Let's Brew Wednesday - 1954 Drybrough Burns Ale

In the 1950’s, Scottish brewers continued to make small amounts of pretty strong beer. Certainly stronger than most of the beer you’d find in England. That’s the weird thing about Scottish brewing. Often its beers were both weaker and stronger than in England.

It’s a recurring theme in Scottish Beer. It was exactly the same in the middle of the 19th century, when brewers were turning out incredibly high-gravity beers as well as pretty weak Table Beers. In London, the beers tended to occupy more the middle ground, say 1050-1080º.

Burns Ale was, of course, just a very strong version of Drybrough’s Pale Ale recipe. The only one they had.

It’s quite odd that Drybrough were still using flaked barley. It was forced on brewers by the government during WW II as a replacement for flaked barley. Most dropped it again as soon as supplies of maize were restored. Maybe Drybrough liked it. On the other hand, they did stop using it in the late 1950s.

1954 Drybrough Burns Ale
pale malt	12.75 lb	77.86%
black malt	0.125 lb	0.76%
flaked maize	1.00 lb	6.11%
flaked barley	1.00 lb	6.11%
No. 2 invert sugar	1.25 lb	7.63%
malt extract	0.25 lb	1.53%
Fuggles 90 min	1.50 oz
Goldings 30 min	1.50 oz
Goldings dry hops	1.00 oz
OG	1073
FG	1024
ABV	6.48
Apparent attenuation	67.12%
IBU	31
SRM	12
Mash at	147º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	62º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

The above is an extract from the best book ever written on Scottish brewing, my Scotland! vol. 2:

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