Youngs malts in 1939

Time to look under the bonnet at what went into these beers. Bullying off with the malts.

There are quite a lot of base malts. Three in total. Four if you include the enzymic malt. The Mild and Pale Ales all have two base malts. For the Mild Ales, that’s, er, mild malt and pale malt. And for the Pale Ales, PA malt and pale malt. Which, I suppose, has some logic to it.

The Black Beers – Porter and Stout – only have a single base malt: mild malt. The cheapest of the base malts. Which is logical in beers with lots of coloured malts which would obscure the base malt’s flavour.

Enzymic malt, used to lower the pH of the mash, only pops up in the two Pale Ales. Presumably, it wasn’t needed in the other beers ass they contained coloured malts. Youngs were extremely loyal to enzymic malt and were still using it in the 1990s. 

All the beers, other than the Pale Ales, contain some crystal malt. It’s a type of malty which, after WW II, became pretty common in Pale Ales. But before the war, it was pretty well unknown in the style.

There’s lots of roasted malt in the Black Beers: 17.5% in total. That’s split across black and amber malt. It’s a slightly unusual for a London grist. More usual was a combination of black and brown malt. Or, in the case of Whitbread, chocolate malt and brown malt.

Overall, the percentage of malt in the grist is quite high, averaging 87%. Higher than the average for the UK, which was 78%.  

Youngs malts in 1939
Beer	Style	pale malt	black malt	amber malt	mild malt	PA malt	crystal malt	enzymic malt	total malt
A	Mild	13.20%			66.02%		9.90%		89.13%
X	Mild	16.60%			63.07%		9.96%		89.63%
PA	Pale Ale	25.81%				54.84%		3.23%	83.87%
PAB	Pale Ale	32.14%				50.36%		3.21%	85.71%
P	Porter		7.50%	10.00%	60.00%		7.50%		85.00%
S	Stout		7.50%	10.00%	60.00%		7.50%		85.00%
XXX	Strong Ale				80.47%		8.05%		88.52%
XXXX	Strong Ale				80.47%		8.05%		88.52%
	Average								86.92%
Source:
Young's brewing record held at Battersea Library, document number YO/RE/1/8.