Let's Brew - 1885 Thomas Usher 60/- B

If you’ve looked at my YouTube video on Sixty Shilling, you’ll know that this beer has no relationship with the modern type. This being a Shilling Ale. The older type of Scottish Ale that was roughly equivalent to an English Mild. While modern 60/- is a type of Pale Ale.

The recipe is pretty simple: just base malt and sugar. With not the slightest indication of what that type of sugar might be. I’ve gone for cane sugar. It could also have been some sort of invert. There really was just a single type of base malt. What’s more surprising is that it was Scottish.

At just 5 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt, the hopping rate is pretty low. A lot lower than Usher’s Pale ales, which received 9 lbs per quarter. There were two types of hops: Californian from  the1883 harvest and Alsace from 1884. 

1885 Thomas Usher 60/- B
pale malt	8.00 lb	88.89%
cane sugar	1.00 lb	11.11%
Cluster 90 min	0.75 oz
Cluster 60 min	0.75 oz
Strisselspalt 30 min	0.50 oz
OG	1041.5
FG	1015
ABV	3.51
Apparent attenuation	63.86%
IBU	39
SRM	4
Mash at	155º F
Sparge at	175º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	59º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

  

For those who missed it, this is my short video on 60/-.

 

Mild or Stock

I've been busy with the sections in my new Scottish book on Mild and Stock Ales in the late 19th century.

It's reminded me what a pain Scottish brewing can be. They were way less consistent in their naming conventions. An X pretty much always means Mild Ale in England. Not so in Scotland. In fact, I often struggle to spot which beers might be Mild Ales.

Thomas Usher's beers are an example. I originally classified all their X Ales as Milds. But on closer inspection, it looked more likely that they were Stock Ales. Mostly based on hopping rate. And the recipe.

I'm not 100% sure that I've got it right. But what can I do? There are other Usher beers with the suffix M or MA which I am completely sure about. This is them:

Thomas Usher Mild Ales 1885 - 1914
Year	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
1885	54/- M	1062	1023	5.16	62.90%	5.00	1.42
1885	68/- M	1080	1025	7.28	68.75%	10.00	3.44
1914	44/- MA	1032	1012.5	2.58	60.94%	5.00	0.69
1914	50/- MA	1035	1013	2.91	62.86%	5.00	0.75
1914	60/- MA	1038	1015	3.04	60.53%	5.00	1.07
1914	80/- MA	1046	1016.5	3.90	64.13%	5.00	1.29
1914	100/- MA	1065	1027	5.03	58.46%	5.00	1.40
Sources:
Thomas Usher brewing records held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document numbers TU/6/1/1, TU/6/1/2 and TU/6/1/5.

I bet you want to see thge Stock ales now? If you're still awake, that is. Here you go:

Thomas Usher Stock Ales 1885 - 1914
Year	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
1885	X	1050	1013	4.89	74.00%	9.00	2.00
1888	XXX	1054	1011	5.69	79.63%	11.00	3.58
1888	X	1050	1012	5.03	76.00%	11.00	2.75
1888	XX	1054	1012	5.56	77.78%	12.00	3.24
1894	XX 60/-	1055	1015	5.29	72.73%	10.00	2.77
1912	X 60/-	1052	1016	4.76	69.23%	6.75	1.49
1912	X	1045	1014.5	4.03	67.78%	6.50	1.21
Sources:
Thomas Usher brewing records held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document numbers TU/6/1/1, TU/6/1/2 and TU/6/1/5.

See what I mean about the hopping? Though the gravities do seem low for Stock Ales.

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1912 Thomas Usher 100/-

It's almost New Year. And what shouts end of year more than a Strong Scottish beer? Or someone who’s been drinking it.

Strongish, really, for the date. Or for the OG. In terms of ABV, it’s not strong at all. By any standards, other than 1918.

