Fullers vs Youngs in the early 1930s

Now we’ve gone all the way through Youngs beers in the 1930s, I thought it would be fun to compare and contrast them with what local rivals Fullers were up to over the other side of the river.

The ranges of the two breweries are generally pretty similar. The biggest difference being that Fullers brewed three Pale Ales, compared with just two at Youngs. And, while both brewers produced two Mild Ales, they weren’t in the same classes.

Milds came in three classes, based around the price per pint. 4d was around 1028º, 5d around 1035º and 6d around 1043º. Fullers brewed the 5d and 6d types, while Youngs brewed 4d and 5d.

There something similar with the Bitters, where the strongest at Young, PA, was a 7d per pint beer, while Fullers PA was an 8d beer. Also Fullers Porter seems to be in a 1d per pint more expensive class than Youngs version.

The Stouts and Strong Ales correspond pretty much exactly, in terms of strength.

Some things the breweries shared. Like parti-gyling. Pretty much everything was parti-gyled at both. And both parti-gyled the Strong Ales with the Mild Ales. Which wasn’t the case at all London brewers. Barclay Perkins and Whitbread had separate grists for their Strong Ales.

The rates of attenuation are generally similar. Mostly 70%-ish. No huge differences are discernible in the hopping rates, either. The Strong Ales were a bit more heavily hopped at Youngs. But that’s about it for differences. 

Young's beers in 1932
Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
A	Mild	1027.7	1005.0	3.00	81.95%	7.81	0.91
X	Mild	1035.5	1006.1	3.89	82.82%	6.90	1.00
XXX	Strong Ale	1056.0	1016.6	5.21	70.36%	8.22	1.91
XXXX	Strong Ale	1078.7	1029.4	6.52	62.64%	8.22	2.68
PAB	Pale Ale	1035.7	1007.8	3.69	78.15%	9.80	2.14
PA	Pale Ale	1045.7	1011.6	4.51	74.62%	9.80	2.74
P	Porter	1034.1	1009.1	3.31	73.31%	7.00	1.02
S	Stout	1052.1	1014.4	4.99	72.36%	7.00	1.55
Source:
Young's brewing record held at Battersea Library, document number YO/RE/1/1.

Fuller's beers in 1931
Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
X	Mild	1033.7	1007.8	3.43	76.99%	7.10	0.98
XX	Mild	1043.3	1010.2	4.37	76.33%	7.10	1.26
AK	Pale Ale	1032.3	1006.1	3.46	81.12%	9.85	1.27
XK	Pale Ale	1040.4	1009.4	4.10	76.68%	9.85	1.58
PA	Pale Ale	1052.3	1011.6	5.38	77.74%	9.85	2.05
P	Porter	1041.4	1013.9	3.64	66.51%	7.96	1.50
BS	Stout	1056.4	1020.5	4.75	63.65%	7.96	2.05
BO	Strong Ale	1058.4	1015.5	5.68	73.45%	7.26	1.74
OBE	Strong Ale	1072.0	1019.7	6.93	72.69%	7.26	2.14
Source:
Fullers brewing record held at the brewery.

Young's processes in 1932

Now it’s time for a couple of processes. Namely, boiling, fermentation and mashing.

At mostly around two hours, the boil time are a little on the long side, compared to other London breweries. Though not as long as those at Barclay Perkins.

Interestingly, all the beers were pitched at the same temperature: 59º F. Which is a bit low for the weaker beers and a bit high for the strongest ones. There’s more variation in the maximum temperatures, which are mostly a couple of degrees below 70º F. Which is towards the low end, but not crazily so.

The fermentation times are quite long. Most lasting over a week. Possibly as a result of the fermentation being kept relatively cool.

Finally, it’s the turn of mashing.

It’s a pretty typical mashing scheme: initial infusion, underlet and sparge. Not really a huge deal more that I can say. Loads of breweries mashed in a generally similar way. 

Young's boiling and fermentation in 1932
Beer	Style	boil time (hours)		Pitch temp	max. fermen-tation temp	length of fermen-tation (days)
A	Mild	2	2	59º F	69º F	7
X	Mild	1.75	1.75	59º F	66º F	9
XXX	Strong Ale	2	2.5	59º F	67º F	8
XXXX	Strong Ale	2	2.5	59º F	70.5º F	8
PAB	Pale Ale	2	2	59º F	69º F	8
PA	Pale Ale	2	2	59º F	69º F	8
P	Porter	2	2	59º F	68º F	8
S	Stout	2	2	59º F	69.25º F	9
Source:
Young's brewing record held at Battersea Library, document number YO/RE/1/1.

PA mash 1st July 1932
action	barrels	strike heat	tap heat
mash	70	162º F	151º F
underlet	20	174º F
sparge	132	160º F	154º F
Source:
Young's brewing record held at Battersea Library, document number YO/RE/1/44.

Young's hops in 1932

The hops used were all English. With the majority coming from Kent and the remainder from Sussex. Logically enough, as those were the two closest hop-growing regions to London.

The hops are mostly pretty fresh, most coming from either the most recent season, or the season before that, cold stored. (That’s what the CS stands for.)

East Kent, the poshest of hops, appears in the poshest and most expensive beers: the Pale Ales and the Strong Ales.

Which varieties were these hops? The East Kents were probably Goldings, or something similar. Those described simply as Kent were more likely Fuggles. Not sure about the Sussex hops. Maybe they were Fuggles, too. 

Young's hops in 1932
Beer	Style	hop 1	hop 2	hop 3
A	Mild	Kent 1930 CS	Kent 1930
X	Mild	Kent 1930 CS	Sussex 1931
XXX	Strong Ale	Kent 1930 CS	EK 1931
XXXX	Strong Ale	Kent 1930 CS	EK 1931
PAB	Pale Ale	EK 1931	Kent 1930	Kent 1930
PA	Pale Ale	EK 1931	Kent 1930	Kent 1930
P	Porter	Kent 1930 CS	Sussex 1931
S	Stout	Kent 1930 CS	Sussex 1931
Source:
Young's brewing record held at Battersea Library, document number YO/RE/1/1.

Let's Brew - 1970 Youngs Best Malt Ale

An interesting name that. Partly, for having the descriptor “best” in a beer off just over 3% ABV. Also, for avoiding the term “mild”. I’m not sure when they adopted the name. in the 1964 records, it’s simply described as X.

Putting the recipe together was a bit of a nightmare. On account of all the sugar. Namely, Flo Sweet, DAS and CDM. I know what the last was: Caramelised Dextro-Maltose. A shame it isn’t available. Flo Sweet seems to have been some form of liquid cane sugar. I’ve no idea about DAS. I’ve used a combination of caramel and No. 3 invest as a substitute for all three sugars.

The rest of the grist is no problem: pale and crystal malt, flaked maize and malt extract. All very standard ingredients. As were the two types of English hops. 

1970 Youngs Coronation Ale
pale malt	11.25 lb	66.18%
crystal malt 60 L	1.50 lb	8.82%
flaked maize	2.25 lb	13.24%
malt extract	0.50 lb	2.94%
No. 3 invert sugar	1.25 lb	7.35%
caramel 1000 SRM	0.25 lb	1.47%
Fuggles 120 min	2.00 oz
Goldings 15 min	1.75 oz
OG	1079
FG	1032
ABV	6.22
Apparent attenuation	59.49%
IBU	32
SRM	27
Mash at	149º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	57.5º F
Yeast	WLP002 English Ale

Young's adjuncts and sugars in 1932

Talking of sugar, five different types were used. Though no single beer includes more than three.

Most common is No. 3 invert, which pops up in everything except the Pale Ales. Which makes sense. Though, on the other hand, they do contain black malt. Which makes no sense at all.

Second most popular is malt extract. Which, rather randomly, only appears in the Pale Ales and Milds. Usually, it’s there to deliver extra enzymes. Which makes sense if there’s a large percentage of adjuncts needing to be converted.

No. 1 invert turns up exactly where you would expect: in the Pale Ales. Which is exactly the type of beer it was intended for.

The Mild/Burton parti-gyle includes a small amount of caramel. Though the Porter and Stout don’t. Maybe the high percentage of roasted grains made it unnecessary. Caramel was quite common in these styles. At Fullers, they used two types, for example

I’m guessing OM was some sort of Oatmeal Stout sugar. And it was coupled with the only adjunct: oats. At least I think it’s an adjunct. It could have been malted oats. The record isn’t specific. Compared to other London Stouts, the percentage of oats in the grist is really high. Usually, it was no more than 2% or 3%.

Note that it’s the Pale Ales that contain the most sugar. That was often the case before WW I. When gravities were higher and brewers wanted to keep their Pale Ales, er, pale. Here, that can’t be the case, as there’s also a fair amount of black malt in the mix. 

Young's adjuncts and sugars in 1932
Beer	Style	oats	malt extract	no. 1 sugar	no. 3 sugar	caramel	OM	total sugar
A	Mild		2.40%		8.01%	0.70%		11.11%
X	Mild		3.00%		6.00%	1.03%		10.03%
XXX	Strong Ale				13.13%	0.67%		13.81%
XXXX	Strong Ale				13.13%	0.67%		13.81%
PAB	Pale Ale		2.86%	11.43%				14.29%
PA	Pale Ale		2.86%	11.43%				14.29%
P	Porter	7.79%			5.19%		5.19%	10.39%
S	Stout	7.79%			5.19%		5.19%	10.39%
Source:
Young's brewing record held at Battersea Library, document number YO/RE/1/1.

