Blog Tracker
17-05-2015, 07:29
Visit the Shut up about Barclay Perkins site (http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2015/05/bottled-scotch-ale-in-1950s.html)
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yXsQUag-SpY/VVMyrRXYDCI/AAAAAAAAXRY/aayVLE8fdYw/s400/Calders_12_Guinea_Scotch_Ale.jpg (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yXsQUag-SpY/VVMyrRXYDCI/AAAAAAAAXRY/aayVLE8fdYw/s1600/Calders_12_Guinea_Scotch_Ale.jpg)
This series isn’t quite dead yet. I’ve found another relatively small set than my lazy arse can be arsed to sift through.
Scotch Ale – now there’s a topic to set my blood raging. At least when style Nazis are talking about it. Because it’s always drivel, totally unrelated to the real style. Like when they start saying that 90/- was a “traditional” name for Scotch Ale. Or “Wee Heavy” – which really just means a nip of Strong Ale.
The reality is for once much simpler than the fantasy. Have I mentioned how dull most Scottish brewing records are? Yes? Well, I’ll say it again anyway. Most Scottish brewing records are dead dull. Because they just had a single recipe which, through the magic of parti-gyling, they’d spin into 60/-, 70/-, 80/- and Strong Ale. Sometimes they even managed to squeeze out a Stout, too.
So really Scottish Strong Ale, usually called Scotch Ale outside Scotland, is just a beefed up Pale Ale. “How come it’s often dark then?” I hear you say. Because they’d colour it up with caramel to whatever shade they happened to fancy. Which was mostly dark brown. But not always, as we’ll see in a minute.
No, they didn’t use roast barley for colour, as some will have you believe. Where did that story come from? Either from someone who didn’t know, or didn’t want to believe how Scottish brewers got colour. Nor did they boil their beer for several days until it turned into syrup. Even if they ever had done that, the practise wouldn’t have survived two world wars when boil times were cut to save fuel.
I won’t go too much into the technical brewing details here. I’m saving that for another time. Just some bare bone specs this time. Mostly, as usual, courtesy of the Whitbread Gravity Book. I really don’t understand how I managed to live before finding that book.
I’ve two tables for you. First, the ones sold in Britain:
Scotch Ale in the 1950's as sold in the UK
Year
Brewer
Beer
Price per pint d
Acidity
OG
FG
ABV
App. Atten-uation
colour
1953
Gordon & Blair
Strong Ale
43.5
0.05
1046.7
1006
5.32
87.15%
9 + 40
1957
Younger, Wm.
Double Century Ale
32.5
0.06
1051.5
1018.6
4.25
63.88%
80
1953
Younger, Wm.
Century Ale
36
0.05
1056.4
1021.4
4.52
62.06%
71 B
1953
Maclachlan
Strong Ale
43.5
0.05
1063.2
1016.2
6.12
74.37%
16 + 40
1953
Jeffrey
Strong Ale
43.5
0.06
1064.3
1019.7
5.79
69.36%
11 + 40
1953
Barnard
Strong Ale
43.5
0.05
1065.2
1018.2
6.11
72.09%
18 + 40
1953
Murray W
Heavy Ale
43.5
0.06
1065.9
1019.2
6.07
70.86%
13 + 40
1953
WB Reid
Strong Ale
33
0.07
1065.9
1020.3
5.92
69.20%
8 + 40
1953
Younger, Robert
Strong Ale
43.5
0.07
1066.3
1016.8
6.45
74.66%
16 + 40
1953
Tennent
Strong Ale
43.5
0.06
1066.4
1021.2
5.86
68.07%
14 + 40
1953
Deucher, James
Lochside Strong Ale
38
0.05
1066.9
1014.9
6.79
77.73%
24 B
1955
Aitken
Strong Ale
45
0.05
1067
1020.3
6.06
69.70%
105
1958
Bernard
Strong Ale
1067
1021
5.97
68.66%
1953
Younger, Geo.
Strong Ale
43.5
0.06
1067.6
1021.9
5.93
67.60%
13 + 40
1955
Younger, Geo.
