Scottish Export/80/- in the 1950s

Have you been enjoying my stuff about Eighty Shillings? Whether you have or not, there's lots more coming. I seem to have got sidetracked into it. Oh, well.

In this post, we'll be looking at 60/- in the 1950s. Which is when the modern form of the style crystallised. When brewers were finally freed from the last restrictions of WW II. 

I've examples from five breweries, which I hope is pretty representative. All of the breweries were based in Edinburgh, other than Maclay which was in Alloa.

Only one of the beers was called 80/- in the brew house, that from Robert Younger. I'm guessing that all of them would have called Export in the pub, mind. Though that might not have been the name on the pump.

The gravities vary from 1040º to 1046º. Averaging 1044º. Which is about where I'd expect a post-WW II 80/-. There's almost as much varition in the finishing gravities, going from 1009.5º to 1015º.

On Account of the greatly varying rates of attenuation, from 63% to 79%, the ABVs are all over the place. There's a difference of 1.5% ABV between the weakest, Maclay's, and the strongest, William Younger's.

Most of the examples were hopped at around 4 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt. The outlier being Maclay's at 6 lbs. In England, the hopping would have been more like at Maclay. At the other breweries, it's quite light, by UK standards. 

Scottish Export/80/- in the 1950s
Year	Brewer	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
1957	Robert Younger	80/-	1043	1012	4.10	72.09%	4.93	0.83
1958	Wm Younger	Export	1046	1009.5	4.83	79.35%	4.39	0.77
1958	Bernard	Pale 1/4	1046	1013.3	4.33	71.20%	3.97	0.76
1957	Maclay	Export	1040	1015	3.31	62.50%	6.05	1.00
1956	Drybrough	Export	1045	1013.5	4.17	70.00%	4.35	0.80
	Average		1044.0	1012.7	4.15	71.03%	4.74	0.83
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. 

 

1951 Maclay PA 6d

To follow on from my recent video about Scottish 60/-, I thought I'd publish a recipe for a post-war version. Even better than that, it's a beer I drank myself. In fact, it's about the only Scottish-brewed 60/- I've ever drunk.

You might find the name confusing. 6d was the price this type of beer retailed for per pint between the wars. It would have been double that price by 1951, but the name remained. At least in the brew house. I'm sure that in pubs it was called either 60/- or Light.

The recipe is pretty typical for Scotland, with just a single type of malt, plus adjuncts and sugar. I say one type of malt. There were actually three, all of them pale malt. Having a blend of base malts was pretty typical in the UK. So that, when a supply of malt ran out and was substituted, there wouldn't be a sudden big change in the flavour of the beer.

The two sugars were No. 1 invert and something called DCS. I know that the latter was invert-based and dark, so I've substituted No. 3 invert. Caramel would have been added at racking time to take the colour to around 20 SRM. At least to some of the beer. Knowing what Scottish brewers were like, the chances are it was sold in every shade from as-brewed to almost black. All achieved through the addition of caramel at racking.

The two mashing temperatures are before and after an underlet.

There were three types of English hops, no vintage specified. 

1951 Maclay PA 6d
pale malt	5.50 lb	85.21%
flaked rice	0.33 lb	5.11%
No. 1 invert sugar	0.50 lb	7.75%
No. 3 invert sugar	0.125 lb	1.94%
Fuggles 90 min	0.50 oz
Fuggles 60 min	0.50 oz
Goldings 30 min	0.50 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.25 oz
OG	1030
FG	1012
ABV	2.38
Apparent attenuation	60.00%
IBU	21
SRM	4
Mash at	148/157º F
Sparge at	165º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	61º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

 This is my recent video on the 60/- style:

 

Youngs beers in the 1950s

Before we get to looking through Youngs brewing records from the 1950s, let’s consider some analyses of their beers. Performed by London rivals Truman and Whitbread. Who liked to keep a close eye on what other brewers were producing. In particular, the gravity.

