What is Light Ale?

I take a look at Light Ale, one of the UK's least fashionable beer styles. 

 

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1960 Youngs PA

Next, we have Young’s original Pale Ale. Which, by 1960, had become Ordinary Bitter. Such a great name for a beer, I’ve always thought.

Though this isn’t going to be a huge, long description. This being parti-gyled with the PAB we’ve already seen. Obviously, there’s just a little bit more of everything in this. Not a huge amount more, as the gravities aren’t that different.

Ordinary was a smaller part of Young’s output than it was later to become. It says much of the different beer landscape in 1960 that the batches of X Ale were much bigger than of PA: 250 barrels to 150 barrels. The situation would be very different a decade later, as Mild’s popularity in London collapsed. By the middle of the 1970s, few London pubs sold cask Mild. Many sold no Mild at all.

It’s a shame that this period of Young’s records doesn’t record the bitterness level. My guess is, based on later versions where it is given, that it was around 35 EBU.

1960 Youngs PA
pale malt	6.75 lb	79.82%
flaked maize	1.00 lb	11.82%
pale malt extract	0.33 lb	3.90%
No. 1 invert sugar	0.375 lb	4.43%
caramel 500 SRM	0.002 lb	0.02%
Fuggles 120 min	1.00 oz
Goldings 30 min	1.00 oz
OG	1038
FG	1003.3
ABV	4.59
Apparent attenuation	91.32%
IBU	26
SRM	4.5
Mash at	152º F
Sparge at	174º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	59º F
Yeast	WLP002 English Ale

 

Listen to brewer John Hatch explain how they brewed at Youngs in the 1990s.  

Let's Brew - 1960 Youngs PAB

PAB is the lower-strength Bitter that Youngs introduced in the interwar period. With a gravity of 1039º. Obviously, WW II knocked down the gravity somewhat.

Given the rather low gravity, this is more like a Light Ale, or a Boy’s Bitter, rather than an Ordinary Bitter. Looking back at the brewing records, it looks like it was renamed Light Ale in the 1980s. I assume this was a bottled beer, as it doesn’t appear in the Good Beer Guide.

The recipe is pretty much classic English Pale Ale. Consisting of pale malt, flaked maize and sugar, With the latter in three forms: malt extract, No. 1 invert and caramel. 

Not that the boil, at 120 minutes, is much longer than in the 1990s. Presumably, it was shortened to save energy.

There were two types of hops, both English and both from the 1959 harvest.
 

1960 Youngs PAB
pale malt	5.500 lb	79.05%
flaked maize	0.876 lb	12.59%
pale malt extract	0.25 lb	3.59%
No. 1 invert sugar	0.33 lb	4.74%
caramel 500 SRM	0.002 lb	0.03%
Fuggles 120 min	0.75 oz
Goldings 30 min	0.75 oz
OG	1032
FG	1005.5
ABV	3.51
Apparent attenuation	82.81%
IBU	21
SRM	4
Mash at	152º F
Sparge at	174º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	59º F
Yeast	WLP002 English Ale

 

Listen to brewer John Hatch explain how they brewed at Youngs in the 1990s.  

Let's Brew - 1990 Youngs Light Ale

I was surprised at just how much Light Ale Youngs were brewing in 1990. 300-odd barrels at a time and reasonably frequently. Not as much as Ordinary or Special, but still a decent amount. There must have still been a lot of Light and Bitter drinkers in their pubs.

Having said that, I don’t have any single-gyle brews of it. Just parti-gyled with either Ordinary or Special. This one being paired with the former.

Quite a simple recipe.  Four types of pale malt, a touch of crystal malt, flaked torrefied barley and No. 3 invert. Oh, almost forgot the small amount of enzymic malt, just there to adjust the pH.

The brewing records include the lab results for colour and bitterness. The latter being 32 EBU. Dead handy to know this. But, using the correct hop quantities, the bitterness came out half of the measured value. My solution was to double the hop quantities.

Now, Light Ale would usually a bottled beer. But the quantities being brewed seem a bit big for that. Was it kegged, too? Pretty sure it was never sold in cask form. 

1990 Youngs Light Ale
pale malt	6.125 lb	87.50%
crystal malt 120 L	0.125 lb	1.79%
torrefied barley	0.50 lb	7.14%
No. 3 invert sugar	0.25 lb	3.57%
Fuggles 70 min	2.00 oz
Goldings 10 min	0.50 oz
OG	1031
FG	1006.5
ABV	3.24
Apparent attenuation	79.03%
IBU	32
SRM	6
Mash at	148º F
Sparge at	167º F
Boil time	70 minutes
pitching temp	62º F
Yeast	WLP002 English Ale

 

Listen to brewer John Hatch explain how they brewed at Youngs in the 1990s. 

Let's Brew - 1970 Youngs PAB

One of the things I was particularly interested in getting from the Young's archive were brewing records from the 1970's. Because of the book I'm working on about that period. This specific record is one that my son Andrew photographed. He made the whole process of harvesting so much quicker. I should probably always take him along.

I’ll kick off by explaining the name PAB. I’m pretty sure it stands for “Pale Ale Bottling”, I’m guessing that it dates from around WW I. When brewers introduced a weaker version of their Pals Ales for bottling. Though I can’t say for certain, as Young’s records only go back to 1932. By 1970, I’m sure that this was marketed as Light Ale.

The recipe looks pretty typical of Pale Ales of the period: pale malt, flaked maize and invert sugar. Note that there’s no crystal malt. Which, along with the sugar and maize, is why the colour is so pale. And would have been even paler without the small amount of caramel.

There aren’t many details about the hops. About all that I can deduce is that there were two types, both English. I’ve guessed Fuggles and Goldings. 

1970 Youngs PAB
pale malt	4.25 lb	67.89%
flaked maize	0.75 lb	11.98%
No. 1 invert sugar	1.25 lb	19.97%
caramel 1000 SRM	0.01 lb	0.16%
Fuggles 160 min	0.75 oz
Goldings 15 min	0.75 oz
OG	1031
FG	1005.5
ABV	3.37
Apparent attenuation	82.26%
IBU	18
SRM	5.5
Mash at	148º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	160 minutes
pitching temp	62.5º F
Yeast	WLP002 English Ale

Light Ale hops 1968 - 1984

We’ll end with the hops, of which there are also loads. Every beer contains at least two different types. While most have three or more.

There was a reason for this: so that when the supply of one hop ran out, it’s replacement wouldn’t alter the flavour of the beer too much. The Watney Mann Quality manual insists that at least three different growths be used in all beers.

The vast majority of the hops were English. Which is what you would expect in this period, when the UK was pretty much self-sufficient in hops. The only foreign hops are two lots of Styrian and one of British Columbian.

Where specified, the English hops are all from Kent or Worcester. Which makes sense as these were the largest hop-producing regions.

As for the varieties, most would likely have been Fuggles or Goldings, simply because they were the most produced types. At least at the start of the period.

Later, Northern Brewer, Bramling Cross, Bullion, Wye Northdown and Wye Challenger became more prominent. The Watney Mann Quality Manual states that no more than a third of the hops should be of these new varieties. The remainder being Fuggles or Goldings.     

Light Ale hops 1968 - 1984
Year	Brewer	Beer	hop 1	hop 2	hop 3	hop 4	hop 5
1977	Adnams	LBA	English	English	English
1971	Boddington	Bod	English	English
1984	Eldridge Pope	BAK	English	English	English	English	Styrian
1968	Fullers	LA	Worcester 1967	EK 1966	Styrian 1967
1972	Shepherd Neame	LA	Kent 1970	Kent 1971	Kent 1972
1969	Truman	LK	English 1967	English 1967	English 1968	British Colombia 1967
Sources:
Adnams brewing record held at the brewery.
Boddington brewing record held at Manchester Central Library, document number M693/405/134.
Eldridge Pope brewing record.
Fullers brewing record held at the brewery.
Shepherd Neame brewing book held at the brewery, document number 1971 H-5O5.
Truman brewing record held by Derek Prentice.

Light Ale sugars 1968 - 1984

Loads and loads of sugars. Two full tables worth. Starting with the ones I understand.

Malt extract was a surprisingly popular ingredient. Unlike other sugars, it was added in the mash tun, not the copper. For the simple reason that it was there for extra enzymes. Something many UK brewers worried about after WW II. Note that the quantities in the Fullers and Shepherd Neame examples are tiny.

Next, it’s the invert sugars: No. 1 and No. 3. Now, the former, being very pale, is exactly what you would expect in a Style like Light Ale. But No. 3? That’s just odd. Especially in the quantity found in the Shepherd Neame beer, 11%. Which explains why it’s by far the darkest in colour of the set.

It’s interesting that glucose and fructose, the component parts of invert sugar, appear in beers which also include a numbered invert. Not sure what the point of that would be. Possibly because it was paler in colour than the numbered sugars, even No. 1.

Finally, cane sugar. Which I assume means raw cane sugar. Making it the simplest of all the sugars used.

Now for the difficult bit: all the weird proprietary sugars.

I’ve little idea what any of them are. Wortex seems to be a wort extender, which would be a combination of invert sugar and maltose.

Caramel. I know what that is. Though not something you’d expect to see much of it in a style like Light Ale.  And, it this case, that’s all there is. A tiny amount, presumably for colour correction. 

Light Ale sugars 1968 - 1984
Year	Brewer	Beer	malt extract	no. 1 sugar	no. 3 sugar	glucose	fructose	cane
1977	Adnams	LBA		15.03%			11.28%
1971	Boddington	Bod	5.36%
1984	Eldridge Pope	BAK
1968	Fullers	LA	0.65%		1.94%	1.29%
1972	Shepherd Neame	LA	0.55%		10.93%
1969	Truman	LK						7.85%
Sources:
Adnams brewing record held at the brewery.
Boddington brewing record held at Manchester Central Library, document number M693/405/134.
Eldridge Pope brewing record.
Fullers brewing record held at the brewery.
Shepherd Neame brewing book held at the brewery, document number 1971 H-5O5.
Truman brewing record held by Derek Prentice.

Light Ale proprietary sugars 1968 - 1984
Year	Brewer	Beer	Fla	Br	Flowsweet	PEX	Wortex	caramel
1977	Adnams	LBA						0.40%
1971	Boddington	Bod	4.29%	4.29%
1984	Eldridge Pope	BAK			8.96%
1968	Fullers	LA				1.29%
1972	Shepherd Neame	LA					6.56%
1969	Truman	LK
Sources:
Adnams brewing record held at the brewery.
Boddington brewing record held at Manchester Central Library, document number M693/405/134.
Eldridge Pope brewing record.
Fullers brewing record held at the brewery.
Shepherd Neame brewing book held at the brewery, document number 1971 H-5O5.
Truman brewing record held by Derek Prentice.

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1982 Eldridge Pope Crystal

A lovely, watery keg Bitter from my 1970s book.  I'm taking the tiotle quite literally.

The other half of the Goldie parti-gyle was Crystal. Which was their Light Ale when bottled, but was also available as a keg Bitter. The brew house name was BAK (Bottling AK).

The brewery described it thus:

"Crystal Bitter - A direct descendent of Dorchester’s Original Ale - the bitter with the body and the good value pint."

For that, I read: cheap and watery. Which is a fair enough description of a beer that’s barely 3% ABV. It looks very much like a Boy’s Bitter – a low-gravity Pale Ale which in the Southwest took the place of Mild Ale.

Speaking of which, the Eldridge Pope promotional brochure also lists a keg Dark Mild with about the same OG. I’d put money on it being Crystal with added caramel.

There’s some crystal here, which was only present in the second mash tun’ Leaving the colour almost as dark as Goldie, despite its much lower strength. Its OG not much lower than the FG of Goldie.

The usual hops of three English and one Styrian. 

1982 Eldridge Pope Crystal
pale malt	6.00 lb	85.71%
crystal malt 60 L	0.50 lb	7.14%
wheat flour	0.50 lb	7.14%
Styrian Goldings 75 min	0.50 oz
Fuggles 60 min	0.75 oz
Goldings 30 min	0.50 oz
OG	1030
FG	1006
ABV	3.18
Apparent attenuation	80.00%
IBU	25
SRM	6
Mash at	153º F
Sparge at	165º F
Boil time	75 minutes
pitching temp	62.5º F
Yeast	WLP099 Super High Gravity Thomas Hardy

Light Ale adjuncts in the 1970s

Adjuncts. There are bound to be loads, aren’t there? Surprisingly, no. Two – from Adnams and Eldridge Pope – contain none at all.

The UK’s favourite adjunct, flaked maize, only turns up in half of the beers. And in pretty small amounts in two of those. The exception being the beer from Fullers.

Flaked barley, which was forced on brewers during WW II, fell out of use a couple of years into peace. Basically, as soon as flaked maize became available again, brewers reverted to that. Which makes its appearance at the end of the 1960s quite unusual. Not sure why they might have preferred it over maize.

But with pearl barley things get much weirder. It seems an odd thing to put into beer. I’m only used to it in soup or stew. Did they grind it up first? In its usual form, it doesn’t look like you’d extract much from it in the mash tun. 

