Youngs beers in 1960/1961

A happy new decade, the 1960s. Where regional breweries flourished. Yeah, right. It’s when keg beer began its long march to notoriety. And Youngs enthusiastically didn’t join in the rush to keg, remaining faithful to cask.

Now, I’m not 100% sure that this is an exhaustive list of Youngs beers. With eleven in total, it must be close. They break down into two Mild Ales, five Pale Ales, two Strong Ales, a Barley Wine and a Stout. Come to think of it, there must have been a Brown Ale. Presumably based on X Ale.

Let’s kick off with the Mild Ales. I admit to being shocked that Youngs were still brewing two. Though the quantities brewed of XS were pretty modest. Usually just 30 barrels. While standard X Ale was produced in batches of 150 to 350 barrels.

In the 1950s, it was relatively common for breweries to have both a Mild and a Best Mild. With the difference in gravity only being 2º or 3º. As is the case here. Where differing degrees of attenuation leave the two beers with almost identical ABVs.

Not sure why the hopping rate is higher for X Ale. It seems to be a one-off. As all the other examples are hopped at 4.5 lbs to 5 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt. About the same as the XS in the table.

Of the Pale Ales, only three were brewed in substantial quantities: PAB, PA and SPA. That is, Light Ale, Ordinary Bitter and Special Bitter. Only small quantities of the two strong Pale Ales, QSPA and Export PA.

Speaking of those two beers, they could well be the same thing. Just that the brew house name was changed. The gravities of the two beers are very similar.  Export Pale is the most heavily hopped of all their beers. Almost 8 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt. While the weaker Pale Ales received just 6 lbs of hops per quarter.

The rate of attenuation for the three weaker Pale Ales is very high, well over 80%. Leaving Special at almost 5.5% ABV. Which would have made it one of the strongest Bitters in the country.

MS, which I think stands for Milk Stout is a pretty weird beer. Being parti-gyled with X Ale. When we get to the ingredients, you’ll see just how weird a Stout it was.

It seems that Youngs were brewing two Burton Ales, XXX and XXXX. The latter looks very much like the Old Burton Extra that Fullers brewed between the wars. Given its strength, I suspect that it was only available in bottled form. While XXX, the standard Burton Ale, was primarily a draught beer.

Top of the pile is Celebration Ale (CA). A beer originally called Coronation Ale, introduced for the, er, coronation of Elizabeth II. All three of the Strong Ales were parti-gyled with X Ale. 

Youngs beers in 1960/1961
Year	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
1961	X	Mild	1030.6	1005.5	3.32	81.90%	6.67	0.94
1960	XS	Mild	1033.6	1008.3	3.35	75.27%	4.37	0.61
1960	PAB	Pale Ale	1031.6	1003.9	3.67	87.73%	6.00	0.75
1960	PA	Pale Ale	1037.6	1005.5	4.24	85.27%	6.00	0.89
1960	SPA	Pale Ale	1049.6	1008.3	5.46	83.25%	5.93	1.18
1960	QSPA	Pale Ale	1061.8	1017.7	5.83	71.31%	6.67	1.67
1961	Ex PA	Pale Ale	1062.7	1016.6	6.10	73.49%	7.91	2.03
1961	MS	Stout	1041.7	1008.9	4.34	78.74%	6.67	1.29
1961	XXX	Strong Ale	1048.4	1009.4	5.16	80.54%	6.67	1.49
1960	XXXX	Strong Ale	1077.6	1022.2	7.33	71.44%	5.30	1.74
1961	CA	Barley Wine	1079.7	1026.6	7.03	66.63%	5.07	2.24
Source:
Young's brewing record held at Battersea Library, document number YO/RE/1/29.