Let's Brew Wednesday - 1851 William Younger 120/-

In the middle of the 19th century, the higher number Shilling Ales had daunting gravities. 100/- and upwards all had gravities over 1100º.  The Scots certainly like their beer strong back then.

The Shilling Ales seem to have been mostly destined for local consumption. Pale Ale, Stout, Table Beer and the occasional super-strong Ale were Scotland’s main exports. The bulk of the Shilling Ales weren’t going far. Probably no further South than Sunderland.

The main features of this iteration of 120/- are the short boil and fairly heavy hopping. Though, given the very high OG, it’s by no means excessive. The short boil is slightly surprising, given that this was brewed single-gyle.

It’s strange how many of William Younger’s very strong beers were brewed that way. Normal practice would have been to brew something of that gravity in a parti-gyle with a weaker beer. In Younger’s context, something like 50/- or 60/-.

It’s not total clear what the source of the malt was for this brew. There were 21 quarters of “Com” and 10 quarters of “Ch”. I suspect the former was malt bought in from maltsters, while the latter was malt they made themselves. Or maybe the other way around. But it does look as if, just like with the hops, that it was all sourced from the UK.

1851 William Younger 120/-
pale malt	27.50 lb	100.00%
Goldings 75 min	4.00 oz
Goldings 50 min	2.00 oz
Goldings 20 min	2.00 oz
OG	1118
FG	1047
ABV	9.39
Apparent attenuation	60.17%
IBU	72
SRM	8
Mash at	154º F
Sparge at	184º F
Boil time	75 minutes
pitching temp	55º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

This is one of the 300-odd recipes in my definitive book on Scottish beer:

http://www.lulu.com/shop/ronald-pattinson/scotland-vol-2/paperback/product-23090497.html