Scottish & Newcastle beers in 1996 yet again

More details from the beer specifications document. I'm doing a great job of spinning multiple posts out those few typewritten sheets.

This time, they're all beers for domestic distribution. Though some were sort of going overseas.

First is a watery keg beer of around just 3% ABV,

McEwans Pale Ale
Holyrood brews kegged at Park Stores.

Distribution: In road tankers ex IIMV room to Contract Bottlers

Tyne - Bowser filtered for kegging.
Holyrood and Fountain beer specifications held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/8/1.

Nothing very interesting there.

Next is another watery Pale Ale of just 3% ABV.

Youngers Pale Ale
Holyrood brews kegged at Park Stores. Fountain brews kegged at Tyne.

Distribution - In road tanker ex HMV room to Contract Bottlers:

Belfast - Supplied rough. Processed at Belfast and bottled as Wee Willie Pale (1/2 pints) or Holyrood Ale (pints) - coloured to 36º.

Kendal - Supplied sheet filtered (colour 24º) for bottling.

London (Bates) - Supplied sheet filtered for bottling.
Holyrood and Fountain beer specifications held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/8/1.

Technically, Belfast is overseas from Scotland. Interesting that the pints and half-pints were sold under different names in Belfast. And that the beer was coloured darker. It was 24º, as brewed.

Finally, we have Brown Ale.

Brown Ale
Processed at Park Stores.

Distribution - In tanker ex HMV to Contract Bottlers:

Kendal - Supplied sheet filtered for bottling (LS 1/2 pints) as.

London (Bates) - Supplied sheet filtered for bottling (LS 1/2 pints) as.

Belfast - Supplied rough where it is processed and bottled in in pint crowns as Nut Brown Ale or S.D.A. or in 1/2 pint dumps as Wee Willie Brown.
Holyrood and Fountain beer specifications held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/8/1.

It's fascinating that they were still using third-party bottlers. At least, that's what I assume contract bottlers were. As S & N didn't have any breweries south of Newcastle, they also had limited numbers of sites to bottle. Economically, it makes far more sense to ship beer by tanker, then bottle, rather than moving bottled beer around the country.

Again, the pints and half-pints got different names in Northern Ireland. I'm guessing that S.D.A. stands for "Special Dark Ale". Which, if they mean specially weak, is an appropriate name.
 

Scottish & Newcastle beers in 1996 again

Robbie Pickering mentioned in the comments of the last post about whether Double Century Ale was just being brewed for export. Well, the document does mention where beers were destined for. It makes for interesting reading. 

I was quite surprised by how many beers were being exported or used as ships stores. For example, McEwans Scotch Ale.

Processed at Park Stores for Export or Ship Stores as McEwans Scotch Ale.

Sheet Filtered for kegs, bottles and cans.
Holyrood and Fountain beer specifications held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/8/1.

Oddly enough, one beer which doesn't seem to have been exported was McEwans Export

Holyrood Brews kegged at Park Stores. Canned also at Park Stores for British Rail & general trade (10 oz. cans).

Distribution: Tankers ex HMV Room to

Contract Bottlers
Belfast - Rough for processing & bottling as Monk Export (1/2 pint dumps).

London (Bates) - Sheet filtered for bottling (LS 1/2 pints) as McEwans Export or Monk Export.
Holyrood and Fountain beer specifications held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/8/1.

While McEwans Strong Ale seems to have been exclusively for export.

Processed at Park Stores. Bottled &, canned at Park Stores for Export and Ship Stores as McEwans Strong Ale, the export trade being to Jamaica, Canada and general export.
Holyrood and Fountain beer specifications held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/8/1.

Pretty sure this is the beer currently sold in the UK as McEwans Champion. Back in the early 1980s, McEwans Strong Ale was brewed at the Guinness brewery in Jamaica. When that closed, it must have been brewed in Scotland and exported.

Another beer that seems to have been exclusively for McEwans Milk Stout

Processed at Park Stores. Bottled at Park Stores for export mainly to Jamaica as McEwans Milk Stout.

Bottled also for general export trade as McEwans Extra Stout. 
Holyrood and Fountain beer specifications held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/8/1. 

 I can't remember ever seeing that in Jamaica. A shame, as it looks like an interesting beer.

Scottish & Newcastle beers in 1996

Back with that odd document of loose sheets. Which contain some useful information about Scottish & Newcastle's beers.

