Let's Brew - 1885 Thomas Usher 80/-

Another 80 Shilling recipe. And another beer you can hear me talk about on Sunday at Beer Nouveau in Manchester.

The same comments apply as to the William Younger 80/-. This beer has nothing to do with modern 80/-. Though I can see why people get confused.

Being a little later, it should be no surprise that the recipe isn’t all-malt. Though it was allowed to brew using sugar after 1847, most breweries didn’t. There was a flurry of experiments in London breweries in the late 1840’s, then back to all-malt grists. I’m not sure why. Perhaps the duty paid on sugar used in brewing made it economically unattractive.

Unusually, all the malt in this brew was made from local Scottish barley. You might be surprised how rare that was. The brewing record is very vague about the sugar. It’s listed just as “sacharine” which basically just means sugar. I’ve guessed at pure cane sugar. I could be wrong.

Moving on to the hops, they’re listed as California and Alsace, hence the Cluster and Strisselspalt combination. Note that, although all the malt was local, the hops were all imported. It’s not that unusual to find brews where the only ingredients not imported were the water and yeast.

Don’t miss your chance to drink this beer on Sunday. It might be your only chance.

1885 Thomas Usher 80/-
pale malt	10.75 lb	87.76%
cane sugar	1.50 lb	12.24%
Cluster 90 min	1.00 oz
Cluster 60 min	1.00 oz
Strisselspalt 30 min	0.50 oz
OG	1058
FG	1023
ABV	4.63
Apparent attenuation	60.34%
IBU	45
SRM	4
Mash at	155º F
Sparge at	175º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	59º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale