Maclays beers during WW II (part three)

Not forgotten about Maclays. No indeedy. We're now moving to the mid- to late-war period, namely 1943 and 1944. When our lads were bravely pushing the Germans out of the Ukraine and back into Poland.

Maclay's beers 1943 - 1944
Date	Year	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	Pitch temp	max. fermen-tation temp	length of fermen-tation (days)	pale malt	no. 1 sugar	caramel	flaked oats	flaked barley	malted oats
29th Jun	1943	PA 6d	Pale Ale	1032	1014	2.38	56.25%	4.00	0.56	60º	67.5º	7	76.98%	9.06%	0.38%	4.53%		9.06%
2nd Jul	1943	PA 6d	Pale Ale	1032	1013.5	2.45	57.81%	4.00	0.55	60º	67.5º	8	76.34%	8.14%	0.25%	6.11%		9.16%
2nd Jul	1943	PA 5d	Pale Ale	1028	1012	2.12	57.14%	4.00	0.48	60º	67º	7	76.34%	8.14%	0.25%	6.11%		9.16%
6th Jul	1943	Export	Pale Ale	1041	1015	3.44	63.41%	4.00	0.71	60º	67º	8	76.34%	8.14%	0.25%	6.11%		9.16%
6th Jul	1943	PA 6d	Pale Ale	1032	1011	2.78	65.63%	4.00	0.55	60º	65º	8	76.34%	8.14%	0.25%	6.11%		9.16%
4th Aug	1943	PA 6d	Pale Ale	1032	1014	2.38	56.25%	4.00	0.55	60º	67º	6	76.98%	9.06%	0.38%	4.53%		9.06%
19th Oct	1943	Export	Pale Ale	1040	1015	3.31	62.50%	4.00	0.70	60º	70º	7	76.34%	8.14%	0.25%	6.11%		9.16%
19th Oct	1943	PA 6d	Pale Ale	1032	1012	2.65	62.50%	4.00	0.56	60º	68.5º	8	76.34%	8.14%	0.25%	6.11%		9.16%
21st Oct	1943	PA 6d	Pale Ale	1032	1012	2.65	62.50%	4.00	0.54	60º	69º	7	76.98%	9.06%	0.38%	4.53%		9.06%
18th Jan	1944	Export	Pale Ale	1040	1016	3.18	60.00%	3.53	0.60	60º	68º	7	79.39%	8.14%	0.25%		6.11%	6.11%
18th Jan	1944	PA 6d	Pale Ale	1032	1012	2.65	62.50%	3.53	0.48	60º	68º	8	79.39%	8.14%	0.25%		6.11%	6.11%
20th Jan	1944	PA 6d	Pale Ale	1032	1013.5	2.45	57.81%	3.48	0.47	60º	67º	7	76.98%	9.06%	0.38%		4.53%	9.06%
10th Mar	1944	Export	Pale Ale	1040	1015	3.31	62.50%	3.53	0.59	60º	68º	7	79.39%	8.14%	0.25%		6.11%	6.11%
10th Mar	1944	PA 6d	Pale Ale	1032	1011	2.78	65.63%	3.53	0.48	60º	67º	8	79.39%	8.14%	0.25%		6.11%	6.11%
16th Mar	1944	PA 6d	Pale Ale	1032	1012.5	2.58	60.94%	3.48	0.48	60º	67º	7	76.98%	9.06%	0.38%		4.53%	9.06%
9th Jun	1944	PA 6d	Pale Ale	1032	1014	2.38	56.25%	4.00	0.56	60º	67.5º	8	76.98%	9.06%	0.38%			13.58%
13th Jun	1944	Export	Pale Ale	1040	1016	3.18	60.00%	4.00	0.71	60º	69.5º	7	79.39%	8.14%	0.25%			12.21%
13th Jun	1944	PA 6d	Pale Ale	1032	1014	2.38	56.25%	4.00	0.57	60º	68º	7	79.39%	8.14%	0.25%			12.21%
Source:
Maclay brewing record, document number M/6/1/1/13 held at the Scottish Brewing Archive.

Maclay's beers in these years are, er, a little dull. There are only really two of them, PA 6d and Export. PA 5d makes a fleeting appearance at a laughably low strength of 2.1% ABV before disappearing. With PA 6d not much stronger, it's no surprise this was dropped. Effectively PA 6d had dropped into the bottom strength spot.

What is surprising is the appearance of Export at a very reasonable gravity of 1040. It looks like a replacement for PA 7d but, not having the records for the years 1941 and 1942, I'm not sure how PA 7d was phased out and Export phased in.

Once again the different winter and summer hopping rates are very clear: 4 lbs per quarter in the summer and 3.5 lbs per quarter in the winter. That's quite a drop from the 6 lbs and 5 lbs for summer and winter in 1939-40. That's a really low hopping rate. About as low as I've seen for a British Pale Ale.

I find this very significant. Despite the gravities falling, the FG's remain high. So that the attenuation has dropped even lower. Maclay's Pale Ales are beginning to look very different from their London cousins through the combination of low hopping rates and low attenuation. Could this be when sweet, malty Scottish Pale Ales appeared?

On to the ingredients. There have been a couple of changes wince the early war years. No. 2 invert sugar has been dropped and replaced by No. 1 invert and caramel. I assume because of supply reasons. The percentage of sugar in the grist has also dropped from 13-17% to 8-9%.

I'd expected to see flaked barley and flaked oats in the grists. Brewers were pretty much forced to use these by the government. As a brewer that had used both flaked adjuncts and oats before the war, Maclays would have been at ease with these ingredients. What is unusual are the malted oats used in every single one of the beers. Maclays had been famous for their Oat Malt Stout, so that might explain rtheir willingness to use malted oats. But I still would have expected them to use flaked rather than malted oats as that was the form the government was pushing. There was less energy involved in producing flakes.

The barley malt element of Maclays beers remained remarkably constant throughout the war at 75-80%. A fairly decent level and much like how they brewed when they had a free choice before the outbreak of war.

Next time we'll be comparing Maclays beers with some from London. Very revealing is all I'll say in advance. Don't want to spoil your fun.