Let's Brew Wednesday - 1960 Youngs PA

Next, we have Young’s original Pale Ale. Which, by 1960, had become Ordinary Bitter. Such a great name for a beer, I’ve always thought.

Though this isn’t going to be a huge, long description. This being parti-gyled with the PAB we’ve already seen. Obviously, there’s just a little bit more of everything in this. Not a huge amount more, as the gravities aren’t that different.

Ordinary was a smaller part of Young’s output than it was later to become. It says much of the different beer landscape in 1960 that the batches of X Ale were much bigger than of PA: 250 barrels to 150 barrels. The situation would be very different a decade later, as Mild’s popularity in London collapsed. By the middle of the 1970s, few London pubs sold cask Mild. Many sold no Mild at all.

It’s a shame that this period of Young’s records doesn’t record the bitterness level. My guess is, based on later versions where it is given, that it was around 35 EBU.

1960 Youngs PA
pale malt	6.75 lb	79.82%
flaked maize	1.00 lb	11.82%
pale malt extract	0.33 lb	3.90%
No. 1 invert sugar	0.375 lb	4.43%
caramel 500 SRM	0.002 lb	0.02%
Fuggles 120 min	1.00 oz
Goldings 30 min	1.00 oz
OG	1038
FG	1003.3
ABV	4.59
Apparent attenuation	91.32%
IBU	26
SRM	4.5
Mash at	152º F
Sparge at	174º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	59º F
Yeast	WLP002 English Ale

 

Listen to brewer John Hatch explain how they brewed at Youngs in the 1990s.