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

A historic 68/- Mild based on an 1885 Ushers of Edinburgh recipe, reconstructed by the Durden Park Beer Circle and adapted for modern homebrewing. This all-grain recipe kit includes WHC Fountainbridge dried yeast, brewed as part of a project exploring historic British fermentation.

A Historic Mild Brewed With Modern Yeast

This recipe kit recreates a 68/- Mild brewed by Ushers of Edinburgh in 1885, based on the historic reconstruction work of the Durden Park Beer Circle.

To make the beer more approachable for modern brewers we’ve slightly adapted the original formulation. The historic recipe sits closer to 1.080 OG, but we’ve reduced this to around 1.062 and adjusted the hopping rate to maintain a balanced BU:GU ratio, producing a rich, drinkable Victorian-style mild that works well on modern homebrew systems.

The project was built around the launch of WHC Fountainbridge dried yeast, which is a historical Scottish Ale Yeast and is included in the kits. The yeast’s fermentation character complements the malt-forward profile typical of historic milds, producing gentle esters and a balanced finish, plus a super speedy fermentation.

Brewed for Our YouTube Channel

We brewed this recipe as part of a project on The Malt Miller YouTube channel.

The beer was brewed at Wheatlow Brewery with brewer and large-scale homebrewer Richard Baggaley, producing a 120L batch on his homebrew system.

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

You don’t need a Burton Union to brew this recipe successfully — but it gave us a chance to explore historic fermentation techniques in practice.

Historic Fermentation Experiments (Optional)

If you enjoy experimenting with traditional brewing techniques you could attempt a Dorp-style fermentation when brewing this recipe.

This historic approach allows yeast and foam to rise but then you drop the beer from the first fermenter into a second one leaving behind the yeast slurry and trub that has settled and also the Krausen, mimicking similar behaviour of Burton Union systems and featured on a recent video on our channel when we brewed another historical beer – Brakspear Bitter

It’s completely optional but can be a fun way to experiment with historic brewing practice.

Optional Dry Hop

The recipe includes an optional dry hop addition.

Historically many beers were dry hopped directly in the cask, where hops were added just before serving to refresh aroma and improve stability during storage and transport.

Including the dry hop allows you to mimic that historic practice, though the beer will still work well without it.

What’s Included

This all-grain recipe kit includes the ingredients required to brew the beer along with:

• WHC Fountainbridge dried yeast
• Full grain bill
• Hops for bittering and optional dry hopping
• Brewing instructions

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Ingredients Included

Simpsons Malt – Amber Malt
Simpsons Malt – Pale Ale Golden Promise
Goldings – T90 Pellets (20 grams)
Goldings – T90 Pellets 100g (2 packs)
WHC Dried Yeast – Fountainbridge – 11g Packet (2 packs)

Promix Kettle Finings and Yeast Nutrient x 1 Packet

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Method

Beer Style (main): British Ales
Beer Style (sub): Scottish-Style Export Ale
Batch Size: 23
Original Gravity: 1.062
Final Gravity: 1.018
ABV %: 5.8
IBU: 72
Mash efficiency: 80

THE MASH
Temperature °C (Step 1): 67
Length (mins) (Step 1): 60
Temperature °C (Step 2): 75
Length (mins) (Step 2): 10

THE BOIL
Boil time (mins): 60

Hop / kettle additions and timing:205g Goldings @ 60min
Promix @ 10mins

Whirlpool / hop stand:None

Yeast: WHC Fountainbridge x 2 11g Packets
Fermentation temperature/steps: 18c Until a stable final gravity has been achieved, which could be as little as 4 days

Secondary additions: Optionally you can add a dry hop after fermentation of 20g of Goldings a few days before you plan to package the beer.