Wednesday 10 April 2024

Let's Brew Wednesday - 2006 Youngs Super Lager

And here’s the other half of the Lager parti-gyle. A super-strength Lager that I’d never heard of. Looking like a competitor to classy beers like Tennent’s Super. I didn’t realise that Youngs had dipped their toes into that particular swamp.

It differed from Export in being fermented a bit cooler, being pitched at 54º F and only rising to 58º F. Not really proper Lager temperatures, but around 10º F cooler than their top-fermenting beers. Which explains why, along with the high gravity, the fermentation took so long: 17 days. Which is just a day short of two weeks longer than most of their beers.

There must have been a decent market for this beer as it was brewed in a batch of 115 barrels, compared to 215 barrels of Export.

Looking at online reviews, it seems that this beer is still being brewed. So how come I’ve never heard of it?

2006 Youngs Super
lager malt 17.25 lb 100.00%
Styrian Goldings 80 min 2.00 oz
Styrian Goldings 15 min 1.00 oz
OG 1079
FG 1015
ABV 8.47
Apparent attenuation 81.01%
IBU 29
SRM 4.5
Mash at 150º F
Sparge at 165º F
Boil time 80 minutes
pitching temp 54º F
Yeast Wyeast 1968 London ESB (Fullers)

 

 

3 comments:

Matt said...

I've only drunk that kind of super strength lager once. I was a student in Stoke and went on the 1992 NUM demo against pit closures in London. A builder we were mates with came on it and gave us an early morning lift from the poly to Hem Heath colliery where the coaches were going from. He left his van outside a house on the estate next to it for his apprentice to use that day. When we got back there in the evening, the lad wasn't home yet so his dad invited us in to wait for him and handed round a few cans of Tennents Extra. Being used to drinking session strength draught bitter, I certainly felt its effect when we clambered back in the van an hour or so later.

Anonymous said...

Fuel for the more discerning tramp.

Anonymous said...

Tennents Super is a sophisticated aperitivo beer here in Italy, with heavy POS promotion. There's quite a few jokey articles online about folk on holidays from the British Isles making this discovery.