Scottish Export/80/- in the 1950s

Have you been enjoying my stuff about Eighty Shillings? Whether you have or not, there's lots more coming. I seem to have got sidetracked into it. Oh, well.

In this post, we'll be looking at 60/- in the 1950s. Which is when the modern form of the style crystallised. When brewers were finally freed from the last restrictions of WW II. 

I've examples from five breweries, which I hope is pretty representative. All of the breweries were based in Edinburgh, other than Maclay which was in Alloa.

Only one of the beers was called 80/- in the brew house, that from Robert Younger. I'm guessing that all of them would have called Export in the pub, mind. Though that might not have been the name on the pump.

The gravities vary from 1040º to 1046º. Averaging 1044º. Which is about where I'd expect a post-WW II 80/-. There's almost as much varition in the finishing gravities, going from 1009.5º to 1015º.

On Account of the greatly varying rates of attenuation, from 63% to 79%, the ABVs are all over the place. There's a difference of 1.5% ABV between the weakest, Maclay's, and the strongest, William Younger's.

Most of the examples were hopped at around 4 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt. The outlier being Maclay's at 6 lbs. In England, the hopping would have been more like at Maclay. At the other breweries, it's quite light, by UK standards. 

Scottish Export/80/- in the 1950s
Year	Brewer	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
1957	Robert Younger	80/-	1043	1012	4.10	72.09%	4.93	0.83
1958	Wm Younger	Export	1046	1009.5	4.83	79.35%	4.39	0.77
1958	Bernard	Pale 1/4	1046	1013.3	4.33	71.20%	3.97	0.76
1957	Maclay	Export	1040	1015	3.31	62.50%	6.05	1.00
1956	Drybrough	Export	1045	1013.5	4.17	70.00%	4.35	0.80
	Average		1044.0	1012.7	4.15	71.03%	4.74	0.83
Sources:
Robert Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number RY/6/1/2.
William Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/3/112.
T & J Bernard brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number TJB6/1/1/1.
Maclay brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number M/6/1/1/35.
Drybrough brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number D/6/1/1/7.

Here's a short YouTube video I made about Eighty Shilling. 

 

Youngs boiling and fermentation in 1940

Yes, I'm still away on holiday. How selfish of me. Going away creates so much work for me. Lining up more than a dozen blog posts before I leave. Then writing the same number of travel posts when I return. It's all very time-consuming.

Boiling times are basically the same. Two hours, for most boils, for most beers. Only the watery A got a little less. And the strongest beer, XXX, got a little longer.

More surprising is that the fermentation temperatures have been reduced. The pitching temperatures are, on average, 1.5º F cooler and the maximum temperatures 4 º F. 

Despite the lower fermentation temperature, the fermentations lasted a day less. Which doesn’t make a whole deal of sense to me. The small drop in gravities wouldn’t have been enough to make that much of a difference. 

Youngs boiling and fermentation in 1940
Beer	Style	boil time (hours)		Pitch temp	max. fermen-tation temp	length of fermen-tation (days)
A	Mild	1.75	1.75	59º F	66.25º F	7
X	Mild	2	2	58º F	67.5º F	7
PAB	Pale Ale	2	2	59º F	65º F	6
PA	Pale Ale	2	2	58º F	67º F	7
P	Porter	2		59º F	68.25º F	4
S	Stout	2		58º F	70.25º F	4
XXX	Strong Ale	2	2	58º F	65.5º F	7
XXXX	Strong Ale	2.5	2	58º F	68.5º F	8
	Average	2.03	1.96	58.38º F	67.28º F	6.3
Source:
Young's brewing record held at Battersea Library, document number YO/RE/1/9.

 

Youngs hops in 1940

As you read this, I should be on my holidays in Canada. Hence the need to bash out a whole load of posts to cover the time I'll be away. That's why there have been so many Young's posts. 

Hops now. Which are pretty much the same as in 1939. Except there are no Worcester hops. This time they’re all from Kent. Some, in the case of the Pale Ales, being the classiest from the county: East Kent. Which would be something most likely along the lines of Goldings.

The hops are about the same age as in 1939. From the most recent season of the one before. The older ones being cold stored (that’s what CS means). All the beers contain at least two types of hops and some three. 

 

Youngs hops in 1940
Beer	Style	hop 1	hop 2	hop 3
A	Mild	Kent 1939	Kent 1938 CS
X	Mild	Kent 1939	Kent 1938 CS
PAB	Pale Ale	Kent 1939	Kent 1938 CS	EK 1939 CS
PA	Pale Ale	Kent 1939	Kent 1938 CS	EK 1939 CS
P	Porter	Kent 1939	Kent 1938 CS
S	Stout	Kent 1939	Kent 1938 CS
XXX	Strong Ale	Kent 1939	Kent 1938 CS
XXXX	Strong Ale	Kent 1939	Kent 1940	Kent 1939 CS
Source:
Young's brewing record held at Battersea Library, document number YO/RE/1/9.

