This was part of big parti-gyle of Shilling Ales, consisting of 100/-, 54/- M, 80/-, 60/- B and 40/- B. Though for this beer I’ve used a different brew from the preceding Shilling Ales. Just to demonstrate variations in the basic recipe.
This time, instead of a large quantity of high-dried malt providing the colour, it’s a small amount of black malt. Which makes the colour rather darker. And must have resulted in a rather different flavour, with some background roastiness.
The hops were Californian from the 1883 harvest and Alsace from 1884. A low hopping rate leaves the beer with a fairly modest bitterness level of under 30 IBU (calculated).
| 1885 Thomas Usher 80/- | ||
| pale malt | 11.25 lb | 89.11% |
| black malt | 0.25 lb | 1.98% |
| No. 2 invert sugar | 1.125 lb | 8.91% |
| Cluster 120 min | 1.00 oz | |
| Strisselspalt 30 min | 1.00 oz | |
| Goldings dry hops | 0.25 oz | |
| OG | 1058 | |
| FG | 1025 | |
| ABV | 4.37 | |
| Apparent attenuation | 56.90% | |
| IBU | 28 | |
| SRM | 15 | |
| Mash at | 151º F | |
| Sparge at | 175º F | |
| Boil time | 120 minutes | |
| pitching temp | 60º F | |
| Yeast | WLP028 Edinburgh Ale | |
I've always been under the impression that the shilling system was based on the duty placed in shillings on a barrel and therefore dependent on the strength of the beer.
ReplyDeleteSo in this case what was the reason for the shilling labels to be all over the place?
It wasn’t the duty, it was the price of a barrel. That is clear from the records. We know the rates of duty during the 19th century and it wasn't anything like 80s a barrel (more like 6s). And although there might seem to be a big gap between 80/- and 54/-, when you do the sums (12d in a shilling and 288 pints in a barrel) it’s only about a penny a pint difference.
DeleteIf I were to homebrew this recipe, what is the trick to acheiving 57% attenuation? Cold crashing before fermentation is complete? Thanks.
ReplyDeleteYes. I think that's what Usher did.
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