As usual, I struggled to find an apt style in BeerSmith. So I just added one. It’s called “Scottish Shilling Ale medium strong”. Even with my own definition of the style, I couldn’t hit all the parameters. Because BeerSmith expects better attenuation than the Scots went for. Not a dig at BeerSmith. I probably just haven’t found the right parameter to tweak.

I really like that you can customise BeerSmith. I should have started earlier. Maybe I should put together an historic styles add-on and flog it. That should earn me enough to retire early, shouldn’t it? No, I don’t think so. If only.

On with the recipe. Onwards to oblivion and back. I finished that bastard jigsaw. Incidentally. Rather, me and the kids did. Infernal effing thing. One of the pieces was totally white, other than one short black line.

Excuse the flim-flam. Need some padding, as this is more of the same, just at a different strength. Which is pretty much what 20th-century Scottish brewing was about. Pale malt, sugar and shit, plus a decent amount of hops.

1912 Thomas Usher 100/-
pale malt	8.00 lb	65.31%
crystal malt	0.50 lb	4.08%
flaked maize	0.75 lb	6.12%
No. 2 invert sugar	0.75 lb	6.12%
cane sugar	2.25 lb	18.37%
Fuggles 120 min	1.00 oz
Fuggles 60 min	1.00 oz
Fuggles 30 min	1.00 oz
OG	1064
FG	1029
ABV	4.63
Apparent attenuation	54.69%
IBU	33
SRM	8
Mash at	148º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	60º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

Update

I've had a very bust few weeks. A few days in Chicago and three trips to the UK. Understanably, it's left me even more confused than usual.

But I've got some new brewing records. I'd expected to harvest Shepherd Neame's. Finding a brewing book just lying around at Caledonian on Monday was just good fortune. And I wasn't going to pass up the chance. Especially as it's a Scottish brewery. The records span 1932 to 1939. You can probably guess what they contain: several Pale Ales of different strengths parti-gyled together.

Speaking of Scotland, I'm starting to seriously prepare my Macbeth tour of the USA. At least the first leg of it in April. Which is provisionally set to be New Holland, Kalamazoo, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Chicago.

It's all connected to Scotland! volume II, which is mostly recipes.The concept it that I'll send a themed set of Scottish recipes to a home brew club. Their members brew up the recipes then I troll up talk about Scottish beer in general and the recipes made in particular. Then I get to drink the beer. Sounds great, doesn't it? As a bonus, anyone who brews a recipe I'll give 50 - 100 words to describe it in the final version of the book.

Commercial brewers are welcome to participate, too.

I'm open to suggestions from other parts of the US and from Europe, too. Just get in touch via the gadget at the top left of this page.

Let's Brew - 1949 William Younger Pale XXPS

Another exciting beer from the colourful late 1940’s. Only joking. I realise the period was as grey as its beers were watery.

This is so exciting. Because this is a beer I drank quite often, it being one of Younger’s main cask beers. Though it was sold under different names: 70/- in Scotland, Scotch in England. It seems to have been introduced just after WW I, possibly as a reaction to the drop in gravity of their former flagship Pale Ale, XXP. Post-war, XXP became 60/-. So a beer which had originally been an IPA, ended up as Dark Mild. Now there’s a weird transformation. But I digress.

On paper, this looks very similar to the beer I drank in the 1970’s and 1980’s. The gravity, 1037º, is identical. Though I suspect the recipe was rather different by then. I can’t imagine that they continued to use flaked barley. I wonder if they went back to grits when maize became available again?

I know from a 1960 document that XXPS came in three different colours: 5, 6 and 9 SRM. The first was the as-brewed number, which is pretty close to the figure BeerSmith spat out.

Not much else to say, other than that this looks like an archetypal post-war Ordinary Bitter. Maybe the bitterness is a little below average.

1949 William Younger Pale XXPS
pale malt	7.25 lb	85.29%
flaked barley	1.25 lb	14.71%
Fuggles 90 min	0.50 oz
Fuggles 60 min	0.50 oz
Fuggles 30 min	0.50 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.25 oz
OG	1037
FG	1011
ABV	3.44
Apparent attenuation	70.27%
IBU	21
SRM	4
Mash at	153º F
Sparge at	160º F
Boil time	75 minutes
pitching temp	62º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1949 William Younger No. 3 Btlg

No. 3 is a personal favourite of mine. Having drunk when it was still brewed by William Younger has left me with a lingering affection for the beer.

