Tuesday 9 October 2012

Amsdell of Albany beers 1901 – 1904

I could almost call this a technical post, it's so brief. It's to provide the numbers behind Craig's post about Albany Ale.

I'll analyse, compare and contrast in a later post. I can't be arsed to do it now. Just about to eat my tea.


Amsdell of Albany beers 1901 – 1904
Date Year Beer Style OG FG ABV App. Atten-uation lbs hops/ qtr hops lb/brl barrels boil time (hours)
22nd Jan 1901 Polar Ale 1054 1019.2 4.61 64.55% 6.01 1.15 243 1
24th Jan 1901 XX Ale 1052.6 1016.4 4.8 68.93% 6.33 1.8 158 1
20th Mar 1901 Diamond Stock Ale 1081.7 1028 7.11 65.76% 8.08 2.42 190 1
1st Apr 1901 XX Ale 1054.6 1019.6 4.63 64.16% 6.23 1.61 165 1
24th May 1901 Scotch Scotch Ale 1066.6 1023.6 5.7 64.64% 5.55 1.95 185 1.5
27th May 1901 XX Ale 1059.7 1022.4 4.94 62.56% 5.82 1.23 350 1.25
22nd Oct 1901 Pale XX Ale 1054.2 1017.2 4.89 68.33% 5.51 1.02 245 1

1904 Burton Stock Ale 1075.8




76 2
12th Apr 1904 Diamond Stock Ale 1074 1020.8 7.04 71.96% 8.29 2.27 198 1
14th Nov 1904 XX Winter Ale 1058 1019.2 5.13 66.95% 5.75 1.12 358 1
24th Mar 1905 India Pale Ale IPA 1077.6 1029.2 6.4 62.35% 4.85 2.25 200 1
1st May 1905 Scotch Scotch Ale 1062.7 1019.2 5.76 69.46% 5.26 1.15 174 1


2 comments:

Gary Gillman said...

I remember the time when on Alan's blog there was active discussion of Albany ale. I pitched in quite a bit in the comments on that including references to those 1830's testimonies which I also found, trawling through Google Books.

So too had I seen numerous references to Albany ale not long after I started such trawling, but I never felt the beer, apart from an evocative name, was something radically different from English beers of the same ABV. Yes there would be differences in hop taste probably, and probably sweetness depending on brewer, but I doubted then and still do that it was truly a style unto itself the way some of the great English beers were.

Its flavour, reliant on American-grown hops, presumably Cluster or any early form, might even have been regarded as a little outre and its strength its prime virtue. We know that English brewers didn't think much of U.S. hops in relation to the best of their own, a judgement I still think is valid.

Maybe all that sweetness in the Vassar XX, if it was a type of Albany (as seems likely to me) was to cover some of that hop rankness. All the brewers in the 1830's testimonies spoke of making ale in pretty traditional English ways except maybe for their use of salt, but English brewers used salt too in this period.

It's all very valid to look into it though and perhaps more research will uncover true regional tastes long-lost, but I think it was an American derivation of English ale (not pale ale) and therefore started on the strong side and moved up from there, depending on producer and area. I'd think it bore a similar relation to English ale, or ales, as did, say, Ballantine IPA to English IPA. Which meant a close one.

Gary

Craig said...

Someone should try and see if there is a correlation between the mild ales of Vassar and the XX ales of Amsdell...

Oh wait! I may have said too much!