Youngs Pale Ale 1939 – 1945

In order to give some idea of what was going on in UK brewing during WW II, we'll take a look at a single beer, Youngs Pale Ale. And see what happened to it between 1939 and 1945.

In a way, it is totally typical of what went on in the war. Because the drop in gravity - just 5º over the whole period - is quite a bit less than usual. Though the gravity did fall lower: to 1039.7º in 1942. But, rather oddly, increased again early in 1943 to 1042.5º. And stayed at that level for the remainder of the war.

To make changes easier to spot, I’ve highlighted them in red

There are relatively few changes in gravity. But loads in the hopping rate. Which kicked off the war at 8 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt. Dropping to 7 lbs in May 1940, then just over 5 lbs in May 1941 and 4.75 lbs in July of the same year. That’s quite a fall.

Though the rate did quickly bounce back to 5 lbs per quarter. Over the next couple of years the rate varied between 4.5 lbs and 6 lbs per quarter. Which I think is a reflection of variations in the supply of hops.

Youngs PA 1939 - 1945
Date	Year	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
27th Jul	1939	1047.6	1013.3	4.54	72.09%	7.98	1.50
22nd May	1940	1047.0	1013.3	4.46	71.71%	7.00	1.29
1st May	1941	1043.0	1010.5	4.30	75.52%	5.14	0.83
3rd Jul	1941	1043.0	1008.3	4.59	80.67%	4.79	0.80
8th Jul	1941	1043.0	1010.0	4.37	76.81%	5.04	0.85
23rd Oct	1941	1042.4	1013.9	3.78	67.33%	5.09	0.85
7th May	1942	1040.0	1010.5	3.90	73.69%	4.48	0.72
9th Jul	1942	1039.7	1012.2	3.64	69.30%	5.46	0.87
20th Oct	1942	1039.9	1011.1	3.81	72.23%	4.52	0.73
30th Apr	1943	1042.5	1014.4	3.72	66.11%	4.89	0.82
20th Jul	1943	1042.3	1011.1	4.13	73.81%	5.46	0.95
1st May	1944	1042.5	1011.1	4.16	73.93%	5.56	0.93
8th May	1944	1042.7	1011.1	4.18	74.05%	6.00	0.99
19th Oct	1944	1042.8	1011.1	4.20	74.11%	5.46	0.93
8th May	1945	1042.8	1008.9	4.49	79.29%	5.41	0.94
3rd Jul	1945	1042.5	1011.1	4.16	73.93%	4.85	0.87
12th Jul	1945	1042.8	1011.1	4.20	74.11%	4.94	0.86
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.

 

Draught Bass

Or simply Draught Bass, as it was often called. Given the beer's return to popularity, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at how it changed over the years.

It's a beer than I've drunk every now and again. Sometimes more than others. 

When I lived in the East End in 1979, the only nearby pub in the Good Beer Guide was a Bass house. I spent many a happy evening there drinking Draught Bass and White Shield mixed. Both a tasty and powerful combination. Which was exactly what I was looking for at the time. A short road to oblivion

When the Grove in balderton became a Bass pub in the early 1980s, Draught Bass was one of the beers it served. Replacing keg beers from Courage's Newark brewery. When back home, I used to drink quite often in the Grove. Partly because a couple of mates lived just over the road. Rather nice, it was, the Bass.

A couple of years back, when I was in the Black Country and Burton  with the Goose Island people, we deliberately drank lots of Bass. Which had retained its popularity in that part of the country. And I was surprised at just how good it was. A wonderful example of a Burton Best Bitter. Why weren't the owners of the brand - AB Inbev - pushing it more? Well, pushing it at all?

Now they've woken up and put a little effort into the beer it's really taken off. What does that tell us? That AB Inbev were dozy bastards who had no idea of the treasure that they owned.

More to come about Draught Bass. 

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1941 Youngs PA

Just like PAB, PA has seen a fall in gravity since the outbreak of war. In its case, that was 5º. Again, an increase in the rate of attenuation has mitigated that fall somewhat. It still clocks in at 4.5% ABV, a very decent strength for a beer in 1941.

