Let's Brew Wednesday - 1880 Cherry Beer

Irish recipes seem to be popular. So here's another one. Though from a different brewery.

I’ll be honest with you: I’m not really sure what type of beer this is. It’s too pale to be a Porter. And too dark to be a Pale Ale. All that’s really left is Mild Ale.

The hopping rate, at just 4 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt, certainly implies Mild to me. In which case, calling it “Beer” is a bit strange. But who am I to argue? Certainly, the colour fits in with the type of semi-dark Mild which started to appear at the end of the 19tth century.

Mostly, the grist is very straightforward. Just pale malt and a smidgin of black malt. With a bit more than a quarter of the black malt being added to the copper rather than the mash tun.   A practice that also occurred in London Potter breweries.

Then there’s the bit that I don’t understand. In the malt column there’s 43 lbs of something described as “home made”. I assume that it’s a type of malt. Though what exactly it might be, I’ve no real idea. The quantity is so small, it’s hard to see what the impact, or the point, of it might be.

Three types of hops were used. English from the 1879 and 1880 harvests along with Bavarian from 1880.

1880 Cherry Beer
pale malt	13.25 lb	97.28%
black malt	0.33 lb	2.42%
caramel 1000 SRM	0.04 lb	0.29%
Fuggles 90 mins	0.67 oz
Fuggles 60 mins	0.67 oz
Hallertau 30 mins	0.67 oz
Fuggles dry hops	0.50 oz
OG	1058
FG	1014
ABV	5.82
Apparent attenuation	75.86%
IBU	22
SRM	17
Mash at	150º F
Sparge at	165º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	59º F
Yeast	WLP004 Irish Stout