Thursday 13 December 2018

Scotch Ale during During WW II

Surprisingly, given their high strength, Strong Scotch Ales were brewed throughout the war years, at least at some breweries. Though the quantities produced were pretty small.

Drybrough, for example, which had brewed their Scotch Ale in batches of 60-odd barrels in 1939, had halved the brew length by 1945.  Given the cap placed on the number of standard barrels a brewery could produce, brewing one barrel of Scotch Ale was the equivalent of 2.5 barrels of 60/-.  When beer was in short supply, it must have been hard to justify brewing much

The examples from Drybrough, Maclay and William Younger all look quite similar in character. An OG in the 1080º’s, approximately 7% ABV and hopping at around 5lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt.

All of these beers were dark in colour, despite none containing any dark malts, other than a few pounds of chocolate malt in Drybrough’s version. The colour came almost exclusively from caramel adding at racking time.

Ironically, brewers which had continued to brew this type of beer, such as Drybrough, discontinued it in 1945. The result of even tighter restrictions on brewing in the immediate aftermath of the war.


Strong Scotch Ale during WW II
Date Year Brewer Beer OG FG ABV App. Atten-uation lbs hops/ qtr hops lb/brl
3rd May 1939 Maclay SA 1089 1030 7.81 66.29% 5.00 1.90
29th Aug 1939 Maclay SA 1082 1022 7.94 73.17% 6.00 2.12
14th Nov 1939 Maclay SA 1079 1026 7.01 67.09% 5.00 1.70
12th Jan 1940 Drybrough Burns 1083 1026 7.54 68.67% 5.53 1.91
8th Nov 1940 Drybrough Burns 1083 1028 7.28 66.27% 5.53 1.86
6th Feb 1941 Drybrough Burns 1081 1028 7.01 65.43% 4.35 2.01
9th Oct 1941 Drybrough Burns 1081 1022 7.81 72.84% 4.90 3.08
29th Oct 1942 Drybrough Burns 1076 1029.5 6.15 61.18% 4.74 1.47
5th Feb 1943 Drybrough Burns 1076 1028.5 6.28 62.50% 4.89 1.55
22nd Jul 1943 Drybrough Burns 1076 1027 6.48 64.47% 4.86 1.59
13th Jul 1944 Drybrough Burns 1076 1025 6.75 67.11% 4.43 1.49
12th Oct 1944 Drybrough Burns 1076 1032 5.82 57.89% 4.20 1.37
23rd Feb 1945 Drybrough Burns 1076 1031.5 5.89 58.55% 4.02 1.26
15th Nov 1939 Younger, Wm. 1 1084 1033.5 6.68 60.12% 4.74 1.58
Sources:
Maclay brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document numbers M/6/1/1/3 and M/6/1/1/4.
Drybrough brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number D/6/1/1/4.
William Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/2/76.

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