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Sunday, 28 June 2026

Scottish & Newcastle beers in 1996

A William Younger Double Century Ale label featuring a drawing of Edinburgh castle, a portarit of William Younger and a six-pointed star.
Back with that odd document of loose sheets. Which contain some useful information about Scottish & Newcastle's beers.

What's nice, is that the bitterness levels are recorded. Well, for the pale beers. They didn't bother measuring it for the Brown Ales and Stouts. Which leads me to believe that they weren't very bitter.

Sweet Stout was brewed at 540 EBC. After blending with "reprocessed beer", i.e. ullage and other crap, the colour was 270 EBC. Something similar happened with Brown Ale, which was brewed at 220 EBC and then blended with reprocessed beer. In both cases, there must have been quite a high percentage of rubbish blended in to reduce the colour so much.

MxEwan's IPA, McEwan's Pale Ale and Younger's Pale Ale all look incredibly similar. The only difference being a slightly higher FG in McEwan Pale Ale. Scottish & Newcastle had another IPA, Younger's IPA, which was much stronger, 1042º. It was also sold as sold as 80/-, just to make things even more confusing.

XXPS was also sold as Scotch Bitter or, when in cask form, 70/-.

McEwan's Scotch Ale and Export look remarkably simialr, with just 1º difference in gravity a 1 IBU in bitterness. Irinically, it seems to have been Scotch Ale that was exported.

Talking of exports, McEwan's Strong Ale was exported to Jamaica and Canada. While Milk Stout was exported to Jamaica. The same beer was exported elsewhere as McEwan's Extra Stout.

I ssume that the Strong Ale is what is now sold as McEwan's Champion. A Scotch Ale of pretty decent strength, looking much like the ones brewed between the wars.

Double Century Ale was a Brown Ale of the strong type, which was introduced in 1949 to celebrate the 200th anniversary of William Younger. I wonder when it was discontinued? 

Scottish & Newcastle beers in 1996
Brewer Beer Style OG FG ABV App. Atten-uation IBU colour
Wm. Younger Brown Ale Brown Ale 1030.5 1006.5 3.18 78.69%   85
Wm. Younger Double Century Ale Brown Ale 1053.0 1009.6 5.74 81.89%   70
McEwan IPA IPA 1030.5 1006.8 3.14 77.70% 17 24
McEwan Pale Ale Pale Ale 1030.5 1009.1 2.83 70.16% 17 48
Wm. Younger Pale Ale Pale Ale 1030.5 1006.8 3.14 77.70% 17 24
Wm. Younger XXPS Btg Pale Ale 1036.5 1007.6 3.82 79.18% 24 25
McEwan Export Pale Ale 1043.5 1009.2 4.54 78.85% 27 25
McEwan Scotch Ale Pale Ale 1044.5 1010.2 4.54 77.08% 26 26
McEwan Sweet Stout Stout 1030.5 1011.5 2.51 62.30%   270
McEwan Milk Stout Stout 1058.5 1020.0 5.09 65.81%   270
McEwan Strong Ale Strong Ale 1088.5 1022.0 8.80 75.14% 30 85
Source:
Holyrood and Fountain beer specifications held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/8/1.

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