Friday 6 November 2015

William Younger’s Pale Ales 1946 – 1959

Time to put some of William Younger’s beers under the microscope. Starting with their Pale Ales. Of which there were quite a few.

William Younger made their name in the middle of the 19th century for two types of beer: Scotch Ales and Pale Ales. Both being very popular in export markets and south of the border in England. The large quantity of IPA exported hasn’t stopped people spouting the normal bollocks about Scottish brewers using virtually no hops. How on earth could they have exported a lightly-hopped beer to India and Australia? It makes absolutely no sense.

At first glance, it looks like they brewed as many as eight brands of bottled Pale Ale. But on closer inspection it looks like there were probably only three, with gravities of 1030º, 1036º and 1044º. Which are pretty much the classic post-war 60/-, 70/- and 80/- gravities. In 1951, Maclays three Pale Ales looked very similar, with OGs of 1030º, 1037º and 1042º.*

You can see how inconsistently the shilling designations were used, with 80/- stronger than 105/- and 60/- and 90/- the same strength.

I’m a bit surprised at the high degree of attenuation. Scottish beers mostly have crap attenuation, while here everything is above 70%. Despite that, due to the pretty low gravity, there are still a fair few examples below 3% ABV.

One word about colour. I’d expect a Pale Ale to be between 20 and 30 on this scale. The 55 of the 1959 Keg Bitter isn’t far away from Dark Mild territory.

William Younger's Pale Ales 1946 - 1959
Date Beer Price size package OG FG ABV App. Atten-uation colour
1946 60/- Ale pint bottled 1029 1008 2.72 72.41%
1947 60/- Ale pint bottled 1028.5 1007.5 2.72 73.68%
1947 60/- Ale pint bottled 1031 1007.5 3.05 75.81%
1947 60/- Ale pint bottled 1029.5 1002.5 3.52 91.53%
1949 PA 60/- pint bottled 1030 1004 3.38 86.67%
1959 Pale Ale 12d half bottled 1029.9 1008 2.74 73.24% 24
1947 90/- Sparkling Ale pint bottled 1032 1009 2.98 71.88%
1949 Sparkling Ale 1/8d pint bottled 1030.9 1004.8 3.39 84.47% 25.5 B
1955 90/- Sparkling Ale 1/- half bottled 1032 1006.8 3.27 78.75% 32
1955 90/- Holyrood Ale 1/- half bottled 1031.6 1006.7 3.23 78.80% 35
1947 80/- Ale 16d pint bottled 1042 1012 3.89 71.43%
1947 105/- Ale 15d pint bottled 1036.5 1005.5 4.04 84.93%
1949 Holyrood Ale half bottled 1028 1008 2.59 71.43%
1959 Holyrood Ale 10d half bottled 1028.7 1006.5 2.78 77.35% 30
1949 Monk Pale Ale Export pint bottled 1046 1011 4.55 76.09%
1952 Monk Export 1/1d half bottled 1046.9 1011.6 4.59 75.27% 24
1953 Monk Export 1/3d half bottled 1044.9 1009 4.67 79.96% 29 B
1954 Monk Export Ale bottled 1046.7 1008.9 4.92 80.94% 26
1955 Monk Export Ale 15d half bottled 1044.8 1010.6 4.44 76.34% 21
1957 Monk Export Ale 2/2d 16 oz bottled 1045.6 1010.3 4.59 77.41% 20
1956 Wee Willie PA 11d half bottled 1031.1 1006.4 3.21 79.42% 25
1955 India Pale Ale 9.5d half bottled 1030.2 1006.9 3.02 77.15% 22
1959 Keg Bitter 19d pint draught 1043.7 1007.8 4.68 82.15% 55
1959 XXP Bitter 22d pint draught 1030.4 1005.7 3.21 81.25% 21
Sources:
Thomas Usher Gravity Book document TU/6/11.
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.


Mild and Brown Ale next.




* Maclay’s brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number M/6/1/1/28.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can remember having a bottle(nip?) of a pale ale labled as Youngers,on holiday in Wales in the late 90's.
The barman asked if I was sure I wanted it. I was.
I wished I had not been sure and had something else instead. Utter shite,it was. Couldn't finish it!

Tandleman said...

When I first moved to Liverpool the local offie had pint bottles of Wee Wilie which I'd never seen before, even though I worked in the trade selling mostly S&N beer. Back then I drank pint bottles of McEwan's Pale Ale - aka a McEwan's Screwtop. Wee Willie tasted pretty similar I recall.

Given that S&N had a habit of using different (Youngers) branding for the same beer in different markets, I wonder if by any chance they are related?

John Clarke said...

Interesting that the draught keg bitter is cheaper than the weaker XXPS.

Tandleman said...

What's happened to my erudite post on this subject Ron?

Ron Pattinson said...

John,

that is odd. But it's XXP, not XXPS. Different beers.

Ron Pattinson said...

Erudite Mr T.,

I'm sure you're right and that they slapped all sorts of names on the same beer