William Younger being weird again

I've spent the last couple of days extracted information from a set of photos I took ages ago, but hadn't really looked at.

I've accumulated so many photos of brewing records that I mostly only process them when I need them for a book project. I've gone through every single one for WW I and WW II. And most post-WW II ones as well. Because those were the periods I've been writing about in the last couple of years.

I'd not got around to William Younger's 1888 brewing book, despite having written a whole book on Scottish beer. The reason I hadn't bothered was that I'd already done a brewing book from just a few years before, 1885. Others appeared more useful.

Why have I finally become arsed? Because I'm throwing together Strong Ale recipes for a new edition of my book "Strong!". Not wanting to repeat Younger's recipes that were in "Scootland! vol. 2", the simplest way was to use records that I knew I'd never used before.

I'm glad that I could be bothered. Since I found some more weirdness.

William Younger was an odd brewery. They had an immense range of beers, many very similar to each other. For example, in addition to the numbered Strong Ales, they also had a set of strong Shilling Ales.

In the brewing book I've found 29 different beers. Which is way more than most breweries produced. It's not even the full set. As it only includes a couple of Pale Ales and they had far more than that. But that's because the brewing book is from the Abbey Brewery. Their other plant, the Holyrood Brewery, was where most of the Pale Ales were brewed.

William Younger beers in 1888
Beer	Style	OG
1	Strong Ale	1105.0
2	Strong Ale	1091.0
3	Strong Ale	1081.0
100/-	Ale	1080.0
120/-	Ale	1090.0
140/-	Ale	1106.0
160/-	Ale	1118.0
3 Sp	Strong Ale	1081.0
3 Stg	Strong Ale	1101.0
3 Wk	Strong Ale	1061.0
50/-	Ale	1038.0
60/-	Ale	1053.0
80/-	Ale	1068.0
DBS	Stout	1076.0
H 60/-	Ale	1047.0
P	Pale Ale	1051.0
S Ext	Pale Ale	1071.0
S1	Stout	1078.0
S1 Sp	Stout	1076.0
S2	Stout	1068.0
S3	Stout	1055.0
Special S1 Hong Kong	Stout	1077.0
T	Table Beer	1032.0
T	Table Beer	1034.0
X	Mild	1063.0
XP	Pale Ale	1057.0
XPS	Pale Ale	1057.0
XX	Mild	1061.0
XXX	Mild	1071.0
Source:
William Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/2/34.

What's the weirdness, then? I hear you ask. With No. 3. They brewed a standard a strong and a weak version. The strong one being just about as strong as No. 1. So why not just brew No.1? I really can't see the point. As for the weaker one, why not simply call it No. 4? A beer which they had brewed at one point.

William Younger numbered Strong Ales in 1888
Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	dry hops (oz / barrel)
1	1106.0	1038.0	9.00	64.15%	22.73	11.73	14.08
3 Strong	1101.0	1033.0	9.00	67.33%	12.80	6.30	19.78
2	1091.0	1035.0	7.41	61.54%	9.4	4.17	10.00
3 Sp	1081.0	1022.0	7.81	72.84%	12.43	4.59	0.00
3	1080.0	1030.0	6.61	62.50%	10.50	3.91	9.38
3 Weak	1061.0	1018.0	5.69	70.49%	8.17	2.11	0.00
Source:
William Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/2/34.