Robert Deuchar beers 1929 - 1959

All those dusty financial reports are making my throat dry. Time to give it some relief in the form of beer. Sadly not actual beer, just numbers about beer. It's close enough for me.

Newcastle brewer Robert Deuchar, you will recall, bought Pattison's Duddingston Brewery at a knock-down price. They seem to have got the best deal of anyone out of the Pattison's bankruptcy. They got themselves a shiny new brewery to brew Scotch Ales for their pubs in the northeast. Let's take a look at what they brewed.

A lot of Pale Ales, it looks like. All the pre-war beers in the table are Pale Ales. pretty low-gravity Pale Ales. All are under 1040º. I know I've warned you about this before, but it bears repeating: don't assume that those 60/- Ales have any connection with modern Scottish 60/-. These were all clearly indicated as Pale Ales. The colours also show that they weren't dark like today's 60/-.

1038º was pretty weak for a London Pale Ale before WW II. Especially a draught Pale Ale. Standard Bitter was in the mid 1040's and Best Bitter over 1050º. The only beers with a similar gravity to Deuchar's were cheap bottled Pale Ales like Barclay Perkins XLK or Whitbread's Family Ale, which were both in the 1036-1038º range.

See anything unusual about the post-WW II beers? With the exception of one Pale Ale from the dark days of 1949 austerity (when Britain was most definitely in black and white) all are over 1040º. Normally you would expect the earlier beers to be stronger. There's a reason for that. The 1950's Pale Ales are of a different type: Export. It does appear that in the 1950's it was beginning to take on its modern form. Though today's Exports are a little lower in gravity, in the range 1042-1045º.

The Hampden Red Ale is an odd one. My guess would be that it's the Export with extra caramel to give it a darker colour. I'm trying to think if I've seen another Scottish beer described as a Red Ale. I don't believe I have. But I'm sure that won't stop some style Nazi making up guidelines and a fake history for it.

Finally there are a couple of Scottish-style Sweet Stouts. I didn't need the hint in the name to see that they were Sweet Stouts. The low attenuation gives that away. Though they aren't the most extreme in that respect. Plenty of Scottish Stouts had below 50% apparent attenuation.

Robert Deuchar beers 1929 - 1959
Year	Beer	Style	Price	size	package	Acidity	FG	OG	colour	ABV	App. Atten-uation
1929	60/-	Pale Ale		pint	bottled		1010	1038.5	No. 4 1.5 glass paler than our standard.	3.76	75.32%
1929	60/-	Pale Ale		pint	bottled		1010	1038.5	No.6 1 glass paler than our standard.	3.76	75.32%
1931	Pale Ale	Pale Ale	6d	half pint	bottled		1009	1034	26	3.24	73.53%
1936	Pale Ale	Pale Ale	5d	pint	bottled		1006	1028.5	7 – 8	2.92	78.95%
1938	60/- Ale	Pale Ale		pint	bottled		1009	1038.3	13	3.80	76.47%
1939	60/- Ale	Pale Ale		pint	bottled		1009	1037.5		3.77	77.33%
1939	60/- Ale	Pale Ale		pint	bottled		1008	1031.5	8	3.11	76.19%
1949	PA 60/-	Pale Ale		pint	bottled		1008	1030		2.85	73.33%
1955	Export Ale	Pale Ale	1/3d	half pint	bottled	0.05	1015	1049.5	23	4.48	69.90%
1956	Hampden Red Ale	Ale	1/3d	half pint	bottled	0.05	1016	1048.5	55	4.23	67.42%
1956	Edinburgh Sweet Stout	Stout	1/3d	half pint	bottled	0.04	1017	1042.9	300	3.37	60.84%
1956	Export Ale	Pale Ale	1/3d	half pint	bottled	0.05	1014	1047.6	23	4.37	70.80%
1959	Edinburgh Sweet Stout	Stout	14d	halfpint	bottled		1020	1043.5	275	3.06	54.71%
1959	Edinburgh Export	Pale Ale	16d	halfpint	bottled	0.04	1015	1048.3	23	4.33	69.15%
Sources:
Thomas Usher Gravity Book document TU/6/11 held at the Scottish Brewing Archive
Younger, Wm. & Co Gravity Book document WY/6/1/1/19 held at the Scottish Brewing Archive
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002