Scottish Watery IPA before WW II

Back in the 19th century, Scotland was a major producer of IPA. Mostly in the two main brewing centres: Alloa and Edinburgh.

By the 1930s, it was all a bit arbitrary if a beer was marketed as IPA or Pale Ale. Much the same as in England. I’ve used my normal system of differentiating between the two: what the brewer called them.

Mostly, they look like the relatively weak Southeastern type, with gravities between 1030º and 1040º. But there are a couple of stronger examples. The two types are different that I’ve split them into separate tables.

Kicking off with the watery stuff.

Mostly, they fall into what was the 5d per pint (on draught) class in England. Beers with a gravity a little short of 1040º. Note the different use of the term 90/-. For some reason in the last couple of decades people have started to use 90/- to refer to Scotch Ale. While before WW II it designated a bottled Pale Ale of fairly modest strength. Neither use makes any real sense.

The examples in the high 1030ºs look like bottled versions of 60/- (or 6d) Pale Ale. The middle of the three different strength Pale ales which most Scottish brewers produced. The weaker ones resemble 54/- (or 5d) Pale Ales, the bottom-strength in the range.

The low gravity and the low rate of hopping, that must have created something almost, but not quite, totally unlike the modern idea of an IPA.

Scottish Watery IPA before WW II
Year	Brewer	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation
1928	Bernard	90/- India PA	1039	1005	4.43	87.18%
1929	Bernard	India Pale Ale 90/-	1039.5	1009	3.96	77.22%
1933	Bernard	India Pale Ale	1038.5	1009.5	3.76	75.32%
1936	Jeffrey	India Pale Ale	1039.5	1012.1	3.55	69.37%
1933	Murray	India Pale Ale	1036	1010	3.37	72.22%
1931	Usher	IPA	1032	1010	2.85	68.75%
1932	Usher	India Ale (watered from PA)	1030.5	1008	2.92	73.77%
	Average		1036.4	1009.1	3.55	74.83%
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001.
Thomas Usher Gravity Book document TU/6/11 held at the Scottish Brewing Archive.

William Younger’s Pale Ales 1946 – 1959

Time to put some of William Younger’s beers under the microscope. Starting with their Pale Ales. Of which there were quite a few.

William Younger made their name in the middle of the 19th century for two types of beer: Scotch Ales and Pale Ales. Both being very popular in export markets and south of the border in England. The large quantity of IPA exported hasn’t stopped people spouting the normal bollocks about Scottish brewers using virtually no hops. How on earth could they have exported a lightly-hopped beer to India and Australia? It makes absolutely no sense.

At first glance, it looks like they brewed as many as eight brands of bottled Pale Ale. But on closer inspection it looks like there were probably only three, with gravities of 1030º, 1036º and 1044º. Which are pretty much the classic post-war 60/-, 70/- and 80/- gravities. In 1951, Maclays three Pale Ales looked very similar, with OGs of 1030º, 1037º and 1042º.*

You can see how inconsistently the shilling designations were used, with 80/- stronger than 105/- and 60/- and 90/- the same strength.

I’m a bit surprised at the high degree of attenuation. Scottish beers mostly have crap attenuation, while here everything is above 70%. Despite that, due to the pretty low gravity, there are still a fair few examples below 3% ABV.

One word about colour. I’d expect a Pale Ale to be between 20 and 30 on this scale. The 55 of the 1959 Keg Bitter isn’t far away from Dark Mild territory.