Which makes it surprising just how much PA Youngs brewed. Batches were usually 200 barrels or so. While the weaker PAB was only brewed 100 barrels at a time. And sometimes PA was brewed single-gyle. PAB only ever being brewed in a parti-gyle with PA.

There’s not much to say about the recipe, as this was parti-gyled with the PAB which we’ve just seen. In a nutshell, less sugar, more malt than in 1939.

One of the biggest changes since the start of the war is the hopping rate. Which is down from 8 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt. And that is reflected in a much lower calculated bitterness level: 26 IBU compared to 42 IBU in 1939. 

1941 Youngs PA
pale malt	8.50 lb	90.23%
malt extract	0.25 lb	2.65%
No. 1 invert sugar	0.67 lb	7.11%
Fuggles 120 min	0.67 oz
Fuggles 60 min	0.67 oz
Goldings 30 min	0.67 oz
OG	1043
FG	1008.5
ABV	4.56
Apparent attenuation	80.23%
IBU	26
SRM	5
Mash at	152º F
Sparge at	174º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	58.5º F
Yeast	WLP002 English Ale

 

Let's Brew - 1941 Youngs PAB

What have a couple of years of war done to Young’s weaker Pale Ale? A few things. But nothing too dramatic.

For a start, the gravity has been reduced by 4º. Though a higher degree of attenuation leaves this version actually a teeny bit stronger. I think I would have been able to live with that. A slightly thinner, but more alcoholic, beer.

Exactly the same elements are present in the grist: pale malt, No. 1 invert sugar and malt extract. Though I have included in the base pale malt a small quantity of enzymic malt. I’m pretty sure that enzymic malt no longer exists, so I’ve just substituted pale malt.

There has been a change in the quantities of the grist elements. The quantity of No. 1 invert has been halved, replaced by more base malt. Meaning that the percentage of malt has increased, from 85% to 90%.

Two types of hops, Worcester and Est Kent, both from the 1940 harvest. 

1941 Youngs PAB
pale malt	7.00 lb	90.32%
malt extract	0.25 lb	3.23%
No. 1 invert sugar	0.50 lb	6.45%
Fuggles 120 min	0.50 oz
Fuggles 60 min	0.50 oz
Goldings 30 min	0.50 oz
OG	1035
FG	1006.5
ABV	3.77
Apparent attenuation	81.43%
IBU	20
SRM	4.5
Mash at	152º F
Sparge at	174º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	58.5º F
Yeast	WLP002 English Ale

 

 

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1909 Maclay PI 60/-

We’ve now arrived at Maclay’s top-of-the-range Pale Ale, 60/-. How ironic that this was the only one of Maclay’s Pale Ales to survive WW I and WW II. And end up being the most watery beer they produced.

For a brewery’s most expensive Pale Ale, it’s not all that strong. In London, the strongest Pale Ales were around 1060º. This is more like the strength of a second-string London Pale Ale. Interesting, that. A not particularly great rate of attenuation leaves this not much over 4.5% ABV. Which isn’t much more than a post-WW II Best Bitter.

There’s not much to say about the recipe, this being parti-gyled with the PI 54/- we’ve already looked at. The grist consisting just of pale and amber malt, grits and Greenock sugar. It’s quite an untypical recipe for Scotland, where just pale malt, flaked maize and sugar was more usual.

As always with Maclay, there were loads of hops. . Hallertau from the 1905, Hallertau and 1907 seasons; Californian from 1907, Farnham from 1908 and Worcester from 1905.

I doubt that this was aged more than a couple of weeks.

