Let's Brew - 1940 Drybrough P 60/-

Continuing my look at modern Shilling Ales, here’s a 60/- recipe from the start of WW II.

Being brewed early on in the conflict, the gravity hasn’t been reduced yet from its interwar strength. By the end of the war, the gravity was reduced to not much over 1030º. Or about as weak as beer got. Though a shitty level of attenuation leaves this beer not much over 3% ABV.

You’ve probably heard me bang on about how Scottish beers usually had no coloured malts in them at all. This beer is an exception, as there’s a tiny quantity of black malt. I assume just for colour. Other than that, it’s just base malt and sugar.

There were three types of sugar: Fison, Avona and invert. I’ve substituted No. 1 invert for all three. Perhaps No. 2 invert would be a better choice. I’ll leave that decision up to you.

Just one type of hops: English from the 1938 season. Not all that many of them, either. Leaving the finished beer at a mere 20 IBU.

It’s quite likely that this beer was coloured to several different shades through the addition of caramel at racking time.

1940 Drybrough P 60/-
pale malt	7.00 lb	89.06%
black malt	0.04 lb	0.51%
No. 1 invert sugar	0.75 lb	9.54%
malt extract	0.07 lb	0.89%
Fuggles 135 min	0.50 oz
Fuggles 60 min	0.50 oz
Goldings 30 min	0.50 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.25 oz
OG	1036
FG	1013
ABV	3.04
Apparent attenuation	63.89%
IBU	20
SRM	7
Mash at	151º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	135 minutes
pitching temp	60º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

 

Flying to Toronto

It's not an early start. Our flight isn't until 17:50. Leaving us plenty of time for last-minute packing.

Schiphol is much emptier than I feared. Twenty minutes sees us through all the annoying shit. Passport control is the emptiest I've seen it in years.

We drop by the duty free. The malt whisky is all stupid prices. But there's an offer of 2 litres of Jameson for 40 euros. That'll do.

The lounge is reasonably quiet, too. I have to pay for one of the kids.

“Make sure to eat and drink loads, Lexie. We want to get our money’s worth.”

“You always say that, Dad.”

“Doesn't make it any less valid.”

I know Andrew won't eat fuck all. He never does. Not sure how he survives on the tiny amount he eats.

I'm soon braced by a brace of whiskies. The kids go for boring old Pils.

Alexei gets stuck into the food. Which isn't bad today. I join in the food fun after warming up with a couple of whiskies. Even Andrew eats a couple of wraps. Just to prove me wrong.

We wander down to our gate after the "Go to gate" message comes up on the screen. We're very obedient.

We're further back in the plane than usual. The kids wanted the extra legroom of an emergency exit row. I sit behind them.

It's a relatively short flight. Just 7.5 hours. I've got used to much longer ones. Anything under 10 seems brief.

The food is . . . like KLM food. The main meal is just about edible. But too much rice and not enough chicken.

I watch some stuff on the in-board entertainment. Project Hail Mary, Guardians of the Galaxy, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. It passes the time. Probably not something I would watch at home. Any of them.

As we approach Toronto, it looks pretty murky outside. Forest fires in Ontario. I hope that I'll be able to breathe.

All the entry formalities are soon achieved and we jump on an UP train into the city.  It’s a pretty decent service, going along at a good old whack. Taking us to Union Station, a very grand, neoclassical stone building.

From where we take a taxi. It’s not that far. But definitely too far to walk with luggage.

“It smells like barbecue here.” Alexei remarks. “That must be from the forest fires.”

The smoke is noticeable. But not choking. We seem to have missed the worst of it. Which now seems to have moved on to the USA.

Once checked into our hotel, the kids venture out to a convenience store for some snacks and soft drinks. While I get my flipflop fired up.

I've recorded the England World Cup semi-final on Ziggo so we can watch the game. We rig it up to play through the TV. So we don't all have to stare at the tiny laptop screen.

Of course, Argentina wins in the most annoying way possible. The bastards. I don't know if I'll bother watching the final, as I find both teams so irritating. Thankfully, there's enough Jamesons to take off the edge of annoyance.

It's around 6:30 Dutch time when I turn in. Almost getting up time back home. The whisky helps my body to work out that it’s sleepy time.
 

 

Scottish Export/80/- boiling and fermentation in the 1950s

You won't have to put up with this much longer. I'll be back from my Canada trip in a couple of days. Then you'll be blasted with travel posts for a couple of weeks.

Processes today. Starting with boiling.

Unfortunately, most of the breweries couldn't be arsed to record the boiling time. Which is really annoying. The William Younger's records have a column for the boiling time. They just haven't filled it in.

The two breweries that didt bother don't reveal anything particularly unusual.90 to 120 minutes is pretty typical. The only thing that I find slightly surprising is that there were three boils at Robert Younger. And that all were of the same length. That's about all I have to say on the topic of boiling.

On to fermentation. Lots more details there, thankfully.

There's not too much variation in pitching temperatures: 60º F to 62.5º F. Averaging just under 61º F. Which is pretty normal stuff. I consider 60º F to be the "standard" pitching temperature.

Maximum temperatures are another matter. They're all over the place. From 65.5º F to 74.5º F. Drybrough Export only increased by 4º F, while Bernard's rose 14.5 º F. Quite a difference.

Oddly enough, those two were also the beers with the shortest fermentation times, just five days. I would have expected the fermentation that ran hotter to be quicker. All the other beers took seven days. 

Scottish Export/80/- boiling and fermentation in the 1950s
Year	Brewer	Beer	boil time (hours)			Pitch temp	max. fermen-tation temp	length of fermen-tation (days)
1957	Robert Younger	80/-	2	2	2	60º F	68º F	7
1958	Wm Younger	Export				60º F	73.5º F	7
1958	Bernard	Pale 1/4	1.75			60.5º F	74.5º F	5
1957	Maclay	Export				62.5º F	70º F	7
1956	Drybrough	Export				61.5º F	65.5º F	5
	Average					60.9º F	70.3º F	6.20
Sources:
Robert Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number RY/6/1/2.
William Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/3/112.
T & J Bernard brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number TJB6/1/1/1.
Maclay brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number M/6/1/1/35.
Drybrough brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number D/6/1/1/7.

Here's a short YouTube video I made about Eighty Shilling. 

 

 

Brewers not for sale 1919 - 1936

Another look at brewers not for sale. It should be lots of fun.

The big surprise here is the massive revival in these licences. At the end of WW I, the number had fallen below 2,000. But by the end of the 1920s, there were more than in 1900, peaking at over 13,000.

It's also fascinating to see a big increase in the licences in Scotland. From nothing, to over 1,000. In 1900, just 127 licences were issued in Scotland. Proportionally way less than in England. Remember that Scotland had about 10% of the population of England. But, by 1936, around 25% of the licences were in Scotland. And continuing to increase, unlike in England.

I suspect that home-brewing might have collapsed at the end of WW I when ingredients became difficult, if not impossible, to obtain. After a couple of years of peace, not-for-sale licences were way above the 1914 level of 4,522. And continued to steadily increase until 1928. After which there was a steady decline. Though still well above the immediate pre-WW I level.

Now not everyone holding a licence was necessarily brewing. On the other hand, there were almost certainly some brewing without bothering with a licence. There probably were 10,000 or so not-for-sale brewers between the wars. 

I'd love to know something about these brewers. What did they brew? What equipment did they have? How much did they brew? I've never seen any information about this group. If you have any, please let me know. It's a beer culture that seems to have been totally forgotten about.

Brewers not for sale 1919 - 1936
Year	Eng.	Scot.	G.B.
1919	1,876	3	1,879
1920	2,998	1	2,999
1921	6,174		6,174
1922	7,069		7,069
1923	8,028	40	8,068
1924	9,423	409	9,832
1925	8,991	476	9,467
1926	10,869	618	11,487
1927	11,427	751	12,178
1928	12,257	842	13,099
1929	11,878	1,044	12,922
1930	11,437	1,076	12,513
1931	11,462	1,088	12,550
1932	10,033	1,106	11,139
1933	10,141	1,135	11,276
1934	9,549	1,197	10,746
1935	8,906	1,264	10,170
1936	8,502	1,265	9,767
Source:
"Drink in Great Britain 1900 - 1979", by Gwylmor Prys Williams and George Thompson Brake, 1980, page 367.

