Let's Brew Wednesday - 1939 William Younger XXX

Unusually for a Scottish brewery, William Younger brewed a range of Mild Ales. Most likely the reason was that they had tied houses in England where Mild was very much a must-have beer for publicans.

These Milds weren’t just coloured-up versions of lower-gravity Pale Ales but genuine Mild Ales. As can be seen from the fact that the recipe is very different to that used by Younger for their Pale Ales. The latter had very simple grists, consisting of just pale malt and grits. Though I’m sure there was caramel added at racking time to achieve the various shades Scottish brewers felt compelled to colour their beers.

XXX, on the other hand, has a far more complicated grist. It addition to pale malt and grits, there are two other malts described simply as “M” and “C”. I’m pretty sure the C stands for crystal. But what about the M? Usually, I’d assume that stood for mild malt. But the proportion of this malt is so small that doesn’t seem likely. My guess is that it was some type of coloured malt, as it also pops up DBS, Younger’s Stout. Which is why I’ve gone for a dark crystal malt to represent both M and C.

Younger’s Pale Ales contained no sugar, but not so XXX. It had two: invert and a proprietary sugar called CWA. I’ve plumped for No. 3 invert and a light-ish caramel.

The novel ingredient is liquorice. Something which you sometimes see in Stout recipes, but not in other styles.

The hops were Kent from the 1937 and 1938 harvests. At 2.5 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt, the hopping rate is extremely low. To put this into context, in 1939 Adnams XX Mild was hopped at 5lbs per quarter , Boddington XX and Whitbread X at around 8 lbs.

1939 William Younger XXX
pale malt	6.25 lb	71.43%
crystal malt 120 L	1.00 lb	11.43%
grits	1.25 lb	14.29%
No. 3 invert sugar	0.125 lb	1.43%
caramel 1000 SRM	0.125 lb	1.43%
liquorice	0.25 oz
Fuggles 105 min	0.50 oz
Fuggles 30 min	0.25 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.25 oz
OG	1037
FG	1012
ABV	3.31
Apparent attenuation	67.57%
IBU	10
SRM	18
Mash at	155º F
Sparge at	160º F
Boil time	105 minutes
pitching temp	61º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale