I'll analyse, compare and contrast in a later post. I can't be arsed to do it now. Just about to eat my tea.
| Amsdell of Albany beers 1901 – 1904 | |||||||||||
| Date | Year | Beer | Style | OG | FG | ABV | App. Atten-uation | lbs hops/ qtr | hops lb/brl | barrels | boil time (hours) |
| 22nd Jan | 1901 | Polar | Ale | 1054 | 1019.2 | 4.61 | 64.55% | 6.01 | 1.15 | 243 | 1 |
| 24th Jan | 1901 | XX | Ale | 1052.6 | 1016.4 | 4.8 | 68.93% | 6.33 | 1.8 | 158 | 1 |
| 20th Mar | 1901 | Diamond | Stock Ale | 1081.7 | 1028 | 7.11 | 65.76% | 8.08 | 2.42 | 190 | 1 |
| 1st Apr | 1901 | XX | Ale | 1054.6 | 1019.6 | 4.63 | 64.16% | 6.23 | 1.61 | 165 | 1 |
| 24th May | 1901 | Scotch | Scotch Ale | 1066.6 | 1023.6 | 5.7 | 64.64% | 5.55 | 1.95 | 185 | 1.5 |
| 27th May | 1901 | XX | Ale | 1059.7 | 1022.4 | 4.94 | 62.56% | 5.82 | 1.23 | 350 | 1.25 |
| 22nd Oct | 1901 | Pale XX | Ale | 1054.2 | 1017.2 | 4.89 | 68.33% | 5.51 | 1.02 | 245 | 1 |
| 1904 | Burton | Stock Ale | 1075.8 | 76 | 2 | ||||||
| 12th Apr | 1904 | Diamond | Stock Ale | 1074 | 1020.8 | 7.04 | 71.96% | 8.29 | 2.27 | 198 | 1 |
| 14th Nov | 1904 | XX Winter | Ale | 1058 | 1019.2 | 5.13 | 66.95% | 5.75 | 1.12 | 358 | 1 |
| 24th Mar | 1905 | India Pale Ale | IPA | 1077.6 | 1029.2 | 6.4 | 62.35% | 4.85 | 2.25 | 200 | 1 |
| 1st May | 1905 | Scotch | Scotch Ale | 1062.7 | 1019.2 | 5.76 | 69.46% | 5.26 | 1.15 | 174 | 1 |
I remember the time when on Alan's blog there was active discussion of Albany ale. I pitched in quite a bit in the comments on that including references to those 1830's testimonies which I also found, trawling through Google Books.
ReplyDeleteSo too had I seen numerous references to Albany ale not long after I started such trawling, but I never felt the beer, apart from an evocative name, was something radically different from English beers of the same ABV. Yes there would be differences in hop taste probably, and probably sweetness depending on brewer, but I doubted then and still do that it was truly a style unto itself the way some of the great English beers were.
Its flavour, reliant on American-grown hops, presumably Cluster or any early form, might even have been regarded as a little outre and its strength its prime virtue. We know that English brewers didn't think much of U.S. hops in relation to the best of their own, a judgement I still think is valid.
Maybe all that sweetness in the Vassar XX, if it was a type of Albany (as seems likely to me) was to cover some of that hop rankness. All the brewers in the 1830's testimonies spoke of making ale in pretty traditional English ways except maybe for their use of salt, but English brewers used salt too in this period.
It's all very valid to look into it though and perhaps more research will uncover true regional tastes long-lost, but I think it was an American derivation of English ale (not pale ale) and therefore started on the strong side and moved up from there, depending on producer and area. I'd think it bore a similar relation to English ale, or ales, as did, say, Ballantine IPA to English IPA. Which meant a close one.
Gary
Someone should try and see if there is a correlation between the mild ales of Vassar and the XX ales of Amsdell...
ReplyDeleteOh wait! I may have said too much!