Before late 1941, there were no adjuncts.
Pre-war, there were no adjuncts in in the Pale Ale. The only adjunct Youngs employed was flaked oats in their Stout and Porter. That all changed in the war, when brewers were forced to use a percentage of flaked barley in their beers.
Kicking off in 1941, when the percentage was just under 5%. In 1942, this increased to 10%, around where it stayed, with a little variation, until the last year of the war when it jumped up to around 15%.
Sugar is a completely different matter. As every other English brewer, Youngs used sugar. And quite a bit of it in their Pale Ale. When the unpleasantness tarted, 14% of the grist was sugar. Which is pretty close to the UK average of 15%.
In 1941, the sugar content dropped right down to 8.5%. Not really surprising as sugar was needed for purposes other than brewing. And it stayed at that reduced level right up until the last year of the war, when it returned to something like pre-war levels. Presumably because the supply of sugar had improved.
Very constant is the quantity of malt extract used. Around 3%. Why were they using malt extract? For the enzymes. UK brewers were paranoid about not having enough enzymes and were always looking for ways to top them up. Diastatic malt extract being a pretty obvious choice. One shared by quite a few other brewers. Youngs were still using malt extract in the 1970s.
Malt extract aside, there’s only really one type of sugar used: No. 1 invert. Which is exactly what you would expect in a top-of-the-range Pale Ale. The one exception being in May 1945 when there was a small amount of No. 3. Why? No fucking idea, to be honest. Maybe they were a little short of No. 1.
| Youngs PA adjuncts and sugars 1939 - 1945 | ||||||
| Date | Year | flaked barley | malt extract | no. 1 sugar | no. 3 sugar | total sugar |
| 27th Jul | 1939 | 2.86% | 11.43% | 14.29% | ||
| 22nd May | 1940 | 2.86% | 11.43% | 14.29% | ||
| 1st May | 1941 | 2.84% | 5.67% | 8.51% | ||
| 3rd Jul | 1941 | 2.44% | 6.10% | 8.54% | ||
| 8th Jul | 1941 | 2.44% | 6.10% | 8.54% | ||
| 23rd Oct | 1941 | 4.23% | 2.11% | 7.04% | 9.15% | |
| 7th May | 1942 | 6.29% | 2.80% | 6.99% | 9.79% | |
| 9th Jul | 1942 | 4.20% | 2.80% | 6.99% | 9.79% | |
| 20th Oct | 1942 | 10.11% | 3.37% | 5.62% | 8.99% | |
| 30th Apr | 1943 | 13.33% | 3.33% | 6.67% | 10.00% | |
| 20th Jul | 1943 | 12.59% | 2.80% | 6.99% | 9.79% | |
| 1st May | 1944 | 10.00% | 3.33% | 6.67% | 10.00% | |
| 8th May | 1944 | 10.00% | 3.33% | 6.67% | 10.00% | |
| 19th Oct | 1944 | 10.49% | 2.80% | 6.99% | 9.79% | |
| 8th May | 1945 | 14.37% | 2.99% | 8.38% | 2.40% | 13.77% |
| 3rd Jul | 1945 | 17.14% | 2.86% | 11.43% | 14.29% | |
| 12th Jul | 1945 | 14.37% | 2.99% | 10.78% | 13.77% | |
| Sources: | ||||||
| Young's brewing records held at Battersea Library, document numbers YO/RE/1/8 YO/RE/1/9 YO/RE/1/10, YO/RE/1/11, YO/RE/1/12, YO/RE/1/13 and YO/RE/1/14. | ||||||
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3 comments:
I find it interesting how semantics change from one country to the next. Ron, you don’t consider sugar to be an adjunct, is it safe to assume UK breweries agree with that? I think sugar has been the most denigrated ingredient for US brewers to use, probably because Charlie Papazian said so and sugar was a common alcohol booster in shitty home brew kits from a bygone era.
For some reason, it’s always been okay when making Belgian style beers, but within the last couple of decades, American brewers have used sugar in double IPAs and other big beers, but it’s still considered an adjunct.
The definition is simple: adjuncts are unmalted grains. Things which need to be mashed. Sugar is a malt substitute.
Thanks, that’s what I figured. Now you’ll see peanut butter, marshmallows, breakfast cereal and a whole host of other ridiculous ingredients added to beers called “adjuncts.”
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