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13-10-2011, 07:30
Visit the Shut up about Barclay Perkins site (http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2011/10/lets-brew-wednesday-1868-younger-60.html)
Just back from a couple of days in London. That's my excuse for being a day late again. As if I really needed one.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FhHZN5TMPuc/TpVtci-7tWI/AAAAAAAAIMQ/Sv05qiQNAls/s320/Younger_Brown_Ale.jpg (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FhHZN5TMPuc/TpVtci-7tWI/AAAAAAAAIMQ/Sv05qiQNAls/s1600/Younger_Brown_Ale.jpg)
Sixty shilling. We've all heard of that before, haven't we? Just to make this totally clear: this is not the same type of beer as modern 60/-. Get that? This is a differnt kind of 60/-.
60/- is a slippery little bugger. My personal experience of drinking the stuff in the 1970's (definitely Maclay's, probably Belhaven, too) tells me the modern version is Dark Mild. It looks like it, tastes like it and by golly it does you like it. Case closed, I used to think.
Now I've had chance to plunge my arms up to the oxter into the muddy pool of Scottish beer, I'm more confused. Before WW II 60/- seems to have been a weak Pale Ale, in the range 1035º-1039º. So similar to modern Heavy, or 70/-. But Scottish brewers were a funny bunch. They liked darkening up their Pale Ales, often for specific towns or regions. Leaving some of their "Pale Ales" a similar colour to Dark Mild. You can see why this gets confusing.
After WW II, there were still plenty of 60/- beers around. Sometimes called 60/- Pale Ale, others 60/- Ale. They were pretty weak, at 1030º-1032º. Whether they were like the ones I drank 30 years later is a matter of conjecture. I won't pretend to know the answer or to explain the evolution of 60/-. Further research is required.
One thing I do know for certain: this 1868 60/- is neither a Pale Ale nor a Dark Mild. It's an Ale. Aaaah. Revelation time. I've just been looking more closely at the records. And remembered some hints from Kristen. I think I've sussed what the Shilling Ales were. And why Younger produced so many beers of similar gravities.
Younger's logs stretch across two pages. The type of beer is at the far left of the first page and the far right of the second. Sometimes the two don't match. On the left it'll say XXX and on the right 80/-; 140/- and XXS. I can see a pattern. The beers are brewed the same. The only difference seems to be how they are packaged.
The Shilling Ales are always racked into hogsheads, half hogsheads and quarter hogsheads. X, XX and XXX are racked into mostly barrels and sometimes half barrels, too. XS and XXS sometimes go into butts and hogsheads. It's all starting to make sense.
It looks to me as if X, XX and XXX are meant to be drunk on draught. That 60/-, 80/-, 100/-, 120/-, 140/- and 160/- are meant to be bottled. The XS, XXS and XXXS put into butts were being aged and would be re-racked into barrels for sale on draught.
So 60/- is the equivalent of X (or sometimes XX). And I know what X and XX are from a price list of the 1880's: Edinburgh Mild Ales. I'm so happy. Today's beer is an Edinburgh Mild Ale.
I think we've all learnt something today. I certainly have.
One last thing, the sugar. Very unusual in this period William Younger's beers.
Seems a good time to mosey on over to Kristen . . . . . .
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dUgzuzOMPvw/TpVqyWvrYOI/AAAAAAAAIMI/nR91ojplkVE/s1600/Younger_1868_60_bob.JPG (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dUgzuzOMPvw/TpVqyWvrYOI/AAAAAAAAIMI/nR91ojplkVE/s1600/Younger_1868_60_bob.JPG)
Kristen’s Version:
Same deal as the previous Younger logs. Very simple stuff. Lots of repeats from last week. That will happen when we are doing the shilling stuff.
Ingredients
Grist – Two malts. I wanted the happy, sexy, tasty time that Maris Otter gives but I thought it would be too heavy if I used another complex malt so I went with the Canadian pale I’ve talked about before. The No2 was freshly made as discussed previously.
Hops – I used Willamete because I accidently grabbed them instead of the Fuggles and the garage is 30 feet away and it was raining…so here we are. Any similar low alpha hop will really suffice here.
