Youngs PA malts 1939 - 1945

And how did the recipe change over the war years? Well, let’s take a look. Starting with the malts.

In total, four malts were employed over the wartime years. But only one appeared in every iteration: PA malt. Though there were only a couple of times that it was the only malt.

The second most common malt is, a bit surprisingly, mild malt. I assume this was used because of supply difficulties. And mild malt happened to be what they had plenty of.

Other than in 1941, the grists were all over the place. With several different combinations of PA, mild and enzymic malt. It’s all very chaotic and a sign that they were having to make do with the malts that they could get hold of.

I’m guessing that, had it been available, they would have used enzymic malt all through the war. The patchy way it was used implies that the supply was somewhat irregular.

The percentage of malt is also all over the place. Starting the war at 86% and ending it at 63%. But, between those, it goes up and down quite a bit. Peaking at 91% in 1941. 

Youngs PA malts 1939 - 1945
Date	Year	pale malt	PA malt	mild malt	enzymic malt	total malt
27th Jul	1939	32.14%	50.36%		3.21%	85.71%
22nd May	1940	28.93%	53.57%		3.21%	85.71%
1st May	1941		88.30%		3.19%	91.49%
3rd Jul	1941		88.72%		2.74%	91.46%
8th Jul	1941		88.72%		2.74%	91.46%
23rd Oct	1941		36.97%	46.48%	3.17%	86.62%
7th May	1942	27.27%	56.64%			83.92%
9th Jul	1942		51.40%	31.47%	3.15%	86.01%
20th Oct	1942		33.71%	47.19%		80.90%
30th Apr	1943		76.67%			76.67%
20th Jul	1943		74.48%		3.15%	77.62%
1st May	1944		63.33%	16.67%		80.00%
8th May	1944		80.00%			80.00%
19th Oct	1944		41.96%	37.76%		79.72%
8th May	1945		53.89%	17.96%		71.86%
3rd Jul	1945		45.71%	22.86%		68.57%
12th Jul	1945		62.87%			62.87%
Sources:
Young's brewing records held at Battersea Library, document numbers YO/RE/1/8 YO/RE/1/9 YO/RE/1/10, YO/RE/1/11, YO/RE/1/12, YO/RE/1/13 and YO/RE/1/14.

 

Youngs malts in 1943

Ingredients time now. Beginning, as always, with the malts.

There are fewer malts than in 1940, five rather than seven. There's a simple explanation for that: black and amber malt only appeared in Porter and Stout and those beers have been dropped. 

That's not the big story. Which is the reduction in the total malt percentage. Down from an average just short of 90% to 77%. Why such a drop? Because Youngs didn't use adjuncts in most of their beers pre-war. And during the war they were compelled to use adjuncts, at this point, that was flaked barley.

The Pale Ales have a base of all pale ale malt, without the standard pale malt that they had in 1940. While the Mild Ales remain a mix of mild malt and pale malt. The crystal malt content of the Milds and the Burton Ale is unchanged.

Enzymic malt, in both of the Pale Ales in 1940, is only in the full-strength Pale Ale here. But it wasn't consistent. It turns up sometimes in the Pale Ale parti-gyle. Only sometimes. Perhaps they were struggling to get supplies of it. 

Youngs malts in 1943
Beer	Style	pale malt	mild malt	PA malt	crystal malt	enzymic malt	total malt
A	Mild	30.04%	36.05%		12.02%		78.10%
X	Mild	37.80%	28.35%		9.45%		75.59%
PAB	Pale Ale			76.67%			76.67%
PA	Pale Ale			73.33%		3.33%	76.67%
XXX	Strong Ale	61.94%	6.19%		9.29%		77.42%
	Average						76.89%
Source:
Young's brewing record held at Battersea Library, document number YO/RE/1/12.

 

London Strong Burton Ale adjuncts and sugars 1880 - 1899

There’s not much more in the way of adjuncts and sugars. 

Barclay Perkins KKK is the only adjunct beer, with just shy of 10% flaked rice. Which is a surprise, as, by the 1890s, adjuncts had become fairly common in English brewing. Usually in the form of flaked maize. Occasionally rice, as in this case.

