Saturday 23 July 2022

Let's Brew - 1885 William Younger S 50/-

There’s quite a big jump up to the next beer. A variation on 50/-. Younger loved having subversions of beers, with a prefix or a suffix added.

What does the S stand for? Scotch, possibly. Which could account for the low level of hopping. Because that is much lower than in straight 50/-. Not quite 4 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt compared to 6 lbs.

It definitely looks like this was an exclusively bottled beer. Every last drop was packaged into hogsheads. A sure sign that it was destined for bottling.

Three types of base malt made up the grist: Smyrna, Scots and French. That’s where the barley was grown, all of it would have been malted in the UK.

Here’s the really odd bit: there’s just a single type of hops. Kent from the 1884 crop. Most of Younger’s beers contained at least three, if not more, types of hops. Note that this was one of their few beers which wasn’t dry hopped. 

1885 William Younger S 50/-
pale malt 9.75 lb 100.00%
Fuggles 90 min 0.50 oz
Fuggles 30 min 0.50 oz
OG 1042
FG 1018
ABV 3.18
Apparent attenuation 57.14%
IBU 12
SRM 4
Mash at 157º F
Sparge at 163º F
Boil time 90 minutes
pitching temp 61º F
Yeast WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

3 comments:

Rob Sterowski said...

S for Single hop :)

Anonymous said...

As someone unfamiliar with beer storage, what made hogshead sized barrels the choice for bottlers?

Christoph Riedel said...

The low attenuation of this beer reminded me of the fact that the 'Real Scotland Ale Yeast' from Gozdawa is said to come 'from the region of Alloa'.
https://www.gozdawa.biz/de_DE/p/Gozdawa-Bierhefe-Real-Scotland-Ale-Yeast-11-10g-RSAY11/281

This yeast stops around 5.5% ABV, hence low attenuation beers can be achieved. It does not fit all of the William Younger recipes you posted, but might be worth a mention.