William Younger’s Pale Ales 1946 – 1959

Time to put some of William Younger’s beers under the microscope. Starting with their Pale Ales. Of which there were quite a few.

William Younger made their name in the middle of the 19th century for two types of beer: Scotch Ales and Pale Ales. Both being very popular in export markets and south of the border in England. The large quantity of IPA exported hasn’t stopped people spouting the normal bollocks about Scottish brewers using virtually no hops. How on earth could they have exported a lightly-hopped beer to India and Australia? It makes absolutely no sense.

At first glance, it looks like they brewed as many as eight brands of bottled Pale Ale. But on closer inspection it looks like there were probably only three, with gravities of 1030º, 1036º and 1044º. Which are pretty much the classic post-war 60/-, 70/- and 80/- gravities. In 1951, Maclays three Pale Ales looked very similar, with OGs of 1030º, 1037º and 1042º.*

You can see how inconsistently the shilling designations were used, with 80/- stronger than 105/- and 60/- and 90/- the same strength.

I’m a bit surprised at the high degree of attenuation. Scottish beers mostly have crap attenuation, while here everything is above 70%. Despite that, due to the pretty low gravity, there are still a fair few examples below 3% ABV.

One word about colour. I’d expect a Pale Ale to be between 20 and 30 on this scale. The 55 of the 1959 Keg Bitter isn’t far away from Dark Mild territory.

William Younger's Pale Ales 1946 - 1959
Date	Beer	Price	size	package	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour
1946	60/- Ale		pint	bottled	1029	1008	2.72	72.41%
1947	60/- Ale		pint	bottled	1028.5	1007.5	2.72	73.68%
1947	60/- Ale		pint	bottled	1031	1007.5	3.05	75.81%
1947	60/- Ale		pint	bottled	1029.5	1002.5	3.52	91.53%
1949	PA 60/-		pint	bottled	1030	1004	3.38	86.67%
1959	Pale Ale	12d	half	bottled	1029.9	1008	2.74	73.24%	24
1947	90/- Sparkling Ale		pint	bottled	1032	1009	2.98	71.88%
1949	Sparkling Ale	1/8d	pint	bottled	1030.9	1004.8	3.39	84.47%	25.5 B
1955	90/- Sparkling Ale	1/-	half	bottled	1032	1006.8	3.27	78.75%	32
1955	90/- Holyrood Ale	1/-	half	bottled	1031.6	1006.7	3.23	78.80%	35
1947	80/- Ale	16d	pint	bottled	1042	1012	3.89	71.43%
1947	105/- Ale	15d	pint	bottled	1036.5	1005.5	4.04	84.93%
1949	Holyrood Ale		half	bottled	1028	1008	2.59	71.43%
1959	Holyrood Ale	10d	half	bottled	1028.7	1006.5	2.78	77.35%	30
1949	Monk Pale Ale Export		pint	bottled	1046	1011	4.55	76.09%
1952	Monk Export	1/1d	half	bottled	1046.9	1011.6	4.59	75.27%	24
1953	Monk Export	1/3d	half	bottled	1044.9	1009	4.67	79.96%	29 B
1954	Monk Export Ale			bottled	1046.7	1008.9	4.92	80.94%	26
1955	Monk Export Ale	15d	half	bottled	1044.8	1010.6	4.44	76.34%	21
1957	Monk Export Ale	2/2d	16 oz	bottled	1045.6	1010.3	4.59	77.41%	20
1956	Wee Willie PA	11d	half	bottled	1031.1	1006.4	3.21	79.42%	25
1955	India Pale Ale	9.5d	half	bottled	1030.2	1006.9	3.02	77.15%	22
1959	Keg Bitter	19d	pint	draught	1043.7	1007.8	4.68	82.15%	55
1959	XXP Bitter	22d	pint	draught	1030.4	1005.7	3.21	81.25%	21
Sources:
Thomas Usher Gravity Book document TU/6/11.
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.

Mild and Brown Ale next.




* Maclay’s brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number M/6/1/1/28.