Brewing an 1885 Ushers of Edinburgh 68/- Mild with WHC Fountainbridge Yeast & Wheatlow Brewery

Historic brewing recipes offer a fascinating window into how beer was made and enjoyed in the past. In this week’s video we brew an 1885 Ushers of Edinburgh 68/- Mild, based on a recipe reconstructed by the Durden Park Beer Circle.

To explore how this Victorian-era beer might behave with modern yeast, we brewed the recipe using the brand new WHC Fountainbridge dried yeast — a Scottish Ale yeast that works particularly well in traditional British styles.

The brew day took place at Wheatlow Brewery with avid large-scale homebrewer Richard Baggaley, producing a 120L batch on his impressive homebrew system.

For a bit of historical fun, the beer was fermented in Richard’s home-built Burton Union set — a traditional 19th century fermentation system where yeast and foam rise into external troughs before returning to the fermenting beer.

You definitely don’t need a Burton Union to brew this beer, but it provided a brilliant opportunity to explore historic brewing techniques and see how they behave with modern ingredients.

What This Video Covers

• The history behind Ushers of Edinburgh and Scottish 68/- mild ales

• Brewing a Victorian-era recipe reconstructed by the Durden Park Beer Circle

• Using the new WHC Fountainbridge dried yeast

• Brewing a 120L batch on a large-scale homebrew system

• Fermenting the beer in a traditional Burton Union setup

• How historic recipes can be adapted for modern homebrewers

Brewing the Recipe at Home

We’ve also turned this recipe into a homebrew recipe kit, adapted slightly from the original historic formulation to make it more approachable for modern brewers.

The original recipe has been adjusted to bring the gravity down to around 1.062, with the hops rebalanced to maintain a sensible BU:GU ratio.

The kit also includes WHC Fountainbridge yeast, the same strain used in this brew.

Brew This Recipe Yourself

You can brew this historic mild at home with our recipe kit:

Ushers 1885 68/- Mild – Historic All-Grain Recipe Kit