Which explains why I keep bothering you with recipes for it. I’m hoping eventually I’ll get some in my glass. Though this is quite a tame looking version, what with its low level of hopping and modest OG.

As I’ve been explaining, foreign hops disappeared for the most part from British beer after WW II. For the simple reason that they weren’t required any more. The UK was capable of growing all the hops it needed. Which certainly hadn’t been true for the second half of the 19th century and some of the early 20th. You occasionally see classy continental hops like Saaz or Hallertau, but US hops had disappeared entirely from British beer.

It’s strange that Younger’s grists actually appear to have improved in quality due to government restrictions. The 1933 version of No. 3 contained 41% grits. I wonder if drinkers noticed? If they did, they’d probably have complained that the beer didn’t taste like it used to. During the whole interwar period Younger’s beers had crazy levels of grits in them. People must have got used to it.

I wouldn’t pay too much attention to the colour listed. Third-party analyses I have of the beer put the colour somewhere in the 20’s on the SRM scale.

1949 William Younger No. 3 Btlg
pale malt	9.75 lb	88.64%
flaked barley	1.25 lb	11.36%
Fuggles 90 min	0.75 oz
Fuggles 60 min	0.50 oz
Fuggles 30 min	0.50 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.25 oz
OG	1047
FG	1012
ABV	4.63
Apparent attenuation	74.47%
IBU	22
SRM	4
Mash at	153º F
Sparge at	160º F
Boil time	75 minutes
pitching temp	61º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

Let's Brew - 1949 William Younger LAE

Here’s a post-war version of William Younger’s LAE, allowing us to compare and contrast with the 1939 version. I always get a kick out of that. Now I think of it, there’s also that 1913 version to look at, too.

I’m surprised to see how little the gravity changed over the years. 1045º in 1913, 1046º in 1939 and 1041º in 1949. That’s quite unusual. I’d have expected the OG to be under 1040º. And because the degree of attenuation increased, the ABV of the 1949 version is barely lower than the other two.

There were some big changes to the beer over time. Most of them involuntary. Younger didn’t drop the grits and start using flaked barley from choice. Maize, which was imported mostly from the USA, became unavailable during WW II. And the government forced brewers to use flaked barley. Barley production increased enormously during the war, meaning there were reasonable supplies for brewers. The idea behind using flakes was to save the fuel expended in the malting process.

The war is also the reason for the change in hops. During both wars supplies of US hops dried up. But, due to the fall in gravity, the UK became self-sufficient in hops. This continued after WW II meaning there was no need to import hops.

If you look at the chart below you’ll see one truly massive change: the level of bitterness. Which fell dramatically between 1898 and 1913 and again between 1913 and 1939. Though remember these are just calculated IBU numbers. Even so, the quantity of hops used was hugely reduced which must have had a big impact on the bitterness of the beer.

Younger LAE 1898 - 1949
Year	grist	hops	OG	FG	ABV	Apparent attenuation	IBU
1898	85% pale malt, 15% grits	Cluster and Fuggles	1051	1014	4.89%	72.55%	160
1913	56% pale malt, 44% grits	Cluster and Fuggles	1045	1013	4.23%	71.11%	78
1921	58% pale malt, 42% grits	Cluster, Saaz and Fuggles	1047	1013	4.50%	72.34%	68
1933	57% pale malt, 43% grits	Cluster and Fuggles	1046	1013	4.37%	71.74%	51
1939	74% pale malt, 26% grits	Fuggles	1046	1013	4.37%	71.74%	26
1949	91% pale malt, 9% flaked barley	Fuggles	1041	1010	4.10%	75.61%	24

1949 William Younger LAE
pale malt	7.75 lb	91.18%
flaked barley	0.75 lb	8.82%
Fuggles 90 min	0.75 oz
Fuggles 60 min	0.50 oz
Fuggles 30 min	0.50 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.50 oz
OG	1041
FG	1010
ABV	4.10
Apparent attenuation	75.61%
IBU	24
SRM	4
Mash at	155.5º F
Sparge at	160º F
Boil time	75 minutes
pitching temp	60.5º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1885 Thomas Usher 100/-

Yet more Scottish brewing fun. It’s almost as if I’m writing a book on Scottish brewing.