1909 Maclay PI 60/-
pale malt	7.00 lb	63.64%
amber malt	0.25 lb	2.27%
grits	2.50 lb	22.73%
No. 2 invert sugar	1.25 lb	11.36%
Cluster 120 min	0.75 oz
Hallertau 60 min	0.75 oz
Fuggles 30 min	1.50 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.50 oz
OG	1051
FG	1016
ABV	4.63
Apparent attenuation	68.63%
IBU	38
SRM	7
Mash at	147º F
after underlet	152º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	63.5º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

 

 

Let's Brew - 1909 Maclay PI 54/-

Maclay didn’t content themselves with brewing one watery Pale Ale. They also had a slightly less watery one, in the form of 54/-. 

With a gravity of 1041º, it’s very weak for a pre-WW I Pale Ale. Though, obviously, not as bad as 42/-. A fairly poor level of attenuation leaves it under 3.5% ABV. At a time when pretty much everything brewed in London was over 5% ABV.

The grist is very much the same as that of 42/-. Which is pale and amber malt, grits and a sugar called Greenock. There’s a bit less amber malt and a few more grits. But nothing significant.

There’s a whole load of hops again. Hallertau from the 1905, Hallertau and 1907 harvests; Californian from 1907, Farnham from 1908 and Worcester from 1905. 

1909 Maclay PI 54/-
pale malt	5.50 lb	61.97%
amber malt	0.125 lb	1.41%
grits	2.25 lb	25.35%
No. 2 invert sugar	1.00 lb	11.27%
Cluster 120 min	0.50 oz
Hallertau 60 min	0.50 oz
Fuggles 30 min	1.00 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.25 oz
OG	1041
FG	1015
ABV	3.44
Apparent attenuation	63.41%
IBU	27
SRM	6
Mash at	147º F
after underlet	152º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	61.5º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

 

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1909 Maclay PI 42/-

Not only did Maclay brew a piss-weak Mild, they also had a similarly puny Pale Ale. Though, if you’re to believe the brewery designation of IP, it’s sort of an IPA. One to dribe style Nazis insane.

Before WW I a Pale Ale this weak – not even quite 3.5% ABV – was something of an exception. Even at English country breweries, where beers were generally weaker, wouldn’t have a Pale Ale quite this feeble.

The grist is very idiosyncratic, with pale malt, amber malt and grits combining.  Maclay in this period seems to have been very keen on amber malt. Using it in both Mild and Pale Ales. I can’t emphasise enough how fucking weird this is for Scotland. Amber malt rarely even turns up in Stout.

Loads of different hops again. Hallertau from the 1905, 1906 and1907 Seasons; Californian from 1907, Farnham from 1908 and Worcester from 1905. 

1909 Maclay PI 42/-
pale malt	4.75 lb	64.41%
amber malt	0.125 lb	1.69%
grits	1.50 lb	20.34%
No. 2 invert sugar	1.00 lb	13.56%
Cluster 120 min	0.50 oz
Hallertau 60 min	0.50 oz
Fuggles 30 min	0.75 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.25 oz
OG	1035
FG	1009
ABV	3.44
Apparent attenuation	74.29%
IBU	26
SRM	6
Mash at	146º F
after underlet	150º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	61.5º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

 

What is Eighty Shilling?

Another of my little videos. This time looking at the third and strongest of the classic Scottish Pale Ales, Eighty Shilling. 

 

What is Scottish Seventy Shilling?

Another little video. This time about Seventy Shilling, or Heavy, one of the classic Scottish Pale Ales.

 

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1928 Thomas Usher PA 70/-

Continuing with a little series of Scottish beers, here’s an interwar 70/-. It’s a great example because the gravity of 1048º is typical for a 7d per pint beer.

The names 60/-, 70/- and 80/- clearly derive from the prices and gravities of the last set of WW I price controls. Some brewers simply called their beers 6d, 7d and 8d PA. Maclay, for example. While Thomas Usher went for 60/-, 70/- and 80/-.

Unlike with 60/- and 80/-, 70/- hadn’t really existed before WW I. In the older type of Scottish beer, what I call Shilling Ales, the beers went 40/-, 50/-, 60/- then jumped to 80/-/ I’ve no idea why that was, but it seems pretty consistent across breweries.

