Let's Brew - 1885 William Younger DBS Stout

In addition to the weird, sweet Stouts, Younger also had a more normal-looking Stout. DBS, which I
assume stands for Double Brown Stout. One that they had been brewing for longer., since at least 1851.

DBS is the same gravity as S1, but that’s about where the similarity ends. There’s no sugar in DBS and the proportion of black malt is lower. Which leaves the colour a bit paler.

The biggest difference, however, is in the hopping. Which is just 2 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt. Compared to 16 lbs per quarter for DBS. That’s quite a difference. And one which would be pretty obvious to drinkers.

In addition to lots of hops as well as lots of different types of hops. Two types of Kent from the 1884 harvest, American from 1883 and 1884, Californian from 1884 and Spalt from 1884.

This is definitely a beer for ageing. My guess is at least 12 months and possible as much as 24 months. 

1885 William Younger DBS Stout
pale malt	16.00 lb	92.75%
black malt	1.25 lb	7.25%
Cluster 120 min	4.00 oz
Cluster 60 min	2.50 oz
Spalt 60 min	1.50 oz
Fuggles 30 min	4.00 oz
Goldings dry hops	1.50 oz
OG	1073
FG	1025
ABV	6.35
Apparent attenuation	65.75%
IBU	182
SRM	34
Mash at	155º F
Sparge at	163º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	58º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

 

 

William Younger (Abbey) hops in 1885

Time to look at the hops at William Younger's other brewery. How different are they from the ones at Holyrood?

The most obvious is that there are far fewer East Kent hops. Which makes sense as there are far fewer Pale Ales being brewed at the Abbey brewery. On the other hand, there are a lot more Kent hops. I'm sure that these difference are mostly due to the types of beer being brewed. Most of which - for example Shilling Ales and Mild Ales - aren't particularly hop-accented.

There's also another source. In addition to US, German and English hops, there are also a few from Bohemia. Which I assume were Saaz or something similar.

Just shy of half the hops were from the USA. Which isn't unusual for the period. The UK imported massive quantities of American hops. Simply because they were very economical to use, being not only relatively cheap, but also high in alpha acid. Though most brewers weren't very keen on their flavour.

There were almost as many German hops as English hops. In this case, from Württemberg and Spalt. They certainly liked their German hops at Younger. 

Only a couple of types of hops in S1 and S2. Though those aren't totally typical brews, as they used all fresh hops. Most brews contained some, or all, reused hops from other brews. Which meant that they could have large numbers of different types, depending on where the spent hops came from.

William Younger (Abbey) hops in 1885
Beer	Style	hop 1	hop 2	hop 3	hop 3	hop 5	hop 6
T	Table Beer	Kent 1884	Kent 1885	Calif. 1884	Würt. 1884	US 1884	US 1885
50/-	Ale	Kent 1884	Calif.1884	Würt. 1884	Spalt 1884	US 1884
S 50/-	Ale	Kent 1884
B 50/-	Ale	Kent 1884	Spalt 1884	US 1884
H 60/-	Ale	Kent 1884	Calif. 1884	Würt. 1884	Spalt 1884	US 1884
60/-	Ale	Kent 1884	Calif. 1884	Würt. 1884	Spalt 1884	US 1884
80/-	Ale	Kent 1884	Kent 1885	Calif. 1884	Würt. 1884	US 1884	US 1885
100/-	Ale	Kent 1884	Calif. 1884	Würt. 1884	Spalt 1884	US 1884
120/-	Ale	Kent 1884	Calif. 1884	Würt. 1884	Spalt 1884	US 1884
140/-	Ale	Kent 1884	Calif. 1884	Bohemian 1885	US 1885	US 1884
160/-	Ale	Kent 1884	Calif. 1884	Bohemian 1885	US 1885	US 1884
X	Mild	Kent 1884	Calif. 1884	Würt. 1884	Spalt 1884	US 1884
XX	Mild	Kent 1884	Calif. 1884	Würt. 1884	Spalt 1884	US 1884
XXX	Mild	Kent 1884	Calif. 1884	Würt. 1885,	US 1885	US 1884	Kent 1885
XXXX	Stock Ale	Kent 1884	Calif. 1884	Kent 1884	Spalt 1884	US 1884
P	Pale Ale	Kent 1884	Calif. 1884	Würt. 1884	Spalt 1884	US 1884
XP	IPA	Kent 1884	Calif. 1884	Würt. 1884	Spalt 1884	US 1884
XP Scotch	Pale Ale	Kent 1884	Kent 1885	Calif. 1884	Würt. 1884	US 1884	US 1885
DBS	Stout	Kent 1884	Calif. 1884	Kent 1884	Spalt 1884	US 1884	US 1883
S1	Stout	US 1883	EK 1883
S2	Stout	Spalt 1884	US 1883
1	Strong Ale	Kent 1884	Calif. 1884	US 1885	US 1884	Kent 1885
2	Strong Ale	Kent 1884	Würt. 1885	US 1884	US 1885
3	Strong Ale	Kent 1884	Bohemian 1885	US 1885	US 1884
3 pale	Strong Ale	Kent 1884	Kent 1885	Würt. 1884	US 1884
Source:
William Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/2/31.

