Scottish beers ca 1955

I bet you thought I'd forgotten about Andrew Campbell's "The Book of Beer". Well you'd be right. I had forgotten to finish a series of posts based upon it. Then I remembered again. Hence this post.

Today it's the turn of Scotland. Actually, more like just Edinburgh.

"The visitor to Scotland will need to know that mild and bitter are not locally used terms. Heavy beer is the equivalent to best bitter; there is very little mild sold outside England. Heavy is also IPA, and below this strength are No.3 Scotch Ale, XX and X. No.3 is a sweet, full-flavoured beer, stronger than most English best milds, and is available on draught and in bottle in London and elsewhere in England.

The ale which is in the tradition of the old-time strong Edinburgh ales is the No.1, sold on draught and in bottles. It is a handsome beer, of mellow sweet flavour, of the same strength as Barclay's Winter Brew, and coming into the group of strong ales that retail between three shillings and twopence and three shillings and sixpence a pint. To-day, when bottled, it tends to be rather strongly carbonated.

Double Century, a full, spicy nut brown ale, was bottled first in 1949. For strength it comes rather above the run of national beers but below the strong ales.

Younger's brown ales and sweet stouts are stronger than the run of popular brown ales and stouts in England. They have a popular light pale ale which is called Holyrood Pale Ale in England and Wee Willie in Scotland. There is also Monk Export, fully fermented before bottling, and pasteurized, paler, more bitter, and of a similar strength to No. 3 Scotch Ale.

Of the other Edinburgh breweries' products, few reach Southern England. Wm McEwan's have many tied houses in Newcastle and the North. Robert Younger of St. Anns Brewery, Edinburgh have recently announced that they are bottling for the first time a range of beers that include Export, Strong Ale and Pale Ales; a Heavy Oat Creme Stout, a lighter Sweet Stout, and and Old Edinburgh Ale. Thomas Ushers, not to be confused with the Wiltshire brewery of the same name, bottle a Pale Ale, a Golden Rule Ale, Strong, Pale and Export Ales and a Sweet Stout."
"The Book Of Beer" by Andrew Campbell, 1956, pages 207-208.

Younger's No.3. I can rememebr brewing a clone of that back in the early 1970's. When it wasn't being brewed commercially. (A bit like now.)

Here are details of Yonger's beers of the period:

Wm. Younger beers in the 1950's
Year	Beer	Style	Price	size	package	Acidity	FG	OG	Colour	ABV	attenuation
1950	Brown Ale	Brown Ale	11d	half	bottled	0.05	1011.4	1032.6	40 + 27	2.74	65.03%
1950	Double Century Ale	Strong Ale	1/6d	half	bottled	0.07	1020.1	1058.4	40 + 9	4.96	65.58%
1950	Scotch Ale	Scotch Ale		half	bottled	0.12	1017.5	1087.6	5 + 40	9.21	80.02%
1951	Sweet Stout	Stout	1/2d	half	bottled	0.06	1019.5	1035.7	1 + 10	2.08	45.38%
1951	X	Mild	13d	pint	draught			1029.98	72
1952	"Monk" Export	Pale Ale	1/1d	half	bottled	0.07	1011.6	1046.9	24	4.59	75.27%
1952	X	Mild	14d	pint	draught			1033.48	92
1952	Scotch Ale	Scotch Ale			bottled	0.11	1021.7	1083.5	8 + 40	8.07	74.01%
1953	Century Ale	Strong Ale	1/6d	half	bottled	0.05	1021.4	1056.4	71 B	4.52	62.06%
1953	Monk Export	Pale Ale	1/3d	half	bottled	0.05	1009	1044.9	29 B	4.67	79.96%
1953	Strong Ale	Strong Ale	1/2.5d	nip	bottled	0.05	1024.2	1071.2	9 + 40	6.09	66.01%
1953	X	Mild	14d	pint	draught			1033.31	82
1954	Nourishing Stout	Stout	1/2d	half	bottled	0.05	1021.6	1046.3	1 + 16	3.18	53.35%
1954	Monk Export Ale	Pale Ale			bottled	0.05	1008.9	1046.7	26	4.92	80.94%
1954	Capital Stout (Lactose present)	Stout	1/4d	half	bottled	0.04	1019.7	1046.5	250	3.45	57.63%
1954	Double Century Ale	Brown Ale	18d	half	bottled	0.05	1023.3	1056.6	80	4.29	58.83%
1955	90/- Sparkling Ale	Pale Ale	1/-	half	bottled	0.04	1006.8	1032	32	3.27	78.75%
1955	90/- Holyrood Ale	Pale Ale	1/-	half	bottled	0.04	1006.7	1031.6	35	3.23	78.80%
1955	India Pale Ale	IPA	9.5d	half	bottled	0.04	1006.9	1030.2	22	3.02	77.15%
1955	X	Mild	14d	pint	draught			1030.24	96
1955	Sweet Stout	Stout	15d	half	bottled	0.05	1017.5	1034.9	200	2.24	49.86%
1955	No. 1 Strong Ale	Scotch Ale	15d	nip	bottled	0.04	1024.3	1071.4	80	6.11	65.97%
1955	Monk Export Ale	Pale Ale	15d	half	bottled	0.05	1010.6	1044.8	21	4.44	76.34%
1956	"Wee Willie" Brown Ale	Brown Ale	1/-	half	bottled	0.04	1009.6	1033.5	70	3.10	71.34%
1956	Wee Willie PA	Pale Ale	11d	half	bottled	0.05	1006.4	1031.1	25	3.21	79.42%
1956	Edinburgh Brown Ale	Brown Ale	1/1d	half	bottled	0.06	1013.2	1046.8	75	4.36	71.79%
1957	Double Century Ale	Strong Ale	2/2d	16 oz	bottled	0.06	1018.6	1051.5	80	4.25	63.88%
1957	Monk Export Ale	Pale Ale	2/2d	16 oz	bottled	0.05	1010.3	1045.6	20	4.59	77.41%
1957	Edinburgh Brown Ale	Brown Ale	1/2d	half	bottled	0.05	1013.1	1046.6	55	4.34	71.89%
1959	Capital Stout	Stout	15d	half	bottled		1021.6	1043.7	376	2.84	50.57%
1959	Sweet Stout	Stout	14d	half	bottled		1013.1	1033.3	300	2.61	60.66%
1959	Pale Ale	Pale Ale	12d	half	bottled	0.02	1008	1029.9	24	2.74	73.24%
1959	Holyrood Ale	Pale Ale	10d	half	bottled	0.04	1006.5	1028.7	30	2.78	77.35%
1959	XXP Bitter	Pale Ale	22d	pint	draught	0.04	1005.7	1030.4	21	3.21	81.25%
1959	Keg Bitter	Pale Ale	19d	pint	draught	0.04	1007.8	1043.7	55	4.68	82.15%
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity Book
Truman Gravity Book

Can't see much evidence there of Younger's Sweet Stouts and Brown Ales being stronger than English equivalents. Other than the Edinburgh Brown Ale, which was in the high 1040's. Note the puny gravity of their 90/- Ale. Not quite what some style Nazis would have you believe a 90/- was like.