It’s obviously not a complete list of Youngs beers. For a start, there’s no Special Bitter and no Burton Ale. Though it does include the relatively rare Celebration Ale (originally called Coronation Ale).

Having the prices included, allows us to see how much standard X Ale increased in price during the 1950s. Rising from 1 shilling (12d) a pint in 1950 to ½ (14d) in 1959. Which is fairly modest increase compared to what happened in the 1960s and 1970s.

Sticking with X Ale, the colour is a little on the pale side. With values of 60, 68 and 75. I would expect a London Dark Mild to be a minimum of 80.

Did they really brew two Stouts in the 1950s? I doubt it. I think they’ve just changed the strength and the name.

The good news? None of the draught samples seem to have been watered. As the Ogs in the analyses match those in the brewing records. 

Youngs beers in the 1950s
Year	Beer	Style	package	Price per pint (d)	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour
1950	X	Mild	draught	12	1033.07				68
1950	Pale Ale	Pale Ale	draught	15	1036.85				26
1953	X	Mild	draught	13	1030.73				60
1953	Pale Ale	Pale Ale	draught	16	1036.8				20
1953	No. 1 Stout	Stout	bottled	33	1052.1	1016.3	4.64	68.71%
1955	Celebration Ale	Strong Ale	bottled	36	1076.2	1015.8	7.91	79.27%
1958	Mild Ale	Mild	draught	14	1031.6	1005.8	3.35	81.65%	75
1959	Pale Ale	Pale Ale	bottled	20	1032.4	1008.9	3.04	72.53%	23
1959	Query Stout	Stout	bottled	32	1039.2	1013.6	3.31	65.31%	375
Sources:
Truman Gravity Book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/C/252.
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.

 

 

Bottled Indonesian beer after WW II

Another extract from my monster gravity table. Courtesy of the Heineken gravity book. Who, with their brewery in Soerabaja, had a commercial interest in what was then the Dutch East Indies.

You'll have to excuse me for this type of post. In my current impaired state, I can't really perform at 100%. And I still need to churn out posts daily. I know, it's a rod I've created for my own back. But I just can't give it up. If I drop dead on a trip, you probably won't realise for a week as my preloaded posts continue to appear.

You can see the effect of WW II in the relatively low strength of all the beers. With all the examples under 4% ABV and the weakest under 3% ABV. While pre-war there had been 5% ABV beers.

Do I have any other interesting observations on these beers? Not really. Look at the table your fucking selves. I'm not going to do everything for you.

Batavia, in case you're wondering, was the colonial name for Jakarta.

Bottled Indonesian beer after WW II
Year	Brewer	Town	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	Colour
1948	ABC	Batavia	Pilsener	Pils	1033.2	1010.0	2.97	69.88%	0.22
1948	ABC	Banging	Pilsener	Pils	1033.9	1009.6	3.09	71.69%	0.22
1948	Heineken	Soerabaja	Javabier	Pils	1032.1	1005.9	3.39	81.63%	0.22
1948	Heineken	Soerabaja	Licht Javabier	Pils	1032.0	1009.5	2.88	70.31%	0.25
1949	Heineken	Soerabaja	Licht Javabier	Pils	1031.8	1008.0	3.09	74.95%	0.22
1950	Heineken	Soerabaja	Licht Javabier	Pils	1032.8	1006.7	3.37	79.56%	0.28
1948	Heineken	Soerabaja	Licht Pilsener	Pils	1034.3	1009.9	3.15	71.23%	0.35
1949	Heineken	Soerabaja	Licht Pilsener	Pils	1036.0	1007.0	3.74	80.51%	0.24
1950	Heineken	Soerabaja	Licht Pilsener	Pils	1036.4	1008.8	3.57	75.81%	0.28
1950	Oranje	Batavia	Anker	Pils	1034.0	1012.8	2.76	62.30%	0.35
1950	Oranje	Batavia	Diamant	Pils	1035.7	1011.8	2.98	67.02%	0.35
Source:
Rapporten van laboratoriumonderzoeken naar producten van Heinekenbrouwerijen in binnen- en buitenland en naar producten van andere brouwerijen held at the Amsterdamse Stadsarchief, document number 834 - 1794.

 

 

Singapore beers 1948 - 1950

I'm a bit late with this one. I wanted to write it just after I got back from Singapore. But, you know what it's like (or maybe not) when you get to my age. Things slip your mind.

In the period these analyses cover, Singapore had two rival brewing companies. The Archipelago Brewery Company (ABC) and Malayan Breweries Limited (MBL), which was a joint venture between Heineken and Fraser & Neave, a local soft drinks company. Both were established in the 1930s. MBL is now wholly owned by Heineken.

The Heineken connection is why I have these analyses and come from a sort of Heineken gravity book. Which lists, in addition to beers from their own breweries, products of rivals. Hence beers from both ABC and MBL.

Typically, for breweries in this part of Asia, there were two products: Pils and Stout. Which is what you still tend to find today. The successor to MBL, Asia Pacific Breweries still brew Anchor Stout, though, at just 6% ABV, it's a good bit weaker than the immediate post-WW II version. 

The Pilseners are about what you would expect, at around 1048º, 5% ABV and 75% apparent attenuation. The Stouts, on the other hand, are extremely dry. With over 95% apparent attenuation. That's drier than modern Guinness, but from a much higher starting gravity. They must have been pretty interesting beers. 

Singapore beers 1948 - 1950
Year	Brewer	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	package	Colour
1948	ABC	Pilsener	Pils	1049.64	1012.22	4.68	75.39%	bottled	0.48
1948	ABC	Pilsener	Pils	1033.68	1009.59	3.10	71.52%	bottled	0.2
1949	ABC	Pilsener	Pils	1049.64	1009.01	5.29	81.86%	bottled	0.35
1950	ABC	Anchor	Pils	1049.90	1010.73	5.07	78.50%	bottled	0.33
1950	ABC	Stout	Stout	1067.94	1002.15	8.67	96.84%	bottled	4 * 13
1949	MBL	Pils	Pils	1047.75	1011.04	4.74	76.88%	bottled	0.30
1950	MBL	Tiger	Pils	1049.69	1010.37	5.10	79.12%	bottled	0.48
1950	MBL	Stout	Stout	1068.20	1000.77	8.89	98.88%	bottled	4 * 14.5
Source:
Rapporten van laboratoriumonderzoeken naar producten van Heinekenbrouwerijen in binnen- en buitenland en naar producten van andere brouwerijen held at the Amsterdamse Stadsarchief, document number 834 - 1794.

 

Let's Brew - 1952 Shepherd Neame SS

This is a weird one. Something I’ve only seen Scottish brewers do before: parti-gyle a Stout with a Pale Ale.

How did they do that? By adding black malt and caramel to just one of the coppers. Hey presto! Pale Ale is now Stout. Though they did also end up with a Pale Ale that contained malted oats. I wonder if anyone ever noticed?

Compared to Shepherd Neame’s other recipes, this one looks insanely complicated. A massive three types of malt, plus sugar and caramel. I’ve increased the quantity of black because, as it was added in the copper, it would have added more colour than if it were mashed. 

1952 Shepherd Neame SS
pale malt	5.75 lb	77.91%
black malt	0.75 lb	10.16%
malted oats	0.25 lb	3.39%
raw cane sugar	0.25 lb	3.39%
caramel 1000 SRM	0.33 lb	4.47%
malt extract	0.05 lb	0.68%
Fuggles 120 mins	0.75 oz
Goldings 30 mins	0.75 oz
OG	1030
FG	1008
ABV	2.91
Apparent attenuation	73.33%
IBU	21
SRM	36
Mash at	149º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	62º F
Yeast	WLP007 Dry English Ale

The above is an excerpt from my overly detailed look at post-war UK brewing, Austerity!

https://www.lulu.com/shop/ronald-pattinson/austerity/paperback/product-1mkrq4zg.html

There's also a Kindle edition.

