George Younger Strong and Scotch Ales 1950 - 1955

This is something I've just especially written for my new book Strong! I'm a post short for next week, so I'm going to cheat and use it on the blog, too.

Here we have a good chance to see some of the history of Scotch Ale. I don’t mean the type sold in Scotland, but those brewed for the Belgian market.

In the 20th century, Belgium was a big importer of British beer. After the gravity drop in Britain caused by WW I, this was usually specially brewed for the Belgian market. In reality, they were much like the beers sold in Britain before WW I.

These beers show us the difference in strength between beers for domestic sale and those for the Belgian market, as well as the different naming. In Scotland, it was marketed as Strong Ale, in Belgium Scotch Ale.

The Gordon’s brand is still around, though it’s now brewed in Belgium. Which means one of George Younger’s brands has lived on more than 50 years after the brewery closed. Actually, it’s not the only one of their brands that’s still knocking around. For they were also the original brewer of Sweetheart Stout.

Younger’s Scotch Ale and Strong Ale look like versions of the same beer, just with the domestic version a good bit weaker. Oh, and the colour, too. Strong Ale is a dark brown, while the Scotch Ale is on the border of dark amber and pale brown. But that doesn’t mean a different recipe was used. The colour probably just comes from a caramel addition somewhere late in the brewing process.

George Younger Strong and Scotch Ales 1950 - 1955
Year	Beer	Style	Price	size	package	Acidity	FG	OG	colour	ABV	App. Atten-uation
1950	Gordon Highland Scotch Ale	Scotch Ale			bottled	0.90	1031.1	1091.2	1 + 40	7.81	65.90%
1950	Gordon Xmas Ale (bottled in Antwerp)	Scotch Ale			bottled	0.10	1032.3	1090.7	2 + 40	7.58	64.39%
1952	Gordon Highland Scotch Ale	Scotch Ale			bottled	0.08	1026.5	1081.8	2.5 + 40	7.19	67.60%
1953	Strong Ale	Strong Ale	14.5d	nip	bottled	0.06	1021.9	1067.6	13 + 40	5.93	67.60%
1954	Gordon Highland Scotch Ale (purchased in Belgium)	Scotch Ale			bottled	0.06	1028	1090.9	60	8.20	69.20%
1955	Strong Ale	Strong Ale	15d	nip	bottled	0.05	1022.3	1067.6	100	5.87	67.01%
1955	Gordon Highland Scotch Ale (purchased in Belgium)	Scotch Ale			bottled	0.07	1029.9	1090.3	55	7.86	66.89%
Sources:
Thomas Usher Gravity Book document TU/6/11 held at the Scottish Brewing Archive
Whitbread Gravity Book document LMA/4453/D/02/002 held at the London Metropolitan Archives

From the brewing records I’ve seen, Scottish brewers rarely used coloured malts, except in Stout. And I know some Scottish brewers had multiple versions of the same beer coloured with caramel to different shades, depending on where the beer was going to be sold. That’s also how they managed to parti-gyle 60/- with 70/- and 80/- even though 60/- was much darker – basically like Dark Mild – than the other two.