1918 Thomas Usher GA

As you seemed to enjoy last week’s Government Ale recipe, here’s another. This time from Scotland. There’s two boxes ticked: WW I and Scotland.

If you thought the Truman GA was watery, take a look at this baby. It’s not even 2% ABV. Why is this beer weaker? Because it’s from a year later, when brewing restrictions were even stricter. Strictly speaking, this isn’t really from WW I, as it was brewed on the 13th November 1918, two days after the armistice.

You can the war biting in the grist. Pre-war and during its early years, Usher’s beers contained flaked maize. But this became unavailable as it had to be imported. Which caused the malt content to increase. There’s still sugar in the recipe, though. Sugar was scarce during the war, but not totally impossible to get hold of.

Considering the crazily low OG, it’s reasonably well hopped. Talking of gravity, note how high the FG is. One of the unusual features of Scottish brewing is how similar the FG’s are of beers with very different OG’s. It strikes me that Scottish drinkers expected a certain amount of body, no matter how strong the beers were. It would also have made Scottish beers appear sweeter than English equivalents.

The hops are a guess. By this time only English hops were being used in British brewing. Fuggles is the most likely variety, just because that was the one grown the most. You can substitute some Goldings or other old English varieties if it takes your fancy.

It must have been fun drinking this stuff down the pub. You’d never, ever get pissed. Probably be safe to drive after a gallon or more.

1918 Thomas Usher GA
pale malt	5.00 lb	90.91%
glucose	0.25 lb	4.55%
No. 2 invert sugar	0.25 lb	4.55%
Fuggles 90 min	0.50 oz
Fuggles 60 min	0.50 oz
Fuggles 30 min	0.25 oz
OG	1025
FG	1010
ABV	1.98
Apparent attenuation	60.00%
IBU	18
SRM	4
Mash at	149º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	60º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale