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14-12-2020, 08:40
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One final post on Younger's WW II Milds. It's been a roller-coaster ride. I'm still high from the adrenaline.I’m going to concentrate on the grists of XXX now. For a good reason. The other two, X and XX, pretty much exclusively parti-gyled with XXX. While XX was quite often brewed single-gyle. Also, there were far fewer brews of X and XX than XXX. Given how volatile recipes were in the middle of the war, XX offers better opportunities for tracking them all.
Having kicked off the war with grits, a form of maize, as their adjunct of choice, there were bound to be big changes. The war cut off imports of maize and brewers dependent on it had to look for alternatives. Initially, that was flaked rice. Ultimately, flaked barley. Inbetween a variety of other adjuncts were employed. Often more than one at the same time.
There’s nothing very complicated about the malt bill. It’s simply pale malt, crystal malt and the mysterious “M”. I’m really not sure what it was. The one log where they spell it out fully, I can’t read it. Though there are a couple which say Munich, so perhaps that’s what it is. Or possibly melanoidin malt.
The rise in the proportion of base malt is down to a reduction in the amount of adjuncts employed. Pre-war, most of Younger’s beers were around 45% grits. The largest percentage of adjuncts I’ve seen. More than 15% unmalted grains was unheard of at most breweries.
The sugars are also a bit tricky to pin down. One is simply described as “invert”, the other is a proprietary sugar called CWA. As invert only appears in dark beers, my money is on it being No. 3. But I could be wrong.
All I really know about CWA is that it was a starch conversion syrup, i.e., an enzymatic syrup. I’m assuming some sort of diastatic malt extract, like DME. Malt extract of this type were surprisingly common in the middle of the 20th century.
William Younger XXX Ale malt and sugar 1939 - 1944
Date
Year
OG
pale malt
crystal malt
M malt
invert
CWA
17th Nov
1939
1037
45.00%
6.00%
6.00%
2.00%
2.00%
19th Sep
1940
1036
48.11%
5.66%
5.66%
1.89%
1.89%
13th Mar
1941
1035
45.92%
6.12%
6.12%
4.08%
4.08%
9th Dec
1941
1036
62.26%
5.66%
5.66%
1.89%
1.89%
26th Dec
1941
1035
59.43%
5.66%
5.66%
3.77%
23rd Jan
1942
1034
60.00%
6.00%
6.00%
4.00%
24th Apr
1942
1033
57.45%
6.38%
6.38%
0.00%
4.26%
15th Jul
1942
1033
72.00%
6.00%
6.00%
4.00%
8th Aug
1942
1033
72.00%
12.00%
4.00%
11th Dec
1942
1033
63.46%
11.54%
5.77%
3.85%
3.85%
4th Nov
1943
1033
66.00%
12.00%
2.00%
2.00%
9th Nov
1943
1033
63.83%
6.38%
6.38%
2.13%
2.13%
14th Jan
1943
1033
60.58%
11.54%
3.85%
3.85%
9th Apr
1944
1033
57.45%
12.77%
2.13%
2.13%
Sources:
William Younger brewing records held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document numbers WY/6/1/2/76, WY/6/1/2/77, WY/6/1/2/78 , WY/6/1/2/79 and WY/6/1/2/81.
The following table shows how much the adjuncts used by Younger bounced around during the war. This wasn’t specific to their Milds. Every style used the adjunct of the day. The biggest surprise is that grits were still featuring as late as 1942. Maize disappeared from most UK brews in 1940.
Most breweries went through adjuncts in this order during the war: flaked maize, flaked rice, flaked barley, flaked oats and finally flaked barley again. Younger did things quite differently, using a couple of adjuncts simultaneously – for example, grits and flaked rice – and used a couple I’ve noy encountered elsewhere. Namely chit barley and ground barley. Though the latter I have seen mentioned in other technical sources.
William Younger XXX Ale adjuncts 1939 - 1944
Date
Year
OG
flaked rice
grits
flaked barley
chit barley
ground barley
flaked rye
flaked oat
17th Nov
1939
1037
39.00%
19th Sep
1940
1036
19.81%
16.98%
13th Mar
1941
1035
15.31%
18.37%
9th Dec
1941
1036
16.98%
5.66%
26th Dec
1941
1035
16.98%
8.49%
23rd Jan
1942
1034
18.00%
6.00%
24th Apr
1942
1033
19.15%
6.38%
15th Jul
1942
1033
12.00%
8th Aug
1942
1033
12.00%
11th Dec
1942
1033
11.54%
4th Nov
1943
1033
6.00%
12.00%
9th Nov
1943
1033
19.15%
14th Jan
1943
1033
20.19%
9th Apr
1944
1033
25.53%
Sources:
William Younger brewing records held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document numbers WY/6/1/2/76, WY/6/1/2/77, WY/6/1/2/78 , WY/6/1/2/79 and WY/6/1/2/81.
More... (http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2020/12/scottish-mild-in-ww-ii-part-three.html)
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One final post on Younger's WW II Milds. It's been a roller-coaster ride. I'm still high from the adrenaline.I’m going to concentrate on the grists of XXX now. For a good reason. The other two, X and XX, pretty much exclusively parti-gyled with XXX. While XX was quite often brewed single-gyle. Also, there were far fewer brews of X and XX than XXX. Given how volatile recipes were in the middle of the war, XX offers better opportunities for tracking them all.
Having kicked off the war with grits, a form of maize, as their adjunct of choice, there were bound to be big changes. The war cut off imports of maize and brewers dependent on it had to look for alternatives. Initially, that was flaked rice. Ultimately, flaked barley. Inbetween a variety of other adjuncts were employed. Often more than one at the same time.
There’s nothing very complicated about the malt bill. It’s simply pale malt, crystal malt and the mysterious “M”. I’m really not sure what it was. The one log where they spell it out fully, I can’t read it. Though there are a couple which say Munich, so perhaps that’s what it is. Or possibly melanoidin malt.
The rise in the proportion of base malt is down to a reduction in the amount of adjuncts employed. Pre-war, most of Younger’s beers were around 45% grits. The largest percentage of adjuncts I’ve seen. More than 15% unmalted grains was unheard of at most breweries.
The sugars are also a bit tricky to pin down. One is simply described as “invert”, the other is a proprietary sugar called CWA. As invert only appears in dark beers, my money is on it being No. 3. But I could be wrong.
All I really know about CWA is that it was a starch conversion syrup, i.e., an enzymatic syrup. I’m assuming some sort of diastatic malt extract, like DME. Malt extract of this type were surprisingly common in the middle of the 20th century.
William Younger XXX Ale malt and sugar 1939 - 1944
Date
Year
OG
pale malt
crystal malt
M malt
invert
CWA
17th Nov
1939
1037
45.00%
6.00%
6.00%
2.00%
2.00%
19th Sep
1940
1036
48.11%
5.66%
5.66%
1.89%
1.89%
13th Mar
1941
1035
45.92%
6.12%
6.12%
4.08%
4.08%
9th Dec
1941
1036
62.26%
5.66%
5.66%
1.89%
1.89%
26th Dec
1941
1035
59.43%
5.66%
5.66%
3.77%
23rd Jan
1942
1034
60.00%
6.00%
6.00%
4.00%
24th Apr
1942
1033
57.45%
6.38%
6.38%
0.00%
4.26%
15th Jul
1942
1033
72.00%
6.00%
6.00%
4.00%
8th Aug
1942
1033
72.00%
12.00%
4.00%
11th Dec
1942
1033
63.46%
11.54%
5.77%
3.85%
3.85%
4th Nov
1943
1033
66.00%
12.00%
2.00%
2.00%
9th Nov
1943
1033
63.83%
6.38%
6.38%
2.13%
2.13%
14th Jan
1943
1033
60.58%
11.54%
3.85%
3.85%
9th Apr
1944
1033
57.45%
12.77%
2.13%
2.13%
Sources:
William Younger brewing records held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document numbers WY/6/1/2/76, WY/6/1/2/77, WY/6/1/2/78 , WY/6/1/2/79 and WY/6/1/2/81.
The following table shows how much the adjuncts used by Younger bounced around during the war. This wasn’t specific to their Milds. Every style used the adjunct of the day. The biggest surprise is that grits were still featuring as late as 1942. Maize disappeared from most UK brews in 1940.
Most breweries went through adjuncts in this order during the war: flaked maize, flaked rice, flaked barley, flaked oats and finally flaked barley again. Younger did things quite differently, using a couple of adjuncts simultaneously – for example, grits and flaked rice – and used a couple I’ve noy encountered elsewhere. Namely chit barley and ground barley. Though the latter I have seen mentioned in other technical sources.
William Younger XXX Ale adjuncts 1939 - 1944
Date
Year
OG
flaked rice
grits
flaked barley
chit barley
ground barley
flaked rye
flaked oat
17th Nov
1939
1037
39.00%
19th Sep
1940
1036
19.81%
16.98%
13th Mar
1941
1035
15.31%
18.37%
9th Dec
1941
1036
16.98%
5.66%
26th Dec
1941
1035
16.98%
8.49%
23rd Jan
1942
1034
18.00%
6.00%
24th Apr
1942
1033
19.15%
6.38%
15th Jul
1942
1033
12.00%
8th Aug
1942
1033
12.00%
11th Dec
1942
1033
11.54%
4th Nov
1943
1033
6.00%
12.00%
9th Nov
1943
1033
19.15%
14th Jan
1943
1033
20.19%
9th Apr
1944
1033
25.53%
Sources:
William Younger brewing records held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document numbers WY/6/1/2/76, WY/6/1/2/77, WY/6/1/2/78 , WY/6/1/2/79 and WY/6/1/2/81.
More... (http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2020/12/scottish-mild-in-ww-ii-part-three.html)