Let's Brew Wednesday - 1894 Usher's Stout

This recipe has been held over from last week. I was away in London when it arrived.

Scottish Stout. It seems to have diverged quite early from the English version. But you must already know that. I've only said it a few thousand times. But you expect some sort of evidence, don't you? And who am I to deny you it?

Here are some London Stouts of the same era:

English Stouts of the 1890's
Date	Year	Brewer	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Attenuation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)	Pitch temp	pale malt	brown malt	black malt	amber malt	glucose	other sugar
24th Jan	1895	Truman	Export Stout	1074.8				17.8	6.92	3	3.5		58º	76.29%	14.10%	9.61%
9th Jul	1894	Truman	Imperial Stout	1097.2				11.0	5.25	2	2	3	60º	70.03%	10.59%	6.05%		13.34%
9th Jul	1894	Truman	Double Stout	1081.7				11.0	4.41	2	2	3	60º	70.03%	10.59%	6.05%		13.34%
9th Jul	1894	Truman	SS	1075.9				11.0	4.10	2	2	3	60º	70.03%	10.59%	6.05%		13.34%
9th Jan	1895	Whitbread	SS	1080.9	1026.0	7.26	67.86%	9.57	3.86	2	2		58º	59.07%	11.23%	3.74%	15.40%		10.56%
9th Jan	1895	Whitbread	SSS	1094.5	1035.0	7.87	62.95%	9.57	4.51	2	2		58º	59.07%	11.23%	3.74%	15.40%		10.56%
14th May	1887	Fuller	BS	1070.4	1025.2	5.97	64.17%	7.6	2.50	1.5	1.75		57º	57.81%	15.78%	5.61%			20.80%
Sources:
Truman brewing book document B/THB/C/096 held at the London Metropolitan Archives
Whitbread brewing book document LMA/4453/D/09/089 held at the London Metropolitan Archives
Fuller's brewing records.
Notes:
Assuming 336 lbs for a qtr of pale malt, 254 lbs for black and brown malt and 280 lbs for amber malt

Only Fuller's BS comes anywhere close to the sugar content of Usher's Stout. All the others have at most half the sugar of Usher's. Interesting, that. That's the main difference in the grists.

Surprisingly, Usher's has one of the highest brown malt contents. That's quite significant. London brewers, in general, kept faith with brown malt in their Porters and Stouts right until the bitter end. While in many regions, brewers switched in the middle of the 19th century to a grist of just pale and black malt. The black malt content of Usher's is lower than most of the London Stouts, but not all.

The gravity of Usher's is a good bit lower than any of the London Stouts at just 1061. The weakest London Stout is 1070º

There's a considerable difference in the hopping rate of Usher's Stout compared to the London Stouts. It works out to 1.36 lbs per imperial barrel. The London beer with the fewest hops, Fuller's BS, has almost double. Usher's must have been considerably sweeter.







I've nothing else to tell you so let's hurry on to Kristen . . . .

Kristen’s Version:

Introduction:

As you can see we’ve moved on in time up to the 1890’s. Things are different even in the few years from the last Usher’s sets. Lots more use of sugars and many more instances of non-Scottish ingredients. Enjoy!

Ingredients

Grist – As you can see there is a ton of sugar in this beer so it’s of the utmost importance to chose very good malts. I’m going with Golden Promise as my base for this one. I really love Fawcett’s Brown and Black malts so those will do very well indeed. I used some tasty unrefined cane sugar from Jamaica but really turbinado-y sugar will do well. I made the Invert No2 according to my dilution spec’s over on my buddy Nicks site. Found here: http://www.unholymess.com/blog/beer-brewing-info/making-brewers-invert. Make sure you use a good Blackstrap…unsulfured as always.

Hops – The hops here are a background note. A good enough amount to keep the beer from being too sweet but also a touch of dry hop adds another layer of complexity. The Goldings really add a freshness to the aroma that brightens this beast up.

Yeast – Nottingham or Fullers. That being said, if you are worried about over attenuation use the London III. That will keep it beefy. The problem is with all that No2 invert you’ll have a good amount of tastyness leftover anyway. Use your own discretion.