England vs Scotland, part 2d: the 1840's

The end of the Milds is in sight. Or rather, here already. I'm already dreading trawling through the next set of William Younger logs. It's about 20 hours of work. Just as well I don't have a family.

This set is in the range 1100 to 1120º. Imperial Mild, you could call it. Really there just be a fourth group, 1120 and above. Except there are no London beers of that strength. To be honest, I wasn't totally sure how to classify the stronger shilling Ales from Younger. The weaker ones are definitely Milds. But what about 140/- and 160/-? In later years there's a clear pattern. Shilling Ales are the versions for bottling. The draught versions of the same beers were either X, XX, XXX Mild Ales and the stronger ones Stock Ales: XS, XXS, etc. We'll have to see. I may throw in some of the 140/- and 160/- Ales into the Stock Ale comparison, too.

Let's begin with the numbers:

Date	Year	Brewer	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Attenuation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)	Pitch temp	max. fermentation temp	length of fermentation (days)
20th Apr	1841	Whitbread	XXX	Mild	1101.4	1030.7	9.34	69.67%	7.45	3.11	1.5	2	3	60	78	3
25th Aug	1840	Truman	XXX Ale	Mild	1104.7	1029.9	9.89	71.43%	7	4.07				60.5	75.5
14th Jul	1845	Truman	XXX Ale	Mild	1105.5	1031.0	9.86	70.60%	10.0	5.94				58.5	80	9
11th Jul	1840	Truman	XXX Ale	Mild	1106.1	1031.9	9.82	69.97%	9	4.97				59	75	11
12th Jan	1846	Truman	XXX Ale	Mild	1106.6	1031.9	9.89	70.13%	7.0	3.38				58	80.5	11
3rd Sep	1845	Truman	XXX Ale	Mild	1107.2	1034.3	9.64	67.96%	11.0	5.34				58.5	82	9
17th Sep	1840	Truman	XXX Ale	Mild	1110.5	1035.2	9.97	68.17%	9	5.63				58.5	77	8
8th Sep	1840	Truman	XXX Ale	Mild	1112.2	1037.9	9.82	66.17%	10	6.41				59	72	9
Average					1106.8	1032.9	9.78	69.26%	8.81	4.86	1.50	2.00	3.00	59.0	77.5	8.6
17th Feb	1848	Younger, Wm.	100/-	Ale	1100	1039	8.07	61.00%	3.87	2.00	1.08	1		55	67	8
6th Jul	1848	Younger, Wm.	100/-	Ale	1100	1034	8.73	66.00%	7.00	3.42	0.92			58	72	10
12th Sep	1849	Younger, Wm.	100/-	Ale	1100	1041	7.81	59.00%	7.00	3.33	1	0.92		55	70	9
5th Oct	1848	Younger, Wm.	100/-	Ale	1101	1039	8.20	61.39%	4.52	2.16	1			59	70	9
6th Oct	1848	Younger, Wm.	100/-	Ale	1101	1039	8.20	61.39%	4.65	2.25	1	1		57	69	9
29th Mar	1849	Younger, Wm.	100/-	Ale	1101	1030	9.39	70.30%	10.00	5.14	1.25	1.25		54	68	11
20th Sep	1849	Younger, Wm.	100/-	Ale	1101	1039	8.20	61.39%	8.00	4.00	1.08	1.08		56	71	11
11th Oct	1848	Younger, Wm.	100/-	Ale	1102	1036	8.73	64.71%	4.52	2.22	1	1		55	69	8
6th Sep	1849	Younger, Wm.	100/-	Ale	1102	1035	8.86	65.69%	8.00	3.87	1	1		55	69.5	9
10th Sep	1849	Younger, Wm.	100/-	Ale	1102	1039	8.33	61.76%	7.00	3.39	1	0.92		56	70	10
25th Sep	1849	Younger, Wm.	100/-	Ale	1102	1039	8.33	61.76%	6.00	3.00	1.08	1.08		55	71	10
13th Nov	1849	Younger, Wm.	100/-	Ale	1102	1038	8.47	62.75%	5.00	2.63	1.08	1.17		55	69	10
23rd Mar	1847	Younger, Wm.	120/-	Ale	1103	1040	8.33	61.17%	5.00	2.59	1	1.17		54	70	10
6th Jan	1849	Younger, Wm.	100/-	Ale	1103	1039	8.47	62.14%	4.69	2.27	1	1		54	68	10
17th Jan	1849	Younger, Wm.	100/-	Ale	1104	1039	8.60	62.50%	4.19	2.13	1	1		57	68	9
25th Jan	1849	Younger, Wm.	100/-	Ale	1104	1040	8.47	61.54%	4.10	2.00	1.08			54	68	10
28th Mar	1849	Younger, Wm.	100/-	Ale	1104	1041	8.33	60.58%	5.00	2.50	1	1		54	68	10
5th Jun	1849	Younger, Wm.	100/-	Ale	1105	1037	9.00	64.76%	8.00	4.07	1.08	1.08		55	69	10
6th Apr	1849	Younger, Wm.	100/-	Ale	1106	1040	8.73	62.26%	5.00	2.54	1			54	68	10
21st Apr	1848	Younger, Wm.	120/-	Ale	1111	1040	9.39	63.96%	9.02	5.09	1.17	1		54	71	9
19th Mar	1847	Younger, Wm.	140/-	Ale	1112	1046	8.73	58.93%	10.00	6.49	0.83			54	72	10
12th Mar	1847	Younger, Wm.	140/-	Ale	1112	1046	8.73	58.93%	11.88	6.49	1			54	71	10
18th Feb	1848	Younger, Wm.	120/-	Ale	1112	1045	8.86	59.82%	4.17	2.70	1			58	61	10
16th Mar	1848	Younger, Wm.	120/-	Ale	1112	1044	9.00	60.71%	5.00	3.43	1			54	70	9
10th Oct	1848	Younger, Wm.	120/-	Ale	1112	1046	8.73	58.93%	5.00	3.28	1.17	1.66		56	71	10
1st Jun	1849	Younger, Wm.	120/-	Ale	1113	1038	9.92	66.37%	11.00	6.60	1.17			54	69	10
19th Mar	1847	Younger, Wm.	140/-	Ale	1114	1046	9.00	59.65%	10.00	6.15	0.83			56	72	10
30th Mar	1849	Younger, Wm.	120/-	Ale	1114	1041	9.66	64.04%	10.00	5.75	1.17	1.17		53	71	10
19th Jan	1849	Younger, Wm.	120/-	Ale	1115	1047	9.00	59.13%	5.50	3.38	1			54	72	10
5th Apr	1849	Younger, Wm.	120/-	Ale	1115	1040	9.92	65.22%	13.58	6.36	1.08			55	69	10
30th May	1849	Younger, Wm.	120/-	Ale	1115	1045	9.26	60.87%	11.00	6.77	1.08			54	69	10
21st Sep	1849	Younger, Wm.	120/-	Ale	1115	1047	9.00	59.13%	7.92	5.00	1			56	72	9
8th Jan	1849	Younger, Wm.	120/-	Ale	1116	1043	9.66	62.93%	5.50	3.38	1			55	71	11
26th Sep	1849	Younger, Wm.	120/-	Ale	1116	1048	9.00	58.62%	6.00	3.66	1			56	72	9
26th Jan	1849	Younger, Wm.	120/-	Ale	1117	1045	9.53	61.54%	6.00	3.69	1.08			53	72	11
Average					1107.5	1040.9	8.82	62.02%	6.95	3.82	1.04	1.08	0.00	55.1	69.7	9.7
difference					0.8	8.0	-0.96	3.10%	-1.86	-1.04	-0.46	-0.92	-3.00	-3.9	-7.8	1.2
Sources:
Truman brewing record document numbers B/THB/C/122 and B/THB/C/127 held at the London Metropolitan Archives
William Younger brewing record document number WY/6/1/2/3 held at the Scottish Brewing Archive
Whitbread brewing record document number LMA/4453/D/01/004 held at the London Metropolitan Archives

