Youngs X Ale 1939 – 1945

Let’s take a look at the other main Youngs beer, X Ale. Part of the other wartime parti-gyle.

Ooh look, there’s a shock: the gravity dropped from 1035º to 1028.7º over the course of the war. Between 1939 and 1945 was 18%. Which is a lot more than for Pale Ale, where the fall in gravity was just 10%. Though the fall for Pale Ale was unusually small. The average decline in UK gravity over the was 18.5%. 

An increased rate of attenuation, however, means that the ABV only fell from 3.6% ABV to 3.2% ABV. Still enough alcohol to get you a bit pissed. If you put in a little effort. You just needed to be determined enough.

I’ve highlighted the changes in bold to make them more obvious.

As with Pale Ale, the hopping rate was up and down during the war. Kicking off at 6 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt. But, by the end of the war, it was down to under 3 lbs per quarter. In the intervening years, however, it went up and down quite a bit. None of it voluntary, obviously. Brewers were, at several points, ordered to reduce their hopping rates. 

Youngs X Ale 1939 - 1945
Date	Year	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
18th Oct	1939	1035.0	1007.8	3.60	77.84%	6.19	0.85
17th May	1940	1034.0	1007.2	3.55	78.82%	5.87	0.78
2nd Dec	1940	1034.0	1010.0	3.18	70.67%	4.80	0.63
30th Apr	1941	1031.0	1005.5	3.37	82.13%	3.88	0.48
6th May	1941	1030.0	1006.6	3.09	77.84%	4.02	0.49
24th Oct	1941	1030.6	1008.9	2.88	71.03%	4.02	0.51
4th May	1942	1030.0	1005.5	3.24	81.53%	3.34	0.43
8th Jul	1942	1029.2	1008.3	2.76	71.54%	4.49	0.56
19th Oct	1942	1029.9	1005.5	3.22	81.47%	3.47	0.45
5th May	1943	1029.8	1007.8	2.92	73.97%	4.32	0.67
28th Apr	1944	1028.4	1005.0	3.10	82.44%	4.45	0.52
5th May	1944	1028.2	1007.8	2.70	72.50%	4.95	0.57
20th Oct	1944	1028.8	1005.5	3.08	80.76%	4.54	0.55
2nd Jul	1945	1028.8	1005.5	3.08	80.76%	3.83	0.47
4th Jul	1945	1028.7	1004.4	3.21	84.56%	3.79	0.46
Sources:
Young's brewing records held at Battersea Library, document numbers YO/RE/1/8 YO/RE/1/9 YO/RE/1/10, YO/RE/1/11, YO/RE/1/12, YO/RE/1/13 and YO/RE/1/14.