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26-04-2016, 08:39
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Not that they’re unique in that. Most Scottish breweries had dull product ranges. Just two recipes, one for Pale Ales and Strong Ale, another for Stout. Drybrough didn’t even brew a Stout.

Back in 1934, they only brewed four beers: three Pale Ales, 54/-, 60/- and 80/-; and Burns Ale, a Strong Ale. Though 85% of what they brewed was 60/-. I don’t think I’ve ever come across a brewery where one beer dominated quite that much.

Though having done a quick newspaper search, I’m wondering whether it was all sold as 60/-. Because I’ve found adverts from the 1950’s for something called Nourishing Stout. But there’s no Stout in the brewing records. So they must have been using some sort of primings to transform one of their Pale Ales into Stout.

Just checked something else. My mega table of beer analyses. And guess what I found? Drybrough Nourishing Stout from the 1930’s. Two examples. One with an OG of 1033, the other 1031. Meaning there’s only one beer they could have been fiddling with: 54/-. All the others had a higher OG.

Their grists are fairly typical of the mid-20th century: pale malt, flaked maize and sugar. With a tiny hint of black malt and enzymic malt. The same recipe for all the Pale Ales, 54/-, 60/- and 80/-. While the sugar is slightly different for Burns. The hops were all English for most beers, though later it was always a mix of Oregon and English.

I wouldn’t like to guess what colour any of these beers were. I know from the monthly ingredients summaries that they used caramel, though it doesn’t appear in any of the logs. Like most Scottish brewers, I suspect they coloured their beers to several different shades.

All the beers listed below were brewed with another Edinburgh brewer, Bernard's, yeast. Using yeast from another brewery was pretty common in Edinburgh. It makes me wonder whether the breweries really had their own proprietary strains, given how often they swapped yeast with each other.

I’m going to leave you with some tables. First, one showing the predominance of 60/-:



Drybrough output January 1934



OG
bulk barrels
bulk gallons
%


54/-
1029
123.36
4,441
10.93%


60/-
1035
958.56
34,508
84.96%


80/-
1049
25.39
914
2.25%


Burns
1080
4.53
163
0.40%


primings
1140
16.36
589
1.45%


total

1,128.19




Source:


Drybrough brewing record held at the Scottish Brewin Archive, document number D/6/1/1/4




Using that, I was able to calculate the average OG of all they brewed: 1036.4. Which is well below the average for the UK in 1934, which was 1040.99*.

Now the full details of the beers:




Drybrough beers in 1934


Beer
Style
OG
FG
ABV
App. Atten-uation
lbs hops/ qtr
hops lb/brl
boil time (hours)
Pitch temp
max. fermen-tation temp
length of fermen-tation (days)


54/-
Pale Ale
1029.0
1012.0
2.25
58.62%
4.91
0.58
2
60º
65º
5


60/-
Pale Ale
1035.0
1013.0
2.91
62.86%
5.26
0.75
2
62.5º
67.5º
6


80/-
Pale Ale
1049.0
1015.0
4.50
69.39%
5.26
1.06
2
62.5º
68.5º
7


Burns
Strong Ale
1084.0
1033.0
6.75
60.71%
5.99
2.49
3.5
57.5º
67º
7


Source:


Drybrough brewing record held at the Scottish Brewin Archive, document number D/6/1/1/4






Drybrough grists in 1934


Beer
Style
OG
pale malt
black malt
enzymic malt
flaked maize
Fison
Avona
Invert
Candy sugar
malt extract
hops


54/-
Pale Ale
1029.0
72.02%
0.80%
1.80%
14.40%
2.06%
5.49%
2.74%

0.69%
English


60/-
Pale Ale
1035.0
72.18%
0.39%
1.91%
15.31%
2.19%
4.37%
2.92%

0.73%
English


80/-
Pale Ale
1049.0
72.18%
0.39%
1.91%
15.31%
2.19%
4.37%
2.92%

0.73%
English


Burns
Strong Ale
1084.0
74.55%
1.45%

12.85%

6.86%

3.43%
0.86%
Oregon and English


Source:


Drybrough brewing record held at the Scottish Brewin Archive, document number D/6/1/1/4










* Brewers' Almanack 1955, p. 50.

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