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A recent Twitter discussion about Boddington’s Bitter prompted me to dive into some of the records I harvested last year in Manchester.

I’ve still got hundreds of photos of brewing records – not just Boddington’s – that I haven’t processed yet. It’s a time consuming process. And I have finite amounts of time. I usually have some other motive, such as writing a book, for delving into them.

Note that the brew house name wasn’t Bitter, but IP. Which, undoubtedly, originally stood for IPA. Though I guess this beer isn’t very much like a style Nazi’s idea of an IPA, with its OG of well under 1040º.

The recipe is surprisingly complicated, containing three or possibly four types of malt. I’m not sure about the wheat, as the description is pretty vague. That, along with the lager malt, is responsible for the very pale colour of the finished beer. There are three proprietary sugars in the original: DMS, Fla. and Br. I’ve no idea what any of them are and have replaced then with No. 2 invert.

I’m not sure if you can still get enzymic malt. If you don’t have it, just bump up the pale malt.

The hops are barely described in the record, only listing the growers name. There’s no clue as to where they were grown, what variety they were or even which year they’re from. Meaning the hopping as an almost total guess.

If anyone is interested, I can also publish recipes for this beer from the 1950’s. 1960s and 1980s. It would be interesting to see any changes to the recipe.

1971 Boddington IP
pale malt 5.00 lb 67.39%
lager malt 1.00 lb 13.48%
enzymic malt 0.25 lb 3.37%
wheat 0.25 lb 3.37%
flaked maize 0.25 lb 3.37%
No. 2 invert sugar 0.67 lb 9.03%
Fuggles 90 min 1.00 oz
Goldings 30 min 1.00 oz
Goldings dry hops 0.25 oz
OG 1035.5
FG 1003
ABV 4.30
Apparent attenuation 91.55%
IBU 28
SRM 5
Mash at 151º F
Sparge at 162º F
Boil time 90 minutes
pitching temp 63º F
Yeast Wyeast 1318 London ale III (Boddingtons)



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