Thursday 22 December 2011

James Aitken beers 1906 - 1964

All this talk about Aitken is giving me a thirst. How about taking a look at some of their beers?

As with other brewers, the vast majority of their beers for which I have details are Pale Ales. Let's start with those from between the wars. Almost all are in the 1034º to 1040º range, which was typical for 60/- and 70/- Pale Ales of the time. Most 70/- PA's were around the top end of that and 60/- PA's around the bottom end. The two outliers are the Heavy Export from 1934, which is a very respectable 1055º. That's about the same as a top-end London Pale Ale. Was it really a export beer? Hard to say. The word Export seems have been used in many ways in Scotland, only sometimes meaning beer that was really shipped abroad.

You'll note some inconsistencies in the names. 90/-, for example. Logic would dictate that it would be a good bit stronger than 60/- or 70/- PA. But it isn't. At 1038.8º, it has the gravity of a 70/- PA. Though this example of 90/- is relatively strong. I've seen plenty that were closer to 1030º. I need hardly say that this should not be confused with modern beers called 90/-, which are Strong Ales. Ah, those pesky Scots with their confusing names.

Then there's "Heavy" and "Export". Today they're used to denote specific strengths of Scottish Pale Ale, being equivalent to Bitter and Best Bitter respectively. There's no such clarity in the pre-war naming. One beer even combining the two. You're probably bored of hearing me say this, but "Heavy" was used to mean just "Strong" until quite recently. Its specific meaning seems of recent origin.

The post-war Pale Ales like quite similar, just with a few gravity points shaved off. 60/- PA is down to just over 1030º and Heavy or 70/- PA to 1035º. I'm sort of assuming that Heavy by this time was synonymous with 70/-. Export, at 1043º, certainly looks like what we all know and love as Export or 80/-. And then there's than pesky 90/-. With a gravity slightly lower than 60/-. Where's the logic in that?

Let's move on to the Stouts. They look like typical Scottish Sweet Stouts: low attenuation, low ABV. How did they get such low attenuation without the use of lactose? It's a mystery to me.

I've not much to say about the Strong Ales. Except that they look very much like I would expect. Dark brown in colour and around 6% ABV. It's interesting that pretty much every Scottish brewery I've looked at continued to brew beers of this type after WW II. There were many English brewers with no product than 4.5% ABV. This is also the type of Scottish beer which was best known outside Scotland. And the basis for the beers described as Scotch Ale in Belgium.

Finally there's that lonely Brown Ale. It looks like a classic Double Brown to me. A reasonably well attenuated beer of over 1050º. Rather like Whitbread's Double Brown. I'd love to see the recipe. Whitbread's Double Brown was quite heavily hopped - more so than any of their Pale Ales. Was this similar?

Here's the table for you to peruse at your leisure:


James Aitken beers 1906 - 1964
Year Beer Style Price size package Acidity FG OG colour ABV App. Attenuation
1934 Falkirk Brown Ale Brown Ale pint bottled 1011 1053 5.47 79.25%
1906 54/- PA Pale Ale pint draught 1048.1 8
1922 PA Pale Ale pint draught 1009.2 1036.2 3.50 74.59%
1925 ?? Pale Ale pint bottled 1010 1039 3.76 74.36%
1926 Sparkling Ale Pale Ale pint bottled 1005 1034 40 3.77 85.29%
1926 PA Pale Ale pint bottled 1007 1034 40 3.51 79.41%
1934 Heavy Export Pale Ale pint bottled 1010 1055 5.87 81.82%
1937 60/- Pale Ale Pale Ale pint bottled 1006.5 1038.5 13 – 14 4.16 83.12%
1938 Falkirk Ale Pale Ale pint bottled 1004 1040.5 4.77 90.12%
1938 Pale Ale Pale Ale pint draught 1006.8 1039.8 11 4.30 83.02%
1938 Pale Ale Pale Ale pint draught 1006.8 1039.8 11 4.30 83.02%
1938 90/- Ale Pale Ale 6d pint bottled 1007.3 1038.8 13 4.10 81.29%
1938 Heavy Ale Pale Ale 7d pint draught 1007 1045 13 – 14 4.95 84.44%
1939 60/- Ale Pale Ale pint bottled 1008.3 1036.8 3.70 77.55%
1940 Pale Ale Pale Ale pint bottled 1004.5 1038 4.37 88.16%
1941 Pale Ale Pale Ale pint bottled 1006.5 1037 3.97 82.43%
1948 Heavy Ale Pale Ale pint bottled 1006.5 1040.5 4.43 83.95%
1949 60/- Pale Ale 15d pint draught 1007 1030.5 3.05 77.05%
1949 Heavy Beer Pale Ale 20d pint bottled 1011.5 1034.5 2.97 66.67%
1949 90/- Ale Pale Ale pint bottled 1006.5 1030 3.05 78.33%
1954 Export Ale Pale Ale bottled 0.05 1011.6 1043.2 27 4.10 73.15%
1955 Export Ale Pale Ale 1/3d half pint bottled 0.04 1009.3 1043.7 27 4.47 78.72%
1959 Sparkling Ale Pale Ale 10d half pint bottled 0.04 1006.4 1031.1 45 3.09 79.42%
1961 Export Ale Pale Ale 15d half pint bottled 0.04 1011 1043 21 4.00 74.42%
1964 Sparkling Ale Pale Ale 12d half pint bottled 0.05 1007.8 1032.6 40 3.10 76.07%
1949 Stout Stout pint bottled 1020 1038.5 2.38 48.05%
1954 A Stout Stout 1/2d half pint bottled 0.04 1021.2 1041.4 1 + 20 2.59 48.79%
1959 Stout Stout 14d halfpint bottled 1022.3 1039.4 250 2.19 43.40%
1961 Stout (no lactose) Stout 15d half pint bottled 0.04 1022 1038.9 275 2.11 43.44%
1948 Strong Ale Strong Ale 18d half pint bottled 1021 1067.5 6.04 68.89%
1953 Strong Ale Strong Ale 1/2.5d nip bottled 0.06 1018.3 1065.6 15 + 40 6.15 72.10%
1955 Strong Ale Strong Ale 1/3d nip bottled 0.05 1020.3 1067 105 6.06 69.70%
Sources:
Thomas Usher Gravity Book document TU/6/11
Document WY/6/1/1/14 of the William Younger archive held at the Scottish Brewing Archive.
Younger, Wm. & Co Gravity Book document WY/6/1/1/19 held at the Scottish Brewing Archive
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002

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