What's nice, is that the bitterness levels are recorded. Well, for the pale beers. They didn't bother measuring it for the Brown Ales and Stouts. Which leads me to believe that they weren't very bitter.

Sweet Stout was brewed at 540 EBC. After blending with "reprocessed beer", i.e. ullage and other crap, the colour was 270 EBC. Something similar happened with Brown Ale, which was brewed at 220 EBC and then blended with reprocessed beer. In both cases, there must have been quite a high percentage of rubbish blended in to reduce the colour so much.

MxEwan's IPA, McEwan's Pale Ale and Younger's Pale Ale all look incredibly similar. The only difference being a slightly higher FG in McEwan Pale Ale. Scottish & Newcastle had another IPA, Younger's IPA, which was much stronger, 1042º. It was also sold as sold as 80/-, just to make things even more confusing.

XXPS was also sold as Scotch Bitter or, when in cask form, 70/-.

McEwan's Scotch Ale and Export look remarkably simialr, with just 1º difference in gravity a 1 IBU in bitterness. Irinically, it seems to have been Scotch Ale that was exported.

Talking of exports, McEwan's Strong Ale was exported to Jamaica and Canada. While Milk Stout was exported to Jamaica. The same beer was exported elsewhere as McEwan's Extra Stout.

I ssume that the Strong Ale is what is now sold as McEwan's Champion. A Scotch Ale of pretty decent strength, looking much like the ones brewed between the wars.

Double Century Ale was a Brown Ale of the strong type, which was introduced in 1949 to celebrate the 200th anniversary of William Younger. I wonder when it was discontinued? 

Scottish & Newcastle beers in 1996
Brewer	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	IBU	colour
Wm. Younger	Brown Ale	Brown Ale	1030.5	1006.5	3.18	78.69%		85
Wm. Younger	Double Century Ale	Brown Ale	1053.0	1009.6	5.74	81.89%		70
McEwan	IPA	IPA	1030.5	1006.8	3.14	77.70%	17	24
McEwan	Pale Ale	Pale Ale	1030.5	1009.1	2.83	70.16%	17	48
Wm. Younger	Pale Ale	Pale Ale	1030.5	1006.8	3.14	77.70%	17	24
Wm. Younger	XXPS Btg	Pale Ale	1036.5	1007.6	3.82	79.18%	24	25
McEwan	Export	Pale Ale	1043.5	1009.2	4.54	78.85%	27	25
McEwan	Scotch Ale	Pale Ale	1044.5	1010.2	4.54	77.08%	26	26
McEwan	Sweet Stout	Stout	1030.5	1011.5	2.51	62.30%		270
McEwan	Milk Stout	Stout	1058.5	1020.0	5.09	65.81%		270
McEwan	Strong Ale	Strong Ale	1088.5	1022.0	8.80	75.14%	30	85
Source:
Holyrood and Fountain beer specifications held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/8/1.

The Big Six (part three)

More stuff on the demons of 1970s brewing. How evil they were. The ones who supped at the devils hosepipe. Two more Big Six members.

Courage
I have very mixed feelings about Courage. Having ended up owning both of my hometown of Newark’s brewers, they owned almost all the pubs. All but one of which sold no cask beer. On the other hand, they brewed Russian Stout.

On the other hand, my first job after school was working in their Newark plant, the former Holes brewery. Filling kegs. It was so much fun. Not really. It was very heavy work. Which my 18-iear-old body could cope with. Then there was all that free beer.

In the North and Midlands, Courage produced no cask beer at either their Tadcaster or Newark breweries. Drinkers in the South were luckier, with the London and Bristol plants producing some cask. Though Worton Grange, the replacement for the former Simmonds brewery in Reading, produced only keg beer.

Scottish & Newcastle
Due to the way the pub trade worked in Scotland, where loan ties rather than outright brewery ownership were the norm, Scottish & Newcastle looked by far the smallest of the Big Six.

Many “free houses” had some sort of loan tie to S & N. Often just for draught beer, rather than everything.

With not many more than the maximum number of brewery-owned pubs, S & N was the least affected by the Beer Orders.

Their cask beers offerings were patchy. Younger’s 70/- and 80/- appeared in natural form reasonably frequently. With the latter being called IPA in England. Just to confuse thing up.

The best-known beer of Newcastle Breweries was their Brown Ale, along with Exhibition. There was also an Anber Ale, which one of the two constituent parts of Newcastle Brown.

