Scottish Mild Ales in the mid 19th century

Specially for Mild month, here's an extract from my amazing book, Scotland! vol. II, about Scottish Mild.


Differentiating Shilling Ales and Mild Ales is, in many, totally arbitrary. But I’m going to do it anyway. If only because Scottish brewers liberally sprinkled the X’s I associate with the style around their brewing records.

Putting on my serious hat, there was one defining difference between the two beers types. Both were sold young. But Shilling Ales were shipped out to retail outlets in hogsheads for bottling while Mild Ales were filled into barrels and kilderkins for sale on draught. Though they may have been born of the same mash, the method of conditioning differentiated them. Just like Mild Ale and Brown Ale in the 20th century.

Younger Mild Ales 1851 - 1854
Year	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
1851	X	1075	1036	5.16	52.00%	1.94	1.82
1851	XX	1081	1037	5.82	54.32%	4.97	2.37
1851	XX	1082	1035	6.22	57.32%	9.16	2.42
1851	XXX	1095	1037	7.67	61.05%	17.94	5.50
1852	X	1071	1034	4.89	52.11%	8.00	2.73
1853	X	1062	1029	4.37	53.23%	7.52	2.19
1853	X	1068	1032	4.76	52.94%	8.00	2.97
1853	X	1070	1031	5.16	55.71%	7.73	2.83
1853	XX	1076	1030	6.09	60.53%	8.00	3.08
1853	XXX	1088	1038	6.61	56.82%	8.00	3.69
1854	X	1053	1017	4.76	67.92%	10.00	2.50
Source:
William Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/2/5.

At mostly around 8 lbs of hops per quarter of malt, the hopping rate is very similar to London Mild Ales. Whitbread’s Ales of the same period look very similar to those of William Younger:

Whitbread Ales in 1851
Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
X	1074.8	1025.2	6.56	66.30%	9.07	3.21
XX	1088.6	1030.2	7.73	65.94%	9.07	3.81
XXX	1099.2	1041.6	7.62	58.10%	9.23	4.46
Source:
Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives document number LMA/4453/D/01/16.

On average, Whitbread’s Ales were a little more heavily hopped, but not by a significant amount. The big difference is in the rate of attenuation, which is very low in the Younger Milds. Poor attenuation is a fairly constant feature of Scottish brewing. And may account for why Scottish beers were often perceived as sweeter than their English counterparts.

Moving forward a couple of decades, Younger’s Milds have dropped considerably in gravity:

William Younger Mild Ales in 1868
Year	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
1868	X	1053	1023	3.97	56.60%	6.30	1.36
1868	XX	1057	1024	4.37	57.89%	9.58	2.25
1868	XXX	1068	1028	5.29	58.82%	8.00	2.55
Source:
William Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/2/21

X has fallen from 1075º to 1053º, XX from 1082º to 1057º and XXX from 1095º to 1068º. Though the hopping rate, averaging around 8 lbs per quarter of malt has remained pretty constant.

Similar changes had taken place at Whitbread:

Whitbread Mild Ales in 1868
Year	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
1868	X	1056.8	1014.4	5.61	74.63%	7.41	1.93
1868	XL	1066.2	1019.7	6.16	70.29%	10.34	3.28
1868	XX	1080.9	1027.1	7.11	66.44%	9.61	3.54
Source:
Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/01/034.

The strongest Mild, XXX had been discontinued and a new beer, XL, introduced with a gravity between X and XX. The fall in the gravity of Whitbread X, from 1075º to 1057º wasn’t quite as large as at Younger, but still considerable. XX, on the other hand, only had a small reduction in gravity from 1087º to 1081.º. The hopping of the two sets, averaging around 8 lbs per quarter of malt, remained roughly similar.

Between 1851 and 1868 the strength of William Younger’s Milds diverged considerably from Whitbread’s. Though they continued to be hopped at a similar rate.



Wht to read more fun stuff about Scottish beer? Then buy the book:

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