19th-century Scottish Porter and Stout

Spurred on by their enormous popularity amongst Scottish drinkers, local brewers began to brew their own versions to rival those brewed in England. Though it never quite attained the level of popularity in England, considerable quantities were brewed in Scotland.

Initially, these Scottish versions seem to have closely mimicked the London originals, in the second half of the 19th century Scottish Porter, and more importantly Stout, began to acquire their own unique character.

While most English provincial dropped brown malt from their Porter and Stout grists early in the 19th century, Scottish brewers continued to use it, and to use it large quantities.

By the 1870’s, William Younger had discontinued their Porter and introduced a new range of Stouts, S1, S2 and S3. These were far more lightly hopped than DBS and often contained large quantities of spent hops. S3 had an unusually low gravity for the 19th century, some examples being under 3% ABV. The new Stouts, in contrast to DBS, were not dry hopped.

Throughout this period William Younger aged Porter and DBS in vats. S1, S2 and S3, however, were not vatted.

William Younger Porter and Stout in 1851
Date	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
3rd Nov	BS	Porter	1056	1015	5.42	73.21%	23.87	2.86
11th Oct	BS	Porter	1057	1017	5.29	70.18%	21.75	3.08
29th Nov	BS	Porter	1060	1024	4.76	60.00%	27.37	3.17
29th Oct	DBS	Stout	1078	1015	8.33	80.77%	13.40	5.63
13th Dec	DBS	Stout	1089	1025	8.47	71.91%	14.00	5.68
Source:
William Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/2/5.

William Younger Porter and Stout in 1879
Date	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
19th Sep	S1	Stout	1070	1026	5.82	62.86%	6.47	2.07
6th June	S2	Stout	1060	1020	5.29	66.67%	3.33	0.87
13th June	S3	Stout	1032	1011	2.78	65.63%	all spent hops
11th Aug	S3	Stout	1043	1010	4.37	76.74%	4.71	0.86
20th Nov	DBS	Stout	1073	1035	5.03	52.05%	12.86	5.00
Source:
William Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/2/28.

The above is an excerpt from my excellent book on Scottish brewing: