Youngs adjuncts and sugars in 1939

Moving on, let’s look at the rest of the grist. There’s not much in the way of adjuncts. There’s just the one, flaked oats. At least, I think it was flaked oats. The brewing record simply says “oats”, meaning that it could also have been in malted form. I’ve gone with flakes, simply because that was the more common form.

Not using adjuncts in their other beers is quite unusual. Though by no means unique. Whitbread, for example, also brewed adjunct-free. Most brewers, however, employed flaked maize. UK brewers’ favourite adjunct for most of the 20th century.

Every beer contains some malt extract. Presumably there to add extra enzymes. It was reasonably common in mid-20th-century recipes.

Two numbered invert sugars make an appearance. The lightest in colour, No. 1, is, logically enough, in the two Pale Ales. In a relatively large proportion of around 12%. Which would have helped to keep the colour nice and pale, as is appropriate for the style.

No. 3, on the other hand, appears in the Mild and Strong Ales. In a rather smaller amount, just 7% to 8%. Its purpose would be dual, to add both colour and flavour. There was even less in the Black Beers, a mere 5%.

Rather surprisingly, caramel doesn’t turn up in the Black Beers, only the Mild and Strong Ales. In both of the latter, the quantities are quite small. The purpose being colour correction.

The overall average of 12% is a bit below the national average of 16%. Only the two Pale Ales are close to that national figure. 

Youngs adjuncts and sugars in 1939
Beer	Style	flaked oat	malt extract	no. 1 sugar	no. 3 sugar	caramel	total sugar
A	Mild		3.30%		6.60%	0.96%	10.87%
X	Mild		2.21%		7.19%	0.97%	10.37%
PA	Pale Ale		3.23%	12.90%			16.13%
PAB	Pale Ale		2.86%	11.43%			14.29%
P	Porter	5.00%	5.00%		5.00%		10.00%
S	Stout	5.00%	5.00%		5.00%		10.00%
XXX	Strong Ale		2.68%		8.05%	0.75%	11.48%
XXXX	Strong Ale		2.68%		8.05%	0.75%	11.48%
	Average						11.83%
Source:
Young's brewing record held at Battersea Library, document number YO/RE/1/8.