England vs Scotland, part 3f: early 1850's Pale Ale

It's with a tear in my eye that I wave goodbye to the Milds. Now it's the turn of the 1850's most stylish and fashionable style: Pale Ale. Probably a type of beer you feel more comfortable with.

As you'll see, the number of examples is pretty limited. That's because of the London brewers whose brewing records I have, only Truman brewed a Pale Ale in this period. It's still very early days for the style. That Younger did brew Pale Ale is an indication of how they were ahead of the game in spotting its potential. And that Scotland was out of phase with England, style-wise. While London brewers were transitioning from Porter to Mild Ale as their bread and butter, their Scots colleagues were moving straight to Bitter.

XXP looks very different from Younger's other beers. For a start, the degree of attenuation is much higher, averaging 75%. Most of their other beers, especially the Shilling Ales, struggled top reach 65% and were often below 60%.

Early Pale Ales from different breweries have very similar specifications. That's not so surprising. Initially, they were trying to imitate the beers of Burton and modelled their Pale Ales closely on them. As the century progressed versions brewed in different parts of Britain gradually diverged. Most outside Burton dropped gravities a little from the classic 1065º. In London after 1860 Pale Ales were usually about 1060º. Younger's were a little weaker than that, with IPA at 1054º and Export Pale Ale at 1060º.

Let's press on with the table.

England vs Scotland early 1850's Pale Ale
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)
20th Mar	1851	Truman	Pale Ale	1067.0				22	6.88
7th Mar	1851	Truman	Pale Ale	1067.6				22	6.67
Average				1067.3				22.00	6.77
16th Dec	1851	Younger, Wm.	XXP	1065	1018	6.22	72.31%	24.00	8.10	1.25	1.33		57	68	7
10th Dec	1851	Younger, Wm.	XXP	1067	1017	6.61	74.63%	24.00	7.90	1.25	1.25		57	67	8
1st Mar	1852	Younger, Wm.	XXP	1067	1017	6.61	74.63%	24.00	8.20	1	1.17		56	67	8
14th Oct	1851	Younger, Wm.	XXP	1068	1019	6.48	72.06%	25.43	8.09	1.25			57	67	8
10th Nov	1851	Younger, Wm.	XXP	1068	1014	7.14	79.41%	24.00	8.20	1.25	1.25		57	69	8
1st Dec	1851	Younger, Wm.	XXP	1070	1017	7.01	75.71%	24.00	7.90	1.25	1.33		58	67	8
9th Oct	1851	Younger, Wm.	XXP	1072	1018	7.14	75.00%	24.00	8.18	1.25			58	67	7
Average				1068.1	1017.1	6.75	74.82%	24.20	8.08	1.21	1.27		57.1	67.4	7.7
difference				0.8	1017.1	6.75	74.82%	2.20	1.31	1.21	1.27		57.1	67.4	7.7
Sources:
William Younger brewing record document number WY/6/1/2/5 held at the Scottish Brewing Archive
Truman brewing record document number B/THB/C/132 held at the London Metropolitan Archives

So much information is missing from the Truman's beers, that there are only two elements I can compare: OG and hopping rate.

Gravity is a piece of urine. The Truman's and Younger's gravities are very similar.

Hopping rates are much less confusing this time around. All the beers in the table are very heavily hopped, but Younger's slightly more so. By about 1.25 lbs per barrel, on average. This set is too small for a really meaningful comparison. But, once again, there's no evidence to support the claim that Scottish brewers used far fewer hops.

Porter next. I've a much bigger set for that. I wonder what it will tell us?