There’s not a huge deal to the recipe. Base malt, flaked maize and sugar. The latter being split between something simply described as “invert” and dextro-laevulose, a type of partially fermentable fructose syrup. I’ve substitutes No. 2 invert for both.

There’s no description of any kind of the hops. I’ve guessed Goldings. I could be wrong. Th hopping rate is a lower than in London: 7 lbs per quarter (3365 lbs) of malt compared to 10 lbs. 

1928 Thomas Usher PA 70/-
pale malt	8.00 lb	78.05%
flaked maize	1.25 lb	12.20%
No. 2 invert sugar	1.00 lb	9.76%
Goldings 105 min	1.00 oz
Goldings 60 min	1.00 oz
Goldings 30 min	0.75 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.25 oz
OG	1048
FG	1014.5
ABV	4.43
Apparent attenuation	69.79%
IBU	37
SRM	7
Mash at	150º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	105 minutes
pitching temp	60.5º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

Here's a short video about the Seventy Shilling style:

 

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.
 

1951 Maclay PA 6d

To follow on from my recent video about Scottish 60/-, I thought I'd publish a recipe for a post-war version. Even better than that, it's a beer I drank myself. In fact, it's about the only Scottish-brewed 60/- I've ever drunk.

You might find the name confusing. 6d was the price this type of beer retailed for per pint between the wars. It would have been double that price by 1951, but the name remained. At least in the brew house. I'm sure that in pubs it was called either 60/- or Light.

The recipe is pretty typical for Scotland, with just a single type of malt, plus adjuncts and sugar. I say one type of malt. There were actually three, all of them pale malt. Having a blend of base malts was pretty typical in the UK. So that, when a supply of malt ran out and was substituted, there wouldn't be a sudden big change in the flavour of the beer.

The two sugars were No. 1 invert and something called DCS. I know that the latter was invert-based and dark, so I've substituted No. 3 invert. Caramel would have been added at racking time to take the colour to around 20 SRM. At least to some of the beer. Knowing what Scottish brewers were like, the chances are it was sold in every shade from as-brewed to almost black. All achieved through the addition of caramel at racking.

The two mashing temperatures are before and after an underlet.

There were three types of English hops, no vintage specified. 

1951 Maclay PA 6d
pale malt	5.50 lb	85.21%
flaked rice	0.33 lb	5.11%
No. 1 invert sugar	0.50 lb	7.75%
No. 3 invert sugar	0.125 lb	1.94%
Fuggles 90 min	0.50 oz
Fuggles 60 min	0.50 oz
Goldings 30 min	0.50 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.25 oz
OG	1030
FG	1012
ABV	2.38
Apparent attenuation	60.00%
IBU	21
SRM	4
Mash at	148/157º F
Sparge at	165º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	61º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

 This is my recent video on the 60/- style:

 

What is Scottish Sixty Shilling?

The short answer is: pretty much dead. Look at this short video if you want to learn more.

 

Holyrood and Fountain beer specifications

There's a bunch of papers in the Scottish Brewing Archive title "Holyrood and Fountain beer specifications". They seem to be the reply to an enquiry about the Scottish & Newcastle beers brewed in Scotland in the 1990s.

The original enquiry isn't included, just the reply, and a bunch of loose sheet.

23rd June 2001
Dear Alma
Pleas find enclosed the specifications of the fountain and Holyrood Beers. These would be about five years old and I think that they would be correct lor the previous fifteen years. I hesc are Photostats taken from Gordon Buchanan's own note book and I hope that you can cut them up a bit as I have no access to a guillotine and the notes were back to back. I now have them in the correct order. I lope to see you soon

Kind Regards
Holyrood and Fountain beer specifications held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/8/1.

The loose sheets contain colour specifications for all the beers. Plus individual sheet for some beers. Which include things like OG, FG, IBUs, colour and CO2 content. But no details of ingredients or process.

At the very end, there's an interesting note.

The query relating to McEwans Pale Ale was related to the market for "low" gravity beers. Many of the customers were involved in the coal industry and they requested higher colours. Pale Ale was brewed at 1030 and blended with fairly large quantities of yeast pressings. The bottled Pale Ale was sold as Blue Label mostly in small screw tops and the darker Pale Ale as larger Green Label screw tops. The principal beer sold in the fifties and sixties was 5/A which was 25 Lovibond and for the Glasgow and Lanarkshire market 46 Lovibond. It was strange that the miners market changed to lager and paler beers at a later date.
Holyrood and Fountain beer specifications held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/8/1.

5/A was the brew house name for McEwans Pale Ale. And pretty watery stuff it was. This is from the specs, so the 1990s version of the beer:

McEwans Pale Ale
OG	1030.5
FG	1009.1
ABV	2.83
App. Attenuation	70.16%
colour EBC	48
IBU	17
Source:
Holyrood and Fountain beer specifications held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/8/1.

I'm sure all those yeast pressings added character to the beer.

I already knew about the Scots colouring up the same beer in different colours for different markets. You'll note that the 1990s version was brewed at the darker colour. The pale version seems to have disappeared. Though the spec is for the keg version. An earlier sheet has these two bottled beers:

Beer	EBC
XXP (P5/A)	30°
G5/A (D5/A)	80º
Source:
Holyrood and Fountain beer specifications held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/8/1.

Where P5/A stands for Pale 5/A and D5/A stands for Dark 5/A. G/5A is Glasgow 5/A. Which shows the Glasgow version as being even darker. As dark as Dark Mild.

Wasn't that fun. All from a few little bits of text. 

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1939 Youngs PA

Moving on up to draught Bitter, it’s a little bit stronger than in 1932, when the OG was a little lower at 1046º. Hooray!

What I find fascinating, is that it’s a very similar strength to post-war Special Bitter. That tells me something. Special was an attempt to reintroduce pre-war Bitter. A very laudable aim, if you ask me. But not unique to Youngs. Several other London brewers did something similar. For example, Fullers and Watneys. 

A decent strength beer, then. About the same as a continental Pilsner. Which is what all the hip young things were drinking in Europe. Whereas most of Youngs drinkers were slurping down Mild.

Want to know something about the recipe? Refer to the PAB above. With which this was parti-gyled. Youngs were dead into parti-gyling at this point. Single-gyle brews were pretty rare. Limited to just X Ale and PA. 

1939 Youngs PA
pale malt	8.50 lb	85.00%
malt extract	0.25 lb	2.50%
No. 1 invert sugar	1.25 lb	12.50%
Fuggles 120 min	1.125 oz
Fuggles 60 min	1.125 oz
Goldings 30 min	1.125 oz
OG	1048
FG	1011.5
ABV	4.83
Apparent attenuation	76.04%
IBU	42
SRM	6
Mash at	153º F
Sparge at	174º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	60º F
Yeast	WLP002 English Ale

 

 

What is Scottish Pale Ale?

A tricky question, that one. Which I hops is answered in this short video.

 

Let's Brew - 1939 Youngs PAB

I’m really glad that the gravity of PAB increased by 3º between 1932 and 1939. Because otherwise the two recipes would have been near identical.

On the other hand, the hopping rate had declined from 10 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt to 8 lbs. A fall which is reflected in the bitterness level of the finished beer.

The base malt is still divided into three types: pale malt, pale ale malt and enzymic malt. The quantity of the last being pretty small. Other than that, there’s just a little bit of malt extract and some No. 1 invert sugar.

There were two type of Worcester hops, both harvested in 1938, one of which had been cold stored.  

1939 Youngs PAB
pale malt	7.00 lb	84.85%
malt extract	0.25 lb	3.03%
No. 1 invert sugar	1.00 lb	12.12%
Fuggles 120 min	0.875 oz
Fuggles 60 min	0.875 oz
Goldings 30 min	0.875 oz
OG	1039
FG	1011
ABV	3.70
Apparent attenuation	71.79%
IBU	35
SRM	5
Mash at	153º F
Sparge at	174º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	60º F
Yeast	WLP002 English Ale