Let’s Brew Wednesday - 1917 Wadworth XXXX

I get all sorts of bits and bobs. Brewing records and other stuff. It’s been a great help as there’s a limit to how many archives and breweries I can get to.

This recipe is derived from a materials sheet. That shows each brew in a particular month and the materials used in it. I think Boak and Bailey sent me it. There are a few details missing: mashing temperatures, boil times, pitching temperature. All of those, I’ve guessed. Plus the hops are only defined as English and foreign.

Wadworth were still brewing three Milds at this point. More than London brewers were, who’d mostly slimmed down to just X Ale. While Wadworth had X, XX and XXXX. Odd the way XXX was missing.

The grist is typical 20th century: base malt, flaked maize and sugar. As I’ve often told you before, getting the colour from sugar is typical of British beers. This is quite dark, making it an unusual combination. A Mild that is both quite strong and dark.  By the time Mild had gone properly dark, there were few strong ones left.

I’m less garrulous than usual. Here’s the recipe.

1917 Wadworth XXXX
pale malt	7.25 lb	70.53%
flaked maize	1.75 lb	17.02%
No. 3 invert sugar	1.25 lb	12.16%
caramel	0.03 lb	0.29%
Cluster 90 mins	0.75 oz
Fuggles 60 mins	0.75 oz
Fuggles 30 mins	0.75 oz
OG	1049.6
FG	1016.6
ABV	4.37
Apparent attenuation	66.53%
IBU	35
SRM	18
Mash at	152º F
Sparge at	165º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	60º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1275 Thames Valley ale (Brakspear)

Literary feast

When you're an obsessive, excitement comes in strange forms. Forms that would leave others shuffling away nervously.

Back in the days before beer took over my life, I used to read fiction. Czech and French were my favourites. Someone asked the other day how I learned to read so many languages. Commuting was my answer.

This did have a point. What was it again? Not to worry. I'm bound to remember it before the end of this post.

Barclay Perkins had enigmatic names for their beers. Their Porter, unlike at other London breweries, wasn't called Porter or P. No. At Barclay Perkins Porter was known as TT. Where did that come from? PorTTer? Was it named by a dyslexic brewer?

My reading matter is no longer fiction. Beer book buying binges and Google Books have caught that dead square in the goolies. My literary pretensions are on their knees, ashen-faced and whimpering.

Literary feast? Tonight, I had a meagre supper of Victorian price lists. And what should I find? Another beer called TT. What sort of beer was it? Sixpence a gallon beer. Sixpence a gallon? You rarely find anything under tenpence a gallon. It must have been like workhouse beer.

It doesn't get me any closer to solving the riddle of Barclay Perkins TT. But I do have another TT in my collection. Satisfaction enough for an obsessive.