Friday, 1 August 2025

William Younger (Abbey) processes in 1885

A William Younger Sparkling Beer label with a drawing of Holyrood Palace and the text "Established 1749", "This label is issued only by Wm. Younger & Co. Ltd.", "Brewers Edinburgh" and "Abbey and Holyrood breweries Edinburgh" and "Brewed & bottled at Edinburgh".
You'll probably be delighted to learn that this is the final post in this series. Boo hoo. I'm going to have to find something else to squeeze half a dozen posts from.

The boil times average out a bit shorter than at Holyrood. And only No. 3 pale has a boil of three hours. I would say that it was due to the types of beer being brewed. Except that there are several of the stronger beers that you would expect to have a longer boil. And they don't. So there goes that theory.

There's a wider range of pitching temperatures. Which is because of the types of beers being brewed. As there are several relatively low-gravity beers which were pitched at temperatures of 60º F and above. Whilst the strongest beers were pitched as low as 55º F.

The average rise in temperature during fermentation was a bit under 12º F. Though this varied quite a bit. For the lowest gravity beers it was below 10º F. Whilst for the strongest beers - 160/- and No. 1 - it was 18º F. This is due to the stronger beers generating more heat during fermentation. This was controlled, however. As a few days into the fermentation the temperature was lowered through the use of the attemperators. Had they wished, they could have stopped any beer hitting more than 70º F.

It's the presence of many low-gravity beers that sees the average length of fermentation a couple of days shorter than at Holyrood. They only took four or five days, whilst the stronger beers took six of seven days. 

William Younger (Abbey) processes in 1885
Beer Style boil time (hours) Pitch temp max. fermen-tation temp length of fermen-tation (days)
T Table Beer 2 2.5 60.5º F 68.5º F 5
50/- Ale 2 2.5 60.5º F 67.5º F 4
S 50/- Ale 2   61º F 66.5º F 4
B 50/- Ale 2.5   61º F 69º F 5
H 60/- Ale 2 2.5 60º F 71º F 5
60/- Ale 2 2.5 60º F 69º F 5
80/- Ale 2 2.5 59º F 68.5º F 4
100/- Ale 2 2.5 56º F 70º F  
120/- Ale 2   57º F 69º F 6
140/- Ale 2 2.5 56º F 72.5º F 7
160/- Ale 2 2.5 55.5º F 73.5º F 7
X Mild 2 2.5 62º F 69º F 6
XX Mild 2 2.5 60º F 69º F 6
XXX Mild 2 2.5 59º F 69.5º F 5
XXXX Stock Ale 2 2.5 52º F 68º F 6
P Pale Ale 2 2.5 59º F 70º F 7
XP IPA 2 2.5 59º F 69º F 5
XP Scotch Pale Ale 2 2.5 59.5º F 68º F 5
DBS Stout 2 2.5 56º F 74º F 7
S1 Stout 2 2.5 58.5º F 69º F 5
S2 Stout 2 2.5 59º F 73º F 4
1 Strong Ale 2 2.5 55.5º F 74º F 7
2 Strong Ale 2 2.5 55º F 71.5º F 7
3 Strong Ale 2 2.5 57.5º F 71º F 6
3 pale Strong Ale 2 3 55.5º F 68.5º F 7
Average   2.02 2.52 58.2º F 69.9º F 5.6
Source:
William Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/2/31.