Scottish Mild Ales 1880 - 1914

Not sure what's happening. But I seem to be suddenly posting a lot about Mild Ale in the different kingdoms of the UK.

This period is quite confusing with regard to Mild Ale. Brewers continuing to produce Shilling Ales – which were mostly the equivalent of English Mild Ales – but also made beers which were specifically called Mild Ale or designated by X’s as Mild Ales were in England.

William Younger further muddied the waters by giving the same beer an X designation when intended to be sold on draught and a shilling designation when destined for bottling. It’s taken me several years of study to get my head around and I still sometimes get confused.

For comparison purposes, I've also included a table of London Milds from the end of the 19th century and early 20th century.

General trends seem to be William Younger’s Mild Ales becoming less heavily hopped and lower gravity than equivalent London beers. A similar trend of a fall in hopping rate can also be seen in London. Whitbread and Truman’s hopping declined from over 7 lbs per quarter in 1885 to around 5 lbs, while Fuller’s fell from 6.5 lbs to 5 lbs. Only Barclay Perkins had a pretty much unchanged hopping.

Note that the stronger Milds had all disappeared in London by 1914. X Ale reigned supreme in the capital. 

William Younger Mild Ales 1885 - 1913
Year	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
1885	X	Mild	1048	1009	5.16	81.25%	5.29	0.99
1885	XX	Mild	1056	1012	5.82	78.57%	6.19	1.53
1885	XXX	Mild	1065	1021	5.82	67.69%	6.67	1.86
1898	XX	Mild	1061	1016	5.95	73.77%	5.45	1.50
1898	XXX	Mild	1074	1018	7.41	75.68%	8.81	2.74
1913	XX - X	Mild	1055	1017	5.03	69.09%	4.07	0.88
1913	XX	Mild	1055	1018	4.89	67.27%	4.07	0.87
1913	XXK	Mild	1056	1016	5.29	71.43%	4.07	0.81
1913	XXX	Mild	1065	1021.5	5.75	66.92%	4.55	1.15
Source:
William Younger brewing records held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document numbers WY/6/1/2/31, WY/6/1/2/45 and WY/6/1/2/58.

London Mild Ales 1885 - 1912
Year	Brewer	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
1885	Truman	X Ale	1059.0				7.3	1.87
1885	Whitbread	X	1059.6	1015.0	5.90	74.88%	7.49	1.90
1886	Barclay Perkins	X	1055.0	1010.0	5.96	81.87%	6.42	1.61
1886	Barclay Perkins	XX	1076.0	1022.7	7.05	70.11%	12.00	3.86
1887	Fuller	X	1050.7	1013.6	4.91	73.22%	6.64	1.41
1887	Fuller	XX	1064.8	1023.3	5.50	64.10%	6.64	1.93
1891	Barclay Perkins	X	1058.0	1015.0	5.69	74.21%	8.32	2.07
1894	Truman	X Ale	1056.5				9.0	2.19
1894	Whitbread	X	1058.4	1016.0	5.62	72.62%	8.23	2.09
1897	Fuller	X	1049.6	1012.2	4.95	75.42%	6.58	1.44
1909	Barclay Perkins	X	1053.6	1013.9	5.26	74.16%	7.49	1.62
1909	Truman	X Ale	1056.8				5.8	1.41
1910	Fuller	X	1052.6	1014.7	5.01	72.08%	5.2	1.21
1912	Whitbread	X	1054.0	1012.0	5.56	77.78%	4.49	1.05
Sources:
Barclay Perkins brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers ACC/2305/1/584, ACC/2305/1/587 and ACC/2305/1/601
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/051, LMA/4453/D/01/060 and LMA/4453/D/01/077.
Truman  brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/C/166, B/THB/C/175 and B/THB/C/190.
Fullers brewing records held at the brewery.

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