Young's beers in 1932

Sadly, the oldest surviving brewing book from Youngs is only from 1932. Which is a shame, as I’d love to see what their beers were like before WW I.

The range consisted of eight beers. There were two Milds, which look like a 4d and a 5d per pint beer.
The weaker one, A, is about as weak as beer could be brewed, from an economic point off view. The minimum tax being set at that for a 1027 beer. It’s interesting that there’s no 6d per pint Mild. Which would have had an OG of around 1043. Many London brewers – Fullers and Barclay Perkins, for example – brewed a beer in this class.

Parti-gyled with the two Milds were two Burton Ales. The weaker of the two, XXX, looks like a standard draught Burton, with a gravity in the mid-1050s. The stronger of the two was only brewed in small quantities and is of a similar strength to Fullers Old Burton Extra. A beer which was sold on draught. So perhaps XXXX was, too.

There are two Pale Ales, PAB and PA. I suspect that the weaker of the two, PAB, was an exclusively bottled beer. Mostly because of the name. And the fact that it looks like a Light Ale. PA, on the other hand, look remarkably similar to the post-WW II SPA, better known as Special Bitter.

Rounding off the range are a Porter and a Stout. Porter was in terminal decline after WW I and about the only place in England where it was still brewed was London. Stout, on the other hand, was still pretty universally brewed. Though, outside London it was rarely seen on draught.

There’s quite a bit of variation in the rates of attenuation. It’s rather high, at over 80%, in the case of the Milds. And rather low, under 700%, for XXXX. Though it’s possible, since it was rather strong, that it underwent some secondary conditioning, Which would have lowered the FG.

The hopping rates are all pretty high, even in the Milds. Though they are generally similar to those at other London breweries. Though higher than at those outside the capital. 

Young's beers in 1932
Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
A	Mild	1027.7	1005.0	3.00	81.95%	7.81	0.91
X	Mild	1035.5	1006.1	3.89	82.82%	6.90	1.00
XXX	Strong Ale	1056.0	1016.6	5.21	70.36%	8.22	1.91
XXXX	Strong Ale	1078.7	1029.4	6.52	62.64%	8.22	2.68
PAB	Pale Ale	1035.7	1007.8	3.69	78.15%	9.80	2.14
PA	Pale Ale	1045.7	1011.6	4.51	74.62%	9.80	2.74
P	Porter	1034.1	1009.1	3.31	73.31%	7.00	1.02
S	Stout	1052.1	1014.4	4.99	72.36%	7.00	1.55
Source:
Young's brewing record held at Battersea Library, document number YO/RE/1/1.