Shilling Ales, which formed the backbone of Scottish brewing in the first half of the 19th century, were gradually eclipsed in the second half by styles more similar to those from south of the border. In particular Pale Ales. Shilling Ales soldiered on until WW I, which put them out of their misery. Post war, most Scottish breweries produced a range of Pale Ales, a Stout, a Strong Ale and perhaps a Mild Ale.

It was a huge transformation, the war having an even greater impact on the styles brewed than in England. But it did help brewers rationalise their brewing. By parti-gyling they could cut back to just two recipes, one for the Stout and the other for everything else. Some even managed to parti-gyle their Stout with their Pale Ales and so needed only once recipe.

The Scots weren’t ones for overcomplicated recipes. 100% pale malt up until 1880 Free Mash Tun Act, pale malt and some sort of adjunct after it. In the case of Usher, than meant sugar. With 12% sugar in this recipe, I’m amazed at how high the FG is. Though if you’ve been reading carefully you’ll realise low levels of attenuation were pretty standard for Shilling Ales.

A word on the hopping. In the brewing record the hops are listed as California and Alsace, which I’ve interpreted as Cluster and Strisselspalt. Though I’m not sure if Strisselspalt was already around in the 1880’s. If it wasn’t, I’ve no idea what variety they might be.

1885 Thomas Usher 100/-
pale malt	14.75 lb	88.06%
cane sugar	2.00 lb	11.94%
Cluster 90 min	1.50 oz
Cluster 60 min	1.50 oz
Strisselspalt 30 min	0.75 oz
OG	1078
FG	1033
ABV	5.95
Apparent attenuation	57.69%
IBU	59
SRM	5
Mash at	155º F
Sparge at	175º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	57º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

More bollocks about Scottish brewing

In response to my post about Scottish fermentation temperatures, someone pointed me in the direction of an article in All About Beer by K. Florian Kemp. You can find it here:

http://allaboutbeer.com/article/scottish-ales/

It's shockingly poor. Then again, pretty well everything written about Scottish brewing is. Here's a few of my corrections:

"Largely rural and natural, the ales of Scotland symbolize both the people and landscape, which can be at once rugged and pastoral."

Scotland is one of the most urbanised countries on the planet.

"Scottish ales are a hybrid of sorts, with largely indigenous ingredients lending finesse to brews that otherwise owe their profile to the disparate brewing cultures of England and Germany. They are top-fermented (albeit patiently), and truly ales in that respect, but are cold-conditioned in the manner of lager brewers of Bavaria and Bohemia."

Total bollocks. Largely indigenous ingredients? I've plenty of recipes wher ethe only Scottish ingredients are the yeast and water. Scottish beers have nothing in common with those of Bavaria. They weren't fermented slowly and they weren't cold conditioned. They'd have needed ice to keep the cellars just above freezing, as they did in Bavaria. But there isn't enough natural ice for that in Scotland.

"What then, makes Scottish ales different from their counterparts to the south? The answer lies in the irony that they employ many of the same ingredients, but have craftily waged a symbiotic relationship with their distinctive climate, which approximates the distant environs of Bavaria."

The Scottish climate isn't like the Bavarian one. They aren't even the same climate type.

"The color in a Scottish ale comes from judicious use of dark malt. Today, caramel malt is more common in the grist, but traditionally a small amount of roasted, unmalted barley is used for color and a hint of smokiness. Thrifty brewers of yore roasted the unsprouted, or slack, barley and used it in the mash, usually amounting to one to two percent on average."