Strong Ale
45
0.05
1067.6
1022.3
5.87
67.01%
100
1955
Fowler
Twelve Guinea Ale
45
0.04
1068.1
1016.9
6.67
75.18%
120
1958
Tennent
Strong Ale
31.25
0.06
1068.4
1022.7
5.71
66.81%
100
1953
Usher
Strong Ale
43.5
0.06
1068.5
1020.1
6.29
70.66%
5 + 40
1955
Maclachlan
Strong Ale
45
0.05
1068.6
1023.4
5.86
65.89%
75
1953
Steel Coulson
Strong Ale
43.5
0.07
1069.5
1014.1
7.24
79.71%
11 + 40
1955
Deucher, James
Lochside Strong Ale
45
0.04
1069.6
1019.6
6.50
71.84%
31
1953
Fowler J
Strong Ale
45
0.07
1070.3
1017.6
6.87
74.96%
12 + 40
1953
McEwan
Strong Ale
45
0.06
1070.7
1019.5
6.66
72.42%
10 + 40
1953
Younger, Wm.
Strong Ale
43.5
0.05
1071.2
1024.2
6.09
66.01%
9 + 40
1955
Younger, Wm.
No. 1 Strong Ale
45
0.04
1071.4
1024.3
6.11
65.97%
80
1955
McEwan
Strong Ale
45
0.05
1071.5
1020.8
6.59
70.91%
85
1955
Murray W
Heavy Ale
45
0.04
1071.7
1021
6.59
70.71%
105
1953
Steel Coulson
Strong Ale
45
1075
1957
Jeffrey
Dishers Extra Strong Ale
64
0.07
1088.6
1017.1
9.40
80.70%
27
Average
43.15
0.06
1067.3
1019.3
6.20
71.22%
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.
T & J Bernard's brewing records held at the Scottish Brewing Archive
document from the Steel Coulson archive held at the Scottish Brewing Archives
There was quite a history of brewing strong beers in Scotland. That’s what they were famous for internationally. Well that and IPA. These are all, with a couple of exceptions at the start of the table, pretty powerful beers for the 1950’s. And the average gravity of 1067.3º is high. Especially when you consider average gravity of all beer was around 1037º.
For Scottish beers the degree of attenuation is also reasonably high. Though what I’ve noticed with a brewery’s 60/-, 70/- and 80/- is that there often wasn’t much difference in the FG. Meaning the stronger the beer, the higher the degree of attenuation. Scottish brewers clearly liked to leave some body in their low-gravity beers. Even if that was at the expense of ABV.
Colour. I told you I’d be coming back to that. All the above beers are dark brown. With the exception of Lochside Strong Ale and Dishers Extra Strong Ale, which are the colour of Bitter. No idea why these beers should be different to the rest.
Averaging 43d per pint, they’re about treble the price of a pint of draught Mild. So expensive beers. Though you have to take into account the higher price of bottled beer. The vast majority were sold in nip (third of a pint) bottles. Which meant a bottle of Strong Ale cost about the same as a pint of draught. I’m sure that’s not a coincidence. The price of a full pint would have scared customers off.
The second table is of Scotch Ales sold in Belgium:
Scotch Ale in the 1950's as sold in Belgium
Year
Brewer
Beer
Price per pint d
Acidity
OG
FG
ABV
App. Atten-uation
colour
1955
John Smith
Scotch Ale
0.08
1072.3
1022
6.54
69.57%
75
1954
John Smith
Scotch Ale
0.06
1072.6
1022.1
6.56
69.56%
95
1955
Truman
Scotch Ale
0.08
1083.4
1025.6
7.52
69.30%
80
1955
McEwan
Scotch Ale
0.07
1088.2
1020.2
8.92
77.10%
65
1955
Younger, Geo.
Gordon Highland Scotch Ale
0.07
1090.3
1029.9
7.86
66.89%
55
1954
Younger, Geo.
Gordon Highland Scotch Ale
0.06
1090.9
1028
8.20
69.20%
60
Average
0.07
1083.0
1024.6
7.60
70.27%
71.7
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.
The sharper eyed amongst have probably spotted that three of the six aren’t even from Scotland. Unsurprisingly, these average a good bit stronger than the domestic examples. They look like the Strong Ales sold in Scotland before WW II. Which is probably what they are in reality.
What is a surprise is the relatively pale colour of the three from Scotland. Around 60 is only just about brown.
I just took a look at the Stouts. So many of the bloody things. I’ll need some special motivation to tackle those.
