Let's Brew - 1912 Thomas Usher 48/- Stout

It’s fascinating to see how Scottish Stout gradually diverged from English versions. In particular, from London Stouts which were, after all, the originals.

By the eve of WW I, English and Scottish had split wide apart. As the 20th century progressed, that gap became even wider.

Thomas Usher vs London Porter and Stout 1909 - 1912
Year	Brewer	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
1912	Whitbread	P	Porter	1054.3	1013.0	5.47	76.08%	4.92	1.16
1912	Whitbread	LS	Stout	1055.3	1013.0	5.60	76.50%	4.92	1.18
1912	Whitbread	Exp S	Stout	1068.4	1020.0	6.41	70.77%	13.05	4.24
1912	Whitbread	SS	Stout	1079.9	1030.0	6.60	62.43%	8.48	3.12
1912	Whitbread	SSS	Stout	1095.8	1039.0	7.51	59.28%	8.48	3.74
1910	Barclay Perkins	OMS	Stout	1053.2	1016.5	4.86	68.98%	7.50	1.82
1910	Barclay Perkins	BS Ex	Stout	1076.0	1022.5	7.08	70.39%	12.00	4.12
1910	Barclay Perkins	EIP Ex	Porter	1063.5	1020.0	5.75	68.50%	12.00	3.40
1911	Barclay Perkins	RDP	Porter	1068.2	1023.5	5.91	65.54%	8.00	2.52
1909	Truman	Imperial Stout	Stout	1094.2				5.6	2.72
1909	Truman	SS?	Stout	1072.0				5.6	2.08
1909	Truman	Runner L & C	Porter	1054.3				6.1	1.38
1909	Truman	Country Runner	Porter	1058.2				7.5	2.01
1909	Truman	Bottling	Porter	1052.6				7.5	1.82
1909	Truman	Export Stout	Stout	1069.3				9.9	3.35
1909	Truman	Runner	Porter	1058.2				8.2	2.31
1909	Truman	Keeping Stout	Stout	1069.3				9.5	3.29
1912	Thomas Usher	48/-	Stout	1046	1023	3.04	50.00%	6.50	1.36
1912	Thomas Usher	54/-	Stout	1054	1026	3.70	51.85%	6.50	1.60
1912	Thomas Usher	Stt	Stout	1070	1029	5.42	58.57%	6.50	2.07
Sources:
Barclay Perkins brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number ACC/2305/1/602
Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/09/106
Truman  brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/C/112
Thomas Usher brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number TU/6/1/5.

What were those differences? Scottish Stouts generally had lower gravities and a poorer degree of attenuation. Not even London Porter had a gravity under 1050º. 1046º is very low for a pre-WW I Stout. Usher’s strongest Stout, Stt, is only about the same strength as the weakest London Stouts.

Note that the degree of attenuation increases with the OG. Leaving the FGs of the three Stouts very similar. This is a trick I’ve seen before in Scottish beers. Maclay did something similar with their three Pale Ales. I guess the point is to have a similar level of body and sweetness in all three.

Interestingly, one area where there is no real difference is the level of hopping. Contrary to what some would tell you about Scottish beers. Usher’s Stouts have similar levels of hopping as London beers of a similar gravity. The only exceptions being the London Export Stouts which naturally would have been more heavily hopped.

The biggest change in the grist compared to their 19th-century Stouts is the absence of black malt, which has been replaced by chocolate malt. Before WW I, London brewers stuck with black malt, but Whitbread also swapped over to chocolate malt in 1922.

The original recipe contains six types of sugar: 4 cwt. CDA, 1 cwt. Maltosan, 2 cwt. oatine, 3 cwt. DL, 10 cwt Penang. I assume oatine contained oats in some form, so feel free to throw in some flaked oats if you fancy. CDA is some sort of proprietary dark sugar. No idea what Maltosan and DL are, but Penang will be some type of cane sugar. I’ve simplified it to just No. 3 invert.

The very long boil is probably because 48/- was parti-gyled with the stronger Stout. Or maybe they wanted to darken the wort. I won’t get angry if you stick to a more conventional, shorter boil.

1912 Thomas Usher 48/- Stout
pale malt	6.75 lb	69.23%
brown malt	0.50 lb	5.13%
choc. Malt	0.50 lb	5.13%
crystal malt 60L	0.50 lb	5.13%
No. 3 invert	1.50 lb	15.38%
Fuggles 90 min	1.00 oz
Fuggles 60 min	1.00 oz
Fuggles 30 min	1.00 oz
OG	1046
FG	1023
ABV	3.04
Apparent attenuation	50.00%
IBU	37
SRM	24
Mash at	148º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	240 minutes
pitching temp	60º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale