One of the main differences amongst their Stouts was the degree of attenuation. Ones they’d brewed for a while, like DBS, tended to have a more normal attenuation. While some of the ones introduced towards the end of the 1900’s, er, didn’t. These ones seem to be the ancestors of 20th-century Scottish Sweet Stout, a style with incredibly low attenuation and minimal alcohol.
This one still manages to come out at 4.5% ABV, but that’s only because it has quite a high OG. With that FG and getting on for 20% roasted malt, this must have been a pretty thick and gloopy beer. I wonder who the drinkers were of this stuff? Was it invalids looking to restore their vitality? Or just people with a sweet tooth?
For William Younger, the recipe is just packed with different ingredients. A whole three different types of malt, plus glucose and the inevitable grits.
The trickiest aspect of this range of Stouts is the hopping. Which was minimal. Apart from the large quantities of spent hops also used. What do spent hops bring to the party? A Watneys Seven? I’ve no idea, if I’m honest. I’ve been assuming 10% of their value fresh. But that could be wildly wrong.
To add to the fun, some examples of S1 – not this one – included 3 or 4 gallons of ullage beer barrel. That’s 10-12.5% returned beer. Must have added a lovely extra tang.
| 1899 William Younger S1 | ||
| pale malt | 10.00 lb | 62.50% |
| black malt | 2.00 lb | 12.50% |
| amber malt | 0.75 lb | 4.69% |
| grits | 1.75 lb | 10.94% |
| glucose | 1.50 lb | 9.38% |
| Cluster 120 min (spent) | 0.50 oz | |
| Cluster 90 min | 0.75 oz | |
| OG | 1069 | |
| FG | 1035 | |
| ABV | 4.50 | |
| Apparent attenuation | 49.28% | |
| IBU | 25 | |
| SRM | 46 | |
| Mash at | 155º F | |
| Sparge at | 160º F | |
| Boil time | 180 minutes | |
| pitching temp | 59.5º F | |
| Yeast | WLP028 Edinburgh Ale | |
The above is an excerpt from my award-winning book on Scottish brewing:
Which is also available in Kindle form:
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2 comments:
I wonder if the spent hops had previously been used for dry hopping? If so, those hops would retain most of their alpha acids but wouldn’t offer much in the way of flavor if used as a late addition.
You're correct in principle, but dry hopping wasn't (correct me if I'm wrong, Ron) done in tank with the huge volumes of hops that it is today. It was done in trade casks with a quite small amount of hops. It wouldn't be economical to retrieve dry hops from the casks once they came back from the pub, mixed with yeast sediment and contaminated with bacteria, sour beer and/or mould.
Another source of slightly used hops would be in the underback on the way to the cooler, but I don't know if Wm Younger practised that.
We have to assume most of the spent hops are previously used in the boil. They would discover empirically how much of their bittering power was left.
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