A pint of Best Scotch

There were some odd regional kinks when it came to beer styles. Best Scotch is a good illustration.

Scotch and Best Scotch were used in the Northeast of England to refer to certain classes of Pale Ales. Essentially, draught Bitter. These names weren't used either in Scotland, or in the rest of the UK, for such beers.

They were sometimes brewed in Scotland, but also in the Northeast of England. For example Vaux in Sunderland and Newcastle Breweries in, well, Newcastle.

It seems customers weren't always getting exactly what they expected.

PINT OF BEST (?) SCOTCH
WHEN a customer asks for a pint of Best Scotch at his local does he know what he is getting? 

Analysis a number of brands beer sold in Northumberland has disclosed that although Best Scotch’ marketed by various companies is the same price there is variation in strength. In fact, some firms’ ‘Best Scotch’ is WEAKER than other brewers’ ordinary beer. 

A Northumberland County Council General Purposes Committee REPORT says that a representative of one firm whose Best Scotch was particularly low in original gravity, explained that his company could not produce beer as cheaply as the larger concerns. His firm marketed lower gravity beer at the same price as the higher gravity beer sold by other companies. Money was saved on materials and less duty was payable. 

The report explains that there no legal standard of compositional quality for beer.
Shields Daily News - Saturday 01 November 1952, page 1.

If you look in the table, you'll see that Scotch was around the same strength as draught Mild or Boys Bitter. While Best Scotch, averaging out at about 1037º, looks very much like Ordinary Bitter. In Scottish terms, Scotch was 60/- and Best Scotch 70/-.

I'm guessing that the small brewery was selling something around the strength of Scotch as Best Scotch. Naughty, but, in the days before the stre4ngth of beer was made public, who was to know? There was no legal definition of either term and brewers could sell anything they liked under those names.

Scotch and Best Scotch 1964 - 1967
Year	Brewer	Beer	Price	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour
1964	Newcastle Breweries	Sotch Ale	15	1032.3	1005.4	3.36	83.28%	30
1967	McEwans	Scotch	19	1031.8	1009.5	2.79	70.13%	35
	Average		17	1032.1	1007.5	3.08	76.70%	32.5
1964	McEwans	Best Scotch	17	1038.1	1007.1	3.87	81.36%	30
1965	McEwans	Best Scotch	18	1037.9	1008.2	3.71	78.36%	25
1967	McEwans	Best Scotch	21	1037.4	1005.9	3.94	84.22%	31
1964	Vaux	Best Scotch	17	1036.3	1006.6	3.71	81.82%	30
1965	Vaux Lorimer	Best Scotch	18	1036.4	1006.3	3.76	82.69%	26
1967	Younger, Wm.	Best Scotch	21	1036.7	1007.6	3.78	79.29%	31
	Average		18.7	1037.1	1007.0	3.80	81.29%	28.8
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.

Takeover time in Scotland

The 1950's was the startr of huge process of consolidation in the UK brewing industry. In Scotland it took even more extreme form than in England. By the end of 1960's only a handful of Scottish breweries remained. 

"Pending brewery fusion
In view of current rumours, the directors of William McEwan and Co and James Deuchar announce that preliminary discussions have taken place between them as to a possible fusion of interests, but as yet nothing has been decided.

William McEwan are Edinburgh brewers with an issued capital of £1,000,000 and total assets of £5,716,000. They have a working agreement with William Younger and Co through Scottish Brewers.

James Deuchar are Newcastle brewers, owning some 125 licensed houses. Their issued capital £550.000. while their latest assets total was £2,584,000. Both companies account to April 30.
Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer - Saturday 16 October 1954, page 9.

The Deuchars are almost as confusing as the Youngers. Robert Deuchar, another Newcastle firm, owned a brewery in Duddingston, Edinburgh. And there was James Deuchar brewing in Montrose. They all seem to have ended up in Scottish & Newcastle.

The relationship between two of Edinburgh's largest brewers, William McEwan and William Younger was a bit strange. They'd formed a joint venture, Scottish Brewers, in 1930, but the two brewers remtained separate limited companies, with their own separate boards. It wasn't until 1955 that they finally fully merged into a single legal entitiy.

"Breweries take-over plan
The shareholders of Scottish Brewers. Ltd.. William Younger & Co, Ltd., brewers, and William McEwan & Co., Ltd., brewers, are to meet to consider a proposal by the directors of the three companies that Younger and McEwan should become wholly-owned subsidiaries Scottish brewers.

In three petitions presented the Court of Session in Edinburgh it was stated that the directors are of opinion that it would be in the interests all three companies as a group, and of each company separately, that Younger and McEwan should become wholly-owned subsidiaries of Scottish Brewers. The debenture stock and preference shares of Younger and McEwan should be eliminated, the holders receiving in exchange debenture stock or preference shares of Scottish Brewers.

Such an arrangement, the petitioners state, would enable the raising of capital to be effected as a central operation through Scottish Brewers, if and when necessary. The three companies yesterday obtained the authority of the second division of the Court Session to summon separate meetings of the shareholders at which the scheme might be considered.
Belfast News-Letter - Wednesday 25 May 1955, page 10.

This structure didn't last that long. In 1960 they merged with Newcastle Breweries to become Scottish & Newcastle.

Britain’s best bottled beer

We’re back with more claims to be the best.  Not just best Brown Ale, but best bottled beer.

You may have heard of this beer:

“SILVER JUBILEE 1927 1952
NEWCASTLE BROWN ALE
Britain's best bottled beer.

Newcastle Brown Ale was first brewed in 1927. The following year, at the Brewers’ Exhibition, it won The Brewing Trade Review Challenge Cup for THE BEST BOTTLED BEER IN THE SHOW. Strong, rich and full-flavoured, it has maintained its proud position and remains unchallenged in its field.

We welcome parties of visitors at our Tyne Brewery in Corporation Street, Newcastle upon Tyne. Application should he made beforehand to our Head Office in the Haymarket, Telephone: Newcastle 28605.
THE NEWCASTLE BREWERIES LTD.”
Morpeth Herald - Friday 11 April 1952, page 5.

For 100% accuracy they should have said: Britain’s best bottled beer in 1927. A lot can change in 25 years, especially with a WW II inbetween. “Strong, rich and full-flavoured” ? They certainly couldn’t make that claim in advertising today. Full-flavoured would be OK, but strong definitely not.

Note that they mention brewery tours. These are nothing new. Barclay Perkins, for example, was big tourist attraction in the 19th century as one of the wonders of London, especially during the period when it was the largest brewery in the world.

Meanwhile Drybrough did at least boast of a contemporary award:

“DRYBROOUGHS
NUT BROWN ALE
FIRST PRIZE in Bottled Beer Competition (Class 6) BREWERS' EXHIBITION, OLYMPIA October 4th-8th, 1954
Brewed Matured and Bottled by
DRYBROUGH & CO. LTD EDINBURGH”
Aberdeen Evening Express - Friday 15 October 1954, page 10.

You know what’s funny about that? Drybrough didn’t brew a Brown Ale. Not even a Mild, really. They only had one recipe, which they parti-gyled at different strengths to make various beers. My guess is that their Brown Ale was a coloured up version of their B 60/- (bottling 60/-) with added caramel. Lovely. No wonder it won a prize.

Here are their beers:

Drybrough beers in 1954
Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
B 60/-	Pale Ale	1031.0	1011.0	2.65	64.52%	4.48	0.57
60/-	Pale Ale	1032.0	1011.0	2.78	65.63%	4.42	0.59
XXP	Pale Ale	1043.0	1011.5	4.17	73.26%	4.42	0.79
Export	Pale Ale	1045.0	1013.5	4.17	70.00%	4.48	0.83
Burns	Strong Ale	1073.0	1032.5	5.36	55.48%	4.67	1.40
Source:
Drybrough brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number D/6/1/1/7.

Here are some more dodgy claims for a brewery’s Brown Ale:

“ENJOY DOUBLE MAXIM AT HOME
GRAND... to relax with Double Maxim! It’s so satisfying, this special brown ale with the very special flavour, so full of strength and goodness. How much it adds to your evening’s pleasure... and at home to the pleasure of your guests as well! For Double Maxim is the Vaux brown ale with the distinctive flavour that everyone likes. Get some today — at any Vaux house or off-licence.
It's VAUX special-flavour Brown Ale”
Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette - Thursday 21 October 1954, page 15.

Claiming a beer is “full of strength and goodness” is a definite no-no today. Pretty sure the pleasure stuff might be problematic, too. What might that “distinctive flavour” be? Had it mean Watney or Drybrough, I might cynically have suggested ullage.

