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I'm concluding my series on Scottish draught Pale Ale with the strongest, 80/-, or Export. The Scottish equivalent of Best Bitter.

As with 60/- and 70/-, the gravity range is quite narrow, a degree or two either side of 1044º. It's very convenient if, like me, you trying to categorise beers. English beers are all over the place and I have to resort to artificial categorisations.

I'm pleased to see one example that has clearly been coloured darker: the Younger's keg Bitter. That was probably only 25, as brewed. To give you an idea of how dark 55 is, Bitter was 20-25, Dark Mild around 80, on that scale.

The Younger's beer came under different names. In Scotland, it was 80/- or Export, in England it was usually sold as IPA. Which is a bit odd as the IPA they brewed in the 19th century was called XXP, which by 1945 was the name of their 60/-, at least in the brewery.

Does anyone still brew a classic 80/-? I guess Belhaven must. And Caledonian.


Draught Scottish 80/- Pale Ale 1947 - 1960
Year Brewer Beer Price per pint (d) OG FG ABV App. Atten-uation colour
1951 Maclay Exp 1043 1014 3.84 67.44%
1964 McEwans Special 20 1043.6 1007.6 4.50 82.57% 20
1959 Wm. Younger Keg Bitter 19 1043.7 1007.8 4.68 82.15% 55
1960 Wm. Younger Younger's Bitter 18 1043.9 1010.8 4.30 75.40%
1947 Gordon & Blair Pale Ale 20 1045.5 1004.5 5.36 90.11%
1958 Bernard Special No. 1 1046 1013 4.28 71.74%
Average 19.3 1044.3 1009.6 4.49 78.23%
Sources:
Thomas Usher Gravity Book held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number TU/6/11.
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.
T & J Bernard's brewing records held at the Scottish Brewing Archive.
Maclay brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number M/6/1/1/28
Which Beer Report, 1960, pages 171 - 173.



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