Hopping rates continue to confuse. At first glance it looks clear: Younger's beers have on average 1 lb less per barrel. But it's not that simple. The four most heavily hopped beers are all from Younger. As are the 12 least heavily hopped. There's a great deal of variation. The differences between even one specific type are large. One 100/- has over 5 lbs per barrel, another just 2 lbs. Part of it appears seasonal - i.e. the hopping is heavier in the summer - but that doesn't explain all the variation. You're going to want some sort of conclusion, aren't you? Bit tricky. How about this: in the 1840's Younger's Imperial Milds were sometimes more heavily hopped and sometimes less heavily hopped than equivalent London beers.

With only one London beer to compare to, there's not much I can say about boil times. Except that the Scottish ones are extremely short, with none longer than an hour and a quarter and many under an hour. No comparison, but a conclusion of sorts: in the 1840's Younger's Imperial Milds had very short boils.

Fermentation temperatures have shown one of the clearest patterns so far. It's repeated here. The pitching temperature of Younger's beers was on average 4º F cooler. The maximum fermentation temperature was almost 8º F cooler. Excuse me if you've heard this before:  in the 1840's Younger's Imperial Milds were fermented cooler than equivalent London beers, on average around 7 - 8º F.

There's no surprise with the length of fermentation, either. Just over a day longer on average for Younger's beers. Though, if you remove the Whitbread beer which had a much shorter fermentation time than any other beers in the class, the difference is only 0.2 days. Or bugger all in layman's language. So: in the 1840's Younger's Imperial Milds took marginallly longer to ferment than equivalent London beers.

I was surprised by the average attenuation of Younger's beers in this class. It's the highest of any of the groups of Younger's Milds. I'd have expected it to be the other way around. The result is that the gap with London Milds is much smaller, just under 5% or about half what it was for the other groups. With lower attenuation, it's no shock than the ABV of the Younger's beers is lower. About 1% ABV, on average. Which is why I'm slightly confused by the difference in FG - a full 8 points. Or nearly 25%. It's a fair comparison, too, as the average OG is very similar for both groups. I'm starting to sound like a broken record: in the 1840's Younger's Imperial Milds were slightly less attenuated and lower in alcohol than London Milds of a similar gravity.

Mild finally done, where to go now? As I'm working alphabetically through the styles, it'll be Pale Ale.