Drybrough PI 60/- 1914 - 1920

Trying to pick apart IPA and Pale Ale in Scotland is even trickier than in London. Judging by the brew house names, some brewers considered all their Pale Ales IPAs. And William Younger, confusingly, while not calling any of their beers IPA in the brew house, did market some of its beers as such.

That’s just a warning to not take as gospel that the following beers are IPAs. They might have been. Or maybe not. The distinction was probably lost on most drinkers, anyway.

PI 60/- was Drybrough’s strongest Pale Ale/IPA at the start of the war. Though it’s weaker than a top-class London Pale Ale would have been.

In the first couple of years of the war, it didn’t change a great deal, losing just four gravity points. It was dropped in 1917, probably in April. This was the time when gravity restrictions kicked in. Unlike some breweries, which slashed gravities but kept the name of the strongest beer, Drybrough discontinued the strongest.

Drybrough PI 60/- 1914 - 1920
Date	Year	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
31st Dec	1914	1054	1018	4.76	66.67%	5.07	1.12
12th Jan	1915	1053	1018	4.63	66.04%	6.01	1.29
7th Jan	1916	1053	1017	4.76	67.92%	5.02	1.10
28th Jul	1916	1050	1015	4.63	70.00%	3.95	0.85
16th Jan	1917	1048	1016	4.23	66.67%	3.95	0.80
13th Feb	1917	1044	1017	3.57	61.36%	4.04	0.74
10th Jul	1919	1036	1009	3.57	75.00%	4.93	0.73
15th Oct	1919	1039	1012	3.57	69.23%	4.34	0.83
29th Jul	1920	1039	1012	3.57	69.23%	5.20	0.86
Sources:
Drybrough brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number D/6/1/1/3.

It reappears in the records in the middle of 1919, with its gravity even further reduced. Its gravity then stabilised just under 1040º for the rest of the 1920’s. However, in 1920 they introduced a new beer, PI 80/- with an OG of 1054º - exactly the same as PI 60/- had been before the war. Confusing, isn’t it?

Drybrough PI 60/- 1914 - 1920
					invert sugar
Date	Year	OG	pale malt	flaked maize	no. 1	no. 2	no. 3	caramel	malt extract	dxt	BSC
31st Dec	1914	1054	81.91%	8.19%	4.10%	5.46%				0.34%
12th Jan	1915	1053	82.66%	8.55%	3.80%	4.75%				0.24%
7th Jan	1916	1053	81.47%	8.81%	3.67%	5.87%		0.18%
28th Jul	1916	1050	85.87%	4.40%	3.67%	5.87%		0.18%
16th Jan	1917	1048	80.61%	9.21%	3.84%	6.14%		0.19%
13th Feb	1917	1044	80.50%	10.06%	3.35%	5.87%		0.21%
10th Jul	1919	1036	91.18%	0.00%			8.82%
15th Oct	1919	1039	78.83%	4.38%			6.57%	10.22%
29th Jul	1920	1039	70.45%	19.43%				1.62%	1.21%		7.29%
Sources:
Drybrough brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number D/6/1/1/3.

Like the gravity, there’s not much change in the early war years. It’s not the most fascinating of recipes, just pale malt, flaked maize and some sugar. With all the changes being in the type of sugar used. Though we don’t see that in action as PI 60/- had already been discontinued by the time the restrictions on sugar use began in 1917.

This is another exccerpt from my book on the Great War, Armistice!.

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