Wednesday 23 May 2018

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1958 William Younger XXX

Continuing my Watery Mild Month, here's an example from Scotland. AAt under 3% ABV, it definitely passes the watery test.

What’s the difference between XXX and XXPQ? Not very much, despite one being a Mild and the other a Bitter. William Younger were always a funny bunch.

The OG, FG and hopping rate of the two beers are identical. The only difference is the lack of candy sugar and a little more flaked maize in XXX. The only really big difference between the two beers isn’t visible in the brewing records: the colour. I know from Whitbread Gravity book analyses that the colour of XXX was around 19 SRM. Presumably this was achieved by the addition of caramel at racking time.

William Younger is unusual for a Scottish brewery in making a Mild at all. Most had dropped Mild before WW II. With coloured up 60/- Pale Ale operating as a substitute. I assume the reason Younger still brewed one was that they had quite a large amount of trade in England, where Mild was still king in the 1950’s.


1958 William Younger XXX
pale malt 2.00 lb 40.00%
flaked maize 2.25 lb 45.00%
cane sugar 0.75 lb 15.00%
Fuggles 90 mins 0.50 oz
Fuggles 60 mins 0.25 oz
Goldings 30 mins 0.25 oz
Goldings dry hops 0.125 oz
OG 1033
FG 1012
ABV 2.78
Apparent attenuation 63.64%
IBU 15
SRM 3
Mash at 149º F
Sparge at 160º F
Boil time 90 minutes
pitching temp 63.5º F
Yeast WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

3 comments:

James D said...

Wow, 60% adjunct. Ron, do you know of any beers with less barley than this one? I ask only out of morbid curiosity.

kaiserhog said...

I had Mild from a can, it was from Cain's in Liverpool. Maybe not a fair representation of the style but it was definitely watery. Tasted like a watered down Porter.

Lee said...

That looks bloody horrid! 60% non-malt ingredients. That looks to be the sort of watery mild to give watery milds a bad name!