Monday 17 December 2012

Thomas Usher's beers in the 1930's (part three)

As promised, here are those Usher grists from the 1930's. What can I say? Intriguing sugar combinations. At least in the beers other than Pale Ale

Let's start with the Pale Ales, as they're so dull. The grists for all of them are identical, as they were all parti-gyled together. The small difference in the table are just discrepancies in individual batches. To me it looks very like an 1890's Pale Ale grist: just pale malt, invert sugar and flaked maize. Very dull, really. I'm not sure what to say except "Look at the absence of crystal malt again". Crystal malt in Pale Ales is much more recent than generally believed.

Now we've only the sugar babes left. I've seen some sugary beers in my time, but nothing quite like these ones. The Mild, Brown Ale and Stout all contain 5 types of sugar. Barbados and penang are presumably types of cane sugar. CDM is some sort of dark proprietary sugar, as is Caramax. Not sure about DF. Some other type of proprietary sugar.

I'm not sure I've come across a Stout with no type of roasted malt before. You have to wonder how Stout-like it was, especially as it was parti-gyled with the Mild. There was also a Mild parti-gyled with the Brown Ale. I can't imagine both milds were identical in flavour.

Scottish breweries in the 1930's, if Usher and Maclay are typical, must have had very simple malt stores, containing just a couple of different malts.


Thomas Usher's grists in the 1930's
Date Year Beer Style OG FG ABV pale malt crystal malt flaked maize invert sugar barbados/penang CDM Caramax ?? Sugar cane sugar DF sugar
20th Nov 1931 Brown Ale Brown Ale 1055 1016.5 5.09 77.65% 3.53% 4.71% 4.71% 2.35% 2.35% 4.71%
13th Oct 1931 IPA IPA 1032 1011 2.78 76.92% 12.82% 10.26%
2nd Oct 1931 MA Mild 1040 1015.5 3.24 64.29% 7.14% 4.76% 4.76% 2.38% 14.29% 2.38%
6th Oct 1931 PA Pale Ale 1034 1012 2.91 76.92% 12.82% 10.26%
6th Oct 1931 PA 60/- Pale Ale 1040 1013 3.57 76.92% 12.82% 10.26%
5th Oct 1931 PA 70/- Pale Ale 1047 1013.5 4.43 80.70% 12.28% 7.02%
12th Nov 1931 PA 80/- Pale Ale 1055 1012.5 5.62 81.36% 11.86% 6.78%
2nd Oct 1931 Stout 80/- Stout 1052 1023 3.84 64.29% 7.14% 4.76% 4.76% 2.38% 14.29% 2.38%
Source:
Thomas Usher brewing record document TU/6/6 held at the Scottish Brewing Archive

No comments: