Let's Brew - 1885 Thomas Usher Export PA

Here we are at the top of the Pale Ale ladder, with Export PA. A proper, full-strength Pale Ale.

For once, there’s more than a single malt. With the pale malt backed up by a small amount of high-dried malt. I’m not totally sure what it’s doing there. Possibly to provide some less-fermentable sugars for secondary conditioning.

At 16 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt, the hopping rate is around double that of the other Pale Ales. Which is to be expected, assuming that this is a genuine export beer. Which would need the protection of extra hops.

Hallertau and Alsace hops, both from the 1884 harvest, were used in the copper.

My guess is that thus was aged for at least a year, both at the brewery and during shipment. During which the FG would have been lowered considerably.

1885 Thomas Usher Export PA
pale malt	13.00 lb	92.86%
Munich malt	1.00 lb	7.14%
Strisselspalt 150 min	4.50 oz
Hallertau 30 min	4.50 oz
Goldings dry hops	1.00 oz
OG	1060
FG	1015
ABV	5.95
Apparent attenuation	75.00%
IBU	96
SRM	5.5
Mash at	152º F
Sparge at	175º F
Boil time	150 minutes
pitching temp	57.5º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

 

Judgement

I rise at 7:30. After a very good sleep. But still feel a bit knacked. Hopefully breakfast will liven me up. Plenty of coffee should do the job.

The breakfast buffet is pretty impressive. Except . . . no real bacon. Just weird turkey bacon. They do have fried eggs, though. Two types, even: over easy and sunny-side up. I get one of the latter. Along with some cheese and a slice of wholemeal toast. Plus orange juice and coffee. I only have one mouthful of the fake bacon. Not very nice. I won't be bothering with that again.

The judging room is right next to the restaurant. Which is handy. It saves so much time and effort. The latter being very important for oldies like me. We’re supposed to kick off at 9. It’s actually 9:30. Which isn’t bad. In Brazil we once sat on our arses for three hours because of computer problems.

I’m not table captain. Yippee! I love dodging responsibility. Someone else can do the hard work 

We’re quite an international bunch. Our Australian captain aided by judges from Germany, Singapore and Vietnam. And me, obviously. I’ve never been on a table of five before. Usually, it’s three.

We kick off with International Pale Lager. What fun. All but one are crap. Not such a surprise. At least we get through them quite quickly.

Witbier next. A much better set. A couple of them I rather like. Especially one with a touch of acidity. Like Hoegaarden had back in the day.

Achieving consensus between five judges is trickier than between three. But, as none of my fellow judges are arseholes, we can work things out. With a bit of give and take. Judges make or break the judging experience. One opinionated twat can suck out all the pleasure. Get a pair of twats, and judging is complete torture.

American Pale Ale is the last flight of the morning. With some pretty decent beers. Hops can cover up a whole load of nastiness. In Pale Lagers, there’s nowhere to hide.

We're running a bit late in the morning session. It’s almost 2 PM when we get done and break for lunch Which is a buffet in the restaurant where we ate breakfast. Just next door. No pissing around travelling somewhere else. Which I appreciate.

It's way more varied than Brazilian buffets. Lots of different types of Asian food. With a whole section for Indian curries. As well as western stuff. The range is both enormous and impressive.  

All sorts of fancy stuff. Like large prawns, mussels and other shellfish.  I get some mussels, beef rendang and deep-fried chicken. Tasty.

My afternoon table has another inspiring mix of nationalities: Indian, Belgian, Vietnamese and German. Should promote healthy discussion.

I’m not very optimistic about the first flight, English Pale Ale.

“I don’t have very good experiences of judging this style.” I tell the others. “They’re usually all crap.”

Which, indeed, most of the beers turn out to be. But there’s one really good beer. Making the process worthwhile.

American IPA, which is next up, is an improvement. There are a couple of pretty decent beers in the set.
.
One of my favourite categories follows: Low-alcohol beer. Only joking. It is better than alcohol-free, I suppose. Not as awful as I feared. Some are just about drinkable.

We end with experimental beers. 

“I always suspect that some brewers call beers ‘experimental’ when they go horribly wrong.” I remark. 

“That’s rather cynical.” 

Cynical? Moi? I’m such a positive chap. Despite what my kids say.

Thankfully, a lot of the flight isn’t that out there. In fact, mostly quite in there. Just an extra ingredient or two to add an accent to a standard style. A few are really weird, though. For example, Irish Stout with orange juice. So strange, that it’s really difficult to judge. What were they aiming for? Have they achieved it?

We finish just after six. Leaving me a bit less than an hour to chill in my room before we go out to eat. And to make sure that my duty-free whisky hasn’t gone off while I’ve been judging. I have to check twice, just to make sure.

No bus, this evening. We walk to a Chinese restaurant. When we're almost there, I recognise where we are. As we walk past the Magpie. Where I drank with Andrew a few weeks ago. It's a weird feeling. Like suddenly waking up. While walking down the street.

We sit outside the restaurant and plates of food keep arriving. As well as big bottles of Tiger. Everyone digs in enthusiastically. I’m relieved to drink beer without needing to think about it. I knock back a few. Just to be polite, obviously.

The food highlight is chilli crab. Which, being undressed, is a challenge to eat without changing the colour of your shirt.  Someone asks the Vietnamese women next to me if it's spicy. "No." they say. Not my impression. I suppose they have a different concept of spicy in Vietnam.

I leave with a couple of the other older judges a little after nine. I don’t feel like staying out too late. I’ll leave that to the young and the reckless. I’m still feeling a bit knacked. And I’ll need to be up fairly early again tomorrow. Still time to drop by the Seven 11 on my way back.

I watch some YouTube in my room for a while. Before bludgeoning myself unconscious with duty-free whisky. Finding sleep isn’t a problem. It’s right there in front of me. Just looks a bit blurry.



Por Kee Eating House 1996
69 Seng Poh Ln, 
#01-02, 
Singapore 160069. 

The Long Pull

Before WW I there was a weird practice in pubs of the "long pull". Where pub customers were deliberately given an overmeasure. The idea was to attract business by offering better value for money. Rather than sell the beer cheaper, you received a larger measure for the standard price.

It always seemed a bit weird to me. And I assumed the overmeasure was 10% or 15%. Which still seemed quite a lot. How wrong I was. It also seems to have been very widespread. At least in some districts.

The Trade and the “Long Pull.”
A circular has been issued by the Birmingham and Midland Counties Wholesale Brewers' Association to the retail licensed trade in the area under their control, in which the “long pull” is practised to an extent affecting 8,000 houses, to the effect that on and after July 16th the "long pull" will be discontinued, and a maximum of 25 per cent, over measure will be permitted. As a sequel to this circular there will also be sent out a printed card for exhibition in a prominent part of the various houses intimating the discontinuance referred to. We understand that up to the present time fully 95 per cent, of the trade have intimated their willingness to assent to the proposal regarding the “long pull." The remaining 5 per cent, it is believed will no doubt be brought into line when they realise the comparative unanimity of their trade colleagues, and the necessity for concerted action. In the event of their still holding out public opinion is relied upon to induce them to lend their practical support towards sweeping away a custom which is admitted to be open to abuse.
The Brewers' Journal vol. 36 1900, July 15th 1900, page 404.

It sounds like the pratice was very widespread in Birmingham. And the size of the overmeasure - often more than 50% - is incredible. When you ordered a pint, you'd get more than 1.5 pints. Which is crazy. Even after "abolishing" the long pull, landlords were still allowed to serve a 25% overmeasure. Which still seems like quite a lot to me.

The long pull was still around at the start of WW I. Until it was made illegal as part of wartime restrictions on the drinks trade. 

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1885 Thomas Usher PA 60/-

Don’t you just love the random use of Shilling designations by Usher? It’s clear that the original use of shilling classifications: to indicate the wholesale price of a hogshead, was over. 

There’s no way that this beer wholesaled for 60/- a hogshead. A fancy Pale Ale like this would probably have cost 54/- a barrel, 81/- a hogshead. 60/- would be the price of something like an XX Mild Ale.

Most of the grist was a single type of Scottish pale malt. Along with a tiny amount of caramel. Which darkens the colour a bit. But couldn’t have really had much impact on the flavour.

Two types of hops, as usual, California from the 1883 season and Alsace from 1884.

As the hopping rate is the same as for the weaker Pale Ales, I don’t think this beer was aged for any length of time. No more than a couple of months, at most. Though it was probably conditioned for longer than its weaker siblings. 

1885 Thomas Usher PA 60/-
pale malt	14.00 lb	99.79%
caramel 1000 SRM	0.03 lb	0.21%
Cluster 90 min	2.25 oz
Strisselspalt 30 min	2.25 oz
Goldings dry hops	1.00 oz
OG	1060
FG	1017
ABV	5.69
Apparent attenuation	71.67%
IBU	60
SRM	7.5
Mash at	152º F
Sparge at	175º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	59º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale