Harvey grists in 1889

Let’s have a look at the ingredients contained in these beers.

Unsurprisingly, all have a base of pale malt. Most made from English malt, but around 15% from Middle Eastern Smyrna barley.

Only the Stout has any other malt than the base. That was fairly typical. Sometimes a bit of crystal turns up in Mild Ales, other than that, it’s base malt all the way. The grist is more complicated than in many provincial Stouts, having a fair bit of crystal malt in addition to black.

Harvey’s sugar usage was quite varied, with four different sugars across their five beers. Pale Ale gets, as you would expect, No. 1 invert. X Ale receives No. 3 invert. While XXX and SB were treated to No. 3 invert. Not sure what the BK was which was employed in the Stout. Presumably something dark.

At between 15% and 24%, the sugar content is on the high side. Note that the expensive Pale Ale contained the most sugar. This was pretty common, as brewers wanted to keep the colour and body as light as possible. 

Harvey grists in 1889
Beer	Style	OG	pale malt	black malt	crystal malt	no. 1 sugar	no. 2 sugar	no. 3 sugar	BK
X	Mild	1058.2	84.56%				15.44%
XXX	Mild	1075.3	83.86%					16.14%
PA	Pale Ale	1066.5	75.90%			24.10%
SB	Stock Ale	1078.9	82.56%					17.44%
Stout	Stout	1078.7	65.48%	6.09%	12.18%				16.24%
Source:
Harvey brewing record held at the East Sussex Record Office, document number BBR 2/1/3.