Sunday 2 December 2012

William Murray's beers in the 1920's

It's funny, fun, fun time. As I tell my kids when I'm about to make them do something really boring. Yes, I'm back on the tables. Even better, a table of Scottish beers.

My gob was well and truly smacked when I noticed just how many analyses I had of William Murray beers. So many, that I'll have to spread them over multiple posts. I'm not sure why I have quite so many. They weren't the largest of Scottish breweries. Or of Edinburgh brewers. But therein probably lies the key. They were located in Edinburgh and so feature heavily in the William Younger and Thomas Usher Gravity Books.

I'm coming to the conclusion that in the 1920's and 1930's Scottish brewers had moved almost totally away from Mild to Pale Ale. Like Irish brewing, Scottish brewing was out of phase with England in terms of styles. But, while Ireland was 50 years or so behind, Scotland was 30 or 40 ahead. It's a phenomenon that was repeated with Lager. Maybe we should keep our eyes on Scotland to get a preview of the next dominant style.

The gravities are typically Scottish, with most of the Pale Ales in the 1035º to 1040º band. Then with a couple of really strong ones of 1055º plus. The middle ground of the 1040º's, where most English Pale Ales hung around shuffling the change in their pockets, is unoccupied. Most of them look like post-WW II ordinary Bitters.

It wouldn't surprise me, having seen Maclay's brewing records, if that solitary Mild was just a coloured-up Pale Ale. It looks very similar to the 4d Pale Ale.

Once again we can observe the use of Heavy as a synonym for "Strong", rather than as a designator of a specific style. I know I've said it lots of times before. But I'm going to keep repeating it until it sinks in. While I'm about different uses of terms some morons think are etched in stone as specific styles, note also the use of 90/- for a moderate-strength bottled Pale Ale.

I'm disappointed that there's no Milk Stout in this set. It was one of Murray's specialities. Instead there's a sweetish-looking Oatmeal Stout. Even that has a decent attenuation of 64%. that's something else worth mentioning: the relatively high degree of attenuation of Murray's beers. Most are over 70% and some over 80%.

I'll leave you with the table itself.


William Murray beers in the 1920's
Year Beer Style Price size package FG OG colour ABV App. Atten-uation Flavour
1923 Mild Mild pint draught 1006 1037 4.03 83.78%
1922 PA Pale Ale pint draught 1005 1037 4.17 86.49%
1923 Carbonated Beer Pale Ale 4d half pint bottled 1011.8 1035.2 27 3.03 66.48%
1924 Pale Ale Pale Ale 4d half pint bottled 1011.1 1036.3 25 3.26 69.42%
1924 Pale Ale Pale Ale pint draught 1037.2
1924 Strong PA Pale Ale pint bottled 1013 1057 5.73 77.19%
1925 Strong Pale Ale Pale Ale pint bottled 1015 1059.5 25 5.79 74.79%
1925 Pale Ale Pale Ale 4d half pint bottled 1010.5 1039.5 25 3.76 73.42%
1925 Strong PA Pale Ale pint bottled 1014 1060 5.99 76.67%
1925 Strong PA Pale Ale 6d half pint bottled 1015 1060 5.86 75.00%
1926 Pale Ale Pale Ale 4d half pint bottled 1010 1035 30 3.24 71.43%
1926 Pale Ale Pale Ale 4d half pint bottled 1008 1034 20 3.37 76.47%
1926 PA Pale Ale pint bottled 1010 1035 20 3.24 71.43%
1927 Pale Ale Pale Ale pint bottled 1007 1039 4.16 82.05%
1927 Pale Ale Pale Ale 4d half pint bottled 1012 1035 25 2.97 65.71%
1928 Pale Ale Pale Ale 4d half pint bottled 1009 1035 25 3.37 74.29%
1929 Pale Ale Pale Ale pint bottled 1009 1038.5 3.83 76.62%
1929 90/- Pale Ale pint bottled 1007.25 1040 4.26 81.88%
1929 4d Pale Ale (carbonated) Pale Ale 4d half pint bottled 1011 1035.5 3.17 69.01% Mawkish
1929 4d Pale Ale (carbonated) Pale Ale pint bottled 1011 1037 3.37 70.27% Fair but thin. Not sweet.
1929 Export Strong Pale Ale (carbonated) Pale Ale pint bottled 1013.5 1056 5.53 75.89%
1929 Pale Ale Pale Ale 4d half pint bottled 1008 1035.5 30
1929 Oatmeal Stout Stout pint bottled 1016 1044 3.62 63.64%
1924 Strong Ale Strong Ale pint 1011.5 1060.3 25 6.37 80.93%
1925 Heavy Ale Strong Ale 6d half pint bottled 1015 1079 8.40 81.01%
1928 Strong Ale Strong Ale pint bottled 1027 1085 80 7.55 68.24%
1929 Export Strong Ale (carbonated) Strong Ale pint bottled 1013 1057 5.73 77.19% Sweet & highly hopped.
1929 Heavy Ale (carbonated) Strong Ale pint bottled 1030 1087 7.40 65.52% Pleasant. Very sweet.
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001
Thomas Usher Gravity Book document TU/6/11 held at the Scottish Brewing Archive
Younger, Wm. & Co Gravity Book document WY/6/1/1/19 held at the Scottish Brewing Archive

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