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.