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It’s time to look at those exciting William Younger grists. Well, they might well be not what you expect. But, if I’m honest, they are rather dull.

Because they are, with one exception, just pale malt, flaked maize and sugar. Not much excitement there, is there? The one exception is EBA, a strong Brown Ale, which has almost 25% crystal malt. Other than that, there are no coloured malts at all. Not even in the Stout.

In total, there are seven different types of sugar, though five of those were only used in a single beer. It’s a shame that they’re so vague about the type of invert sugar. It may not even always be the same type of invert. In No. 1 and 200/-, I’d guess that it was No. 3 invert. In the others, it may be No. 1 or No. 2.

CDM, I know from other brewing records, is a dark proprietary sugar. It would need to be to get SS to the right Stout-like colour.

The flaked maize content, mostly around 30%, is very high. Usually it’s no more than 10-15%. Though it isn’t as bad as Younger’s recipes from earlier in the century, which were 40% grits. They were weaned off their grits habit in WW II, but gradually slipped themselves back into flake maize dependency in the 1950’s.

Note what isn’t present: roast barley. It almost never shows up in Scottish brewing records. Despite what some claim about its use.


William Younger grists in 1958
Beer pale malt crystal malt flaked maize caramel lactose Cane Candy Invert Lamberts CDM
XP Btg 61.22% 30.61% 8.16%
XXP 65.85% 29.27% 4.88%
XXPQ 60.00% 26.67% 4.44% 8.89%
XXPS 63.53% 31.76% 2.35% 2.35%
XXPS Btg 62.16% 32.43% 5.41%
XXPSL 58.62% 27.59% 6.90% 4.60% 2.30%
EXT 60.94% 29.69% 6.25% 3.13%
3L 64.95% 30.93% 4.12%
3N 64.95% 30.93% 2.06% 2.06%
3 Btg 68.67% 21.69% 9.64%
DCA 61.48% 31.97% 1.64% 3.28% 1.64%
1BW 60.00% 32.00% 8.00%
200/- BW 76.12% 17.91% 5.97%
XXX 60.87% 30.43% 8.70%
BA 57.35% 30.88% 11.76%
EBA 67.50% 22.50% 10.00%
SS 61.54% 23.08% 5.13% 10.26%
Source:
William Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/3/134.


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