William Younger's Pale Ales 1946 - 1959
Date	Beer	Price	size	package	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour
1946	60/- Ale		pint	bottled	1029	1008	2.72	72.41%
1947	60/- Ale		pint	bottled	1028.5	1007.5	2.72	73.68%
1947	60/- Ale		pint	bottled	1031	1007.5	3.05	75.81%
1947	60/- Ale		pint	bottled	1029.5	1002.5	3.52	91.53%
1949	PA 60/-		pint	bottled	1030	1004	3.38	86.67%
1959	Pale Ale	12d	half	bottled	1029.9	1008	2.74	73.24%	24
1947	90/- Sparkling Ale		pint	bottled	1032	1009	2.98	71.88%
1949	Sparkling Ale	1/8d	pint	bottled	1030.9	1004.8	3.39	84.47%	25.5 B
1955	90/- Sparkling Ale	1/-	half	bottled	1032	1006.8	3.27	78.75%	32
1955	90/- Holyrood Ale	1/-	half	bottled	1031.6	1006.7	3.23	78.80%	35
1947	80/- Ale	16d	pint	bottled	1042	1012	3.89	71.43%
1947	105/- Ale	15d	pint	bottled	1036.5	1005.5	4.04	84.93%
1949	Holyrood Ale		half	bottled	1028	1008	2.59	71.43%
1959	Holyrood Ale	10d	half	bottled	1028.7	1006.5	2.78	77.35%	30
1949	Monk Pale Ale Export		pint	bottled	1046	1011	4.55	76.09%
1952	Monk Export	1/1d	half	bottled	1046.9	1011.6	4.59	75.27%	24
1953	Monk Export	1/3d	half	bottled	1044.9	1009	4.67	79.96%	29 B
1954	Monk Export Ale			bottled	1046.7	1008.9	4.92	80.94%	26
1955	Monk Export Ale	15d	half	bottled	1044.8	1010.6	4.44	76.34%	21
1957	Monk Export Ale	2/2d	16 oz	bottled	1045.6	1010.3	4.59	77.41%	20
1956	Wee Willie PA	11d	half	bottled	1031.1	1006.4	3.21	79.42%	25
1955	India Pale Ale	9.5d	half	bottled	1030.2	1006.9	3.02	77.15%	22
1959	Keg Bitter	19d	pint	draught	1043.7	1007.8	4.68	82.15%	55
1959	XXP Bitter	22d	pint	draught	1030.4	1005.7	3.21	81.25%	21
Sources:
Thomas Usher Gravity Book document TU/6/11.
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.

Mild and Brown Ale next.




* Maclay’s brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number M/6/1/1/28.

Thomas Usher's beers in the 1920's

I enjoyed telling you about William Murray's beers so much, I decided to continue with another Edinburgh brewery, Thomas Usher.

True to tradition, I'll work through the styles in alphabetical order.

The good news is: there are Milds! Warms my cockles and all that. What's even better, two different strengths of Mild. Decent gravities, by crap attenuation. The low 1040º's is about right for a standard  Mild in the early 1920's. I'll give you a slight preview of the next instalment. There are no Milds in that. The evidence is mounting that Mild was a rarity in 1930's Scotland.

Now all those Pale Ales. There really are a lot of them. And that's a difference with England. I can't think of an English brewery that made four different Pale Ales in the 1920's. The PA, PA 60/-, PA 70/- and PA 80/- grouped in the middle of the table are taken from a brewing record. They form a neat set, with just about equal gaps between them: 1035º, 1041º, 1048º and 1055º. Knock 10 points off the last three and you've got post-war 60/-, 70/- and 80/-.

Those obviously aren't the wholesale price per hogshead. The tax per hogshead was more. They seem to have got stuck at pre-WW I prices. But what's that 90/- Sparkling Pale Ale about? It looks like it's probably the 60/- PA. Where did that term 90/- come from? It seems to be applied to bottled Pale Ales of 1038-1040º, but doesn't seem based on any former price like the 60/- to 80/-. I've seen labels or analyses of versions from several breweries.

Though the 120/- Strong Pale Ale looks like the 80/- from the brewing record. What was going on? Did they add an extra few bob for marketing reasons?