More... (http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2015/05/bottled-scotch-ale-in-1950s.html)
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yXsQUag-SpY/VVMyrRXYDCI/AAAAAAAAXRY/aayVLE8fdYw/s400/Calders_12_Guinea_Scotch_Ale.jpg (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yXsQUag-SpY/VVMyrRXYDCI/AAAAAAAAXRY/aayVLE8fdYw/s1600/Calders_12_Guinea_Scotch_Ale.jpg)
This series isn’t quite dead yet. I’ve found another relatively small set than my lazy arse can be arsed to sift through.
Scotch Ale – now there’s a topic to set my blood raging. At least when style Nazis are talking about it. Because it’s always drivel, totally unrelated to the real style. Like when they start saying that 90/- was a “traditional” name for Scotch Ale. Or “Wee Heavy” – which really just means a nip of Strong Ale.
The reality is for once much simpler than the fantasy. Have I mentioned how dull most Scottish brewing records are? Yes? Well, I’ll say it again anyway. Most Scottish brewing records are dead dull. Because they just had a single recipe which, through the magic of parti-gyling, they’d spin into 60/-, 70/-, 80/- and Strong Ale. Sometimes they even managed to squeeze out a Stout, too.
So really Scottish Strong Ale, usually called Scotch Ale outside Scotland, is just a beefed up Pale Ale. “How come it’s often dark then?” I hear you say. Because they’d colour it up with caramel to whatever shade they happened to fancy. Which was mostly dark brown. But not always, as we’ll see in a minute.
No, they didn’t use roast barley for colour, as some will have you believe. Where did that story come from? Either from someone who didn’t know, or didn’t want to believe how Scottish brewers got colour. Nor did they boil their beer for several days until it turned into syrup. Even if they ever had done that, the practise wouldn’t have survived two world wars when boil times were cut to save fuel.
I won’t go too much into the technical brewing details here. I’m saving that for another time. Just some bare bone specs this time. Mostly, as usual, courtesy of the Whitbread Gravity Book. I really don’t understand how I managed to live before finding that book.
I’ve two tables for you. First, the ones sold in Britain:
Scotch Ale in the 1950's as sold in the UK
Year
Brewer
Beer
Price per pint d
Acidity
OG
FG
ABV
App. Atten-uation
colour
1953
Gordon & Blair
Strong Ale
43.5
0.05
1046.7
1006
5.32
87.15%
9 + 40
1957
Younger, Wm.
Double Century Ale
32.5
0.06
1051.5
1018.6
4.25
63.88%
80
1953
Younger, Wm.
Century Ale
36
0.05
1056.4
1021.4
4.52
62.06%
71 B
1953
Maclachlan
Strong Ale
43.5
0.05
1063.2
1016.2
6.12
74.37%
16 + 40
1953
Jeffrey
Strong Ale
43.5
0.06
1064.3
1019.7
5.79
69.36%
11 + 40
1953
Barnard
Strong Ale
43.5
0.05
1065.2
1018.2
6.11
72.09%
18 + 40
1953
Murray W
Heavy Ale
43.5
0.06
1065.9
1019.2
6.07
70.86%
13 + 40
1953
WB Reid
Strong Ale
33
0.07
1065.9
1020.3
5.92
69.20%
8 + 40
1953
Younger, Robert
Strong Ale
43.5
0.07
1066.3
1016.8
6.45
74.66%
16 + 40
1953
Tennent
Strong Ale
43.5
0.06
1066.4
1021.2
5.86
68.07%
14 + 40
1953
Deucher, James
Lochside Strong Ale
38
0.05
1066.9
1014.9
6.79
77.73%
24 B
1955
Aitken
Strong Ale
45
0.05
1067
1020.3
6.06
69.70%
105
1958
Bernard
Strong Ale
1067
1021
5.97
68.66%
1953
Younger, Geo.
Strong Ale
43.5
0.06
1067.6
1021.9
5.93
67.60%
13 + 40
1955
Younger, Geo.
Strong Ale
45
0.05
1067.6
1022.3
5.87
67.01%
100
1955
Fowler
Twelve Guinea Ale
45
0.04
1068.1
1016.9
6.67
75.18%
120
1958
Tennent
Strong Ale
31.25
0.06
1068.4
1022.7
5.71
66.81%
100
1953
Usher
Strong Ale
43.5
0.06
1068.5
1020.1
6.29
70.66%
5 + 40
1955
Maclachlan
Strong Ale
45
0.05
1068.6
1023.4
5.86
65.89%
75
1953
Steel Coulson
Strong Ale
43.5
0.07
1069.5
1014.1
7.24
79.71%
11 + 40
1955
Deucher, James
Lochside Strong Ale
45
0.04
1069.6
1019.6
6.50
71.84%
31
1953
Fowler J
Strong Ale
45
0.07
1070.3
1017.6
6.87
74.96%
12 + 40
1953
McEwan
Strong Ale
45
0.06
1070.7
1019.5
6.66
72.42%
10 + 40
1953
Younger, Wm.
Strong Ale
43.5
0.05
1071.2
1024.2
6.09
66.01%
9 + 40
1955
Younger, Wm.
No. 1 Strong Ale
45
0.04
1071.4
1024.3
6.11
65.97%
80
1955
McEwan
Strong Ale
45
0.05
1071.5
1020.8
6.59
70.91%
85
1955
Murray W
Heavy Ale
45
0.04
1071.7
1021
6.59
70.71%
105
1953
Steel Coulson
Strong Ale
45
1075
1957
Jeffrey
Dishers Extra Strong Ale
64
0.07
1088.6
1017.1
9.40
80.70%
27
Average
43.15
0.06
1067.3
1019.3
6.20
71.22%
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.
T & J Bernard's brewing records held at the Scottish Brewing Archive
document from the Steel Coulson archive held at the Scottish Brewing Archives
There was quite a history of brewing strong beers in Scotland. That’s what they were famous for internationally. Well that and IPA. These are all, with a couple of exceptions at the start of the table, pretty powerful beers for the 1950’s. And the average gravity of 1067.3º is high. Especially when you consider average gravity of all beer was around 1037º.
For Scottish beers the degree of attenuation is also reasonably high. Though what I’ve noticed with a brewery’s 60/-, 70/- and 80/- is that there often wasn’t much difference in the FG. Meaning the stronger the beer, the higher the degree of attenuation. Scottish brewers clearly liked to leave some body in their low-gravity beers. Even if that was at the expense of ABV.
Colour. I told you I’d be coming back to that. All the above beers are dark brown. With the exception of Lochside Strong Ale and Dishers Extra Strong Ale, which are the colour of Bitter. No idea why these beers should be different to the rest.
Averaging 43d per pint, they’re about treble the price of a pint of draught Mild. So expensive beers. Though you have to take into account the higher price of bottled beer. The vast majority were sold in nip (third of a pint) bottles. Which meant a bottle of Strong Ale cost about the same as a pint of draught. I’m sure that’s not a coincidence. The price of a full pint would have scared customers off.
The second table is of Scotch Ales sold in Belgium:
Scotch Ale in the 1950's as sold in Belgium
Year
Brewer
Beer
Price per pint d
Acidity
OG
FG
ABV
App. Atten-uation
colour
1955
John Smith
Scotch Ale
0.08
1072.3
1022
6.54
69.57%
75
1954
John Smith
Scotch Ale
0.06
1072.6
1022.1
6.56
69.56%
95
1955
Truman
Scotch Ale
0.08
1083.4
1025.6
7.52
69.30%
80
1955
McEwan
Scotch Ale
0.07
1088.2
1020.2
8.92
77.10%
65
1955
Younger, Geo.
Gordon Highland Scotch Ale
0.07
1090.3
1029.9
7.86
66.89%
55
1954
Younger, Geo.
Gordon Highland Scotch Ale
0.06
1090.9
1028
8.20
69.20%
60
Average
0.07
1083.0
1024.6
7.60
70.27%
71.7
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.
The sharper eyed amongst have probably spotted that three of the six aren’t even from Scotland. Unsurprisingly, these average a good bit stronger than the domestic examples. They look like the Strong Ales sold in Scotland before WW II. Which is probably what they are in reality.
What is a surprise is the relatively pale colour of the three from Scotland. Around 60 is only just about brown.
I just took a look at the Stouts. So many of the bloody things. I’ll need some special motivation to tackle those.
More... (http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2015/05/bottled-scotch-ale-in-1950s.html)