Scottish brewers used bugger all dark malts. Other than in Porter and Stout, it was rare to see anything other than pale malt used. Do you know how many Scottish recipes I've found in brewing records that contain roast barley? Three from Maclay in the 1990's (all Oat Malt Stout) and one from William Younger (1949 DBS). That's from hundreds of recipes from 6 different breweries over a period spanning the 1840's to the 1990's. They coloured their beer with caramel after 1880.

Brewers who tried roasting their own barley would have ended up in court. Using unmalted grains was highly illegal before 1880. The only unmalted grains a brewer could have in his brewery were oats to feed the horses. Even roasting malt wasn't allowed in a brewery. Only certain maltsters were allowed to make it because the excise didn't trust people to use unmalted grain.

"There is historical evidence that Scottish beers were mashed at a slightly higher temperature than British beers. This would also add a fuller, more dextrinous wort, a characteristic that is evident in modern Scottish ales. Unlike the English, Scots were employing the practice of sparging, rinsing the grain while running off the wort, instead of the repeated drain and mash “parti-gyle” method to produce multiple brews from a single mash. As the sparge method filled the kettle slower, and resulted in prolonged contact with the fire, the wort acquired a more caramelized character. Again, this is yet another contemporary characteristic of the Scots ware, as it is achieved through a prolonged boil."

I've seen no evidence of higher mashing temperatures. The author is clearly clueless about parti-gyling. It's not only possible to parti-gyle with a mash then followed by a sparge, most Scottish breweries were enthusisatic users of the technique. Why would the kettle fill more slowly with a mash and a sparge? You run off the initial mash and boil that while you're sparging. A long boil? No total crap. In some periods Scottish boil times were shockingly short - a hour or even less.

"The cool climate of Scotland necessitated the selection of a yeast that could ferment at temperatures more like that of a lager beer. Still an ale yeast, it worked leisurely and left the beers somewhat under-fermented. Storage in cellars that approximate the lagering caves in Bavaria imparted a distinct lager-like character: smooth, full, and malty, with a dryish finish."

Edinburgh isn't really much cooler than much of England. And wort warms up when you start fermenting it anyway. As is demonstrated by the fact that Scottish brewers needed attemperators to keep the fermentation temperature down. Scottish fermentations were no cooler and no slower than those in England. They didn't have fucking lagering cellars. That's complete fantasy. They stored beer in a normal, uncooled cellars, just as in England.

Not done that for a while I'd forgotten how much fun it could be.

1885 Thomas Usher Ex PA

Now here’s a treat for you. A recipe that isn’t from William Younger. It is Scottish, though.

I know hoppy beers are popular nowadays. No idea why, give me a Dark Mild of a Milk Stout any day of the week.

Usher was another brewery with a huge range of beers. At least in the 19th century. They trimmed it down a lot in the 20th. They had four Pale Ales in total: PA, PA 60/-, IP and this beer, Ex PA. Which I assume stands for Export PA. It’s the strongest and the most heavily hopped of the set.

Based on the level of hopping – double that of their other Pale Ales –I’ll go out on a limb and say that this was a Stock Pale Ale. Meaning that it would have been aged before sale. Probably at least 3 to 6 months. Usher don’t specify dry hopping in their logs, but there’s no way a beer like this wouldn’t have been dry hopped. Half an ounce is the minimum it would have contained. It could well have been as much as an ounce.

I’ve concentrated on the hopping because there’s really nothing to say about the grist. It’s just pale malt. Can’t get simpler than that.

The FG when sold would have been lower. After a few months maturing, it would be down at least 4-5 points. Though the rate of attenuation is already higher than for their other beers. Their Shilling Ales and Mild Ales were only a little over 60%.

