Let's Brew - 1821 Reid Single Stout

Only yesterday I harvested this Stout from some unprocessed brewing records. From a log which isn't available to the public, not being in an archive.

It’s pretty obvious that London brewers had just been waiting for a new way to colour their Stout. Virtually as soon as black malt was developed, they adopted its use.

Which didn’t mean that brown malt was ditched. Substantial quantities were still used, presumably primarily for flavour. As provincial brewers later demonstrated, it was perfectly feasible to brew Stout from just pale and black malt.

Just as other brewers, Reid initially were quite frugal with the black malt quantity. Resulting in a beer that was dark brown rather than black. Basically, aiming for the colour Stout had been when the grist had been 60% pale and 40% brown malt. Just using less of the less economical brown malt.

The mashing scheme was simpler than at Barclay Perkins, with just two mashes. Both with quite high strike and tap temperatures.

Mash number	barrels	strike heat	tap heat
1	300	168º F	152º F
2	207	186º F	170º F

Three types of hops graced the kettle, all presumably English, from the 1818, 1819 and 1820 harvests. I’ve reduced the rate in the recipe to account for the age of some of the hops. 

Reid went in for crazy long boils. The first wort was boiled for three hours and the second for six.

1821 Reid Single Stout
pale malt	12.50 lb	77.78%
brown malt	3.50 lb	21.78%
black malt	0.07 lb	0.44%
Goldings 180 min	1.75 oz
Goldings 60 min	1.75 oz
Goldings 30 min	1.75 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.50 oz
OG	1068
FG	1018
ABV	6.61
Apparent attenuation	73.53%
IBU	65
SRM	20
Mash at	155º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	180 minutes
pitching temp	65º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1099 Whitbread Ale