 

This is Eighty Shilling part three

 I explain another 80/- recipe. 1933 William Younger Export.

  

Let's Brew - 1851 William Younger 80/-

Just for demonstration purposes, here’s a recipe of a Shilling Ale 80/-. Which, as you must be bored of hearing by now, has no connection with modern 80/-. Other than the name, obviously.

It has a pretty decent gravity of 1085º, though a poor rate of attenuation leaves it under 7% ABV. Which is pretty typical of Shilling Ales. They mostly have quite high finishing gravities.

Like the 60/- from the same year, the recipe is very simple. Though the two beers weren’t parti-gyled together, the recipes are pretty much the same. Two types of pale malt, one of which was Scottish. And that’s it for the grist.

There were three types of English hops: Kent, East Kent and Farnham. Pretty classy ones. With latter two generally being the most expensive types of hops. There’s no indication of the vintage of any of the hops. 

1851 William Younger 80/-
pale malt	26.25 lb	100.00%
Goldings 90 min	2.50 oz
Goldings 60 min	2.00 oz
Goldings 30 min	2.00 oz
OG	1085
FG	1034
ABV	6.75
Apparent attenuation	60.00%
IBU	72
SRM	8
Mash at	154º F
Sparge at	184º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	56º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

Here's a short YouTube video I made about Eighty Shilling.

 

And here's a video about this specific recipe: 

Youngs adjuncts and sugars in 1940

There’s still just a single adjunct: flaked oats. Appearing in the Porter and Stout in small quantities. Though more than at many rival London breweries, such as Whitbread and Barclay Perkins, where it was often less than 1% of the grist.  I’m assuming the oats are an adjunct. The brewing records don’t indicate their form, simply calling them “oats”.

There’s one new type of sugar, “OM”, a proprietary sugar along the lines of CDM (Caramelised Dextro-Maltose). Used in in the Porter and Stout. 

Otherwise, everything is much the same as in 1939. Though the average percentage has decreased from 11.8% to 9.3%. Which is where the extra malt came from.

Malt extract is in most of the beers, except it’s been dropped from Porter and Stout. No. 1 invert is in the two Pale Ales. As you would expect. And No. 3 invert in all the dark beers.

Bit of a shock that there’s no caramel in the Black Beers. It does pop up in all the other dark beers, however. 

Youngs adjuncts and sugars in 1940
Beer	Style	flaked oat	malt extract	no. 1 sugar	no. 3 sugar	OM	caramel	total sugar
A	Mild		3.27%		4.35%		0.95%	8.57%
X	Mild		2.36%		4.72%		0.79%	7.87%
PAB	Pale Ale		2.82%	8.45%				11.27%
PA	Pale Ale		2.82%	8.45%				11.27%
P	Porter	5.00%			5.00%	5.00%		10.00%
S	Stout	5.00%			5.00%	5.00%		10.00%
XXX	Strong Ale		2.36%		4.72%		0.79%	7.87%
XXXX	Strong Ale		2.36%		4.72%		0.79%	7.87%
	Average							9.34%
Source:
Young's brewing record held at Battersea Library, document number YO/RE/1/9.

 

 

Lager Beers in 1909

You probably realise by now how fascinated I am by Lager. Especially oldie-timey Lager.

The following passage from the Journal of the Institute of Brewing explains the different types of Lager at the start of the 20th century. It breaks them down by region and strength. Rather surprisingly, along with Bohemia, Bavaria and Vienna, the USA is also included. Which is probably fair enough, now I think about it.

The strength types are a bit odd, as it doesn't seem to include Bock. Or, at least, to lump it in with Export.

Our attention must now be directed to the principal subject of this evening's paper: Lager Beers ("Lager Biere"). Of these there are four recognised types :—Bohemian, Vienna, Bavarian, and American. As a general rule, three varieties of each are brewed: Light, Ordinary or Summer Lager, and Export. The exports are all brewed considerably stronger and contain more alcohol. All the types vary a good deal in colour, flavour, palate-fulness, amount of hops, acidity and alcohol. For example :—

1. Bavarian and Munich beers possess a light to dark-brown shade of colour, are lightly hopped, and are characterised by their palate fulness, sweet taste and malt flavour. Their gravities vary from 12.5° to 15.0° B. in the Light, and from 15.0° to 18.0° B. in the Export beers.

2. The Bohemian are light-yellow, as in the case of the Pilsener, to a peculiar greenish-yellow colour. They taste somewhat sharp, dry and wine-like, but with a prevailing bitter of hops as opposed to the lightly-hopped Bavarians. Their gravities vary from 10.5° to 11.5° B. for the Light, and from 11.0° to 12.8° B. for the Heavy.