Usher's seem to be one of the few Scottish breweries that called one of their beers Scotch Ale both internally and in the Scottish market. You'll note that a couple were export versions for Belgium. At 809% 8-9%ABV, they look quite like the beers sold as Scotch Ale in Belgium today. Which I guess shouldn't be a surprise. The level of attenuation is a surprise - more than most of the Pale Ales. I'd have expected the opposite.

Finally the Stouts. Like Murray, they made two of quite different character. First, one of those half-fermented sugar bombs the Scots seem to have loved. I prefer something with more poke myself. The second, Export Stout, looks like a pre-WW I Stout. That's a very decent gravity for the 1920's. From what I can see this second, stronger type of Stout gradually died away in Scotland, just leaving the sweet one.

Next time it'll be Usher's beers in the 1320's. Just joking. 1930's.

Thomas Usher's beers in the 1920's
Year	Beer	Style	package	FG	OG	ABV	App. Atten-uation
1920	Mild Ale 90/-	Mild	draught	1016.5	1048	4.07	65.63%
1920	Mild Ale 80/-	Mild	draught	1013.5	1041	3.56	67.07%
1928	MA	Mild		1015.5	1040	3.24	61.25%
1929	90/- Mild Ale (carbonated)	Mild	bottled	1012	1042.5	3.95	71.76%
1920	PA 54/-	Pale Ale	draught	1010.5	1034	3.04	69.12%
1920	PA 60/-	Pale Ale	draught	1012.9	1040	3.51	67.75%
1920	PA 90/-	Pale Ale	draught	1016	1054	4.93	70.37%
1925	PA 60/-	Pale Ale	bottled	1006	1038	4.17	84.21%
1927	Pale Ale	Pale Ale	bottled	1007.3	1040.3	4.29	81.89%
1928	PA	Pale Ale		1013	1035	2.91	62.86%
1928	PA 60/-	Pale Ale		1013	1041	3.70	68.29%
1928	PA 80/-	Pale Ale		1015	1055	5.29	72.73%
1928	PA 70/-	Pale Ale		1014.5	1048	4.43	69.79%
1928	Pale Ale	Pale Ale	draught	1014	1040.8	3.46	65.69%
1928	Pale Ale	Pale Ale	bottled	1012	1040.5	3.69	70.37%
1928	70/- Ale	Pale Ale	draught	1014.5	1047	4.21	69.15%
1928	90/- Sparkling Pale Ale	Pale Ale	bottled	1009	1038	3.76	76.32%
1929	Pale Ale (carbonated)	Pale Ale	bottled	1012	1040	3.63	70.00%
1929	90/- Sparkling Pale Ale (natural condition)	Pale Ale	bottled	1009	1040.5	4.09	77.78%
1929	120/- Strong Pale Ale (carbonated)	Pale Ale	bottled	1013.3	1051.5	4.96	74.17%
1920	Old Scotch Ale	Scotch Ale	bottled	1026	1080.7	7.11	67.78%
1920	Old Scotch Ale	Scotch Ale	bottled	1008	1078	9.24	89.74%
1920	Old Scotch Ale	Scotch Ale	bottled	1022	1078	7.30	71.79%
1923	Old Scotch Ale (ex Brussels)	Scotch Ale	bottled	1016	1082	8.66	80.49%
1923	Old Scotch Ale (ex Brussels)	Scotch Ale	bottled	1017	1083	8.66	79.52%
1928	Old Scotch Ale	Scotch Ale		1026	1085	7.81	69.41%
1920	Stout	Stout	draught	1020.7	1048	3.52	56.87%
1920	Export Stout	Stout	bottled	1024.4	1067	5.51	63.58%
1928	Stout	Stout		1021.5	1045	3.11	52.22%
1929	Strong Old Scotch Ale (carbonated)	Strong Ale	bottled	1020	1085	8.51	76.47%
Sources:
Thomas Usher brewing record document TU/6/6 held at the Scottish Brewing Archive
Thomas Usher Gravity Book document TU/6/11 held at the Scottish Brewing Archive