1885 Thomas Usher Ex PA
pale malt	14.00 lb	100.00%
Strisselspalt 90 min	3.00 oz
Strisselspalt 60 min	3.00 oz
Hallertau 30 min	3.00 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.50 oz
OG	1060
FG	1015
ABV	5.95
Apparent attenuation	75.00%
IBU	95
SRM	5
Mash at	155º F
Sparge at	175º F
Boil time	150 minutes
pitching temp	57.5º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

Was Scottish Ale fermented like Lager?

One of the many dodgy claims made about Scottish beer is that it was fermented at a near Lager temperature. Apparently the near-freezing climate of Scotland is the reason.

I’m sure this misapprehension is partly based on just looking at pitching temperatures rather than the actual fermentation temperature. Because they didn’t pitch at a certain temperature and hold the wort at that for the whole duration of the process. Brewers both sides of the border did something more complex.

Usually the temperature rose quickly in the first day or two, then, through use of attemperators,  was held at a certain point for a while, then dropped down again to around or just below the pitching temperature. The maximum fermentation temperature was usually at least 10º F higher than the pitching temperature.

Another factor helping deceive about fermentation temperatures is the strength of many Scottish beers in the 19th century. The stronger the beer, the lower the pitching temperature, as more heat will be generated during the fermentation. Many Scottish beers were pitched at 54º - 55º F because they had OGs over 1100º.

I just realised that I had a wonderful example of how Scottish Ales weren’t fermented like Lager. Because I’ve got examples of both right next to each other in one William Younger brewing record from 1880:

This shows the fermentation record of three beers, XP, PX and XP. XP being a Pale Ale and PX a Pils. The top two rows are for one XP brew, the last two for another XP with the PX in the middle row.

The XPs were pitched at 59º F and 58.5 º F, when the gravity was 1053º. The PX was pitch at 54º F, gravity 1058º. The columns that follow are a temperature followed by the gravity. The temperature of the two XPs rises to a maximum of 70 º F and 68º F before falling again.

The process for PX is very different. The temperature falls immediately to 45º F, then to 41º F. It stays at 41-42º F for the next couple of weeks as the fermentation slowly progresses. All three beers were brewed on 11th April 1880. The two brews of XP were both racked of the 18th April, a fermentation of 8 days. The PX wasn’t racked until 3rd My, a total of 23 days.

Even though the XP and PX were pitched at quite similar temperatures, the process of the fermentation was totally different. The Pils was fermented much, much cooler and more slowly that the XP.

The answer to the question in the title: no. Not even vaguely

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1940 William Younger P Btlg

Let’s move to the other end of Pale Ale spectrum at William Younger. With a luvverly watery beer, P. But not just any P, the bottling version of P.

You know what it looks like to me? A post-war 60/-. They were usually around 1030º. And pretty lightly hopped. Both of which characteristics this beer shares. During the first half of the 20th century Scottish brewers really knocked down their hopping rates. Leaving their beers much less hoppy than those from south of the border.

Whitbread’s XX Mild Ale from the same year contained almost twice as many hops, while having only a slightly higher OG (1031.5º) . The same was true of Barclay Perkins weaker Mild, A and X (1029º and 1032º) which had around 50% more hops than P. And remember that these beers are Mild, not Pale Ales.

You may have already spotted one unusual feature of this beer. It’s all malt. There’s a simple explanation for that. Pre-war, Younger’s recipes were mostly just pale malt and grits. The war made all maize products unobtainable, as it needed to be imported. At the time there was no maize grown in the UK.  Later in the war brewers used either oats or flaked barley as a replacement for maize.

I assume the relatively high OG is to stop the beer tasting too thin. It also means you’ve got zero chance of getting pissed on it. It’s not even 2.5% ABV.

Do let me know if you brew this. I’d love to know how it tastes.

1940 William Younger P Btlg
pale malt	6.50 lb	100.00%
Fuggles 90 min	0.50 oz
Fuggles 30 min	0.50 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.125 oz
OG	1028
FG	1010
ABV	2.38
Apparent attenuation	64.29%
IBU	14
SRM	3
Mash at	154.5º F
Sparge at	160º F
Boil time	105 minutes
pitching temp	63.5º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

1939 William Younger Ext

Another Scottish beer, but this time probably more like what you would expect.