3. The Vienna Lagers come somewhere midway between the Bavarian and Bohemian, especially as regards colour, hops, and taste. The gravities vary from 10.5° to 13.5° B. in the Light, and from 13.5° to 15.5° B. for the Heavy and Export beers. The larger amount of the common beer of Vienna is brewed at a gravity of 13.5° B.

4. The American Lagers generally follow the German rather than the Austrian types, yet differ considerably in the many American cities.
"Lager Beers" by James Grant in Journal of the Institute of Brewing Volume 15, Issue 3, May 1909, page 379.

It's odd that they state American beers were mostly of the German type. Surely most were of the Bohemian type, generally being very pale. There aren't any details with regard to strength, unfortunately. 

Marcin Ostajewski interview part one

 Where Marcin explains the history of brewing in Grodzisk and the local style Grodziskie.

 

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1851 William Younger 60/-

Another in my series of Sixty Shilling recipes. This time in the form of a mid-19th-century Shilling Ale.

It’s a good bit stronger than the Thomas Usher 60/- from 1885. That was only 1041.5º and 3.5% ABV. Whereas this is considerably higher in OG, though less highly-attenuated.

As is usual for recipes from the earlier decades of the 19th century, the recipe is very simple. Just two types of base malt, one of which was Scottish. Though sugar was already allowed at this point, it wasn’t much used. Especially in Scotland.

The hopping is pretty light for the period. Made up of a couple of different types of Kent and Farnham hops. The combination of light hopping and high FG must have left the finished beer rather sweet and full-bodied. 

1851 William Younger 60/-
pale malt	16.25 lb	100.00%
Goldings 105 min	1.00 oz
Goldings 60 min	1.00 oz
Goldings 30 min	1.00 oz
OG	1072
FG	1030
ABV	5.56
Apparent attenuation	58.33%
IBU	36
SRM	7
Mash at	151º F
Sparge at	184º F
Boil time	105 minutes
pitching temp	56º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

 

 

This is my short YouTube video about Sixty Shilling..

 

Youngs malts in 1940

What’s been happening on the ingredients front? Not all that much yet. What with the war still being in its early days. The big changes will come in a couple of years’ time.

On average, the percentage of malt has increased from 87% to 89.5% since 1939.  Which is interesting. With that slight increase being in the base malt. The percentages of the other malts are pretty much unchanged. 

As are the types of malt being used. Three base malts: pale, mild and pale ale. Three coloured malts: black, amber and crystal. Though two of those only appear in the Porter and Stout.  While crystal malt is in everything except the Pale Ales.

Youngs liked combining a couple of types of base malts in their beers. As with pale malt and PA malt in the Pale Ales. Or mild and pale malt in Mild Ales. Only the Black Beers and Burtons (Strong Ales) always have a single type of base malt. X Ale only when it was parti-gyled with a Burton. 

Youngs malts in 1940
Beer	Style	pale malt	mild malt	PA malt	enzymic malt	black malt	amber malt	crystal malt	total malt
A	Mild	13.06%	68.57%					9.80%	91.43%
X	Mild		82.68%					9.45%	92.13%
PAB	Pale Ale	33.80%		51.76%	3.17%				88.73%
PA	Pale Ale	33.80%		51.76%	3.17%				88.73%
P	Porter		60.00%			7.50%	10.00%	7.50%	85.00%
S	Stout		60.00%			7.50%	10.00%	7.50%	85.00%
XXX	Strong Ale		82.68%					9.45%	92.13%
XXXX	Strong Ale		82.68%					9.45%	92.13%
	Average								89.41%
Source:
Young's brewing record held at Battersea Library, document number YO/RE/1/9.

 

This is Eighty Shilling part two

 I explain the recipe of 1913 William Younger 80/-. Yum. All those grits!

 

Largest Lager breweries worldwide in 1890

Even towards the end of the 19th century, the largest Lager breweries were still quite modestly-sized compared to the big producers in the UK.

The biggest two producers, both in the USA, made only about three -quarters of a million hectolitres. Which was only around a third of what Guinness was churning out each year. And the largest on continental Europe, Spaten, wasn’t even making half a million hectolitres.

It’s a demonstration of how far industrialisation of brewing had gone in the UK compared to the rest of the world. The process had started way back in the middle of the 18th century with the big Porter brewers.

Note that two of the original London Porter brewers, Barclay Perkins and Truman, remained amongst the largest breweries in the world. With Barclays still double the size of Spaten.

Largest Lager breweries year ending April 30, 1890
brewery	location	hl
Anheuser-Busch	St. Louis	746,552
Pabst Brewing Company	Milwaukee	725,255
Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company	Milwaukee	499,418
George Ehret	New York	363,237
Spatenbrauerei	Munich	466,752
Lowen	Munich	430,288
Anton Dreher	Vienna	417,918
St. Marx Brauerei	Vienna	275,974
Source:
The Abbeville press and banner, (Abbeville, S.C.), 19 Nov. 1890.

