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21-12-2012, 08:05
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This exciting series is now drawing to its close. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have made it possible: me and, er, me.

But don't despair. I've overcome my natural lethargy and started going through some of the other Scottish brewing records that litter my virtual space at home. I've already finished Robert Younger and I've made a start on Drybrough. I've been putting the latter off for a while. For no other reason than pure laziness. And the fact that some are a bit confusing. I've started on the easy ones.


http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QPbm0B13xzs/UNBzdFf0hnI/AAAAAAAANoU/JITlu17-Xz4/s320/Thomas_Usher_King_Size_Export.jpg (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QPbm0B13xzs/UNBzdFf0hnI/AAAAAAAANoU/JITlu17-Xz4/s1600/Thomas_Usher_King_Size_Export.jpg)
I'm pleased to see that our friend Amber Ale is still around. It looks to me as if it were a version of PA 70/-. Just with less caramel colouring. I really don't understand this. I'd have expected Amber Ale to be darker than Pale Ale. And definitely darker than IPA. But I'm wrong. This is the second one with a very low colour number attached.

I was about to say that I'd run out of stuff to say about their Pale Ales. Then I noticed the attenuation. That's gone up a bit. The average for the Pale Ales from the 1940's was just under 70%. Here it's 72%. Though perhaps this sample is too small for a meaningful comparison.

It certainly looks as if Usher was brewing three Pale Ales at 1032, 1038 and 1042. Which would fit nicely with them being a 60/-, 70/- and 80/-. The one that looks like 80/- is even called Export. The two from 1955 and 1959 that look like 60/- are pretty dark for Pale Ales. Even strong ones are usually under 30.

A Strong Ale closes up the table again. One of a pretty decent strength for the 1950's. I'd have been drinking pints of that rather than some watery Pale Ale. But I am a pisshead.

No Stouts this time around. I'm sure Usher still produced one. I've seen a label for Sweet Stout from the 1960's. Maybe they made it the way Robert Younger made theirs. A very interesting method. Which we'll we be getting to soon.





Thomas Usher's beers in the 1950's and 1960's


Year
Beer
Style
package
FG
OG
colour
ABV
App. Atten-uation


1961
Amber Ale
Amber Ale
bottled
1011.2
1037.8
16
3.32
70.37%


1959
India Pale Ale
IPA
bottled
1008.4
1032.3
18
2.99
73.99%


1955
Green Cap Pale Ale
Pale Ale
bottled
1007
1032
21
3.24
78.13%


1950
PA 70/-
Pale Ale
bottled
1011
1039.5

3.69
72.15%


1955
Pale Ale
Pale Ale
bottled
1008.8
1030.8
33
2.85
71.43%


1959
Pale Ale
Pale Ale
bottled
1010.5
1030.5
32
2.50
65.57%


1961
Red Star Export
Pale Ale
bottled
1011.2
1042
20
3.85
73.33%


1953
Strong Ale
Strong Ale
bottled
1020.1
1068.5
5 + 40
6.29
70.66%


Sources:


Thomas Usher Gravity Book document TU/6/11 held at the Scottish Brewing Archive


Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002




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