Ext – which probably stands for Export – was William Younger’s top of the range Pale Ale. I’m still struggling to make sense of their beer range. There seem to be far more beers that necessary. But this one I think I can place. It’s not  million miles away from Drybrough 80/- of the same year. That had an OG of 1050 and was the forerunner of their post-war Export.

The term “Export” for a strong Pale Ale seems to have come into use before the war. While “Light” and “Heavy” I’ve only seen used after the war. At least in terms of Pale Ale. Heavy was sometimes used for Strong Ales – like Fowler’s Wee Heavy – earlier, but not for a mid-strength Pale Ale.

The recipe is pretty dull, just pale malt and grits. And one type of hops, plus dry hops. At least it’s only 20% grits this time. Not too crazy.

For a Scottish beer the attenuation is pretty reasonable at over 70%. Leaving a beer with over 5% ABV. The FG should be much easier to achieve than with the under-attenuated ones.

I don’t have much more to add, other than that you can colour it darker with caramel, if the fancy takes you. I doubt it was always – if ever – sold as brewed. That’s the Scots for you. They loved their caramel.

1939 William Younger Ext
pale malt	10.00 lb	80.00%
grits	2.50 lb	20.00%
Fuggles 90 min	1.25 oz
Fuggles 30 min	1.25 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.25 oz
OG	1054
FG	1015
ABV	5.16
Apparent attenuation	72.22%
IBU	30
SRM	4
Mash at	153º F
Sparge at	160º F
Boil time	105 minutes
pitching temp	60º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1939 William Younger XXX

Now I’ve started I may as well do the set of William Younger 1939 Mild Ales. This is the stronger version, XXX.

I’m not going to pretend that it’s hugely different from XX. It contains exactly the same ingredients, though the proportions are slightly different. Slightly less pale malt and a little more of everything else. It’s not a massive difference.

This beer slips perfectly into what I would call the Ordinary Mild slot. A beer that would have cost 5d a pint in London. In the late 1930’s, there were three types of Mild in London. 4d Ale at 1030º at 4d per pint; Mild at 1037º at 5d per pint and Best Mild at 1043º at 6d per pint. With the middle one being the most popular. Though not every brewery made all three types.

The crappy degree of attenuation – the lactose won’t help – leaves XXX at just over 3% ABV. So it must have been quite a full-bodied beer. An FG of 1014º is high for a beer with a relatively low OG. But clearly that’s what the brewery was aiming for. As I mentioned for XX, this is really a watered-down No. 1 Strong Ale. The grists are very similar, except there’s no invert sugar in the No. 1.

Again I assume that this was primarily sold south of the border. This class of beer didn’t exist in Scotland. At least I haven’t found another similar Scottish beer. William Younger seems to have stuck with brewing proper Milds – not just a low-gravity Pale Ale with added sugar – much longer than anyone else in Scotland. Extensive trade in England (not just the Northeast of England where many Scottish brewers were active and Mild was also a rarity) is the most obvious explanation.

Even by the standards of Mild the hopping rate is very low. Barclay’s X, a beer of a similar gravity, contained three times the volume of hops. While Whitbread X contained four times as many. Younger XX and XXX are some of the most lightly-hopped British beers I’ve ever come across.

1939 William Younger XXX
pale malt	5.25 lb	64.42%
crystal malt 60L	0.50 lb	6.13%
mild malt	0.40 lb	4.91%
grits	1.25 lb	15.34%
invert sugar	0.25 lb	3.07%
lactose	0.50 lb	6.13%
liquorice	0.25 oz
Fuggles 90 min	0.50 oz
Fuggles 30 min	0.25 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.25 oz
OG	1037
FG	1014
ABV	3.04
Apparent attenuation	62.16%
IBU	11
SRM	6
Mash at	154º F
Sparge at	160º F
Boil time	105 minutes
pitching temp	61º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale