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Going into the war, Boddington IP was a pretty respectable strength at around 4.5% ABV. Of course, it wasn’t going to stay like that for long.

With an OG of 1045º, IP most likely retailed at 7d per pint in the public bar. In London, it would have counted as and Ordinary Bitter. But in much of the country, including Manchester, the stronger 8d per pint class of Bitter didn’t exist.

Accounting for a round a quarter of Boddington’s output in 1939, IP was their second most popular beer after XX Mild. Though it was a very distant second: about two-thirds of what they brewed was XX.

The grist is very simple in terms of malts, being all base malt. 15 of the quarters (336 lbs) being from Newark, the remaining 3 being simply described as “foreign”. There was also 0.75 quarter of enzymic, something which was very popular amongst regional breweries in the middle of the 20th century.

In addition to the malt, there was a considerable quantity of flaked maize and also a little wheat. I’m not sure in which form the wheat was. It could have been malted, but I’m guessing flaked. I assume it was included to aid head retention.

Two sugars were employed: Br. and FL. No idea what they were. I’ve substituted No. 2 invert.

No fewer than six types of hops were used. There were English hops from the 1937 and 1938 harvests, plus Oregon and Styrian Goldings from the 1937 harvest. The dry hops were a combination of Styrian and English, from 1937 and 1938.


1939 Boddington IP
pale malt 6.50 lb 66.12%
flaked wheat 0.33 lb 3.36%
flaked maize 2.00 lb 20.35%
malt extract 0.25 lb 2.54%
No. 2 invert sugar 0.75 lb 7.63%
Cluster 150 mins 1.00 oz
Fuggles 90 mins 1.00 oz
Goldings 30 mins 1.00 oz
Goldings dry hops 0.25 oz
Cluster dry hops 0.125 oz
OG 1045
FG 1010.5
ABV 4.56
Apparent attenuation 76.67%
IBU 48
SRM 6
Mash at 152º F
Sparge at 162º F
Boil time 150 minutes
pitching temp 61.5º F
Yeast Wyeast 1318 London ale III (Boddingtons)



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