Light Ale adjuncts 1968 - 1984
Year	Brewer	Beer	flaked maize	flaked barley	pearl barley	total adjuncts
1977	Adnams	LBA				0.00%
1971	Boddington	Bod	2.41%			2.41%
1984	Eldridge Pope	BAK				0.00%
1968	Fullers	LA	14.52%			14.52%
1972	Shepherd Neame	LA	3.28%			3.28%
1969	Truman	LK		2.42%	7.97%	10.39%
Sources:
Adnams brewing record held at the brewery.
Boddington brewing record held at Manchester Central Library, document number M693/405/134.
Eldridge Pope brewing record.
Fullers brewing record held at the brewery.
Shepherd Neame brewing book held at the brewery, document number 1971 H-5O5.
Truman brewing record held by Derek Prentice.

Light Ale malts in the 1970s

How many malts did these beers use? Loads.

Though there is one that they all have in common. As all use a base of pale malt. There was one other base malt, lager, which appears in the Boddington version. Why? Because it was parti-gyled with their Bitter, which was extremely pale in colour.

The second most popular malt is quite predictable: crystal. It appears in four of the six beers. Not something you would have seen forty years earlier. As I keep banging on, crystal malt wasn’t common in Pale Ales before WW II.

Next in the popularity stakes was wheat malt. Or at least wheat in some form. In the brewing records it isn’t always clear what form wheat was in: malted, flaked or flour. I assume its presence is for head retention purposes.

Amber malt is a bit of an odd one in a style meant to be pretty pale. It’s another example of an ingredient that is purely there on account of parti-gyling with other beers.

Finally, there’s enzymic malt. An ingredient much beloved, especially by smaller brewers, in the 1950s and 1960s. I’m not sure what impact, if any, it had on the finished beer. 

Light Ale malts 1968 - 1984
Year	Brewer	Beer	pale malt	lager malt	amber malt	crystal malt	wheat malt	enzymic malt	total malt
1977	Adnams	LBA	73.29%						73.29%
1971	Boddington	Bod	61.13%	16.09%			3.22%	3.22%	83.65%
1984	Eldridge Pope	BAK	73.13%			10.45%	7.46%		91.04%
1968	Fullers	LA	78.39%			1.94%			80.32%
1972	Shepherd Neame	LA	62.30%		4.92%	4.92%	6.56%		78.69%
1969	Truman	LK	80.37%			1.39%			81.76%
Sources:
Adnams brewing record held at the brewery.
Boddington brewing record held at Manchester Central Library, document number M693/405/134.
Eldridge Pope brewing record.
Fullers brewing record held at the brewery.
Shepherd Neame brewing book held at the brewery, document number 1971 H-5O5.
Truman brewing record held by Derek Prentice.

Light Ale in the 1970s

Time to look at some Light Ales in more detail. That most unfashionable of styles.

There’s not a great deal of variation in the gravities: only just over 3º. Which isn’t a great surprise in beers of such a low gravity. Though there’s a way larger spread in ABV, due to hugely differing degrees of attenuation: from 66% to 91%.

This leaves alcohol levels varying from 2.6% ABV to 3.9%. Which, considering the beers were a similar price, means some were way better value than others. With the weakest being barely intoxicating.

A lacking of consistency is also evident in the hopping rates. The highest, 7.5 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) in the Adnams example, is Almost double that of Eldridge Pope’s beer. Though that isn’t totally reflected in the IBU level.

Speaking of which, the values in the table are calculated with brewing software and so should not be taken as gospel, more a general indication. As there are too many unknown variables in some brews, such as the variety and age of the hops.

Similar caution should be taken of the colours, most of which, again, are calculated via brewing software. Only the Boddington and Truman values were taken from the brewing record. 

Light Ale 1968 - 1984
Year	Brewer	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	colour	IBU
1977	Adnams	LBA	1032.0	1011.0	2.78	65.63%	7.56	0.81	22	24
1971	Boddington	Bod	1032.5	1003.0	3.90	90.77%	5.71	0.90	13	28
1984	Eldridge Pope	BAK	1032.7	1005.0	3.66	84.75%	4.00	0.54	24	25
1968	Fullers	LA	1032.2	1010.2	2.90	68.13%	6.08	0.86	22	30
1972	Shepherd Neame	LA	1029.4	1009.5	2.63	67.65%	5.19	0.66	35	16
1969	Truman	LK	1030.7	1004.7	3.44	84.68%	5.32	0.63	21	17
	Average		1031.6	1007.2	3.22	76.93%	5.64	0.73	22.8	23.3
Sources:
Adnams brewing record held at the brewery.
Boddington brewing record held at Manchester Central Library, document number M693/405/134.
Eldridge Pope brewing record.
Fullers brewing record held at the brewery.
Shepherrd Neame brewing book held at the brewery, document number 1971 H-5O5.
Truman brewing record held by Derek Prentice.