Let’s finish with Newcastle Brown and Double Maxim analyses:

Newcastle Brown Ale 1949 - 1959
Year	Style	Price per pint	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour
1949	Brown Ale	22d	1051.6	1012.2	5.12	76.36%	1.5 + 40
1950	Brown Ale	22d	1053.2	1008.9	5.78	83.27%	40 B
1951	Brown Ale	22d	1052.5	1011.8	5.30	77.52%	40 + 1
1952	Brown Ale	26d	1052	1009.9	5.49	80.96%	1.5 + 40
1954	Brown Ale	26d	1048.9	1010	5.06	79.55%	51
1959	Brown Ale	32d	1052.2	1012.1	5.22	76.82%	50
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.

Vaux Double Maxim 1950 - 1955
Year	Beer	Price per pint	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour
1950	Double Maxim	19d	1048.7	1011.2	4.88	77.00%	1.5 + 40
1952	Double Maxim	23d	1049	1009.8	5.10	80.00%	2 + 40
1955	Double Maxim	24d	1048.5	1012.8	4.63	73.61%	110
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.

Both were a good bit stronger than the majority of Brown Ales, which usually had an OG of around 1030º and were around 3% ABV. Newcastle Brown was the slightly stronger of the two and this is reflected in the price. Double Maxim seems to have got darker after 1952. The earlier two colours are in the low 50’s EBC, similar to Newcastle Brown. Much lower than the 110 of the 1955 sample.

Who was branding their beers in 1954? (part three)

More 1950’s brands. This time from two of the key companies in the most enigmatic of the Big Six, Scottish & Newcastle. And the last to disappear into smoke.

They were different to the other five, in that they had a relatively small tied estate. That was partly a geographical thing, as much of their trade was in Scotland where the tied house system wasn’t strong and most pubs, at least technically, were free houses. Though types of loan tie were common.

Merging with the largest brewery in Newcastle made a lot of sense for William Younger and McEwan. Scottish brewers did a lot of trade in the Northeast and owned pubs there. Until their latter days, Scottish & Newcastle’s coverage of England was patchy. They had some tied houses and free-house accounts in London, but in parts of the country their beers were rare. I can think of only one pub in Leeds that stocked their beer: Whitelocks. Around Newark I remember one free house out in a village that served Youngers.

Without the security of a tied estate, it made sense for Scottish & Newcastle to build strong brands. It’s quite a long list in the table. But I don’t think it’s complete. Because it’s just bottled beers. They also had Tartan as a keg brand.

Wee Willie was used for more than one type of beer: I’ve analyses of both a Pale Ale and a Brown Ale branded this way. King of Ales was their No. 1 Strong Ale. Double Century was first brewed to celebrate William Younger’s 200th anniversary, though the founding date they used is almost certainly a decade or two too early. Note the use of 90/- to denote a low-gravity, bottled Pale Ale. It’s only much later than 90/- started to be used to denote a Strong Ale. 90/- Paler Ales were quite common before WW II, being brewed by many Scottish brewers.

Newcastle Breweries also was quite strong on branding, again because of the need to penetrate the free trade. You could claim it was more successful, as both Exhibition and Newcastle Brown still exist. (Amber disappeared in the 1980’s.) While I don’t think any of the Younger’s brands below are around today.

Newcastle Breweries branded beers in 1954
Brewery	Beer	Type
Newcastle Breweries	Blue Star Ales	All Types
Newcastle Breweries	Exhibition Pale Ale	Draught Bitter
Newcastle Breweries	Newcastle Amber	Bottled Ale
Newcastle Breweries	Newcastle Brown	Bottled Ale
Source:
Brewery Manual 1953-1954, pages 382 - 394.

Wm. Younger branded beers in 1954
Brewery	Beer	Type
Wm. Younger	Capital	Stout
Wm. Younger	Castle	Brown Ale
Wm. Younger	Holyrood	Light Sparkling Ale
Wm. Younger	King of Ales	Strong
Wm. Younger	Wee Willie	--
Wm. Younger	90/- Ale	Sparkling Ale
Wm. Younger	Double Century	High quality Ale
Wm. Younger	Gold Label Ale	Heavy gravity pale ale
Wm. Younger	Monk	Export, bottled
Source:
Brewery Manual 1953-1954, pages 382 - 394.

Probably some more Big Six brands next. Unless I go for Sheffield instead.

