Let's Brew Wednesday - 1933 Lorimer & Clark SA

I did contemplate going through the whole set of Pale Ales. But, as they’re just different-strength versions of the same basic beer, I thought that might be a little dull.

Instead I’ve plucked out SA, the beer that isn’t like the others. Which, I’ll admit, was quite a surprise. I’d expected SA to be like the Strong Ales produced at other breweries like Drybrough or Maclay. Just a super-strong version of their Pale Ale recipe. But that’s not the case. It’s not parti-gyled with a Pale Ale and the recipe is quite different.

For a start there’s no flaked maize. And there’s less sugar and one extra ingredient: caramel. Also it was boiled for much longer, 3 hours rather than 1.5 and 2 hours. But the biggest difference is the hopping. It’s so out of whack with their other beers that I just cross-checked the numbers to make sure I hadn’t made a mistake. It really is hopped at three times the rate of their Pale Ales: 14.88 lbs per quarter compared to 4.88 lbs.

Which leaves this beer looking very 19th century. The combination of high gravity and heavy hopping is reminiscent of William Younger’s 140/- and 160/- from the end of the 1800’s. Other Scottish Strong Ales of the 1930’s look very different. Their hopping is much more restrained. A quick look at this table shows how much of an Outlier Lorimer & Clark’s SA was:

Scottish Strong Ales of the 1930's
Year	Brewer	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
1933	Drybrough	Burns	1084.0	1027.0	7.54	67.86%	6.29	2.51
1933	Wm. Younger	1	1085.0	1033.0	6.88	61.18%	5.26	1.79
1938	Maclay	SA	1075	1028	6.22	62.67%	5.00	1.65
1932	Lorimer & Clark	SA	1096	1025	9.39	73.96%	14.88	6.45
Sources:
Drybrough brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number D/6/1/1/4.
William Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/2/70.
Maclay brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number M/6/1/1/3.

As to what SA might mean, I won’t commit myself without seeing some labels. Based on other breweries, such as William Younger, it might have been called Strong Ale north of the border and Scotch Ale south of it.

1933 Lorimer & Clark SA
pale malt	18.75 lb	88.24%
malt extract	1.50 lb	7.06%
caramel	0.25 lb	1.18%
No. 2 invert sugar	0.75 lb	3.53%
Fuggles 90 min	5.00 oz
Fuggles 60 min	4.00 oz
Goldings 30 min	4.00 oz
OG	1096
FG	1025
ABV	9.39
Apparent attenuation	73.96%
IBU	123
SRM	55
Mash at	154º F
Sparge at	165º F
Boil time	180 minutes
pitching temp	59.5º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale