Let's Brew - 1939 William Younger XXPS

XXPS was William Younger’s standard Bitter for many years. It remained a mainstay of the brewery long after WW II. It was still around when I started drinking, when, in England, it was often sold as Scotch Bitter. In Scotland, it would have been called either 70/- or Heavy.

A the outbreak of WW II it had the very respectable gravity of 1046º, which placed it in the same strength category as a 7d per pint London Bitter, beers like Whitbread PA or Barclay Perkins XLK.

Though there was one big difference with XXPS: the level of hopping. Both PA and XLK were hopped at 7.5 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt.  While XXPS contained a mere 3 lbs of hops per quarter. That’s a very large difference. And is reflected in the big difference in the calculated IBUs. The Whitbread and Barclay Perkins Bitters both come out to 29 IBUs, as opposed to the 12 of XXPS. Even the Ordinary Milds of the two London brewers had around double the level of bitterness.

The grist is much the same as for the bulk of Younger’s beers: pale malt and grits. Though the proportion of grits was much lower than it had been earlier in the interwar period, when it had been as high as 45%.

The hops were also pretty much the same for all their beers: all from Kent and from the 1937 and 1938 harvests.

1939 William Younger XXPS
pale malt	9.00 lb	83.72%
grits	1.75 lb	16.28%
Fuggles 90 min	0.50 oz
Fuggles 30 min	0.50 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.25 oz
OG	1046
FG	1015
ABV	4.10
Apparent attenuation	67.39%
IBU	13
SRM	4
Mash at	153º F
Sparge at	160º F
Boil time	105 minutes
pitching temp	60.5º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale