Holyrood Brewery beers before WW II

William Younger’s second brewery, Holyrood, was built in the 1860s.  Intended to be a Pale Ale brewery, it was fitted with union sets.  

On the eve of WW II, Holyrood was, indeed, almost exclusively churning out Pale Ales of various descriptions. The only exception being an occasional batch of No. 3.

Only three Pale Ales were produced at both breweries: XP Btlg, XXP Btlg and XXPS. LAE, XXPS Btlg and Pale XXPS were exclusive to the Abbey Brewery. While P, P Btlg, Pale 3 (IPA Pale), XP and XXP only emanated from Holyrood. Simple, isn’t it?

Once again, the OGs fit quite well into the 4d, 5d, 6d, 7d and 8d per pint gravity bands. Ext – which I assume stands for “Export – was about as strong as UK Pale Ales got in the 1930s. At least ones intended for domestic consumption.

Don’t be fooled by the apparently poor degree of attenuation. That’s a cleansing gravity rather than a real FG or even a racking gravity. I know from analyses of beers as sold that the rate of attenuation was really higher.
At under 5lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt, the hopping rate is feeble. In London Pale Ales were hopped at a rate 7.25 - 10 lbs per quarter by Whitbread  and 7.5 lbs by Barclay Perkins.

Dry hopping is on the low side, too, just 2-3 ozs per barrel. In 1939, Barclay Perkins Pale Ales received 3-6 ozs.

There weren’t a lot of ingredients involved. Every beer had pretty much the same grist: 64% pale malt, 36% grits. And they all contained exactly the same types of hops. It’s ludicrously simple.

William Younger Holyrood Beers in 1938
Date	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	dry hops (oz / barrel)
17th Oct	P	1033.5	1011	2.98	67.16%	3.00	0.38	1.93
5th Jul	XP	1037	1012	3.31	67.57%	3.00	0.42	2.14
19th Oct	XP Btlg	1037	1012	3.31	67.57%	4.81	0.67	1.99
20th Oct	P Btlg	1042	1010	4.23	76.19%	4.83	0.75	1.98
18th Oct	XXP	1043	1013	3.97	69.77%	3.18	0.52	1.99
20th Oct	XXP Btlg	1043	1011	4.23	74.42%	4.83	0.77	2.03
17th Oct	XXPS	1048	1015	4.37	68.75%	3.29	0.69	2.31
5th Jul	Pale 3 (IPA Pale)	1055	1017	5.03	69.09%	4.25	0.89	3.03
6th Jul	Ext	1055	1017	5.03	69.09%	4.84	1.00	2.55
8th Jul	3	1055	1018	4.89	67.27%	3.25	0.69	2.05
Source:
William Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/3/77.

William Younger Holyrood ingredients in 1938
Date	Beer	OG	pale malt	grits	hops
17th Oct	P	1033.5	64.00%	36.00%	Kent (1936), Oregon (1937)
5th Jul	XP	1037	64.00%	36.00%	Kent (1936), Oregon (1937)
19th Oct	XP Btlg	1037	62.96%	37.04%	Kent (1936), Oregon (1937)
20th Oct	P Btlg	1042	63.33%	36.67%	Kent (1936), Oregon (1937)
18th Oct	XXP	1043	63.24%	36.76%	Kent (1936), Oregon (1937)
20th Oct	XXP Btlg	1043	63.33%	36.67%	Kent (1936), Oregon (1937)
17th Oct	XXPS	1048	63.64%	36.36%	Kent (1936), Oregon (1937)
5th Jul	Pale 3 (IPA Pale)	1055	65.00%	35.00%	Kent (1936), Oregon (1937)
6th Jul	Ext	1055	61.29%	38.71%	Kent (1936), Oregon (1937)
8th Jul	3	1055	65.00%	35.00%	Kent (1936), Oregon (1937)
Source:
William Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/3/77.