John Jeffrey beers 1906 - 1961

Let's start with a brief history of the company. Though these things aren't my speciality.

There's supposed to have been a brewery on the site of Heriot Bridge, Grassmarket from the early 16th century. After a couple of changes of ownership in the early part of the 19th century, it was bought by the brothers John and David Jeffrey in 1837. In 1865 land was purchased at Roseburn on the outskirts of Edinburgh and maltings, an ale store and a bottling plant built. In 1880 a brewhouse was also built at Roseburn an in 1900 the Grassmarket brewery was closed and the land sold to Heriot–Watt College. It remained independent, gobbling up Edinburgh United Breweries along the way, until 1960, when it merged with Hammonds of Bradford and Hope and Anchor of Sheffield to form Northern Breweries of Great Britain Ltd. Renamed United Breweries Ltd, the merged company was itself absorbed into Charrington United Breweries Ltd in 1962.

Aitchison Jeffrey was formed in 1961 as a subsidiary of United Breweries combining John Aitchison & Co. and John Jeffrey & Co. Brewing at Aitchison stopped immediately and was concentrated at Jeffrey's Roseburn site. Brewing continued there, latterly under the ownership of Bass Charrington, until the 1990's.

Sources:
"The Brewing Industry. A Guide to Historical Records" by Lesley Richmond and Alison Turton (eds), Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 1990.
"A history of beer and brewing" by Ian Spencer Hornsey, 2003, page 387.

That bit of company history out of the way, we can get on with the meat. Details of Jeffrey's beers.

Now here's a funny thing. Despite being early champions of Lager brewing in Scotland and being pretty damn famous for brewing the stuff, I've only two analyses. Both from the 1930's, one for Pilsener one for plain old Lager. Both look pretty strong compared to modern British Lagers. The Pilsener has an interesting profile. With 85% attenuation, it must have been pretty dry. The Lager has quite a different character: lower gravity and a lower degree of attenuation. A good bit weaker than the Pilsener, but, at 4.32% ABV, still no watery session beer.

Pale Ales are the most represented style in the table. Usually weaker types. The 54/- PA from 1906, at just over 1040º, is pretty weak for the period. A London PA was usually at least 1050º. I'm a bit surprised at how weak Jefffrey's Pale Ales were in the 1920's and 1930's. Most are not much, if anything, over 1030º. London versions were 1045 to 1055º at the time.

Just to be perverse, the two IPAs are stronger than the vast majority of the Pale Ales. Though I'm not sure how significant that is. During the interwar years, Scottish IPA was pretty schizophrenic.There was McEwan's Export IPA at 1055º,  Barnard's 90/- IPA at 1040º, and Usher's IPA at just 1032º. Jeffrey's looks like the 90/- type.

The No.1 Strong Ale, which was presumably intended to compete with William Younger's No. 1, wasn't really all that strong.  Younger's beer was in the low 1080º's, a good 20 points higher than Jeffrey's. Weirdly - and this must have been true of very, very few British beers - the gravity was higher after WW II. And was only 7 or 8 points weaker than Younger's No. 1.

The Stouts are rather odd. I don't mean the Nourishing Stout. That's about what you'd expect: low gravity, low attenuation, bugger all alcohol. The two from 1947 are completely different. And unusual for postwar Scottish Stouts. For a start there's the high gravity: 1076.5º and 1064.5º. For contextual purposes, in the same year Guinness Extra Stout was 1042º. The attenuation, especially of the Double Stout, is higher than you would expect, too. 95%. That must have been bone dry. And significantly dryer than the Guinness with just 75% attenuation.

But the most interesting thing about the 1947 Stouts is the comment on the flavour: "very sour". Was that intentional? Is that why the Double Stout was so highly attenuated - there was something brettanomyces-like at work?

Green Beer. The name says it all, because, judging by the colour noted in the William Younger Gravity Book, it really was green. I know they put food colouring in beer for St. Patrick's day to make a green beer. I hadn't realised anyone really marketed one outside a one-day gimmick.

I've saved the best until last. It was in my mega-gravity table as ??sher's Extra Strong Ale. I hadn't been able to decipher the entry in the Whitbread Gravity Book first time through. But I've learned more about Scottish beer in the meantime. I know who brewed an extra strong Ale and whose name ended in ..sher: Disher.

John Disher & Co. was an Edinburgh brewery famed for its ridiculously strong Ale. A monster of well over 100º that was served on draught. Disher became part of Edinburgh United Breweries in 1889. That's the Edinburgh United Breweries that Jeffrey bought in 1934. After they had a little difficulty with Customs and Excise. Something to do with not paying all the tax they should have.