 

 

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1933 William Younger Export

Finally, an Eighty Shilling that really is related to modern Scottish Export. Though it wasn’t actually called 80/- by the brewery. It was, at least, called Export.

The gravity clearly plonks it firmly in the 80/- category. With an OG of 1054º, it’s clearly in the 8d per pint class. Which is where 80/- gets its name. 6d per pint beers were called 60/-, 7d beers 70/- and 8d beers 80/-. Simple, isn’t it?

There’s a shitload of grits again. Along with three types of pale malt. All very simple, if not particularly awe-inspiring. There was almost certainly caramel added at racking for colour correction. And, knowing Scotland, it probably came in a few different shades. With some being surprisingly dark.

The hopping is heavier than in the 1913 Shilling Ale type of 80/-. Though it’s still a little under 5 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt. Quite low for a Pale Ale of this strength. Though it still comes out over 50 IBU.

Two types of hops: Pacific from the 1930 harvest and Kent from 1932. 

1933 William Younger Export
pale malt	7.25 lb	58.00%
grits	5.25 lb	42.00%
Cluster 90 min	2.00 oz
Fuggles 30 min	2.00 oz
Goldings dry hops	1.00 oz
OG	1054
FG	1016
ABV	5.03
Apparent attenuation	70.37%
IBU	53
SRM	4
Mash at	156º F
Sparge at	160º F
Boil time	165 minutes
pitching temp	60º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

This is a YouTube video about this recipe: 

 

And here's a short YouTube video I made about Eighty Shilling.

  

Scottish Export/80/- hops in the 1950s

Still on my holidays. Unless I've dropped dead from the stress of travel. You never know at my age.

And still pumping out stuff about Eighty Bob. It's a style I drank a reasonable amount of. Mostly in the form of Younger's/McEwans. Which I believe were the same beer. Decent enough stuff, when in cask form. I must have had Maclay's, too. I can't really remember it, though. I'd usually go for their 60/-, if it was an option.

Back to the topic in hand. Hops. Lots of English hops. Which is what you would expect. In the 1950s the UK was about self-sufficient in hops. Meaning not that many were imported.

Most of the beers contain two types of hops. Other than Drybrough Export, which has five. Including two foreign hops, Saaz and Styrian. Interestingly, both from Central Europe.

Not many of the brewing records mention the vitage of the hops. Only William Younger and Bernard bothered. Both were using hops mostly from the most recent season. With just one of William Younger's hops a year older than that.

Scottish Export/80/- hops in the 1950s
Year	Brewer	Beer	hop 1	hop 2	hop 3	hop 4	hop 5
1957	Robert Younger	80/-	English	English
1958	Wm Younger	Export	Kent 1956	Kent 1957
1958	Bernard	Pale 1/4	English 1957	English 1957
1957	Maclay	Export	English	English	English	Saaz	Styrian
1956	Drybrough	Export	English	English
Sources:
Robert Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number RY/6/1/2.
William Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/3/112.
T & J Bernard brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number TJB6/1/1/1.
Maclay brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number M/6/1/1/35.
Drybrough brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number D/6/1/1/7.

Here's a short YouTube video I made about Eighty Shilling.

 

 

Brewers not for sale 1900 - 1918

Very much a statistics-based post today. Looking at the number of licences issued for brewers who weren't selling their beer.

The 1880 Free Mash Tun compelled everyone who brewed to buy a licence, whether they sold their beer or not. Those not selling their beer didn't have to pay beer duty, but they did need a licence. 

Brewers not for sale included ones operating on very different scales. Ranging from workmen brewing in their cottages to local gentry with dedicated brewhouses making beer for all their estate staff. Home brewers continued to need to buy a licence up until the 1960s, when that calss of licence was abolished.