 

UK Beer exports to South America in 1898

The final post in this series looks at the UK's smallest export market: South America. There's a simple reason it took so little British beer. There was only one part, with a very small population, ruled by the British.

Yet Guyana still manages to be number two in the quantity of UK beer taken. Beaten only by Brazil. It may seem odd that Guyana took so much beer from Scotland. But it makes sense, when you think that it was culturally part of the Caribbean. Where Scottish beer was very popular. As we saw in an earlier post. The rest of South America only imported 251 barrels combined.

The countries on the East Coast of the continent - Chile, Peru and Ecuador - took bugger all UK beer. Not really surprising, given how mush trouble it was to get there by sea. All of them were importing less than the Falkland Islands. Where almost no-one lived.

Only Brazil was a significant market for UK beer. Still not that much, really. But more than a third of the total for the whole continent. At a value of just under 69 shillings a barrel, it can't have been that strong.

I might have expected Argentina to be keener on British beer. But they only bought a little over 1,000 barrels. 

UK Beer exports to South America in 1898
Destination	From England.		From Scotland.		From the U.K.
	Quantity.	Declared Value.	Quantity.	Declared Value.	Quantity.	Declared Value.
	Barrels	£	Barrels	£	Barrels	£
British Guiana	768	3,076	3,045	13,432	3,813	16,598
French Guiana	35	106	-	-	35	106
Dutch Guiana	169	619	-	-	169	619
Republic of Colombia	908	3,092	106	481	1,074	3,573
Venezuela	121	394	38	161	159	555
Ecuador	5	16	5	39	10	55
Peru	295	1,261	3	15	298	1,276
Chili	291	1,118	84	359	375	1,477
Brazil	4,460	15,305	14	118	4,474	15,423
Uruguay	114	407	1	5	115	412
Argentine Republic	1,156	4,719	-	-	1,156	4,719
Paraguay	8	23		-	8	23
Falkland Islands	496	1,679	-	-	496	1,679
Total	8,826	31,815	3,296	14,610	12,182	46,515
Source:
The Brewers' Journal vol. 35 1899, June 15th 1899, page 344.
Note:
Year ending 30th September 1898.

 

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1885 William Younger S1 Stout

Continuing with the Younger's festival, here’s the stronger version of Sweet Stout, S1. Which has a more typical Stout gravity. But is still very sweet.

The degree of attenuation is even worse than for S2, at a good bit below 50%. All those residual sugars, along with the light hopping, must have resulted in a very sweet beer. I assume it must have been sold pretty soon after racking, as with all that sugar it can’t have been very stable.

Which leads onto the question: was this a draught or bottled beer? It was mostly racked into barrels and kilderkins, which implies to me that it was going to be sold on draught. But I could be wrong.

The grist is a bit more complicated than for S2. With a small percentage of glucose. And rather more black malt. Leaving the colour extremely dark.

The hops were the same as in S2: American from the 1884 and 1885 harvests, Kent from 1884 and Bohemian from 1885.

Definitely no ageing for this Stout. 

1885 William Younger S1 Stout
pale malt	14.50 lb	85.29%
black malt	1.75 lb	10.29%
glucose	0.75 lb	4.41%
Cluster 120 min	0.50 oz
Cluster 60 min	0.50 oz
Fuggles 30 min	0.25 oz
Saaz 30 min	0.25 oz
OG	1073
FG	1041
ABV	4.23
Apparent attenuation	43.84%
IBU	22
SRM	42
Mash at	151º F
Sparge at	163º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	57º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

 

 

William Younger (Holyrood) hops in 1884

As promised, a look at William Younger's hops. Which are far more varied than the malts they used.

