Scottish Pale Ale in the 1950s and 1960s

Over 90% of what was brewed in Scotland was some form of Pale Ale. Most brewers produced parti-gyled Pale Ales at three strengths, and sometimes spun a Strong Ale out of the same basic recipe. It’s all pretty dull.

Most breweries produced three strengths of Pale Ale, usually parti-gyled from a single recipe, though that wasn’t the case at William Younger, who had always preferred to brew most of their beers single-gyle.

Most Scottish breweries produced a range of three Pale Ales, often referred to as 60/-, 70/- and 80/- by the brewery and Light, Heavy and Export by drinkers. Robert Younger, a relatively small Edinburgh brewer, had a larger range than most, producing a total of five.

Robert Younger Pale Ales in 1957
Date	Year	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Attenuation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
8th Aug	1957	54/-	1028	1010	2.38	64.29%	4.92	0.58
7th Aug	1957	60/-	1030	1011	2.51	63.33%	4.92	0.58
6th Aug	1957	70/-	1035	1011	3.18	68.57%	4.93	0.67
6th Aug	1957	80/-	1043	1012	4.10	72.09%	4.93	0.83
7th Aug	1957	Ex	1045	1012	4.37	73.33%	4.92	0.87
Source:
Robert Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number RY/6/1/2.

Note that, in typically Scottish fashion, there’s almost no difference between the FGs of the different strength beers. The hopping is very light, especially for Pale ales. As can be seen by a comparison with Whitbread’s Ales from the same year:

Whitbread's Ales in 1957
Date	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
31st Jan	FB	Brown Ale	1033.9	1007.0	3.56	79.35%	5.27	0.74
7th Jan	IPA	IPA	1035.8	1006.5	3.88	81.84%	8.53	1.26
11th Jan	Best Ale	Mild	1030.4	1010.0	2.70	67.11%	5.56	0.71
14th Feb	PA	Pale Ale	1039.6	1008.5	4.11	78.54%	5.59	0.93
Source:
Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives document number LMA/4453/D/01/124.

Robert Younger’s Pale Ales were hopped at a lower rate than even Whitbread’s Mild and Brown Ales.

At Whitbread Best Ale, IPA and PA filled the same gravity slots as Robert Younger 60/-, 70/- and 80/-. Which demonstrates that, while 60/- wasn’t technically speaking a Mild Ale, it played the same role as it in Scotland.

Drybrough’s Pale Ales look very similar to Robert Younger’s.

Drybrough Pale Ales 1954 - 1960
Year	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
1954	B 60/-	1031.0	1011.0	2.65	64.52%	4.48	0.57
1954	60/-	1032.0	1011.0	2.78	65.63%	4.42	0.57
1954	XXP	1043.0	1011.5	4.17	73.26%	4.42	0.79
1954	Export	1045.0	1013.5	4.17	70.00%	4.48	0.83
1960	B 60/-	1030.0	1012.0	2.38	60.00%	4.48	0.56
1960	60/-	1031.0	1012.0	2.51	61.29%	4.51	0.58
1960	B XXP	1037.0	1014.0	3.04	62.16%	4.49	0.69
1960	KH	1037.0	1014.0	3.04	62.16%	4.49	0.68
1960	XXP	1042.0	1014.0	3.70	66.67%	4.51	0.78
1960	Export	1044.0	1015.0	3.84	65.91%	4.48	0.82
Source:
Drybrough brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document numberD/6/1/1/7.

A slightly worse rate of attenuation, but filling similar gravity slots and with a similar level of hopping. You’ll see that the names for the different strengths weren’t identical at Robert Younger and Drybrough. Both called the strongest Export and the one around 1030º 60/-. But the middle beer was 70/- at Robert Younger and KH – Keg Heavy – at Drybrough.

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

Which is also available in Kindle form:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Q8XHBL2

I love that the lion image isn't exactly centre on the cover. All my credit. Or fault. Or blame.