Let's Brew Wednesday - 1847 William Younger 60/-

I thought I’d treat you with another early William Younger beer. A very different type of 60/- Ale.

By different, I mean different from the post-WW II beer of the same name. As I’ve already told you 7 gazillion times, the 60/- and 80/- of the 19th century were essentially types of Mild Ale. While the late 20th-century versions were all Pale Ales. Though, just to make things extra confusing, by colouring 60/- with caramel, it performed a passing imitation of Dark Mild.

There’s a huge difference in strength between the 60/- Ales of the two eras. After WW II, the style wasn’t much over 1030º and barely 3% ABV. The version from the 1840’s was about double the OG, though a pretty crappy degree of attenuation leaves the ABV at not much over 4%. Or so it seems.

While writing my new Scotland book, I’ve been investigating exactly how William Younger fermented. In the 1870’s, they were using something like the dropping system, with the fermentation starting in rounds and then, after six or seven days, dropped into square vessels. Younger’s records only record the phase. In the two or three days the beer was cleansing there would have been further fermentation. So the real FG would have been lower.

Looking at analyses I have from the 19th century of Scottish beers as sold, the degree of attenuation is higher than what I see in brewing records. Many examples from the 1870’s and 1880’s have apparent attenuation of over 80%. My guess is that the real degree of apparent attenuation would have been at least 65%

Before 1880, most of William Younger’s beers were all malt. It containing sugar, this is quite unusual. The year is no coincidence. 1847 was the year sugar was allowed in addition to malt. Doubtless Younger was just experimenting with its use. I’ve seen the same in London records from 1847. Most breweries soon abandoned sugar again and its use did really pick up until the 1870’s.

The hops were all English, mostly East Kent but some unspecified. I’ve gone for sure bet Goldings.

1847 William Younger 60/-
pale malt	10.25 lb	83.67%
table sugar	2.00 lb	16.33%
Goldings 90 min	1.50 oz
Goldings 30 min	1.00 oz
OG	1061
FG	1028
ABV	4.37
Apparent attenuation	54.10%
IBU	30
SRM	5
Mash at	150º F
Sparge at	184º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	58º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale