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I had a great piece of luck earlier this week at the Caledonian Brewery in Edinburgh. I stumbled on a brewing book.

I wasn’t going to pass up a chance like that and quickly snapped some snaps. This is a recipe from the very first photograph. It’s an interwar Lorimer & Clark Pale Ale, with the snappy name of XXP 7. I think I understand that. XXP means Pale Ale – William Younger used the name, too – and 7 is just the price, 7d per pint. They loved naming beers after their price, the Scots.

It’s another very straightforward beer: pale malt, invert sugar, flaked maize and malt extract. The type of draught Bitter that was brewed both sides of the border. An English beer would probably have had more sugar instead of the malt extract, but otherwise be very similar. At least in terms of grist. The hopping rate is lower than in England.

Let’s make a quick comparison with Whitbread’s beers of the same era. For reference purposes, XXP & was hopped at 4.81 lbs per quarter, 0.75 lbs per barrel.

Whitbread Ales in 1932
Beer Style OG FG ABV App. Atten-uation lbs hops/ qtr hops lb/brl
LA Mild 1026.0 1006.5 2.58 75.00% 8.50 0.93
X Mild 1032.6 1009.0 3.12 72.39% 8.26 1.11
IPA IPA 1035.2 1009.0 3.47 74.43% 11.00 1.64
XX Mild 1039.0 1012.5 3.51 67.95% 8.26 1.33
XXX Strong Ale 1045.2 1015.5 3.93 65.71% 7.49 1.45
PA Pale Ale 1046.1 1013.0 4.38 71.80% 8.00 1.58
Ex PA Pale Ale 1046.4 1016.0 4.02 65.52% 8.00 1.59
DB Brown Ale 1057.8 1014.0 5.79 75.78% 9.96 2.23
Source:
Whitbread brewing book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/01/098.


You can see that XXP 7 was less heavily hopped than even LA, Whitbread’s low-gravity Mild. And at only half the rate of IPA, a beer of about the same strength. It’s pretty clear that XXP 7 was much less bitter than an equivalent English beer. Meaning it probably drank more like a Light Mild than a Bitter.

Nothing else I can really say. A simple, light, mild Bitter.


1932 Lorimer & Clark XXP 7
pale malt 6.00 lb 75.00%
flaked maize 1.00 lb 12.50%
malt extract 0.50 lb 6.25%
No. 2 invert sugar 0.50 lb 6.25%
Fuggles 90 min 0.50 oz
Fuggles 60 min 0.50 oz
Goldings 30 min 0.50 oz
Goldings dry hops 0.50 oz
OG 1037
FG 1010
ABV 3.57
Apparent attenuation 72.97%
IBU 22
SRM 5
Mash at 154º F
Sparge at 160º F
Boil time 90 minutes
pitching temp 61º F
Yeast WLP028 Edinburgh Ale


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