Let's Brew Wednesday - 1889 Harveys Pale Ale

Pale Ale clearly wasn’t very important for Harveys. They only had the one – a full-strength version – and no Light Bitter. Which is quite unusual for this late in the 19th century.

The quantities were tiny, too. Over a period of 5 months, it was brewed just three times. In batches of around 25 barrels. A couple of hundred barrels over a year, at most. Quite a contrast to today.

At 1067º, it looks to me like a Stock Pale Ale. “Run into Puns [puncheons]” it says at the bottom of the fermentation record. A puncheon being a large cask. Too large a cask to be sent out to pubs.

The grist has very little to it. A single type of English pale malt and No. 1 invert sugar. That’s it. Not a great deal to discuss there.

There’s little more to talk about with the hops. Worcester from the 1888 crop. All in all, it’s a very simple recipe.

My guess would be a minimum of 9 months, probably more than 12 months of ageing.  

1889 Harveys Pale Ale
pale malt	10.00 lb	76.92%
No. 1 invert sugar	3.00 lb	23.08%
Fuggles 120 mins	2.50 oz
Fuggles 60 mins	2.50 oz
Fuggles 30 mins	2.50 oz
Goldings dry hops	1.00 oz
OG	1067
FG	1020
ABV	6.22
Apparent attenuation	70.15%
IBU	80
SRM	8
Mash at	152º F
Sparge at	165º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	58.25º F
Yeast	White Labs WLP025 Southwold