Mashing in 19th-century Scotland

Here's an extract on mashing in the mid-19th century from my wonderful book on Scottish brewing:

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


Mashing
In the first half of the 19th century Scottish mashing schemes were, in general , much simpler than in England, with sparging playing big role.

In the 1840’s, William Younger essentially mashed all their beers exactly the same way, except for Table Beer which was sparged somewhat cooler. This is a typical mashing scheme of Younger’s:

William Younger 1847 80/- Ale mashing scheme
strike heat	178º F
time mashed	20 minutes
time stood	2 hours
1st sparge heat	184º F
2nd sparge heat	180º F
1st tap heat	148º F
2nd tap heat	145º F
3rd tap heat	155º F
Source:
William Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/2/3.

Note that the sparging temperatures are on the high side. The strike heat varied a little depending on the time of year. The example above is from a cool month. In the summer the strike heat was a couple of degrees cooler.

Compare the above with a mashing scheme for a London Mild Ale:

Barclay Perkins 1845 X Ale mashing scheme
Mash	strike heat	tap heat
1	165º F
2	186º F	146.5º F
3	194º F	148º F
S	156º F	155º F
Source:
Barclay Perkins brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives document number ACC/2305/01/551.

Even though the mashing method is quite different, with two quite hot mashes following the initial infusion rather than a sparge, the tap heats are very similar. The tap heat being the temperature of the wort as it is drawn off from the mash tun.

Let’s take a look at one of the other types of beer being brewed in Scotland at the time, Stout.

William Younger 1851 BS Porter mashing scheme
strike heat	175º F
time mashed	20 minutes
time stood	2 hours
1st sparge heat	188º F
2nd sparge heat	188º F
1st tap heat	146º F
2nd tap heat	143º F
3rd tap heat	130º F
Source:
William Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/2/3.

Here’s the scheme of a typical London Porter:

Barclay Perkins 1848 Porter mashing scheme
Mash	strike heat	tap heat
1	158º F	146.5º F
2	178º F	161.5º F
3 S	158º F	157º F
Source:
Barclay Perkins brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives document number ACC/2305/01/540.

You can see that the London system of mashing Porter was different for the system used for Ale, with two mashes followed by a single sparge. The sparge temperature is much cooler than for William Younger. Although the first and second worts had similar temperatures to at William Younger, the heat of the middle wort is very different.

There much less variation in the schemes employed by Younger for Ales and Stout than there was at Barclay Perkins. Younger mashed all their beers in a pretty similar way. In London, Ale and Porter brewing were handled quite separately, often even in separate brew houses.