England vs Scotland, part 3a: early 1850's standard Mild Ale

Taking an idea, running with it, dropping it, picking it up again, tripping over, standing back up, bumping into someone and dropping it, picking it up once again and doing some more running. That's what I do. Start with a simple enough idea, but pursue it way beyond logic or reason.

So it is with my comparison of William Younger's beers with those brewed in London. It took me multiple posts to cover the first two decades, the 1930's and 1840's. There won't be as many for the 1850's. Oh no. There will be twice as many. Why? The Crimean War. As usual, an increase in the tax on beer (indirectly through the tax on malt) quickly followed the declaration of war. Just as ineluctably, a gravity drop followed the tax increase. Comparing a beer from 1857 with one from 1850 just isn't fair.

Once again, I've a whole bunch of Younger beers I can't do anything with. Because there are no London beers of  similar gravity. Most are 42/- with a gravity in the 1040º's. Maybe I should have included them in this table. They'd have raised the average hopping rate per barrel. One had a whopping 3 pounds per barrel, despite having a gravity of just 1047º.

But I didn't, so the first table is Mild Ales in the range 1060º to 1069º. Here are the numbers in neat rows:

England vs Scotland early 1850's Mild 1060º - 1069º
Date	Year	Brewer	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Attenuation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)	Pitch temp	max. fermentation temp	length of fermentation (days)
30th Sep	1850	Whitbread	X	1067.3	1024.9	5.61	62.96%	7.85	2.36	1.5	2		64	74	6
15th Feb	1851	Whitbread	X	1067.6	1024.9	5.64	63.11%	12.50	3.91	1.5	2	2	64	74	7
12th Oct	1852	Reid	X	1069.3	1024.9	5.86	64.00%	12.26	3.63	1.5	3		57	72.5	5
1st Nov	1852	Reid	X	1069.3	1024.9	5.86	64.00%	11.24	3.32	1.5	3		57	72	5
29th Aug	1853	Reid	X	1069.3	1020.8	6.41	70.00%	12.00	3.60	2	3		56.5	75	7
Average				1068.5	1024.1	5.88	64.82%	11.17	3.36	1.60	2.60	2.00	59.7	73.5	6.0
21st Jun	1854	Younger, Wm.	60/-	1062	1032	3.97	48.39%	4.82	1.31	1.67			58	65	6
24th Jun	1854	Younger, Wm.	60/-	1062				5.34	1.56	1.75			60
11th Nov	1853	Younger, Wm.	X	1062	1027	4.63	56.45%	8.00	2.47	1.08	1.25	1.67	57	67	8
19th Nov	1853	Younger, Wm.	X	1062	1029	4.37	53.23%	7.57	2.26	1.08	1.25	1.5	56	67	7
26th Nov	1853	Younger, Wm.	X	1062	1029	4.37	53.23%	7.48	2.18	1.08	1.33	1.5	56	66	7
2nd Dec	1853	Younger, Wm.	X	1062	1027	4.63	56.45%	8.00	2.96	1.5	1.67		56	66	8
3rd Dec	1853	Younger, Wm.	X	1062	1029	4.37	53.23%	7.52	2.19	1.08	1.33	1.5	57	65	7
3rd May	1853	Younger, Wm.	X	1066	1024	5.56	63.64%	8.00	2.67	1.25			57	69	8
4th Apr	1853	Younger, Wm.	X	1067	1026	5.42	61.19%	7.33	3.67	1.75			58	66	6
17th May	1853	Younger, Wm.	X	1067	1028	5.16	58.21%	9.00	2.91	1.25	1.17		58	68	7
28th Apr	1853	Younger, Wm.	X	1068	1032	4.76	52.94%	8.00	2.97	1.33	1.5		57	68	8
5th May	1853	Younger, Wm.	X	1069	1027	5.56	60.87%	8.64	2.77	1.5	1.5		59	67	7
Average				1064.3	1028.2	4.80	56.17%	7.47	2.49	1.36	1.38	1.54	57.4	66.7	7.2
difference				-4.3	4.1	-1.08	-8.65%	-3.70	-0.87	-0.24	-1.23	-0.46	-2.3	-6.8	1.2
Sources:
William Younger brewing record document number WY/6/1/2/5 held at the Scottish Brewing Archive
Whitbread brewing record document number LMA/4453/D/01/014 held at the London Metropolitan Archives
Reid brewing record document number 789/273 held at the Westminster City Archives

Hopping rates, hopping rates. Confusing devils, they are. On the face of it, William Younger's beer had about 25% fewer hops per barrel. But, if I knock out the 7 beers with a gravity of 1062º, (so only compare the ones with similar gravities to the London beers) that drops to just 10%. Not really any huge difference, especially given the large variation between different individual beers. I'd say: in the early 1850's Younger's standard Mild Ales were on average a little less heavily hopped than equivalent London beers.

Thankfully I've more London boil times in this set. Once again, the pattern isn't hard to spot: Younger's boil times were shorter. Especially of the second wort. I've 100% confidence with this one: in the early 1850's Younger's standard Mild Ales had much shorter boils than equivalent London beers.

We're going to have to watch two things with fermentation temperatures. Not just how those of Younger compared to those of London brewers, but how Younger's changed over time. If you pay careful attention to the numbers you'll notice how nothing remained constant for long. When we've finished the England vs Scotland thing, I'll produce tables to show the changes and Younger. A sort of Younger vs Younger thing. The difference in pitching temperatures here is small. Younger's beers were pitched on average almost 2º F cooler. The maximum fermentation temperature was almost 7º F cooler. It's pretty clear: in the early 1850's Younger's standard Mild Ales were fermented cooler than equivalent London beers, on average around 4 - 5º F.

You don't need me to tell you that Younger's beers took longer to ferment. A day and a bit on average. Despite some being lower gravity that any London beer. Another simple one: in the early 1850's Younger's standard Mild Ales took about a day longer to ferment than equivalent London beers.

We're getting used to seeing lower attenuation at Younger than in London. It's very clear in this table. Despite the average OG of Younger's beers being 4º lower, the FG was 4º higher. Once again, many of Younger's beers have under 60% apparent attenuation. On average Younger's beers are 1% ABV weaker, though remember that some are lower gravity than any London beer. In the early 1850's Younger's standard Mild Ales were less attenuated and lower in alcohol than equivalent London beers.

If you think the differences aren't huge in the sets we've seen so far, wait until we hit the 20th century.