Wednesday 29 March 2017

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1879 William Younger 80/-

Now here’s a special treat. No, not because it’s a Scottish recipe. Nor because it’s in my new book. Much better than that.

It’s a beer you’ll be able to taste this weekend. If you’re in Manchester, that is. Because it’s one of the beers that’s been brewed up for my talk at Beer Nouveau in Manchester this Sunday. I’m certainly anticipating drinking it keenly. That is, after all, the main reason I do all of this. To get to drink old recipes.

For those of you not paying attention at the back, this type of 80/- has absolutely nothing at all to do with post-WW II 80/-. This version is a Scotch Ale, in this particular case, a type of Mild Ale. While modern 80/- is a sort of Pale Ale. I hope that’s clear.

It’s a simple beer. But they all were before 1880. This is right at the end of the period when only malt, hops and sugar were allowed. Hence the lack of any adjuncts in the grist. There are, however, two sorts of pale malt. About a third is described as “Chev.”, which I’m pretty sure stands for “Cheviot”, i.e. Scottish barley. The other is “CM oder”. No idea what that means but, given the date, it’s probably some sort of foreign barley.

The hops are listed as Californian, American, Kent and Spalt. I’ve left the latter out of the recipe because the quantity is so small, just 20 of the 220 lbs. Feel free to throw in half an ounce of them if you want to be really authentic.


1879 William Younger 80/-
pale malt 13.75 lb 100.00%
Cluster 90 min 2.50 oz
Goldings 30 min 2.50 oz
Goldings dry hops 0.125 oz
OG 1059
FG 1020
ABV 5.16
Apparent attenuation 66.10%
IBU 75
SRM 5
Mash at 150º F
Sparge at 170º F
Boil time 90 minutes
pitching temp 61º F
Yeast WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

3 comments:

Matt said...

Got my ticket for Sunday, Ron, and already looking forward to drinking some of those historic Scottish beers.

Rob Sterowski said...

Wouldn't Chev. be Chevalier, the barley variety that was revived a couple of years ago?

Ron Pattinson said...

Barm,

I don't think so for two reasons. First, they didn't record the type of barley but its origin. Second, at that point pretty much all malting barley was Chevallier.