Largest breweries in the UK in 1884
brewery	location	hl
Guinness	Dublin	2,127,570
Bass	Burton	1,636,592
Allsopp	Burton	1,391,104
Barclay	London	900,126
Watney	London	736,467
Truman	London	736,467
Source:
Document ACC/2305/8/246 part of the Courage archive held at the London Metropolitan Archive.

 

 

 

 

 

Beery suggestions for Canada

Next week I'm off to Canada with the kids. Two weeks of North American fun.

I've been rather busy and haven't done much in the way of research about what we're going to do when we're there. I say I've been busy. That's true. But I've also been a lazy git.

Any pubs and brewpubs you could recommend would be most appreciated. This is our schedule so you'll know where we'll be:

15th-18th July Toronto
19th-20th July Ottawa
21st-24th July Montreal
25th-27th July Quebec City

I've only been to Toronto before so I'm totally clueless about the other three cities.

If you fancy meeting up and buying me some beer, get in touch. I',m a sociable fellow and always enjoy meeting new people.

Hopefully, it's not going to be too warm in Canada. Andrew really doesn't cope with heat well. When we were in Japan a few years back, several times I thought he was going to drop dead. 

This is Eighty Shilling - a recipe

As a follow-up to What is Eighty Shilling, I explain a recipe for 1851 William Younger 80/-. A Shilling Ale version of 80/-.

 

Let's Brew - 1885 Thomas Usher 60/- B

If you’ve looked at my YouTube video on Sixty Shilling, you’ll know that this beer has no relationship with the modern type. This being a Shilling Ale. The older type of Scottish Ale that was roughly equivalent to an English Mild. While modern 60/- is a type of Pale Ale.

The recipe is pretty simple: just base malt and sugar. With not the slightest indication of what that type of sugar might be. I’ve gone for cane sugar. It could also have been some sort of invert. There really was just a single type of base malt. What’s more surprising is that it was Scottish.

At just 5 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt, the hopping rate is pretty low. A lot lower than Usher’s Pale ales, which received 9 lbs per quarter. There were two types of hops: Californian from  the1883 harvest and Alsace from 1884. 

1885 Thomas Usher 60/- B
pale malt	8.00 lb	88.89%
cane sugar	1.00 lb	11.11%
Cluster 90 min	0.75 oz
Cluster 60 min	0.75 oz
Strisselspalt 30 min	0.50 oz
OG	1041.5
FG	1015
ABV	3.51
Apparent attenuation	63.86%
IBU	39
SRM	4
Mash at	155º F
Sparge at	175º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	59º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

  

For those who missed it, this is my short video on 60/-.

 

What is Eighty Shilling?

Another of my little videos. This time looking at the third and strongest of the classic Scottish Pale Ales, Eighty Shilling. 

 

Youngs beers in 1940

A year into the war, what had happened to Youngs beers? To be honest, not very much.

The situation was very dynamic, so it’s worth saying exactly when this snapshot was taken. All these beers were brewed in August 1940, except for XXXX, which is from December.

Things hadn’t yet become so bad that drastic action was required. Just a few tweaks were necessary. That wouldn’t be the case for the whole of the war. For now, there was little change to the beers being brewed. Other than the price.

For example, the cost price of a 36-gallon barrel of X Ale had risen from 49 shillings and 11d in August 1939 to 111 shillings and 9d twelve months later.  That more than doubling in price was mostly due to increases in tax.

The most obvious change is a slight reduction in gravities. Most beers lost 1º, the exceptions being A, PAB and XXXX, which were unchanged, and XXX, which fell by 2º.

It’s a similar story with hopping rates. Those for the two Black Beers and the Mild Ales are unchanged. While that of the Pale Ales has been reduced by 1 lb per quarter (336 lbs) of malt.

The rates of attenuation look somewhat higher in this set. I wouldn’t read that much into it, as final gravities varied quite a bit from brew to brew. And even across the different fermenters in a single batch. 

Youngs beers in 1940
Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
A	Mild	1029	1005.5	3.10	80.90%	6.14	0.71
X	Mild	1034	1005	3.84	85.34%	5.60	0.81
PAB	Pale Ale	1039	1008.3	4.06	78.69%	7.00	1.07
PA	Pale Ale	1047	1012.7	4.53	72.89%	7.00	1.29
P	Porter	1034	1008.3	3.40	75.56%	7.00	0.99
S	Stout	1052	1016.6	4.68	68.04%	7.00	1.52
XXX	Strong Ale	1055	1017.2	5.00	68.77%	5.60	1.31
XXXX	Strong Ale	1081	1036	5.95	55.54%	6.09	2.00
Source:
Young's brewing record held at Battersea Library, document number YO/RE/1/9.