Every beer, with the exception of the 1897 Truman example, contains some sugar. The proportion varying between around 10% and 15%. Averaging about 11%.

Unfortunately, the type of sugar mostly isn’t specified. Probably some sort of invert, in most cases. I wouldn’t like to guess exactly which exact type. Quite likely No. 2 invert, as in the case of Barclay Perkins KKK. No. 3 is also a possibility, especially in the beers from the 1890s. 

London Strong Burton Ale adjuncts and sugars 1880 - 1899
Year	Brewer	Beer	flaked rice	no. 2 sugar	other sugar	total sugar
1881	Whitbread	KKK			15.25%	15.25%
1891	Whitbread	KKK			13.41%	13.41%
1886	Barclay Perkins	KKK	9.60%	16.00%		16.00%
1887	Truman (Burton)	S3			9.30%	9.30%
1897	Truman (Burton)	CS 3				0.00%
	Average					10.79%
Sources:
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/047 and LMA/4453/D/01/057.
Barclay Perkins brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number ACC/2305/1/583.
Truman brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers B/THB/BUR/11 and B/THB/C/327.

 

London Strong Burton Ale malts 1880 - 1899

Time to take a look at the ingredients. Starting with the malts.

There aren’t a great number of them. Just three, two of them base malts.

All but one have a base of standard pale malt. The exception being the 1881 Whitbread example, which uses SA malt. Which is a type of malt which produces a wort with a higher proportion of less readily-fermentable sugars. Something desirable in a beer which would undergo a long secondary fermentation. Note that it is one of the beers with the lowest degree of attenuation.

The only coloured malt is a small quantity of brown malt in the 1891 Whitbread beer. That is significant. As it’s around the time when Mild Ale and Burton Ale started to darken in colour. By the time WW I rolled around, they would fairly dark brown.

Only the 1897 Truman beer is 100% malt. Though the malt content is pretty high in all but Barclay Perkins KKK., averaging 87%. 

London Strong Burton Ale malts 1880 - 1899
Year	Brewer	Beer	pale malt	SA malt	brown malt	total malt
1881	Whitbread	KKK		84.75%		84.75%
1891	Whitbread	KKK	84.92%		1.68%	86.59%
1886	Barclay Perkins	KKK	74.40%			74.40%
1887	Truman (Burton)	S3	90.70%			90.70%
1897	Truman (Burton)	CS 3	100.00%			100.00%
	Average					87.29%
Sources:
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/047 and LMA/4453/D/01/057.
Barclay Perkins brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number ACC/2305/1/583.
Truman brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers B/THB/BUR/11 and B/THB/C/327.

 

London Burton Ale malts 1880 - 1899

We should take a look at the ingredients. Loads? Not really. I could even have squeezed them into one table. Instead, I’ve strung them out into a massive two tables.

No example contained more than two malts. And a couple just one.

Whitbread’s KK stands out in having SA rather than pale malt as its base. SA malt produced more less-readily fermentable sugars, which was handy when you wanted to leave plenty of food for the Brettanomyces in a secondary fermentation.

Only two coloured malts poke their heads out: crystal and brown malt. The latter is a very London thing. Most breweries wouldn’t have had it lying around. Only in London, where it was still an essential ingredient in Porter and Stout.

Quite a lot of malt, generally. Almost 85%, on average. But these were expensive beers. Where you would expect less skimping on ingredients.

London Burton Ale malts 1880 - 1899
Year	Brewer	Beer	pale malt	SA malt	brown malt	crystal malt	total malt
1892	Barclay Perkins	KK	69.12%			4.56%	73.68%
1881	Whitbread	KK		84.75%			84.75%
1897	Fullers	XXK	76.64%		2.55%		79.20%
1887	Truman (Burton)	C5 R	93.51%				93.51%
1887	Truman (Burton)	S5	92.31%				92.31%
	Average						84.69%
Sources:
Barclay Perkins brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number ACC/2305/1/587.
Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/01/047.
Fullers brewing record held at the brewery.
Truman brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/BUR/11.