The end for Drybrough

Finding this article about the sale and closure of Drybrough was an unusual experience. I'm used to looking at much older newspapers. It also highlighted just how much the brewing industry in Britain has changed in the last 25 years.

It was the mentions of Allied-Lyons, Grand Metropolitan, Bass, Courage and S & N (only Whitbread was missing form the Big Six set) that stuck out. The companies that used to control most of the pubs and brew most of the beer sold in them. All gone, at least from the brewing industry.
 

"Allied-Lyons wins race to purchase Drybrough
By Andrew Wilson

Allied-Lyons has bought Edinburgh-based brewers Drybrough paying the Grand Metropolitan subsidiary Watney Mann & Truman Brewers subsidiary a total of £48.5 million. Included in the deal are 155 pubs in Scotland  and 32 in the North East of England.

Brewing will stop immediately at the Craigmillar site although keg filling and distribution will be maintained. There will be some 29 job losses initially although Allied-Lyons said yesterday that the Alloa Brewery head-office staff could well be transferred to Craigmillar.

Allied added that the deal is good for the brewery industry as it combines two relatively small operations in Scotland so that it can become an "adequate critical mass." Drybrough, with an annual capacity of 300,000 barrels has 7% of the Scottish market which is similar to that of Allied's Alloa Brewery.

Drybrough Heavy will be transferred to Alloa where there is an annual capacity of 500,000 barrels or 144 million pints. It is expected that once the operation is fully integrated, Alloa will produce in excess of 400,000 barrels annually.

Initial market reaction was that GrandMet had dealt well. Although Drybrough has a book net asset value of £25m, with the pubs worth another £5m, Allied does appear to be buying the company at almost 19 times rumoured 1986 pre-tax profits of £4m.

But it defended the price by pointing out that this figure included an undisclosed GrandMet head office charge while there would be substantial savings to Allied from the integration.

The deal will increase the number of Allied pubs in Scotland to 400, or 30% of the brewery-controlled pubs, and there will be no earnings dilution. The pubs are in good condition so that there will not be any significant refurbishment costs.

Somewhat surprisingly, the valuation of the properties has yet to be completed although an Allied spokesman said they had a good idea as to their worth.

But Allied will find it heavy going to expand the number of retail outlets quickly in the face of a Scottish & Newcastle and Bass market share of around 80% of the beer market.

Allied issued almost 14.3 million shares which were placed with some difficulty yesterday by Cazenove at 347p with the discount of only 4p on the overnight 351p considered somewhat tight. Allied shares eased 5p to close at 346p.

The agreement comes after discussions with various other parties. These are believed to include Belhaven, which is now headed by former Arthur Bell chairman Raymond Miquel. He is anxious to expand Belhaven into a national premium brand beer with the existing capacity at Dunbar believed to be well under 100,000 barrels.

The Drybrough brewery capacity would have given Belhaven a substantial increase in line with English regionals such as Greene King and Marston's.

The sale leaves GrandMet with its three English breweries. These are Websters in Halifax, Mortlake in West London and the 850,000 barrels a year brewery in Brick Lane in London's East End.

Discussions are now taking place with Elders on the contract whereby Grad Met brews the Australian Fosters lager under a licence until 1996.

GrandMet will have to be bought out although the talks are amicable and could well involve some property exchange between the Elders Courage subsidiary.

Budweiser is also brewed by GrandMet under contract with an annual production of around 100,000 barrels.

GrandMet shares firmed 2p to 457p."
The Glasgow Herald - Jan 10, 1987, page 15.

Typical that they sold the brewery to someone who didn't actually want it. Well not to brew in. Though the Alloa Brewery itself didn't last that much longer, closing in 1998.

300,000 barrels is a fairly decent amount. For a regional brewer. Clearly just chicken-feed for the big boys. With just three breweries left, I wonder what the total capacity of GrandMet was? The 850,000-barrel brewery in the East End was Truman, which itself wasn't around much longer, closing in 1988. It was the beginning of the Big Six eating themselves. It's weird. I didn't care for them much at the time, but now I feel all nostalgic about Bass and Courage.

Note how two breweries - S & N and Bass - controlled a disproportionate amount of the Scottish beer market. 80%  between them. Which was far more than their share in England. According to a 1986 Courage estimate, the national on-sales market share of Courage was 7%, of S & N 14.7% and of Bass 22.9%.