UK breweries after WW II

In the 1950s the first truly national brewing companies began to form. As the coalescing groups bought more rivals, it inevitably whittled down the number of active breweries. Purchasers were rarely interested in the brewery itself, only the pubs that it owned. With new licenses almost impossible to obtain, about the only way to expand the number of outlets was to buy another brewery.

The process of amalgamation was kicked off by Canadian Eddie Taylor, who had already built a national brewing group in his homeland. Using Yorkshire brewer Hammonds at its core, he embarked on a buying frenzy across the North of England and Scotland.

By the late 1960s, seven brewing groups dominated the industry: Allied Breweries, Bass Charrington, Courage, Watney Mann, Whitbread, Scottish & Newcastle and Guinness. They were usually referred to as the Big Six, Guinness being left out because it owned no pubs. 

No. of UK breweries
Year	No.
1945	708
1946	680
1947	648
1948	625
1949	602
1950	567
1951	539
1952	524
1953	501
1954	479
1955	460
1956	426
1957	416
1958	399
1959	378
1960	358
1964	295
1965	274
Sources:
Brewers' Almanack 1955, p.68
Brewers' Almanack 1962, p.67
BBPA Statistical Handbook 2003, p. 92

Amalgamation was often a complex affair. Bass Charrington was formed by the merger of Charrington United Breweries and Bass, Mitchells & Butlers. The former itself the result of a merger between Hammonds United Breweries and Charrington. The latter, created when Bass and M & B merged. Hammonds United Breweries was itself the result of a series of takeovers.

Between them, the Big Six controlled over half the UK’s pubs. As most beer was consumed in pubs and those pubs could only sell beer from the brewery that owned them, that gave the big brewers a stranglehold on the beer trade.

Ironically, this hold started to be broken in the 1980s when supermarkets started to shift large quantities of beer. It’s ironic because the big brewers dumped beer at ridiculously low prices to the supermarkets to gain market share. All the really did was devalue their pubs as assets.

The Big Seven 1963 - 1967
	1963			1967
Company	Tied estate	Nominal capital	Market value	Company	Tied estate	Nominal capital	Market value
		£m	£m			£m	£m
Allied	9,300	90.4	177.3	Bass Charr	10,230	80.7	243.2
Watney Mann	5,500	43.8	103.5	Allied	8,250	128.1	234.7
Charr Utd	5,000	43.1	92.7	Whitbread	7,376	104.8	127.8
CB&S	4,800	45.3	76.3	Watney Mann	6,667	84.8	144.7
BM&B	4,100	33	96	CB&S	4,418	57.1	94.4
Whitbread	3,500	40.6	95.2	S&N	2,076	64.8	127
S&N	1,700	44.9	92.1	Guinness	2	26.5	102.2
Guinness	2	19.5	94
Total	33,902				39,019
Total pubs	67,450				66,373
* Guinness's tied estate = Castle Inn, Bodiam and Guinness Club House, Park Royal.
Key:
BM&B Bass, Mitchells & Butlers
Bass Charr Bass Charrington
CB&S Courage, Barclay & Simonds
Charr Utd Charrington United
S&N Scottish & Newcastle
Source:
The British Brewing Industry 1830 - 1980 by T.R. Gourvish and R.G. Wilson, 1994, page 472.

There was also consolidation on a regional level, where breweries like Greene King, Greenall Whitley and Marstons bought up rivals for their pubs and closed their breweries.

At a much smaller level, most of the remaining home brew pubs closed between 1945 and 1965. There had still been around 2,500 publican brewers at the outbreak of WW I, but large numbers gave up in the interwar period. By 1965 they were just a handful. 

This is an excerptfrom from my overly detailed look at post-war UK brewing, Austerity!

http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/austerity/23181344

Clearing up

The Manual of British and Foreign Brewing Companies 1946

I was putting back some of the books I've used for "Keg!" back in their place on the bookshelf. The one I have downstairs.

