Strong Ale 1971 - 1972

I’ve lumped together Scotch Ale with English Strong Ales because I have so few examples of the two types. They are generally similar and, in Scotland, Scotch Ales were usually simply called Strong Ale.

The commonest type of Scotch Ale was a dark beer of 7% to 8% ABV. These were usually parti-gyled with the Pale Ales and then coloured with caramel at racking time. Lightly-hopped, as were all Scottish Pale Ales, and poorly-attenuated, they came across as sweet to very sweet.

In England, Strong Ale was a catchall for anything of above normal strength and which didn’t fall into either the Old Ale or Barley Wine category. Although there was a lot of overlap with those two types.

There’s quite a range of gravities there, 24º. Just like all their other beers, Boddington’s Strong Ale was very highly attenuated. Leaving it the strongest, despite only having the third-highest gravity. The other three beers are all much less well attenuated, none managing to reach 70%.

The three strongest are all over 6% ABV. Pretty strong compared to the vast majority of beer being consumed, which was under 4% ABV.

Far more consistency is shown in the hopping rate per quarter (336 lbs) of malt. All are around 5 lbs. Which is a reasonable enough rate, for the period. Resulting in a fair amount of bitterness. Though, remember, these are calculated values.

Consistency is notably lacking in the colours, ranging from pale amber to dark brown. With a couple inbetween just for good measure. 

Strong Ale 1971 - 1972
Year	Brewer	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	colour	IBU
1971	Maclay	Strong Ale	1077	1029	6.35	66.67%	4.95	1.60	76	41
1971	Boddington	Strong Ale	1063.5	1011.0	6.95	82.68%	5.14	1.56	103*	36
1977	Adnams	Broadside	1068.0	1022.0	6.09	67.65%	5.36	1.91	32	43
1972	Shepherd Neame	Bishop's Finger	1052.6	1019.5	4.38	62.95%	5.45	1.22	56	30
	Average		1065.3	1020.4	5.94	69.99%	5.22	1.57	66.8	37.5
Sources:
Maclay brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number M/6/1/1/46.
Boddington brewing record held at Manchester Central Library, document number M693/405/134.
Adnams brewing record held at the brewery.
Shepherd Neame Brewing book held at the brewery, document number 1971 H-5O5.
Note:
Colour values marked with * were taken from brewery sources rather than calculated.