Blethering done, time for the table:

Jeffrey & Co beers 1906 - 1961
Year	Beer	Style	Price	size	package	Acidity	FG	OG	colour	ABV	App. Atten-uation	Flavour
1906	54/- PA	Pale Ale		pint	draught			1041.4	6
1926	Pale Ale	Pale Ale		pint	bottled		1006	1032	35	3.38	81.25%
1926	PA	Pale Ale		pint	bottled		1007	1032	20	3.24	78.13%
1927	Pale Ale	Pale Ale		pint	bottled		1005	1037.75		4.30	87.42%
1928	No. 1 Strong	Strong Ale		pint	bottled		1014	1063		6.39	77.78%
1928	Strong Ale	Strong Ale		pint	bottled		1025	1083	100	7.55	69.88%
1929	Pale Ale (carbonated)	Pale Ale		pint	bottled		1008	1034	Between 7 - 8.	3.44	77.94%
1929	No. 1 Strong Ale	Strong Ale		pint	bottled		1015	1059	100	5.72	74.58%
1929	No. 1 Strong Ale	Strong Ale		pint	bottled		1015	1062	110	6.12	75.81%
1930	Green Castle	Strong Ale	10.5	half	bottled	0.06	1006	1050.4		5.82	88.29%
1930	Pale Ale	Pale Ale		pint	bottled		1005	1038		4.30	86.84%
1930	Green Beer	Green Beer	8d	half	bottled		1007	1046	green	5.09	84.78%
1931	Pale Ale	Pale Ale		pint	bottled		1011	1035.5		3.24	70.42%
1931	Pale Ale	Pale Ale	4d	half	bottled		1009	1029	25	2.59	68.97%
1932	Pilsener	Pils		pint	bottled		1008	1052	9	5.77	85.00%
1932	Nourishing Stout	Stout		pint	bottled		1012	1031		2.45	61.29%
1934	Pale Ale	Pale Ale		pint	draught		1008	1039		4.03	79.49%
1934	120/- Ale	Pale Ale		pint	bottled		1017	1054		4.86	69.44%
1934	No. 1 Strong Ale	Strong Ale		pint	bottled		1017	1059.5		5.59	72.27%
1936	Lager	Lager	7d to 7.5d	pint	bottled	0.06	1013	1046.4		4.32	71.77%
1936	India Pale Ale	IPA	6d	pint	canned	0.06	1012	1039.5		3.55	69.37%
1937	60/- or 50/- Pale Ale	Pale Ale		pint	bottled		1004	1029.75	14 – 15	3.32	85.71%
1938	Pale Ale	Pale Ale	6d	pint	bottled	0.05	1011	1032.6	37	2.79	66.26%
1939	60/- Ale	Pale Ale		pint	bottled		1008	1036.25	13 – 14	3.67	77.93%
1939	60/- Ale	Pale Ale		pint	bottled		1009	1037.5		3.70	76.00%
1941	Pale Ale	Pale Ale		pint	bottled		1015	1038.5		3.03	61.04%
1947	Double Stout	Stout		pint	bottled		1005	1076.5		9.53	94.12%	Very sour.
1947	XXX Stout	Stout		pint	bottled		1015	1064.5		6.52	77.52%	Very sour.
1948	Strong Ale No. 1	Strong Ale		pint	bottled		1025	1067		5.43	62.69%
1948	Strong Ale	Strong Ale		pint	bottled		1020	1065		5.91	70.00%
1949	PA 60/-	Pale Ale		pint	bottled		1007	1029.5		2.98	77.97%
1953	Strong Ale	Strong Ale	1/2.5d	nip	bottled	0.06	1020	1064.3	11 + 40	5.79	69.36%
1954	Nourishing Stout	Stout	1/2d	half	bottled	0.05	1019	1036.1	1 + 14	2.16	46.54%
1957	Dishers Extra Strong Ale	Strong Ale	2/8d	half	bottled	0.07	1017	1088.6	27	9.40	80.70%
1961	Export IPA	IPA	15d	half	bottled	0.05	1011	1042.3	24	3.94	74.47%
Sources:
Document WY/6/1/1/14 of the William Younger archive held at the Scottish Brewing Archive.
Younger, Wm. & Co Gravity Book document WY/6/1/1/19 held at the Scottish Brewing Archive
Thomas Usher Gravity Book document TU/6/11 held at the Scottish Brewing Archive
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002