Let's Brew Wednesday - 1940 Drybrough Burns Ale

Today we've a preview recipe from my soon to be published book on brewing in WW II. I really should get my finger out because, other than one small section, the book is complete. Or rather, books, as it's too big to fit into a single volume.

One of my biggest disappointments, beer-wise, at least, was discovering how deathly dull Scottish brewing was. Learning how everything was just a parti-gyle of the same basic brew. And that often the vast majority – up to 85% – of a brewery’s output could be a single, low-gravity Pale Ale. Drybrough is a prime example.

The only relief in the tedium of page after page of the same beer is occasionally tripping over the one interesting arrow in a Scottish brewery’s quiver: a Strong Ale. Or Scotch Ale. Whichever you prefer, as the names were used interchangeably. With an OG over 1080º, strong is certainly an appropriate description.

There is one interesting feature of Drybrough’s Strong Ale: it was a named beer. Something which wasn’t that common until recently. Robert Burns, Scotland’s national poet, seems an appropriate choice. He did like a beer himself, by all accounts.

The grist has the same elements as pre-war: mostly pale malt, with tiny amounts of malt extract, enzymic malt and black malt. Not very exciting. Plus a cocktail of sugars: Fison,  Avona and invert, which I’ve lumped together and replaced by No. 2 invert.

The hops were all English and from the 1939 harvest. Pretty fresh, then, as this example was brewed in January 1940. 

1940 Drybrough Burns Ale
pale malt	16.50 lb	89.19%
enzymic malt	0.25 lb	1.35%
black malt	0.125 lb	0.68%
malt extract	0.125 lb	0.68%
No. 2 invert sugar	1.50 lb	8.11%
Fuggles 135 mins	1.50 oz
Fuggles 90 mins	1.50 oz
Goldings 30 mins	1.00 oz
OG	1083
FG	1026
ABV	7.54
Apparent attenuation	68.67%
IBU	42
SRM	13
Mash at	152º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	135 minutes
pitching temp	59.5º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale