Let's Brew - 1960 Youngs PAB

PAB is the lower-strength Bitter that Youngs introduced in the interwar period. With a gravity of 1039º. Obviously, WW II knocked down the gravity somewhat.

Given the rather low gravity, this is more like a Light Ale, or a Boy’s Bitter, rather than an Ordinary Bitter. Looking back at the brewing records, it looks like it was renamed Light Ale in the 1980s. I assume this was a bottled beer, as it doesn’t appear in the Good Beer Guide.

The recipe is pretty much classic English Pale Ale. Consisting of pale malt, flaked maize and sugar, With the latter in three forms: malt extract, No. 1 invert and caramel. 

Not that the boil, at 120 minutes, is much longer than in the 1990s. Presumably, it was shortened to save energy.

There were two types of hops, both English and both from the 1959 harvest.
 

1960 Youngs PAB
pale malt	5.500 lb	79.05%
flaked maize	0.876 lb	12.59%
pale malt extract	0.25 lb	3.59%
No. 1 invert sugar	0.33 lb	4.74%
caramel 500 SRM	0.002 lb	0.03%
Fuggles 120 min	0.75 oz
Goldings 30 min	0.75 oz
OG	1032
FG	1005.5
ABV	3.51
Apparent attenuation	82.81%
IBU	21
SRM	4
Mash at	152º F
Sparge at	174º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	59º F
Yeast	WLP002 English Ale

 

Listen to brewer John Hatch explain how they brewed at Youngs in the 1990s.