 

Scottish Export/80/- malts and adjuncts in the 1950s

Carrying on with my Eighty Shilling series, here's a look at the malts and adjuncts in the late 1950s.

There aren't a huge number of malts. It's mostly just pale malt. That's all that three of the five beers contain. The only other malts are tiny quantities of enzymic and black malts. The Bernard and Drybrough examples both have a tiny amount of black malt, presumably for colour correction. The Drybrough beer also has a little enzymic malt.

The average malt content is 70%, which is a little on the low side. The outlier being the William Younger beer, which has only 58% malt.

Moving onto the adjuncts, the 28% flaked maize in William Younger's beer explains why the malt content is so low. Every other example also includes flaked maize. No surprise there. Flaked maize was very common and appeared in a majority of UK beers at the time.

The Drybrough beer has a second adjunct: flaked barley. Which is interesting. During WW II, brewers were forced to use flaked barley as a replacement for flaked maize. But, as soon as maize became available again, brewers dropped flaked barley pretty much immediately

The average adjunct content is 15%. Though that's distorted by the William Younger beer. In the others around 10%.

Scottish Export/80/- malts and adjuncts in the 1950s
Year	Brewer	Beer	pale malt	black malt	enzymic malt	total malt	flaked maize	flaked barley	total adjuncts
1957	Robert Younger	80/-	72.17%			72.17%	13.88%		13.88%
1958	Wm Younger	Export	58.21%			58.21%	28.36%		28.36%
1958	Bernard	Pale 1/4	77.58%	0.61%		78.18%	9.70%		9.70%
1957	Maclay	Export	70.27%			70.27%	10.81%		10.81%
1956	Drybrough	Export	71.13%	0.58%	1.35%	73.06%	5.39%	5.39%	10.78%
	Average					70.38%			14.70%
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.

 

 

Youngs malts in 1940

What’s been happening on the ingredients front? Not all that much yet. What with the war still being in its early days. The big changes will come in a couple of years’ time.

On average, the percentage of malt has increased from 87% to 89.5% since 1939.  Which is interesting. With that slight increase being in the base malt. The percentages of the other malts are pretty much unchanged. 

As are the types of malt being used. Three base malts: pale, mild and pale ale. Three coloured malts: black, amber and crystal. Though two of those only appear in the Porter and Stout.  While crystal malt is in everything except the Pale Ales.

Youngs liked combining a couple of types of base malts in their beers. As with pale malt and PA malt in the Pale Ales. Or mild and pale malt in Mild Ales. Only the Black Beers and Burtons (Strong Ales) always have a single type of base malt. X Ale only when it was parti-gyled with a Burton. 

Youngs malts in 1940
Beer	Style	pale malt	mild malt	PA malt	enzymic malt	black malt	amber malt	crystal malt	total malt
A	Mild	13.06%	68.57%					9.80%	91.43%
X	Mild		82.68%					9.45%	92.13%
PAB	Pale Ale	33.80%		51.76%	3.17%				88.73%
PA	Pale Ale	33.80%		51.76%	3.17%				88.73%
P	Porter		60.00%			7.50%	10.00%	7.50%	85.00%
S	Stout		60.00%			7.50%	10.00%	7.50%	85.00%
XXX	Strong Ale		82.68%					9.45%	92.13%
XXXX	Strong Ale		82.68%					9.45%	92.13%
	Average								89.41%
Source:
Young's brewing record held at Battersea Library, document number YO/RE/1/9.

 

Youngs malts in 1939

Time to look under the bonnet at what went into these beers. Bullying off with the malts.

There are quite a lot of base malts. Three in total. Four if you include the enzymic malt. The Mild and Pale Ales all have two base malts. For the Mild Ales, that’s, er, mild malt and pale malt. And for the Pale Ales, PA malt and pale malt. Which, I suppose, has some logic to it.

The Black Beers – Porter and Stout – only have a single base malt: mild malt. The cheapest of the base malts. Which is logical in beers with lots of coloured malts which would obscure the base malt’s flavour.

