Wednesday 12 October 2016

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1933 Lorimer & Clark SA

I did contemplate going through the whole set of Pale Ales. But, as they’re just different-strength versions of the same basic beer, I thought that might be a little dull.

Instead I’ve plucked out SA, the beer that isn’t like the others. Which, I’ll admit, was quite a surprise. I’d expected SA to be like the Strong Ales produced at other breweries like Drybrough or Maclay. Just a super-strong version of their Pale Ale recipe. But that’s not the case. It’s not parti-gyled with a Pale Ale and the recipe is quite different.

For a start there’s no flaked maize. And there’s less sugar and one extra ingredient: caramel. Also it was boiled for much longer, 3 hours rather than 1.5 and 2 hours. But the biggest difference is the hopping. It’s so out of whack with their other beers that I just cross-checked the numbers to make sure I hadn’t made a mistake. It really is hopped at three times the rate of their Pale Ales: 14.88 lbs per quarter compared to 4.88 lbs.

Which leaves this beer looking very 19th century. The combination of high gravity and heavy hopping is reminiscent of William Younger’s 140/- and 160/- from the end of the 1800’s. Other Scottish Strong Ales of the 1930’s look very different. Their hopping is much more restrained. A quick look at this table shows how much of an Outlier Lorimer & Clark’s SA was:

Scottish Strong Ales of the 1930's
Year Brewer Beer OG FG ABV App. Atten-uation lbs hops/ qtr hops lb/brl
1933 Drybrough Burns 1084.0 1027.0 7.54 67.86% 6.29 2.51
1933 Wm. Younger 1 1085.0 1033.0 6.88 61.18% 5.26 1.79
1938 Maclay SA 1075 1028 6.22 62.67% 5.00 1.65
1932 Lorimer & Clark SA 1096 1025 9.39 73.96% 14.88 6.45
Sources:
Drybrough brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number D/6/1/1/4.
William Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/2/70.
Maclay brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number M/6/1/1/3.


As to what SA might mean, I won’t commit myself without seeing some labels. Based on other breweries, such as William Younger, it might have been called Strong Ale north of the border and Scotch Ale south of it.


1933 Lorimer & Clark SA
pale malt 18.75 lb 88.24%
malt extract 1.50 lb 7.06%
caramel 0.25 lb 1.18%
No. 2 invert sugar 0.75 lb 3.53%
Fuggles 90 min 5.00 oz
Fuggles 60 min 4.00 oz
Goldings 30 min 4.00 oz
OG 1096
FG 1025
ABV 9.39
Apparent attenuation 73.96%
IBU 123
SRM 55
Mash at 154º F
Sparge at 165º F
Boil time 180 minutes
pitching temp 59.5º F
Yeast WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Can we assume this beer would have been aged about 8 months before being sold to the public. This might have to be another brew for the national homebrew conference hospitality suite.

J. Karanka said...

Ripe for revival

punkis said...

I brewed this a little over a year ago. Kind of strong at first but after a couple of months it was really soft and nice. I think I have 1-2 bottles left. Now it's really good. Will brew it again.