Edinburgh United Breweries' beers 1926 - 1934

All those court cases and dodgy prospectuses are giving me a thirst. Time to take a look and the products of Edinburgh United Breweries.

I just noticed something weird about these beers. They were all brewed in the period when Edinburgh United Breweries were defrauding the revenue by brewing in secret. Were any of these beers, I wonder, brewed that way? It's a definite possibility.

Let's start with the Brown Ale. With a gravity of the mid 1050's, it's definitely not a Southern Brown Ale. Looks more like a Double Brown to me. I'd love to know what the beer was like. Were Scottish Brown Ales like English ones? Given the business they did in the Northeast of England, it's tempting to think that they must have been similar to Newcastle Brown or Vaux Double Maxim

I've got an analysis of Newcastle Brown from 1931: OG 1056, FG 1014, colour 62. It looks pretty similar to the EUB beer, except for the colour, which was paler. And an analysis of Vaux Double Maxim tells me that had an OG of 1053.2 and an FG of 1009.3. On the face of it, all three look quite similar.

Now for the Pale Ales. I'm still trying to get my head around the naming conventions in Scotland between the wars. Most of the 90/- Pale Ales I've seen were weaker than this one. Usually in the low to mid 1030's. And Export usually was used for something stronger than 1040º. I'm all confused.

Finally we've Disher's Ten Guinea Ale. A real beast of a beer. Amazing that they sold the stuff on draught. I assume that they didn't sell it in pints. Even I would struggle to get down more than one. It's quite well attenuated for a beer with an OG north of 1100º.

Edinburgh United Breweries beers 1926 - 1934
Year	Brewer	Beer	Style	Price	size	package	FG	OG	colour	ABV	App. Atten-uation
1929	EUB	Export	Pale Ale		pint	bottled	1008	1040	40	4.16	80.00%
1931	EUB	Brown Ale	Brown Ale		pint	bottled	1015	1055	92	5.20	72.73%
1931	EUB	Brown Ale	Brown Ale	3.5d	nip	bottled	1014	1056	65	5.46	75.00%
1931	EUB	Brown Ale	Brown Ale	6d	half	bottled	1015	1055	75	5.20	72.73%
1933	EUB	90/- Pale Ale	Pale Ale		pint	bottled	1007	1040		4.29	82.50%
1934	EUB	Pale Ale	Pale Ale		pint	draught	1013	1037		3.17	66.22%
1926	Disher	Ten Guinea Draught Ale	Strong Ale	20d	pint	draught	1035	1115.4		10.61	70.10%
1927	Disher	£10.10/- (10 guinea)	Strong Ale		pint	bottled	1029	1114	130	11.20	74.56%
1928	Disher	Strong Ale	Strong Ale		pint	bottled	1027	1104	120	10.11	74.04%
1931	Disher	Strong Ale	Strong Ale		pint	bottled	1033	1091		7.53	63.74%
Sources:
Thomas Usher Gravity Book document TU/6/11 held at the Scottish Brewing Archive
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001
Younger, Wm. & Co Gravity Book document WY/6/1/1/19 held at the Scottish Brewing Archive