England vs Scotland, part 3d: early 1850's Extra Special Mild Ale

You must be getting used to this. A table of beer details and then me explaining why it proves Scottish and English brewing weren't really all that different.

It's still the early 1850's and we've still a way to go with just the Milds. This time it's what is now officially called (at least by me) Extra Special Mild. Or ESM for short. (Or Mild Ale between 1090º and 1099º.) You know, I keep making up these style names and throwing them around like balls of mud. Eventually one will stick. I'm sure of that. And why not Extra Special Mild? It makes a nice companion to Extra Special Bitter. If beer styles got married, ESM and ESB would be an obvious match. It certainly couldn't be Best Bitter and Extra Special Bitter. That would be incest.

Before a stumble too far from the path of coherence, here's the table:

England vs Scotland early 1850's Mild 1090º - 1099º
Date	Year	Brewer	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)	Pitch temp	max. fer-ment-ation temp	length of fer-ment-ation (days)
4th Oct	1850	Truman	XX Ale	1093.1				9	4.34				59
2nd Oct	1850	Whitbread	XXX	1094.7	1034.6	7.95	63.45%	7.87	3.24	1.17	2	2	60	76	6
15th Mar	1851	Truman	XX Ale	1095.3				10	4.40
8th Oct	1850	Whitbread	XXX	1095.8	1037.1	7.77	61.27%	7.85	3.34	2	2	2	60	76	5
21st Oct	1852	Reid	XXX	1097.0	1025.8	9.42	73.43%	10.72	4.90	1.5	3		57	79	11
2nd Nov	1852	Reid	XXX	1097.0	1024.9	9.53	74.29%	9.77	4.47	1.5	3		57	79	11
31st Aug	1853	Reid	XXX	1097.0	1031.0	8.72	68.00%	10.24	4.71	2	3		56.5	78	12
25th Sep	1850	Whitbread	XXX	1098.1	1029.1	9.12	70.34%	8.36	3.50	2	2	2	60	76	5
Average				1096.0	1030.4	8.75	68.46%	9.23	4.11	1.69	2.50	2.00	58.5	77.3	8.3
13th Oct	1851	Younger, Wm.	80/-	1090	1032	7.67	64.44%	5.00	2.08	1.25	1.5		56	70	9
6th Nov	1851	Younger, Wm.	80/-	1090	1034	7.41	62.22%	5.00	2.18	1.33	1.5		56	68	9
28th Nov	1851	Younger, Wm.	80/-	1090	1037	7.01	58.89%	5.00	2.26	1.25	1.5		56	68	8
2nd Mar	1852	Younger, Wm.	80/-	1090	1036	7.14	60.00%	5.00	2.21	1	1.25		56	67	8
20th Mar	1852	Younger, Wm.	80/-	1090	1036	7.14	60.00%	5.00	2.07	1.08	1.25		56	67	8
21st Oct	1851	Younger, Wm.	80/-	1091	1037	7.14	59.34%	5.00	2.21	1.25	1.5		56	68	9
27th Oct	1851	Younger, Wm.	80/-	1091	1037	7.14	59.34%	5.00	2.15	1.25	1.33		56	69	8
18th Nov	1851	Younger, Wm.	80/-	1092	1035	7.54	61.96%	5.00	2.34	1.33	1.5		56	68	9
9th Dec	1851	Younger, Wm.	80/-	1092	1038	7.14	58.70%	5.00	2.11		1.33		56	67	9
9th Nov	1853	Younger, Wm.	100/-	1092	1040	6.88	56.52%	4.50	2.14	1.25			56	68	8
28th Oct	1851	Younger, Wm.	XXX	1092	1032	7.94	65.22%	14.59	5.53	1.33			54	69	9
24th Nov	1851	Younger, Wm.	XXX	1093	1034	7.81	63.44%	10.00	4.32	1.33			56	67	9
14th Dec	1851	Younger, Wm.	XXX	1095	1037	7.67	61.05%	17.94	5.50	1.25			54	68	9
10th Nov	1853	Younger, Wm.	100/-	1096	1040	7.41	58.33%	4.50	2.25	1.25			56	68	6
11th Apr	1853	Younger, Wm.	100/-	1097	1036	8.07	62.89%	10.00	6.05	1.5			57	69	8
Average				1092.1	1036.1	7.41	60.82%	7.10	3.03	1.26	1.41	0.00	55.8	68.1	8.4
difference				-3.9	5.6	-1.34	-7.64%	-2.13	-1.08	-0.43	-1.09	-2.00	-2.7	-9.3	0.1
Sources:
William Younger brewing record document number WY/6/1/2/5 held at the Scottish Brewing Archive
Whitbread brewing record document number LMA/4453/D/01/014 held at the London Metropolitan Archives
Truman brewing record document number B/THB/C/132 held at the London Metropolitan Archives
Reid brewing record document number 789/273 held at the Westminster City Archives

I'll be going through each point in the same order, yet again. I haven't the energy, nor the imagination, to think up an exciting new format each time. New crap jokes is about my limit.

Hopping rates. At first glance it looks clear: Younger's beers have about 1 pound, or about 25%, fewer hops. But take a closer look. The three most heavily hopped beers are all from Younger. And if you drop the 80/- Ales and only use the 100/- and XXX, the average hopping rate of Younger's beers is slightly higher, 4.3 pounds per barrel. That's so contradictory I can come to no conclusion at all. Except that Younger hopped their 100/- more heavily than their 80/-.

Boil times. This is one area where the results have been totally consistent. Once again, Younger's boils were shorter. 25 minutes less for the first wort and 65 minutes less for the second. You can't argue with that: in the early 1850's Younger's Extra Special Mild Ales had considerably shorter boils than equivalent London beers.

Younger's fermentation temperatures are again cooler. But the difference between the maximum fermentation temperatures and the pitching temperatures are quite wide apart. Younger's pitching temperatures were on average less than 3º F cooler. But the maximum is almost 10º F cooler. That's close to the difference often claimed. Take an average and you get: in the early 1850's Younger's Extra Special Mild Ales were fermented on average 6º F cooler than equivalent London beers.

I won't waste much time on the length of fermentation. The averages are near identical. Though there's wider variation amongst the London beers. That doesn't change my overall opinion: in the early 1850's Younger's Extra Special Mild Ales took about the same length of time to ferment as equivalent London beers.

Once again the apparent attenuation of Younger's beers barely reaches an average of 60%. While the London average is over 68%. Consequently it's no surprise that the ABV of Younger's beers is lower and the FG a good bit higher. Another easy one: in the early 1850's Younger's Extra Special Mild Ales were less attenuated than equivalent London beers.

You think this is getting tedious? We've still more than a century to go. Let's see who's left at the end.