Let's Brew Wednesday (Saturday edition) – 1858 William Younger Ex Pale Ale

Here’s something doubtless more in tune with modern tastes: a hoppy Pale Ale.

Is it a Pale Ale or an IPA? No effing idea. It’s not even a sensible question for an 1850’s beer. There wasn’t really much of a consistent demarcation between the two. All I can say is that this looks pretty close to a beer like Bass Pale Ale, the classic English IPA.

Younger’s used pretty much an identical mashing schemes for all their beers, with the exception of their Stouts which had lower mashing temperatures. Their Pale Ales were mashed just the same way as their Scottish Ales.

I’m really struggling for much to say about this beer. Other than that it was pale and hoppy. Very hoppy. Loads of Goldings in the boil and loads more as dry hops. Leaving an impressive IBU count of 142. And that’s using BeerSmith’s default of 5% alpha acid content. Most of the old analyses of Goldings show over 6% alpha.

This looks like a Stock Pale Ale, meaning a long secondary conditioning is appropriate. Anything from 3 to 12 months. If you’re the patient sort. And the real FG would have been lower. These export beers usually had 80% plus attenuation.


Me done. Recipe. Off for a walk now . . .

1858 William Younger Ex Pale Ale
pale malt	14.75 lb	100.00%
Goldings 90 min	4.00 oz
Goldings 60 min	4.00 oz
Goldings 20 min	4.00 oz
Goldings dry hops	2.50 oz
OG	1063
FG	1016
ABV	6.22
Apparent attenuation	74.60%
IBU	142
SRM	5
Mash at	154º F
Sparge at	185º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	61º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale