Things I should have noticed (part 9,775,397)

I spend a lot of time staring at brewing records. Osmosis. That's how I extract most information.

Doesn't always work.

I bang on about the influence of taxation on beer. It's one of my things. That make me feel like I'm dead clever. Until I meet an actual expert. Time, then to walk off before I look like the idiot I am.

Harking back to the first sentence, how I came to understand brewing records is a bit of a mystery. To me. There was some backup from historical texts. Lots of staring in incomprehension, too. Then stuff making sense.

I won't claim to understand 100% of most records I have. Only the dead simple ones. Yet this really obvious observation had avoided me. Especially given my tax obsession.

This observation, in my defence, was complicated by the different ways of measuring beer gravity. Many breweries used the older method. Measuring gravity in pounds per barrel. While the new taxation system, introduced in 1880, used original gravity.

This new tax system was based on the gravity of the wort before fermentation. Measured in specific gravity, not pounds per barrel.

When I write my recipes, I always round the OG. Because they're almost never a round number. Despite brewers, especially those parti-gyling, being able to hit the same OG every time.

The Youngs beers in the 1990s almost all have gravities ending in .8º. Coincidence? I think not.

It's all about the taxation system. Which was based on the OG before fermentation. For tax purposes, they were rounding down. So Ordinary's 1036.8º was, for tax purposes, 1036º. It might seem trivial, but, with the high taxation of the UK, this could add up to a shitload of money.

I've seen the same thing at other breweries. How the hell did I not notice until now? 

Youngs beers in 1990
Beer	Style	OG
Exp	Pale Ale	1066.8
JYLL	Lager	1037.8
LA	Pale Ale	1030.8
ON	Barley Wine	1086.8
PA	Pale Ale	1036.8
PL	Pilsner	1047.8
Porter	Porter	1040.8
SPA	Pale Ale	1046.8
Winter Warmer	Strong Ale	1055.8
Source:
Young's brewing record held at Battersea Library, document number YO/RE/1/59.

 

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1995 Youngs Ram Rod

For some reason, there’s no Ram Rod – at least as far as I can find – in the 1990 Youngs brewing book. Perhaps they were just bottling Special Bitter as Ram Rod. As quite often the two beers had the same gravity.

That’s not the case here, as this version of Ram Rod has an OG 4º higher than Special. And quite a high degree of attenuation that leaves it pushing 5.5% ABV.

There’s not a great deal to the recipe. Just pale, crystal and enzymic malt, and some sugar. There were four types of pale malt, as was usual at Youngs. The sugar was something called FS5. Not sure what that is. But, as earlier No. 3 invert was used in the same way, I’ve substituted that.

Three types of hops were used. All English. Sadly, with no indication of variety or vintage. I’ve had to almost double the quantities to hit the bitterness level recorded in the brewing record. 

1995 Youngs Ram Rod
pale malt	10.75 lb	92.83%
crystal malt 150 L	0.50 lb	4.32%
No. 3 invert sugar	0.33 lb	2.85%
Fuggles 70 min	1.25 oz
Goldings 10 min	0.50 oz
OG	1051
FG	1010.5
ABV	5.36
Apparent attenuation	79.41%
IBU	31
SRM	12.5
Mash at	150º F
Sparge at	165º F
Boil time	70 minutes
pitching temp	62º F
Yeast	WLP002 English Ale