Yeast – This is for all the emails I got this last week yelling at me for not using Scottish yeast. We’ll, here you go. Now if you get butter in your beer or it smells like bananas, its on you guys. The rest of you lot, the Wyeast London III is very nice as is the WLP Bedfort (its in season).https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5445569787371915337-2267912416732443678?l=barclayperkins.blogspot.com
More... (http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2011/10/lets-brew-wednesday-1868-younger-60.html)
Just back from a couple of days in London. That's my excuse for being a day late again. As if I really needed one.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FhHZN5TMPuc/TpVtci-7tWI/AAAAAAAAIMQ/Sv05qiQNAls/s320/Younger_Brown_Ale.jpg (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FhHZN5TMPuc/TpVtci-7tWI/AAAAAAAAIMQ/Sv05qiQNAls/s1600/Younger_Brown_Ale.jpg)
Sixty shilling. We've all heard of that before, haven't we? Just to make this totally clear: this is not the same type of beer as modern 60/-. Get that? This is a differnt kind of 60/-.
60/- is a slippery little bugger. My personal experience of drinking the stuff in the 1970's (definitely Maclay's, probably Belhaven, too) tells me the modern version is Dark Mild. It looks like it, tastes like it and by golly it does you like it. Case closed, I used to think.
Now I've had chance to plunge my arms up to the oxter into the muddy pool of Scottish beer, I'm more confused. Before WW II 60/- seems to have been a weak Pale Ale, in the range 1035º-1039º. So similar to modern Heavy, or 70/-. But Scottish brewers were a funny bunch. They liked darkening up their Pale Ales, often for specific towns or regions. Leaving some of their "Pale Ales" a similar colour to Dark Mild. You can see why this gets confusing.
After WW II, there were still plenty of 60/- beers around. Sometimes called 60/- Pale Ale, others 60/- Ale. They were pretty weak, at 1030º-1032º. Whether they were like the ones I drank 30 years later is a matter of conjecture. I won't pretend to know the answer or to explain the evolution of 60/-. Further research is required.
One thing I do know for certain: this 1868 60/- is neither a Pale Ale nor a Dark Mild. It's an Ale. Aaaah. Revelation time. I've just been looking more closely at the records. And remembered some hints from Kristen. I think I've sussed what the Shilling Ales were. And why Younger produced so many beers of similar gravities.
Younger's logs stretch across two pages. The type of beer is at the far left of the first page and the far right of the second. Sometimes the two don't match. On the left it'll say XXX and on the right 80/-; 140/- and XXS. I can see a pattern. The beers are brewed the same. The only difference seems to be how they are packaged.
The Shilling Ales are always racked into hogsheads, half hogsheads and quarter hogsheads. X, XX and XXX are racked into mostly barrels and sometimes half barrels, too. XS and XXS sometimes go into butts and hogsheads. It's all starting to make sense.
It looks to me as if X, XX and XXX are meant to be drunk on draught. That 60/-, 80/-, 100/-, 120/-, 140/- and 160/- are meant to be bottled. The XS, XXS and XXXS put into butts were being aged and would be re-racked into barrels for sale on draught.
So 60/- is the equivalent of X (or sometimes XX). And I know what X and XX are from a price list of the 1880's: Edinburgh Mild Ales. I'm so happy. Today's beer is an Edinburgh Mild Ale.
I think we've all learnt something today. I certainly have.
One last thing, the sugar. Very unusual in this period William Younger's beers.
Seems a good time to mosey on over to Kristen . . . . . .
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dUgzuzOMPvw/TpVqyWvrYOI/AAAAAAAAIMI/nR91ojplkVE/s1600/Younger_1868_60_bob.JPG (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dUgzuzOMPvw/TpVqyWvrYOI/AAAAAAAAIMI/nR91ojplkVE/s1600/Younger_1868_60_bob.JPG)
Kristen’s Version:
Same deal as the previous Younger logs. Very simple stuff. Lots of repeats from last week. That will happen when we are doing the shilling stuff.
Ingredients
Grist – Two malts. I wanted the happy, sexy, tasty time that Maris Otter gives but I thought it would be too heavy if I used another complex malt so I went with the Canadian pale I’ve talked about before. The No2 was freshly made as discussed previously.
Hops – I used Willamete because I accidently grabbed them instead of the Fuggles and the garage is 30 feet away and it was raining…so here we are. Any similar low alpha hop will really suffice here.
Yeast – This is for all the emails I got this last week yelling at me for not using Scottish yeast. We’ll, here you go. Now if you get butter in your beer or it smells like bananas, its on you guys. The rest of you lot, the Wyeast London III is very nice as is the WLP Bedfort (its in season).https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5445569787371915337-2267912416732443678?l=barclayperkins.blogspot.com
More... (http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2011/10/lets-brew-wednesday-1868-younger-60.html)