Everyone knows that hops didn't grow in Scotland. Which is why they hardly used any (joke). No, it's really why they imported them from all over. Just as English breweries had to in the second half of the 19th century when the English hop-growing industry couldn't keep up with brewers' needs.

There were three sources of the hops: USA, Germany and Kent. Of the 53 hops in the table, 21 were from the USA, 17 from Germany and 15 from Kent. So the majority were from outside the UK.

Most of the hops were pretty fresh, coming from either the 1883 or 1884 season. Only a couple were from 1882, and they were the oldest hops. As most of the beers were Pale Ales or Strong Ales, that shouldn't really come as any surprise.

Lots of different hops in most of the beers: between five and seven. The only exception being the Pilsner and XXX. Which have a single type of Württemberg hops. Not so odd in the case of the Pils. But why the XXX? Simple. The two beers were parti-gyled together.

Moving onto the dry hops, I don't have the details for every beer. All of the beers, other than the Pils, were dry hopped. There were three types" American, East Kent and Württemberg. With the last being the most common.

I'm quite surprised that so many were from America. As UK brewers were, to say the least, not keen on the flavour of American hops. Other than a couple from the 1883 harvest, all the hops were from 1884. So pretty fresh.

William Younger (Holyrood) hops in 1884
Beer	Style	hop 1	hop 2	hop 3	hop 3	hop 5	hop 6	hop 7
S XP	IPA	Kent 1884	US 1884	US 1883	Hallertau 1884	Spalt 1883
XP	IPA	Kent 1884	EK 1883	Calif. 1883	US 1884	US 1883	Spalt 1884	Spalt 1883
XXP	IPA	Kent 1884	EK 1883	Calif. 1883	US 1884	US 1883	Spalt 1884	Spalt 1883
XXX	Mild	Würt. 1883
XXXX	Mild	MK 1883	US 1882	Würt. 1883	US 1883	EK 1883
XXXX / 3	Mild	Kent 1884	EK 1883	Calif. 1883	US 1884	US 1883	Spalt 1884	Spalt 1883
Ext	Pale Ale	Kent 1884	EK 1883	US 1884	US 1883	Spalt 1884	Spalt 1883
S Ext	Pale Ale	Calif.  1883	US 1882	Würt. 1883	US 1883	EK 1883
PX	Pils	Würt. 1883
1	Strong Ale	Kent 1884	EK 1883	Calif. 1883	US 1884	Würt. 1883	Spalt 1884
3	Strong Ale	Kent 1883	Calif. 1883	Würt. 1883	US 1883
Source:
William Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/3/11.

 

William Younger (Holyrood) dry hops in 1884
Beer	Style	hop 1	hop 2	hop 3
S XP	IPA	EK 1884	Württemberg 1884	American 1884
XP	IPA	EK 1884	Württemberg 1884	American 1884
XXP	IPA	EK 1884	Württemberg 1884
XXXX / 3	Mild	EK 1884	Württemberg 1884	American 1884
Ext	Pale Ale	EK 1884	Württemberg 1884
S Ext	Pale Ale	American 1883	Württemberg 1883
1	Strong Ale	EK 1884	Württemberg 1884	American 1884
Source:
William Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/3/11.

 

 

 

UK Beer exports to North America in 1898

I'm so glad that I found these numbers. Because it's telling me a lot about UK beer exports. Especially those from Scotland. And it's showing that English and Scottish brewers often had very different export markets.

Remember that, overall, about 25% of UK beer exports came from Scotland. The average for North America was higher, at about 33%. However, the percentage for individual countries varied enormously. For example, very little Scottish beer went to the USA. A mere 1.58%. While to the British West Indies it was 77.58%.

Why such large differences? I suspect it's to do with the type of beers being exported. For example, I know that the beer exported to the West Indies was mostly either Stout or Scotch Ale. No surprise then that A lot of it came from Scotland. But what about the USA? What was being exported there? Was it mostly IPA? I'd love to know. Whatever it was, it was expensive. As the average price was over 95 shillings a barrel. One of the highest for any market.

Talking of the USA, almost half of UK exports to North America went there. Considerably more than to British North America (Canada). And much less than to the West Indies and Bermuda. Why so much going to the islands? Probably because there was no local brewing industry. While in Canada there were plenty of brewers.

I'm surprised that so much beer was going to the Spanish West Indies. Far more than to all the other foreign islands and Central America combined. Which is intriguing.

