Saturday 10 December 2016

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

4 comments:

Bosh said...

15% sugar and 50% attenuation? The poor poor yeast.

StuartP said...

Looks a tasty little number.
Might not try to hold that attenuation, though.

Donald O'Bloggin said...

Has anyone made this? How do you keep the attenuation low?

Ron Pattinson said...

Donald,

don't really know. It can't just be low-attenuating yeast, because some of their other beers were more attenuated. Could be cold crashing, but as there isn't a full fermentation record, I can't know for sure.