At the start of the 20th century, over 12,000 not for sale licences were issued. The vast majority were in England, with just a handful in Scotland. To put the numbers into context, the population of England was around ten times that of Scotland. While the licences in Scotland were less than 1% of those in England.

The numbers declined dramatically in the years leading up to WW I, falling to under 5,000. There was a small rise towards the end of the war, before a total collapse in 1918. By that point only a handful of licences were still being issued in Scotland. 

Brewers not for sale 1900 - 1918
Year	Eng.	Scot.	G.B.
1900	12,607	127	12,734
1901	12,296	114	12,410
1902	11,772	100	11,872
1903	11,665	87	11,752
1904	11,275	84	11,359
1905	9,863	67	9,930
1906	9,266	56	9,322
1907	8,840	49	8,889
1908	8,438	43	8,481
1909	7,530	38	7,568
1910	6,980	26	7,006
1911	6,833	22	6,855
1912	5,953	20	5,973
1913	4,992	17	5,009
1914	4,522	15	4,537
1915	4,728	13	4,741
1916	5,982	9	5,991
1917	5,207	10	5,217
1918	1,598	4	1,602
Source:
"Drink in Great Britain 1900 - 1979", by Gwylmor Prys Williams and George Thompson Brake, 1980, page 367.

 

Scottish Export/80/- sugars in the 1950s

There's nop end to the 80/- fun. I'll be away in Canada when this is published. That's why I've been spinning so many posts from Eighty Bob. I think it's theown up some interesting stuff, mind.

Today we're looking at the sugars in 80/-. And there are way more of them than malts. Ten, in total. Seven of them just in Drybrough Export. Though, proportionally, Maclay's had the greatest quantity, at almost 19%.

Let's work left to right. Three of the beers contain malt extract. This was pretty common at the time. Usually, it was a way of getting some extra enzymes into the mash. Unlike the other sugars, which were added to the copper, while malt extract went into the mash tun.

All the beers contain invert of some sort. It's just not specified which type, in most cases. The stuff just called "invert" is probably No. 1 or No. 2 invert. Cane sugar is, I assume, unrefined cane sugar.

NExt we have a whole bunch of proprietary sugars: Hydrol, Avona, DSS, Fison and CWE. No real idea what that lot are. I'm surprised that a couple, Hydrol and Avona, appear in more than one beer.

The average sugar content is 15%. Though there's quite a bit of variation across the different breweries. 

Scottish Export/80/- sugars in the 1950s
Year	Brewer	Beer	malt extract	no. 1 sugar	invert	cane sugar	Hydrol	Avona	DSS	Fison	CWE	caramel	total sugar
1957	Robert Younger	80/-	1.39%		6.94%		5.55%					0.07%	13.95%
1958	Wm Younger	Export			4.48%	8.96%							13.43%
1958	Bernard	Pale 1/4			7.27%			4.85%					12.12%
1957	Maclay	Export	2.70%	10.81%					5.41%				18.92%
1956	Drybrough	Export	2.16%		4.31%		2.16%	3.23%		2.16%	2.16%		16.17%
	Average												14.92%
Sources:
Robert Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number RY/6/1/2.
William Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/3/112.
T & J Bernard brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number TJB6/1/1/1.
Maclay brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number M/6/1/1/35.
Drybrough brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number D/6/1/1/7.

Take a look at my recent Youtube video on Eighty Shilling. 

 

What is the dropping syste.

 I explain the dropping system of fermentation.

 

Let's Brew - 1913 William Younger 80/-

Yet another Eighty Shilling which isn’t what we now think of the style. But of the older type of Scottish beer that I call Shilling Ales.

The gravity has fallen again. But the FG has remained the same, making it even less well attenuated than the 1885 version. Barely over 50%. Which must have made for a very sweet and sticky beer.  Especially as the hopping rate has fallen again. Dropping from 5 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) in 1885 to just 3.5 Lbs in 1913.

Lots of changes in terms of the recipe. From no adjuncts in 1885 to over 40% grits. That’s quite a change. There’s barely any more base malt. It doesn’t sound like a great recipe with all that maize. I have tried a recreation of one Younger’s beer with a similar proportion of grits and it was much better than I expected.