Enzymic malt, used to lower the pH of the mash, only pops up in the two Pale Ales. Presumably, it wasn’t needed in the other beers ass they contained coloured malts. Youngs were extremely loyal to enzymic malt and were still using it in the 1990s. 

All the beers, other than the Pale Ales, contain some crystal malt. It’s a type of malty which, after WW II, became pretty common in Pale Ales. But before the war, it was pretty well unknown in the style.

There’s lots of roasted malt in the Black Beers: 17.5% in total. That’s split across black and amber malt. It’s a slightly unusual for a London grist. More usual was a combination of black and brown malt. Or, in the case of Whitbread, chocolate malt and brown malt.

Overall, the percentage of malt in the grist is quite high, averaging 87%. Higher than the average for the UK, which was 78%.  

Youngs malts in 1939
Beer	Style	pale malt	black malt	amber malt	mild malt	PA malt	crystal malt	enzymic malt	total malt
A	Mild	13.20%			66.02%		9.90%		89.13%
X	Mild	16.60%			63.07%		9.96%		89.63%
PA	Pale Ale	25.81%				54.84%		3.23%	83.87%
PAB	Pale Ale	32.14%				50.36%		3.21%	85.71%
P	Porter		7.50%	10.00%	60.00%		7.50%		85.00%
S	Stout		7.50%	10.00%	60.00%		7.50%		85.00%
XXX	Strong Ale				80.47%		8.05%		88.52%
XXXX	Strong Ale				80.47%		8.05%		88.52%
	Average								86.92%
Source:
Young's brewing record held at Battersea Library, document number YO/RE/1/8.

 

Youngs grists in 1960/1961

Time to move on to the ingredients. Starting with what went into the mash tun: malts and adjuncts.

Quite a few malts again. Five in total, mostly base malts. So let’s begin with those.

All of the Pale Ales use PA malt as their base. Which makes sense. PA malt being the highest quality pale malt, specifically designed for use in Pale Ales.

On the other hand, the Mild Ales and all the strong beers have mostly mild malt as their base. Though sometimes this was in conjunction with standard pale malt. Mild malt was generally of a slightly lower quality than standard pale malt and killed a little darker. It was also a little cheaper.

The same set of beers – minus Celebration Ale – are also the ones containing crystal malt. Around 9% of the total. Which is a reasonably large amount.

Only one malt appears in every beer: enzymic malt. Which, rather than containing lots of enzymes, was acidified and was used to lower the pH of the mash. It was extremely popular in the 1950s and 1960s, used by dozens of breweries.

All the beers contain between 75% and 80% malt. That’s slightly below the national average, which was 80%. With adjuncts at 5% and sugar at 15%. 

Moving onto the last column, you can see that the proportion of adjuncts is much higher than the national average, in most cases, running at around 14%. That’s almost treble the average. A shitlaod. And in every single beer. 

Youngs grists in 1960/1961
Year	Beer	Style	pale malt	PA malt	mild malt	crystal malt	enzymic malt	total malt	flaked maize
1961	X	Mild	20.45%		43.18%	9.09%	4.55%	77.27%	13.64%
1960	XS	Mild			63.59%	8.48%	4.24%	76.31%	14.13%
1960	PAB	Pale Ale		72.43%			5.10%	77.53%	14.28%
1960	PA	Pale Ale		72.43%			5.10%	77.53%	14.28%
1960	SPA	Pale Ale		76.74%			4.41%	81.15%	11.77%
1960	QSPA	Pale Ale		74.35%			5.13%	79.48%	12.82%
1961	Ex PA	Pale Ale		74.42%			4.65%	79.07%	9.30%
1961	MS	Stout	20.45%		43.18%	9.09%	4.55%	77.27%	13.64%
1961	XXX	Strong Ale	20.45%		43.18%	9.09%	4.55%	77.27%	13.64%
1960	XXXX	Strong Ale			64.13%	8.55%	4.28%	76.96%	14.25%
1961	CA	Barley Wine	22.67%		45.35%		5.23%	73.26%	17.44%
Source:
Young's brewing record held at Battersea Library, document number YO/RE/1/29.