Wednesday, 11 March 2026

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1990 Youngs Old Nick

A Young's Old Nick label with the head and shoulders of a horned devil in a cape, flames behind him.
Strongest of Young’s regular beers was Old Nick. Another of the casualties of the move to Bedford. Though I’m not sure if it disappeared immediately. 

It was usually a bottled beer. Though it may have appeared in bulk form – cask or keg – as a special. I should ask John Hatch or Derek Prentice. They would know. The label calls it a Barley Wine. (Barley Wine Style Ale in the USA.)

It’s a post-WW II beer. Not sure when they started brewing it. I can’t find it in the 1`960 brewing book. Though there is a beer called XXXX with a gravity of 1077º. And dark in colour. That could possibly an earlier name. Or just the brew house name.

Getting back to this particular beer, the grist is pretty complicated. With four types of sugar. Though three of them – the glucose, molasses and caramel – were bought premixed as Young’s Special Mix. The crystal malt darker, 150 L, than indicated in the recipe. It’s just that BeerSmith doesn’t go any higher than 120 L.

There’s an awful lot of sugar. Almost 30% of the grist.  Most of it in the form of No. 3 invert. Not sure I’ve ever seen quite so much of it in a beer.

Two types of hops. Goldings and Fuggles seem a fair enough guess. Unlike for other beers, no late copper hops are listed. I’ve assumed that they were all added at the start of the boil. Which, at 60 minutes, was short for a beer of this gravity being brewed single-gyle. Maybe that’s why there’s so much sugar.

Unlike for the other beers from this set, I haven’t had to drastically increase the hopping rate to hit the IBUs listed in the brewing record. Only by 0.75 oz. 

1990 Youngs Old Nick
pale malt 10.50 lb 62.28%
crystal malt 120 L 0.75 lb 4.45%
torrefied barley 0.75 lb 4.45%
No. 3 invert sugar 3.50 lb 20.76%
glucose 1.00 lb 5.93%
molasses 0.33 lb 1.96%
caramel 2000 SRM 0.03 lb 0.18%
Fuggles 60 min 3.25 oz
Goldings 60 min 3.25 oz
OG 1088
FG 1032.5
ABV 7.34
Apparent attenuation 63.07%
IBU 61
SRM 26
Mash at 148º F
Sparge at 165º F
Boil time 60 minutes
pitching temp 59º F
Yeast WLP002 English Ale

 

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