Youngs malts in 1990-1991

Moving on now to the ingredients. Kicking off, logically enough, with the malts. Of which there are a few. Not all that many. But that’s made up for by the adjuncts, to which we’ll get later.

Two are base malts: pale and lager. The former being used in most of the beers and the latter in, well, the two Lagers. Nothing odd there. In earlier decades, more base malts had been used. With the bitters using pale ale malt and Mild and Burton using mild malt.

I suppose that you could argue that enzymic malt was also a base malt, as it did have diastatic power. That wasn’t its main use, though. It was to lower the pH of the mash. Which is why it didn’t appear in the Porter or Stout, where the roast grains fulfilled that function.

The Lagers only contain lager malt. With the Premium Lager being all malt. Leaving it Reinheitsgebot compliant. Not sure if that was the intention of the brewery, or just a happy accident.

There’s quite a bit of variation in the proportion of malt in the grist. Ranging from a high of 100% in the Premium Lager, to low of 66% in Old Nick. I think that it’s no coincidence that the percentage was lowest in the latter. The strongest beer that Youngs brewed.

Quite a dark crystal malt was used: 150 L. Which is probably why the Pale Ales all contained less than 2%. Which is a bit contrast with the Porter, where it was a massive 16%. In the two Strong Ales, Winter Warmer and Old Nick, the proportion was a more reasonable 5%.

Youngs malts in 1990-1991
Year	Beer	Style	pale malt	lager malt	crystal malt	enzymic malt	Total malt
1990	JYLL	Lager		84.73%			84.73%
1991	Premium Lager	Pilsner		100.00%			100.00%
1990	Light Ale	Pale Ale	83.25%		2.87%	2.87%	89.00%
1990	PA	Pale Ale	85.17%		1.53%	3.07%	89.77%
1990	SPA	Pale Ale	84.22%		1.74%	3.13%	89.10%
1990	Export	Pale Ale	90.48%		1.59%	3.97%	96.03%
1990	Porter	Porter	73.04%		15.65%		88.70%
1991	Oatmeal Stout	Stout	81.00%				81.00%
1991	Winter Warmer	Strong Ale	70.85%		5.54%	6.64%	83.03%
1990	Old Nick	Barley Wine	58.54%		4.88%	2.44%	65.85%
Source:
Young's brewing record held at Battersea Library, document number YO/RE/1/59.

 

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