William Murray's beers in the 1920's

It's funny, fun, fun time. As I tell my kids when I'm about to make them do something really boring. Yes, I'm back on the tables. Even better, a table of Scottish beers.

My gob was well and truly smacked when I noticed just how many analyses I had of William Murray beers. So many, that I'll have to spread them over multiple posts. I'm not sure why I have quite so many. They weren't the largest of Scottish breweries. Or of Edinburgh brewers. But therein probably lies the key. They were located in Edinburgh and so feature heavily in the William Younger and Thomas Usher Gravity Books.

I'm coming to the conclusion that in the 1920's and 1930's Scottish brewers had moved almost totally away from Mild to Pale Ale. Like Irish brewing, Scottish brewing was out of phase with England in terms of styles. But, while Ireland was 50 years or so behind, Scotland was 30 or 40 ahead. It's a phenomenon that was repeated with Lager. Maybe we should keep our eyes on Scotland to get a preview of the next dominant style.

The gravities are typically Scottish, with most of the Pale Ales in the 1035º to 1040º band. Then with a couple of really strong ones of 1055º plus. The middle ground of the 1040º's, where most English Pale Ales hung around shuffling the change in their pockets, is unoccupied. Most of them look like post-WW II ordinary Bitters.

It wouldn't surprise me, having seen Maclay's brewing records, if that solitary Mild was just a coloured-up Pale Ale. It looks very similar to the 4d Pale Ale.

Once again we can observe the use of Heavy as a synonym for "Strong", rather than as a designator of a specific style. I know I've said it lots of times before. But I'm going to keep repeating it until it sinks in. While I'm about different uses of terms some morons think are etched in stone as specific styles, note also the use of 90/- for a moderate-strength bottled Pale Ale.

I'm disappointed that there's no Milk Stout in this set. It was one of Murray's specialities. Instead there's a sweetish-looking Oatmeal Stout. Even that has a decent attenuation of 64%. that's something else worth mentioning: the relatively high degree of attenuation of Murray's beers. Most are over 70% and some over 80%.

I'll leave you with the table itself.

William Murray beers in the 1920's
Year	Beer	Style	Price	size	package	FG	OG	colour	ABV	App. Atten-uation	Flavour
1923	Mild	Mild		pint	draught	1006	1037		4.03	83.78%
1922	PA	Pale Ale		pint	draught	1005	1037		4.17	86.49%
1923	Carbonated Beer	Pale Ale	4d	half pint	bottled	1011.8	1035.2	27	3.03	66.48%
1924	Pale Ale	Pale Ale	4d	half pint	bottled	1011.1	1036.3	25	3.26	69.42%
1924	Pale Ale	Pale Ale		pint	draught		1037.2
1924	Strong PA	Pale Ale		pint	bottled	1013	1057		5.73	77.19%
1925	Strong Pale Ale	Pale Ale		pint	bottled	1015	1059.5	25	5.79	74.79%
1925	Pale Ale	Pale Ale	4d	half pint	bottled	1010.5	1039.5	25	3.76	73.42%
1925	Strong PA	Pale Ale		pint	bottled	1014	1060		5.99	76.67%
1925	Strong PA	Pale Ale	6d	half pint	bottled	1015	1060		5.86	75.00%
1926	Pale Ale	Pale Ale	4d	half pint	bottled	1010	1035	30	3.24	71.43%
1926	Pale Ale	Pale Ale	4d	half pint	bottled	1008	1034	20	3.37	76.47%
1926	PA	Pale Ale		pint	bottled	1010	1035	20	3.24	71.43%
1927	Pale Ale	Pale Ale		pint	bottled	1007	1039		4.16	82.05%
1927	Pale Ale	Pale Ale	4d	half pint	bottled	1012	1035	25	2.97	65.71%
1928	Pale Ale	Pale Ale	4d	half pint	bottled	1009	1035	25	3.37	74.29%
1929	Pale Ale	Pale Ale		pint	bottled	1009	1038.5		3.83	76.62%
1929	90/-	Pale Ale		pint	bottled	1007.25	1040		4.26	81.88%
1929	4d Pale Ale (carbonated)	Pale Ale	4d	half pint	bottled	1011	1035.5		3.17	69.01%	Mawkish
1929	4d Pale Ale (carbonated)	Pale Ale		pint	bottled	1011	1037		3.37	70.27%	Fair but thin. Not sweet.
1929	Export Strong Pale Ale (carbonated)	Pale Ale		pint	bottled	1013.5	1056		5.53	75.89%
1929	Pale Ale	Pale Ale	4d	half pint	bottled	1008	1035.5	30
1929	Oatmeal Stout	Stout		pint	bottled	1016	1044		3.62	63.64%
1924	Strong Ale	Strong Ale		pint		1011.5	1060.3	25	6.37	80.93%
1925	Heavy Ale	Strong Ale	6d	half pint	bottled	1015	1079		8.40	81.01%
1928	Strong Ale	Strong Ale		pint	bottled	1027	1085	80	7.55	68.24%
1929	Export Strong Ale (carbonated)	Strong Ale		pint	bottled	1013	1057		5.73	77.19%	Sweet & highly hopped.
1929	Heavy Ale (carbonated)	Strong Ale		pint	bottled	1030	1087		7.40	65.52%	Pleasant. Very sweet.
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001
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