The others crowd in Andrew's bed. His fault for briefly moving out. I turned his room into my library. For the first time ever my books are arranged in some sort of order. First by language. Then by type, sort of. And size, that's important for fitting them on the shelves. One problem: my access is limited to the hours that Andrew is awake. So (he happens to have just got up and it's 15:05) about 15:00 to 06:00.

That's one reason I have the books I'm most likely to reference downstairs. All the statistic-filled ones like the Brewer's Almanack.

While I was putting back a couple of books I'd used for "Keg!", I noticed these:

The Manual of British and Foreign Brewing Companies 1946 and  
Brewery Manual 1953-54. 

(Both books have an advert on the back cover for Dixon's Enzymic malt.)

Brewery Manual 1953-54

Have I ever used these? I can't remember. Don't tell Dolores, but, I have, in the past, bought quite a lot of books that I didn't necessarily expect to use straight away. A library of stuff that might come in handy. It usually does. Sometime. Most of it.

I hope I remembered to consult them when I wrote "Austerity!", my look at beer in postwar Britain. Full of the relentless detail my readers should expect by now. Lots of recipes, too. "It's dead good." Andrew said after I bribed him with a bottle of rum.

The image to the left drew my attention. Not for the Dixon's. But the Vinegar Malt. Never heard of that before. At least, not that I can remember. I am getting on. And my decadent lifestyle  is bound to catch up with me.

Anyone have any idea what vinegar malt might be? Other than the obvious that it was meant for malt vinegar. And is it still made?

Let's Brew - 1959 Watney Dairy Maid Sweet Stout

A bit of an odd one, this. It’s a Watney beer, but it wasn’t brewed in London. This is a beer that was brewed there, but I have none of those brewing records. Luckily for me, Usher in Trowbridge also brewed some Watney beers. And I have some of their records.

A typical watery postwar Stout, you might say. But, being a Watney beer, it wasn’t as simple as that. 680 barrels were brewed. But then another 108 barrels of various shit were added at raking time. Bottoms, returned beer – all the crap brewers were so keen on not wasting.

In addition, there were also 2.25 gallons per barrel of candy sugar added. The net result being a rise in the effective OG by 3.6º to 1034.º. I’ve added a half pound of candy to account for this.

The base recipe looks normal enough. There’s a mild malt base with black malt for colour. The sugar is split between granules, which I assume is just plain white sugar and CDM (Caramelised Dextro-Maltose). For the latter, I’ve substituted mostly No. 3 invert, along with a little caramel.

Odd is what’s missing: lactose. The names “Dairy Maid” and “Sweet Stout” imply its presence. But I’m pretty sure it contained none, as it’s not mentioned the Whitbread Gravity Book analyses. Which usually made a point of doing so.

Weirdest ingredient is ginger, 26 oz of which were added to the 680 barrels. Which for this size of batch works out to bugger all.

A fairly typical underlet mash process was employed.

action	barrels	strike heat	tap heat
mash	85	154º F	146º F
underlet	10	154º F	149º F
sparge 1		170º F	152º F
sparge 2		160º F	156º F

A single type of East Kent hops from the 1958 harvest was used. 

1959 Watney Dairy Maid Sweet Stout
mild malt	5.00 lb	67.80%
black malt	0.67 lb	9.08%
flaked maize	0.25 lb	3.39%
No. 3 invert sugar	0.50 lb	6.78%
cane sugar	0.33 lb	4.47%
candy sugar	0.50 lb	6.78%
caramel 2000 SRM	0.125 lb	1.69%
ginger	pinch
Goldings 45 mins	0.75 oz
Goldings 15 mins	0.50 oz
OG	1034
FG	1012
ABV	2.91
Apparent attenuation	64.71%
IBU	14
SRM	33
Mash at	150º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	45 minutes
pitching temp	60º F
Yeast	WLP023 Burton Ale