Shut up about Barclay Perkins - William Younger Mild Ales before WW II

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Fun, fun, fun. That's what you won't be getting today. Instead, more extracts from that book I might eventually finish. Early next year is the plan. Let's see if that happens. Travelling really disrupts my writing schedule.

Unlike for England, I haven’t got a great deal of choice of brewery when wanting to delve more deeply into specific Scottish Milds. William Younger is the only one whose Milds have left much trace in brewing records.

In the 1930s, Younger, amazingly, brewed multiple Milds. The standard version of XX and XXX are very similar in strength to, respectively, 5d and 6d English Milds. I’m guessing that isn’t a coincidence and that these beers were specifically brewed for the English market.

The oddball beer is XX Sc. I’m assuming that the “Sc” stood for Scotland. That’s the usual meaning of that abbreviation in brewing records. It’s stronger than pretty much any Mild you’d have found in England in the 1930s. Its recipe is also quite different from XX and XXX, implying that it was intended for a different audience.

The grists are much the same as for all William Younger’s other beers, basically just pale malt and an awful lot of grits. The use of grits was quite unusual in the UK. Unlike in the USA, few British brewers bothered with grits, probably because extra equipment in the form of a cereal cooker was required. Most preferred flaked maize, which could just be added to the mash tun.

If you’re wondering why there are two different recipes for XX, it’s all to do with parti-gyling. The first XX in the table was brewed single-gyle, the second was parti-gyled with XX Sc.

While lactose is usually associated with Milk Stout, William Younger sometimes used it in other styles. For example, in Mild Ale, as here. But their strongest Scotch Ale, No. 1, also contained lactose at various times.

Liquorice, on the other hand, is a very odd ingredient to see in a Mild. Its use was usually reserved for Porter and Stout. I don’t recall seeing another brewery use liquorice in any other context.

William Younger Mild Ales before WW II
Year	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
1933	XX	1037	1012	3.31	67.57%	4.71	0.63
1933	XX	1037	1013.5	3.11	63.51%	5.00	0.76
1933	XXX	1042	1014	3.70	66.67%	4.74	0.71
1933	XX Sc	1050	1025	3.31	50.00%	5.00	0.86
Source:
William Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/2/70.

William Younger Mild Ale grists before WW II
Year	Beer	OG	pale malt	grits	lactose	liquorice	hops
1933	XX	1037	58.82%	41.18%			Pacific (1930), Kent (1931)
1933	XX	1037	58.47%	38.14%	3.39%	7 lbs	Pacific (1930), Kent (1931, 1932)
1933	XXX	1042	57.89%	42.11%			Pacific (1930), Kent (1931)
1933	XX Sc	1050	58.47%	38.14%	3.39%	7 lbs	Pacific (1930), Kent (1931, 1932)
Source:
William Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/2/70.

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