Let's Brew Wednesday -'1885 Thomas Usher X

Usually, when you see a beer called X, you can be pretty sure that it’s a Mild Ale. But that’s not the case here. For a variety of reasons. The main one being that it was parti-gyled with a Pale Ale.

True, in terms of gravity, it is very similar to a provincial English X Ale of the time. But the bitterness level is much higher. So I’m really unsure as to what this beer was sold as. Especially as their Shillings Ales seem to be filling the Mild Ale slots. Though Mild Ales never seems to have had the same foothold in Scotland as it did in England. And would pretty much disappear after WW I.

My conclusion is that X was a Pale Ale, slotting into the range between IPA and PA.

There’s not a great deal to the recipe. Just a single type of Scottish pale malt. The hops are a guess, based on what was used in other brews on the same page. Which were equal amounts of Californian and Alsace hops. 

1885 Thomas Usher X
pale malt	11.50 lb	100.00%
Cluster 90 min	2.00 oz
Strisselspalt 30 min	2.00 oz
Goldings dry hops	1.00 oz
OG	1050
FG	1017
ABV	4.37
Apparent attenuation	66.00%
IBU	58
SRM	4.5
Mash at	151º F
Sparge at	175º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	59º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale