Saturday 1 April 2017

Let's Brew - 1885 Thomas Usher 80/-

Another 80 Shilling recipe. And another beer you can hear me talk about on Sunday at Beer Nouveau in Manchester.

The same comments apply as to the William Younger 80/-. This beer has nothing to do with modern 80/-. Though I can see why people get confused.

Being a little later, it should be no surprise that the recipe isn’t all-malt. Though it was allowed to brew using sugar after 1847, most breweries didn’t. There was a flurry of experiments in London breweries in the late 1840’s, then back to all-malt grists. I’m not sure why. Perhaps the duty paid on sugar used in brewing made it economically unattractive.

Unusually, all the malt in this brew was made from local Scottish barley. You might be surprised how rare that was. The brewing record is very vague about the sugar. It’s listed just as “sacharine” which basically just means sugar. I’ve guessed at pure cane sugar. I could be wrong.

Moving on to the hops, they’re listed as California and Alsace, hence the Cluster and Strisselspalt combination. Note that, although all the malt was local, the hops were all imported. It’s not that unusual to find brews where the only ingredients not imported were the water and yeast.

Don’t miss your chance to drink this beer on Sunday. It might be your only chance.


1885 Thomas Usher 80/-
pale malt 10.75 lb 87.76%
cane sugar 1.50 lb 12.24%
Cluster 90 min 1.00 oz
Cluster 60 min 1.00 oz
Strisselspalt 30 min 0.50 oz
OG 1058
FG 1023
ABV 4.63
Apparent attenuation 60.34%
IBU 45
SRM 4
Mash at 155º F
Sparge at 175º F
Boil time 120 minutes
pitching temp 59º F
Yeast WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

What is the final gravity of the beer you are serving?

Hashmark said...

Interesting blog, I appreciate your recipes. I'd like to try the old beers.

Could you please include the volume so I can scale your recipes to my home brewery?

Thanks

Ron Pattinson said...

Hashmark,

they're all 6 US/5 UK gallons or 23 litres.

Ron Pattinson said...

Anonymous,

not sure. Probably lower than in the recipe.

Anonymous said...

Thanks.