Just South America to go. 

UK Beer exports to North America in 1898
Destination	From England.		From Scotland.		From the U.K.
	Quantity.	Declared Value.	Quantity.	Declared Value.	Quantity.	Declared Value.
	Barrels	£	Barrels	£	Barrels	£
British North America	3,392	14,760	453	1,300	3,845	16,050
U. States of America	24,902	108,993	452	3,104	28,656	136,397
Bermudas	1,776	5,280	6,631	20,455	8,406	25,735
British W. Ind. Islands	3,411	13,759	11,803	49,183	15,214	62,942
Spanish W. Ind. Islands	1,629	4,931	183	870	1,712	5,801
French W. Ind. Islands	40	199	2	6	42	205
Dutch W. Ind. Islands	74	267	-	-	74	257
Danish W. Ind. Islands	101	396	57	316	158	712
British Honduras	196	732	39	203	235	935
Hayti and S. Domingo	98	396	115	535	213	931
Mexico	267	1,112	-	-	267	1,112
Central America	62	251	4	20	66	271
Total	35,948	151,076	19,739	75,992	58,888	251,348
Source:
The Brewers' Journal vol. 35 1899, June 15th 1899, page 344.
Note:
Year ending 30th September 1898.

 

 

William Younger grists in 1884 and 1885

Want to see what went into those dozens of William Younger beers? Of course you do. As it turns out, not very many different ingredients.

Let's get the ball rolling with the Holyrood brewery. There's not much to the grists. There are only two elements: pale malt and dextro-maltose. And they appear in every beer, other than S XP. Though the percentages do vary a bit, from 7% to over 11%. 

There does seem to be some logic to this, with beers such as No. 1, which were going to be aged longer, receiving the most sugar. The function of the dextro-maltose being to provide food for the Brattanomyces during the long, slow secondary fermentation.

There are a few more ingrdients at the Abbey brewery. Which makes sense as they brewed a broader range of styles. Though more than half of the beers are 100% pale malt.

The three Stouts all contain black malt in addition to the pale malt. But no other coloured malts, such as crystal, amber or brown. Instead, they go for the simplest possible Stout grist. Not even with any sugar.

Here, the role of the dextro-maltose is very clear. It's present only in the numbered Strong Ales and the Shilling Ales. Beers which were going to be aged. With the sogar being there as Brettanomyces food. Though, at the time, they had no idea that it was Brattanomyces they were feeding. Secondary fermentation being something of a mystery.

Hops. You'll be interested in those, won't you? Everyone is into hops nowadays. We'll be looking at those next. 

William Younger (Holyrood) grists in 1884
Beer	Style	pale malt	dextro-maltose
S XP	IPA	100.00%	0.00%
XP	IPA	92.00%	8.00%
XXP	IPA	92.86%	7.14%
XXX	Mild	91.67%	8.33%
XXXX	Mild	91.67%	8.33%
XXXX / 3	Mild	88.57%	11.43%
Ext	Pale Ale	90.00%	10.00%
S Ext	Pale Ale	95.12%	4.88%
PX	Pils	91.67%	8.33%
1	Strong Ale	88.57%	11.43%
3	Strong Ale	92.59%	7.41%
Source:
William Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/3/11.

William Younger (Abbey) grists in 1885
Beer	Style	pale malt	black malt	dextro-maltose	Sacc.
T	Table Beer	100.00%
50/-	Ale	100.00%
S 50/-	Ale	100.00%
B 50/-	Ale	95.12%			4.88%
H 60/-	Ale	100.00%
60/-	Ale	100.00%
80/-	Ale	100.00%
100/-	Ale	100.00%
120/-	Ale	91.89%		8.11%
140/-	Ale	87.40%		12.60%
160/-	Ale	87.40%		12.60%
X	Mild	100.00%
XX	Mild	100.00%
XXX	Mild	100.00%
XXXX	Stock Ale	100.00%
P	Pale Ale	100.00%
XP	IPA	100.00%
XP Scotch	Pale Ale	100.00%
DBS	Stout	93.10%	6.90%
S1	Stout	92.86%	7.14%
S2	Stout	92.00%	8.00%
1	Strong Ale	90.48%		9.52%
2	Strong Ale	90.00%		10.00%
3	Strong Ale	89.69%		10.31%
3 pale	Strong Ale	100.00%
Source:
William Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/2/31.