The bit about the number of brewery-controlled pubs in Scotland got me reaching for my spreadsheet of pub numbers. If 400 was 30% of them, that means the total number was 1,333. In 1988, there were 4,472 pubs in Scotland. Plus 2,959 hotels. I'm not sure if the figure mentioned in the article included both groups. If it didn't include hotels, that means 30% of Scottish pubs had a brewery tie. If it did, it drops to just 18% with the tie. Either figure is way below the percentage of pubs tied in England.

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1949 William Younger XXPS

Something light for the spring. That's what Kristen asked. So why not go with a light little Scottish number? XXPS.

One of the things I love about William Younger is that they brewed some of their beers forever. Or close enough. 150 years plus. Which means some hung around long enough for me to try them. This is one of them. It was usually called Scotch Bitter in the pub. It was OK in the late 1970's early 1980's. A run of the mill Ordinary Bitter.

Now here's the odd thing. There was a stronger Younger's Bitter called IPA (you can see it in the table below). But, back in the 19th century, Younger had two Pale Ales: XP and XXP. According to a price list, the weaker XP was marketed as IPA, XXP as Export Pale Ale. So which should be stronger - Pale Ale or IPA? Answers should be sent directly to the BJCP.

You're probably wondering about the "S", aren't you? I believe that stands for "Scots". Or the domestic version of the beer. In some of the older logs they just draw a little Scottish flag in the left margin. Very sweet.

Getting back to the beer in question, you'll note the exremely simple grist. Wondering where the crystal malt is? Crystal malt in British Pale Ales is a fairly recent phenomenon. Virtually unknown before WW I, not that common until after WW II.

The colour of the finish beer would have been higher than indicated below. That's because they would have adjusted the colour with some sort of caramel at the end of the process. You'll see below that the analyses from the 1960's have EBC vlaues between 24 and 31. Though, if they were anything like other Scottish brewers, they would have made several different coloured versions for different markets. Same beer, just different amounts of colouring material added.

Just a table, then I'm done:

William Younger XXPS 1906 - 1989
Year	Beer	Style	Price	size	package	Acidity	FG	OG	colour	ABV	App. Atten-uation
1868	XP	IPA					1013	1051		5.03	74.51%
1868	XXP	Pale Ale					1014	1055		5.42	74.55%
1906	XXP Sc	Pale Ale		pint	draught			1056.7	12.5
1964	XXPS	Pale Ale	17d	pint	draught	0.04	1009.2	1038.8	24	3.70	76.29%
1965	XXPS	Pale Ale	18d	pint	draught	0.05	1007.9	1037.4	30	3.83	78.88%
1967	Best Scotch	Pale Ale	21d	pint	draught	0.11	1007.6	1036.7	31	3.78	79.29%
1972	IPA	IPA	13.5p	pint	draught		1008.2	1043.5		4.59	81.15%
1977	IPA	IPA		pint	draught			1043.2
1977	XXPS or Scotch Bitter	Pale Ale		pint	draught			1036.2
1979	IPA	IPA		pint	draught			1043.2
1979	XXPS or Scotch Bitter	Pale Ale		pint	draught			1036.2
1981	IPA	IPA		pint	draught			1043.2
1981	XXPS or Scotch Bitter	Pale Ale		pint	draught			1036.2
1982	XXPS (Scotch Bitter)	Pale Ale		pint	draught			1036.2
1982	IPA	IPA		pint	draught			1042.2
1983	IPA	IPA		pint	draught			1043
1983	XXPS or Scotch Bitter	Pale Ale		pint	draught			1036.5
1986	IPA	IPA		pint	draught			1042
1986	Scotch Bitter	Pale Ale		pint	draught			1036.5
1989	IPA	IPA		pint	draught			1042
1989	Scotch Bitter	Pale Ale		pint	draught			1037
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002
Documents WY/6/1/2/21 and WY/6/1/1/14 of the William Younger archive held at the Scottish Brewing Archive.
Daily Mirror July 10th 1972, page 15
Good Beer Guides: 1978, 1980, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1987, 1990

Time to pass you over to Kristen . . . .

Kristen’s Version:

There is really nothing to say about this beer. It’s so very simple choose what you really like for the malt and hops. Be sure to use the Flaked Barley as it adds a lot to the mouthfeel. I used Willamette and they worked wonderfully. If I made this again I’d definitely up the hops but this is what it is…still pretty damn drinkable.