreshing and easy drinking.


Ingredients and technique


Grist & such
This is one of the first beers we’ve seen where the only pale malt it contains is entirely Mild malt. 5% crystal and a combined 15% or so of invert sugar. The majority of this is No3 invert sugar so if you can find dark baking syrup give it a shot. Make sure it doesn’t contain added salt as some of them do. If you can’t find it then up the crystal to get the color right and use all Lyle’s Golden syrup. This is one beer that gets a good majority of its character from the use of the darker brewing sugars.

Hops
It’s interesting to note that in this very low gravity beer they would use 100% new hops. All fresh as the day is long. However, when you look at the amount of hops, 0.7lb/bbl, you can see why this really doesn’t come into play. For nearly 30,000 gallons of beer they used a mere 570 pounds of hops. This gave just enough bitterness at around 23bu to ensure that this beer had a decent hint of bitterness. A simple addition at make up and then 30 minutes out will do nicely. No dry hopping in this beer but I think a touch couldn’t really hurt.

Mash & Boil
A very short mash with a low temperature would ensure this beer was very fermentable as you can see by the final gravity. The boil was similar. The first gyle was only boiled for 60 minutes and the second for 45 minutes. That’s the least amount of time I have ever seen a beer boiled. Keep it simple and stick with the 60 minutes.

Fermentation, Conditioning & Serving
Fermentation was done at a moderate temperature all fermenting out in about 3 days. The beer was racked and conditioned for about two weeks and then right out to the pubs. The CO2 should be around 2 volumes or maybe a little higher. I like mine on the lower end but do as you please with this one. However, to much carbonation will reduce the delicate toasty flavors of the mild malt.

Gyling & Blending
The gyle for this beer was for the Best ale (1.031) and the XXX ale (1.035). I wrote this recipe just for the XXX as its easier and I found no real difference in the beers that is easily detectable. Therefore the gyle for this beer is for the straight XXX ale. A very simple addition of nearly 2:1 strong gyle to weak gyle. This is a really good beer to practice your gyling. That being said, its not one that really takes a great deal away from the gyling process.


-->
XXX
5gal
19L
10bbl
10hL

G1 - vol
3.22
12.24
6.44
6.44
64%
G1 - grav
1.043
1.043
1.043
1.043

G1 - BU
21
21
21
21

G2 - vol
1.78
6.76
3.56
3.56
36%
G2 - grav
1.020
1.020
1.020
1.020

G2 - BU
23
23
23
23

G3 - vol
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0%
G3 - grav
1.000
1.000
1.000
1.000

G3 - BU
0
0
0
0

Hopping
0.3oz/gal
2.26g/L
0.59lb/bbl
0.23kg/hL

Totals
OG 1.035
FG 1.008
BU 21.6
Abv 3.5%

12 comments:

Tandleman said...

OK. I'll bite. What's pomme fruit?

Alistair Reece said...

Probably a very geeky question, but as I am yet to make the jump to light speed, I mean from extract to all grain brewing, which base extract would best replicate mild malt? An amber?

Kristen England said...

Pomme fruit is apples and pears and the like.

Extract, depending on your supplier. I would probably forgo trying to get an exact match and use a very little bit of biscuit malt. It won't be exact but will lend that little bit of toasty character.

Rob Sterowski said...

Would it be possible to blend treacle and golden syrup to make an approximation of No. 3 syrup?

LuckyEatWell said...

Kristen, Is the stove-top method of inverting (cirtic acid) and darkening (@150 C)a sugar appropriate to producing an equivalent of "brewers invert #3" ?
I always find my attempts at this result in a less sweet, slightly bitter tasting product that I'm unsure represents the commercial brewing product ?
Is this what it's supposed to tase like ? Does it loose fermentability ?

Brewing the LBW, Fullers ELP-LP-PA gyle this weekend. Should (could) be great !

Kristen England said...

Fermentation-wise you would have a similar final gravity. However, the No2 sugars don't have that 'treacley' molasses character. That being said, I do this all the time b/c I really enjoy that flavor. I'd say try maybe 3:1 Golden:treacle as a start.

Mike said...

In your notes on mashing you say a very short mash, but at 145mins it seems a long mash, is there a misprint here?
This is a very light colour for Mild.
I think I might have to make this one.

Adrian Avgerinos said...

In regards to brewing sugars, here is my recent attempt:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v232/sbcelicagt/Beer/brewingsyrup.jpg

I used refined white sugar, water, a little DAP (Diammonium phosphate, to help browning), and cream of tarter (to invert sugar).

The lighter syrup I cooked a couple hours over low heat until the temperature hit about 230 degF. The second I cooked an extra 45 minutes or so until it reached 260 degF.

The lighter syrup smelled buttery like Lyle's, and the darker one smelled like berries. The lighter one tasted a lot like Lyle's and the dark one tasted faintly of caramel.

I pitched the lighter one into an IPA and the darker one into a Porter last week. Beginning of the boil for both.

This is my third attempt at brewing syrup. I'm guessing both could stand to be slightly darker next time.

Kristen England said...

Mike,

Re the mash, should read 45min.

Adrian,

Very good stuff. I find that I get better, more true, results for dark invert syrup if I keep a lower temperature for a long time. One the water is gone adn you get your flame adjusted, its easy to keep the temp and just let it go. Keeps the stuff from getting bitter.

Rob Sterowski said...

Should the flavours come from caramelisation, though, or from the impurities in raw sugar? Or a bit of both?

Kristen England said...

Barm,

If by impurities you mean the delicious bits that get washed off to make white sugar then yes. Its from both.

I just brought back 10kg of Jamaican raw sugar from a plantation called Frome. I've seen it in a few old logs. :)

Rob Sterowski said...

I made this a few weeks ago. Here is my post on the subject: http://sad-barm.blogspot.com/2010/05/1955-whitbread-xxx-best-mild.html