Sugar has also appeared. Glucose is my guess. The brewing record just says “syrup”. I’ve guessed glucose, but it could also have been a type of invert. In addition, there’s caramel for colour correction. Which leaves this version looking like a dark Mild.

Three types of hops were used: Kent from the 1912 harvest and Pacific from 1910 and 1912. 

1913 William Younger 80/-
pale malt	6.50 lb	51.42%
grits	5.25 lb	41.53%
glucose	0.75 lb	5.93%
caramel 2000 SRM	0.14 lb	1.11%
Cluster 135 min	0.75 oz
Cluster 60 min	0.50 oz
Fuggles 30 min	0.25 oz
OG	1056
FG	1027
ABV	3.84
Apparent attenuation	51.79%
IBU	30
SRM	20
Mash at	151º F
Sparge at	160º F
Boil time	135 minutes
pitching temp	59.5º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

Here's a short YouTube video I made about Eighty Shilling.

 

 

Montreal - a preview

A preview of mine rand the kids Canada trip. 

 These are my notes. The final text may differ. *

I have a look at the places that have been suggested to me. The name Dieu du Ciel cropped up a couple of times. It's not too far away. That'll do.

We set off about 14:30. We should catch it at a quiet time. The neighbourhood it's in seems pretty lively. Lots of shops, restaurants and bars.

Dieu du Ciel has quite a pubby feel. Reinforced by the presence of two handpulls. It's deserted inside and we have our choice of seats.

"Ooh, look!. They've got a cask Mild."

"You get excited so easily, Dad." Andrew retorts.

"I know. It's wonderful, isn't it?"

"No, not really."

I get a pint of Mild, obviously. It's really rather nice. The kids go for something Lagery. There's a really good variety of beers on offer. Two cask beers (the other is an Ordinary Bitter), two Stouts, Bavarian Helles and Amber, a Hefeweizen and, of curse, a couple of IPAs, including a non-sludge one.

 

* It certainly fucking will.
 

 

 

Scottish Export/80/- malts and adjuncts in the 1950s

Carrying on with my Eighty Shilling series, here's a look at the malts and adjuncts in the late 1950s.

There aren't a huge number of malts. It's mostly just pale malt. That's all that three of the five beers contain. The only other malts are tiny quantities of enzymic and black malts. The Bernard and Drybrough examples both have a tiny amount of black malt, presumably for colour correction. The Drybrough beer also has a little enzymic malt.

The average malt content is 70%, which is a little on the low side. The outlier being the William Younger beer, which has only 58% malt.

Moving onto the adjuncts, the 28% flaked maize in William Younger's beer explains why the malt content is so low. Every other example also includes flaked maize. No surprise there. Flaked maize was very common and appeared in a majority of UK beers at the time.

The Drybrough beer has a second adjunct: flaked barley. Which is interesting. During WW II, brewers were forced to use flaked barley as a replacement for flaked maize. But, as soon as maize became available again, brewers dropped flaked barley pretty much immediately

The average adjunct content is 15%. Though that's distorted by the William Younger beer. In the others around 10%.

Scottish Export/80/- malts and adjuncts in the 1950s
Year	Brewer	Beer	pale malt	black malt	enzymic malt	total malt	flaked maize	flaked barley	total adjuncts
1957	Robert Younger	80/-	72.17%			72.17%	13.88%		13.88%
1958	Wm Younger	Export	58.21%			58.21%	28.36%		28.36%
1958	Bernard	Pale 1/4	77.58%	0.61%		78.18%	9.70%		9.70%
1957	Maclay	Export	70.27%			70.27%	10.81%		10.81%
1956	Drybrough	Export	71.13%	0.58%	1.35%	73.06%	5.39%	5.39%	10.78%
	Average					70.38%			14.70%
Sources:
Robert Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number RY/6/1/2.
William Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/3/112.
T & J Bernard brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number TJB6/1/1/1.
Maclay brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number M/6/1/1/35.
Drybrough brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number D/6/1/1/7.