Saturday 8 July 2017

Let's Brew 1901 Boddington Stout

Quiet my life isn’t. I try to focus my efforts, but once again I’m fiddling in the knickers of several projects simultaneously. I won’t bore you by repeating what they. Mostly because it’s pretty damn effing obvious.

I’ve been a stupid twat. Only just twigging that I can easily combine my beery UK trips with archive visits. Which is where today’s recipe originates. At the Manchester Central Library.

I almost left it too late. Officially you need to book offsite records – which the Boddies brewing records are – two weeks in advance. I was so dozy that I only asked 10 days in advance. Luckily, that was OK.

Right. You’ll need to bear with me. I have to quickly finish off my Abt. Got a blood test at the quack tomorrow for which I need to be “nuchter”, as they say in Dutch. Literally it means sober. In this case, it means without food or drink for 12 hours.

Finally, we’ve arrived at the beer in question. Boddington’s entry-level Stout from 1901.

The recipe mixed my head up a treat, I can tell you. No dark malt at all in the log. Until I got two pages further. Where a note in the margin it details the quantities of black malt added to several beers. Not mentioned in the main part of the log, because it was added in the kettle, not the mash tun.

The sugars are a total guess. I just know there were two types. The recipe just barely gets to a Stout colour with my random jabs of No. 3 and No. 4 invert. Later logs show caramel. So that may well have been added to this beer as well.

In London this would never have counted as a Stout. Standard Porter had a higher OG. But I think this is just a case of a Porter being rebranded as Stout for commercial reasons. Boddington has a stronger version called Double Stout that was closer to the real Stout deal.

Maybe I’ll pester you with that Double Stout soon. Unless some shiny thing distracts me.


1901 Boddington S
pale malt 9.25 lb 85.33%
black malt 0.25 lb 2.31%
No. 3 Invert 0.67 lb 6.18%
No. 4 Invert 0.67 lb 6.18%
Cluster 135 mins 0.50 oz
Fuggles 90 mins 1.00 oz
Fuggles 60 mins 0.50 oz
Fuggles 30 mins 0.50 oz
OG 1051
FG 1015
ABV 4.76
Apparent attenuation 70.59%
IBU 36
SRM 24
Mash at 156º F
Sparge at 165º F
Boil time 135 minutes
pitching temp 60º F
Yeast Wyeast 1318 London ale III (Boddingtons)



5 comments:

Lee said...

I had one of those tests today,too Ron.
What about the black malt in the effing kettle then?

Ron Pattinson said...

Lee,

I think it's about getting as much colour from the black malt as possible. Barclay Perkins did it, too, but only with a small percentage of the black malt. Then again, the percenrtage of black malt in their grist was much higher.

Mick said...

Don't get distracted, let's have that recipe.........

Mango225 said...

I brewed the 1885 Thomas Usher Stout a month ago. I ground up the black malt in a coffee grinder and added it to the boil as per recipe. Works fine. just give it a good whirlpool at the end and also bare in mind it increases trub. I transferred it to a secondary before kegging.

Unknown said...

The only north west brewing records I've seen that include that boring a Stout recipie!, other NW breweries were certainly using other malts in the mash tun; Amber, Crystal ,Brown and oatmeal in some : Walker's; Dallam Lane Brewery Ledgers 1891-1920 5 Stouts, @ Liverpool Archives, Magee Marshall Cost Price Book 1903-52 , 4 Stouts ; Private Collection.