Youngs X Ale malts 1939 - 1945

As with Pale Ale, the hopping rate was up and down during the war. Kicking off at 6 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt. But, by the end of the war, it was down to under 3 lbs per quarter. In the intervening years, however, it went up and down quite a bit. None of it voluntary, obviously. Brewers were, at several points, ordered to reduce their hopping rates.

We’ll move on with the malts. That’s going to be really exciting. No, I’m not taking the piss. I really believe that. I do have pretty odd interests, mind.

The big shock is that mild malt formed the backbone of, er, this Mild Ale. Who would have expected that? Everyone, obviously. What is weird, is that sometimes it’s described as X malt, and others as MA malt. Sometimes both in the same beer. I’ll be honest here, I assumed that they were the same thing. How naïve was I?

In case you’re wondering, X malt and mils malt I’ve rolled into just mild malt. Don’t judge me. I can’t be arsed to split the two apart. Mostly because I don’t know what the fucking difference is between them.

Intermittently, some standard pale malt was thrown in. Again – how many times have I said this? – it’s all to do with what was available at the time. Brewers didn’t exactly have a free choice of which ingredients they could use. 

Youngs X Ale malts 1939 - 1945
Date	Year	pale malt	mild malt	crystal malt	enzymic malt	total malt
18th Oct	1939	16.60%	63.07%	9.96%		89.63%
17th May	1940		82.98%	8.74%		91.72%
2nd Dec	1940		84.21%	8.86%		93.07%
30th Apr	1941		83.09%	9.59%		92.68%
6th May	1941		83.33%	9.52%		92.86%
24th Oct	1941		78.57%	9.52%		88.10%
4th May	1942	55.75%	19.22%	7.69%		82.66%
8th Jul	1942		74.97%	7.69%		82.66%
19th Oct	1942		73.05%	7.69%		80.74%
5th May	1943	36.52%	36.52%	10.43%		83.48%
28th Apr	1944		71.43%	9.52%		80.95%
5th May	1944	21.68%	49.55%	9.29%		80.52%
20th Oct	1944		65.03%	9.29%	3.10%	77.42%
2nd Jul	1945	18.05%	42.86%	9.02%		69.92%
4th Jul	1945	16.36%	45.44%	7.27%		69.06%
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.