Let's Brew - 1949 William Younger Btlg DBS

Scottish Stouts can be pretty odd. Especially in the 20th century. I’m still trying to get my head around them.

You have the incredibly sweet, barely fermented type like Sweetheart Stout. Robert Younger who parti-gyled one with Ordinary Bitter. And Drybrough who somehow magicked one from their single Pale Ale recipe, presumably by dumping a load of caramel in at racking time.

Then there’s this beer.

Stouts came and went at William Younger, but DBS had real longevity. My first spotting of it in their brewing records is 1851. At that time it was highly-attenuated and heavily-hopped. Very unlike the Scottish-style beers that they brewed. In the 1870’s it was joined by a group of weaker, less well-attenuated Stouts with minimal hopping. As time went on, these Stouts became even less well-attenuated and even more minimally hopped. They must have been incredibly sweet.

DBS remained much the same until WW I, though the attenuation and OG both fell a bit. The weak Stouts didn’t survive the war. Maybe that’s why the attenuation of DBS fell to 50% in the 1920’s. Though it continued to have reasonably decent hopping. In the 1930’s, attenuation and hopping increased again. And liquorice and lactose added to the ingredients. This is so confusing.

Which brings us to this incarnation. With it’s odd combination of quite heavy hopping, low attenuation, lots of roast barley and lots of lactose. There must have been quite a clash of flavours, with both malts and hop bitterness battling it out with the sweetness from the lactose. Which had me really intrigued. What would it taste like? I suspect not much like anything on the market today. Maybe like Mackeson XXX, a beer I really rated but no longer see around.

1949 William Younger Btlg DBS
pale malt	6.00 lb	57.14%
crystal malt 60L	0.50 lb	4.76%
mild malt	0.50 lb	4.76%
roast barley	1.00 lb	9.52%
flaked barley	1.00 lb	9.52%
caramel	0.25 lb	2.38%
lactose	1.25 lb	11.90%
Fuggles 90 min	0.75 oz
Fuggles 60 min	0.75 oz
Fuggles 30 min	0.75 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.125 oz
OG	1046
FG	1019
ABV	3.57
Apparent attenuation	58.70%
IBU	29
SRM	27
Mash at	151º F
Sparge at	160º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	60º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale