Scotch Ale during During WW II

Surprisingly, given their high strength, Strong Scotch Ales were brewed throughout the war years, at least at some breweries. Though the quantities produced were pretty small.

Drybrough, for example, which had brewed their Scotch Ale in batches of 60-odd barrels in 1939, had halved the brew length by 1945.  Given the cap placed on the number of standard barrels a brewery could produce, brewing one barrel of Scotch Ale was the equivalent of 2.5 barrels of 60/-.  When beer was in short supply, it must have been hard to justify brewing much

The examples from Drybrough, Maclay and William Younger all look quite similar in character. An OG in the 1080º’s, approximately 7% ABV and hopping at around 5lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt.

All of these beers were dark in colour, despite none containing any dark malts, other than a few pounds of chocolate malt in Drybrough’s version. The colour came almost exclusively from caramel adding at racking time.

Ironically, brewers which had continued to brew this type of beer, such as Drybrough, discontinued it in 1945. The result of even tighter restrictions on brewing in the immediate aftermath of the war.

Strong Scotch Ale during WW II
Date	Year	Brewer	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
3rd May	1939	Maclay	SA	1089	1030	7.81	66.29%	5.00	1.90
29th Aug	1939	Maclay	SA	1082	1022	7.94	73.17%	6.00	2.12
14th Nov	1939	Maclay	SA	1079	1026	7.01	67.09%	5.00	1.70
12th Jan	1940	Drybrough	Burns	1083	1026	7.54	68.67%	5.53	1.91
8th Nov	1940	Drybrough	Burns	1083	1028	7.28	66.27%	5.53	1.86
6th Feb	1941	Drybrough	Burns	1081	1028	7.01	65.43%	4.35	2.01
9th Oct	1941	Drybrough	Burns	1081	1022	7.81	72.84%	4.90	3.08
29th Oct	1942	Drybrough	Burns	1076	1029.5	6.15	61.18%	4.74	1.47
5th Feb	1943	Drybrough	Burns	1076	1028.5	6.28	62.50%	4.89	1.55
22nd Jul	1943	Drybrough	Burns	1076	1027	6.48	64.47%	4.86	1.59
13th Jul	1944	Drybrough	Burns	1076	1025	6.75	67.11%	4.43	1.49
12th Oct	1944	Drybrough	Burns	1076	1032	5.82	57.89%	4.20	1.37
23rd Feb	1945	Drybrough	Burns	1076	1031.5	5.89	58.55%	4.02	1.26
15th Nov	1939	Younger, Wm.	1	1084	1033.5	6.68	60.12%	4.74	1.58
Sources:
Maclay brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document numbers M/6/1/1/3 and M/6/1/1/4.
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/6/1/2/76.