Young's grists in 1932

Let’s take a look inside those beers. Remembering that pretty much everything was parti-gyled, other than PA. Which was only sometimes parti-gyled with PAB.

Note that the majority of the base malt for everything but the Pale Ales. In the case of the Strong Ales, this was because they were parti-gyled with Mild. Most beers also had some normal pale malt, made from Californian-grown barley.

Crystal malt crops up in everything except the Pale Ales. Which is about what I would expect. Milds and Porters are, after all, the types of beer for which this type of malt was originally developed. 

The Pale Ales contained a majority off PA (pale ale) malt. The best and palest type of pale malt. The Pale Ales also contain a small amount of enzymic malt. Presumably, for pH adjustment. Not sure I really understand why it’s only included for the Pale Ales.

The Porter and Stout contain five malts: pale, mild, black, amber and crystal. Notably, there’s no brown malt. Which, wasn’t usual by this point in Stouts brewed in most of the UK. Though was still pretty standard in London.

Overall, at 85% to 90%, the total malt content is quite high. Probably because no adjuncts were used, just malt and sugar. 

Young's grists in 1932
Beer	Style	pale malt	PA malt	Mild malt	enzymic malt	black malt	amber malt	crystal malt	total malt
A	Mild	16.82%		64.86%				7.21%	88.89%
X	Mild	22.49%		58.48%				9.00%	89.97%
XXX	Strong Ale			78.80%				7.39%	86.19%
XXXX	Strong Ale			78.80%				7.39%	86.19%
PAB	Pale Ale	27.86%	54.64%		3.21%				85.71%
PA	Pale Ale	27.86%	54.64%		3.21%				85.71%
P	Porter			58.44%		7.79%	9.74%	5.84%	81.82%
S	Stout			58.44%		7.79%	9.74%	5.84%	81.82%
Source:
Young's brewing record held at Battersea Library, document number YO/RE/1/1.

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1970 Young Saxon Lager

I’m so glad that I have this. Another classic pseudo-Lager. And another with few Lager characteristics.

Let’s start with the recipe. At least most of the grist is lager malt. But there’s also some pale malt. Half of which was enzymic malt. Which, despite the name, was really used to adjust the pH of the mash. At least, that’s what Derek Prentice told me. And he should know. The flaked maize I guess is there just because they threw it into all their beers.

The mash was the same as for their other beers: an infusion, followed by an underlet and then a sparge. Not even the vaguest of nods to decoction.

The hops are, at least, all continental. A single type of Hallertau. With quite a lot of them added to the hop back.

Nothing very lagery about the fermentation temperature, which peaked at 63º F. They used their normal top-fermenting yeast. In this case, coming from an earlier batch of Special Bitter.

What made it a Lager, then. The, er. Lagering. Which the brewery claimed lasted ten weeks.  Was that enough, though? I’ll let you decide.

1970 Youngs Saxon Lager
lager malt	5.50 lb	80.41%
pale malt	0.67 lb	9.80%
flaked maize	0.67 lb	9.80%
Hallertau 120 min	1.50 oz
Hallertau 0 min	0.50 oz
OG	1031
FG	1006.5
ABV	3.24
Apparent attenuation	79.03%
IBU	24
SRM	2.5
Mash at	150º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	57.5º F
Yeast	WLP002 English Ale

 

Back in the USA

Oo, oo, ah, whoah, yeah.

After a long absence, I'll e back in the USA soon. Mostly in North Carolina. Also in Atlanta and Duluth.

I'll be giving five talks:

Sun 19th May    Good Word: AK Light Bitter
Wed 22nd May    Whaley Farm brewery: Stout
Thur 23rd May    Zebulon: Blitzkrieg brewing in WW II
Sun 26th May    Diatribe Brewing: Scotland
Mon 27th May    Little Animals: Brettanomyces in UK brewing

All of which should be lots of fun. Just hope the Blitzkrieg talk isn't too long. What the hell. I'm sure Mike won't mind.

At all of these event, there will be ample opportunity to buy a selection of my books. Or just chat with me. I'm a very approachable bloke. 

Not to be morbid, but I'm getting on. You never know how long I'm going to able to do these tours. Or can be arsed to do them. I may never tour the US again. Just bear that in mind.

Can't wait to be back in the USA.

Young's beers in 1932

Sadly, the oldest surviving brewing book from Youngs is only from 1932. Which is a shame, as I’d love to see what their beers were like before WW I.

The range consisted of eight beers. There were two Milds, which look like a 4d and a 5d per pint beer.
The weaker one, A, is about as weak as beer could be brewed, from an economic point off view. The minimum tax being set at that for a 1027 beer. It’s interesting that there’s no 6d per pint Mild. Which would have had an OG of around 1043. Many London brewers – Fullers and Barclay Perkins, for example – brewed a beer in this class.

Parti-gyled with the two Milds were two Burton Ales. The weaker of the two, XXX, looks like a standard draught Burton, with a gravity in the mid-1050s. The stronger of the two was only brewed in small quantities and is of a similar strength to Fullers Old Burton Extra. A beer which was sold on draught. So perhaps XXXX was, too.

There are two Pale Ales, PAB and PA. I suspect that the weaker of the two, PAB, was an exclusively bottled beer. Mostly because of the name. And the fact that it looks like a Light Ale. PA, on the other hand, look remarkably similar to the post-WW II SPA, better known as Special Bitter.

Rounding off the range are a Porter and a Stout. Porter was in terminal decline after WW I and about the only place in England where it was still brewed was London. Stout, on the other hand, was still pretty universally brewed. Though, outside London it was rarely seen on draught.

There’s quite a bit of variation in the rates of attenuation. It’s rather high, at over 80%, in the case of the Milds. And rather low, under 700%, for XXXX. Though it’s possible, since it was rather strong, that it underwent some secondary conditioning, Which would have lowered the FG.

The hopping rates are all pretty high, even in the Milds. Though they are generally similar to those at other London breweries. Though higher than at those outside the capital. 

Young's beers in 1932
Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
A	Mild	1027.7	1005.0	3.00	81.95%	7.81	0.91
X	Mild	1035.5	1006.1	3.89	82.82%	6.90	1.00
XXX	Strong Ale	1056.0	1016.6	5.21	70.36%	8.22	1.91
XXXX	Strong Ale	1078.7	1029.4	6.52	62.64%	8.22	2.68
PAB	Pale Ale	1035.7	1007.8	3.69	78.15%	9.80	2.14
PA	Pale Ale	1045.7	1011.6	4.51	74.62%	9.80	2.74
P	Porter	1034.1	1009.1	3.31	73.31%	7.00	1.02
S	Stout	1052.1	1014.4	4.99	72.36%	7.00	1.55
Source:
Young's brewing record held at Battersea Library, document number YO/RE/1/1.

Young's processes in 1975

A couple of processes are in the next table. Namely, boiling and fermentation.

The boiling times are a little on the long side at mostly 1.75 hours. A 90-minute boil was more usual at this point. Not really much more I can say about that.

Pitching temperatures, which are mostly in the low 60ºs F, are pretty typical. As is the pitching of the strong beers at a little under 60º F. The temperatures weren’t allowed to rise that high, mostly finishing around 70º F.

That also applies to Saxon Lager, which pitched a little cooler than the other beers of a similar gravity, but ended up at just under 70º F. Like their other beers.

All the beers – including Saxon Lager – had pretty much identical mashing schemes.

It’s a very typical mashing process, where an initial infusion is followed by an underlet and a couple of sparges. A very large number of English breweries mashed this way. 

Young's boil and fermentation in 1975
Beer	Style	boil time (hours)			Pitch temp	max. fermentation temp	length of fermentation (days)
BMA	Mild	1.5			62º F	68º F	8
PAB	Pale Ale	1.75	1.75	1.75	62º F	69º F	6
YPV	Pale Ale	1.75	1.75	1.75	62º F	68.5º F	8
PA	Pale Ale	1.75	1.75	1.75	62º F	71º F	8
SPA	Pale Ale	1.75	1.75	1.75	61º F	69º F	8
SPA	Pale Ale	1.75	1.75	1.75	61º F	70º F	8
Ram Rod	Pale Ale	1.75	1.75	1.75	61º F	70.25º F	8
EXPA	Pale Ale	1.75	1.75	1.75	57º F	69.5º F	8
Winter Warmer	Strong Ale	1.75	1.75		61.25º F	70º F	8
Old Nick	Barley Wine	1.75	1.5		59º F	72º F	8
Saxon	Lager	1.75	1.75		58.25º F	68º F	7
Source:
Young's brewing record held at Battersea Library, document number YO/RE/1/44.

SPA/PA mash 2nd April 1975
action	barrels	strike heat	stand	tap heat
mash	172	155º F	30 mins	140º F
underlet	18	180º F
sparge 1	60	180º F		153º F
sparge 2	270	150º F		146º F
Source:
Young's brewing record held at Battersea Library, document number YO/RE/1/44.