Tuesday 18 December 2018

Bottled Scotch Ale after WW II

You must be sick of Scotch Ale by now. You're not the only one. But I feel obliged to continue my death march until I lie by the roadside like a crumpled heap of rags.

On the face of it, WW II seems to have had little impact on the character of Scotch Ale. Unlike most styles, it seems to have bounced back to pre-war like gravities soon after the end of hostilities.

The majority of examples retained a gravity of somewhere around 1080º. Which in the immediate post-war years counted as super strong. Why was that, when other styles were emasculated?

Partly, I assume it’s because some were genuine export beers. Scotch Ale was popular in Belgium and they expected it to be full strength. Belgian drinkers wouldn’t have stood for a 5% ABV Scotch Ale. But some was probably just due to Scotch Ale being an expensive treat: if it wasn’t pretty strong, why bother with it?

Though there had been some reductions is strength. Fowler’s Twelve Guinea Ale, for example. Pre-war it had an OG of over 1100º. In the late 1940’s, that was down to just 1080º. Still strong, but not crazily so.

There are a few quite weak examples, beers under 1060º. McEwan Double Scotch Ale is a good example. I suspect that’s really a Double Brown Ale. Especially as it’s eerily similar in gravity to William Younger’s Double Century Ale. The two firms had merged by this point and my guess is that Double Scotch was just a rebadge of the William Younger beer.

The eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed one odd brewery in the table: John Smith. Which is very much an English brewery. They brewed a Scotch Ale exclusively for the Belgian market. I doubt they could have got away with selling it in the UK. I think Scottish brewers would have got pretty annoyed had they done so.

Bottled Scotch Ale after WW II
Year Brewer Beer OG FG ABV App. Atten-uation colour
1950 Aitchison Scotch Ale 1080 1020.8 7.73 74.00% 55
1948 Aitken Strong Ale 1067.5 1021 6.04 68.89%
1948 Ballingall "Angus" Strong Ale 1073.5 1023.5 6.49 68.03%
1948 Calder Alloa Scotch Strong Ale 1065.5 1019 6.04 70.99%
1950 Campbell Royal Scotch Ale 1080.1 1014.2 8.66 82.27% 77
1948 Dryborough Strong Ale 1060 1019.5 5.25 67.50%
1947 Fowler Heavy Ale 1081.4 1025.5 7.27 68.67%
1948 Fowler Twelve Guinea Ale 1080 1021.5 7.63 73.13%
1949 Fowler Twelve Guinea Ale 1077.7 1030.3 6.13 61.00% 100
1948 Gordon & Blair "Unique" Scotch Ale 1043.5 1016.5 3.49 62.07%
1948 Jeffrey Strong Ale No. 1 1067 1025 5.43 62.69%
1950 John Smith Scotch Ale 1080.3 1025.6 7.11 68.12% 65
1948 Maclachlan Strong Ale 1070.5 1024.5 5.96 65.25%
1948 McEwan Strong Ale 1078 1022.5 7.23 71.15%
1950 McEwan Double Scotch Ale 1057.7 1018.4 5.09 68.11% 80
1950 McEwan Scotch Ale 1088 1022.6 8.56 74.32% 65
1947 Murray Heavy Ale 1066.3 1017.25 6.38 73.96%
1948 Steel Coulson Strong Ale 1063 1026 4.77 58.73%
1947 Usher Old Scotch Ale 1073.5 1020.5 6.90 72.11%
1948 Usher Strong Ale 1090.5 1024.5 8.63 72.93%
1950 Younger, Geo. Gordon Xmas Ale 1090.7 1032.3 7.58 64.39% 50
1948 Younger, Robert Strong Ale 1048 1014.5 4.34 69.79%
1947 Younger, Wm. No. 1 Strong Ale 1074 1022 6.76 70.27%
1950 Younger, Wm. No. 1 Scotch Ale 1087.6 1017.5 9.21 80.02% 60
Sources:
Thomas Usher Gravity Book held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document TU/6/11.
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.

3 comments:

Thom Farrell said...

John Smith's was one of the largest British beer presences in the mid-20th century Belgian beer market.

Anonymous said...

Any chance of the Fowler’s Twelve Guinea Ale 1100 recipe?

Ron Pattinson said...

Anonymous,

no.