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Now the new book is almost done, it's time for a little preview. This is something I literally just finished writing five minutes ago. On the ever fescinating topic of Scottish Pale Ales.

Scottish brewers were, for the most part pretty dull when it came to recipes. Most only had the one.

I’ve only bothered with one of a brewery’s Pale Ale range, as all were parti-gyled together. Except at the ever contrary William Younger. Not only weren’t their Pale Ales parti-gyled together, they all had slightly different recipes. The crazy bastards.

Scottish Pale Ale grists 1948 - 1965: malts and adjuncts
Year Brewer Beer OG pale malt black malt enzymic malt flaked maize flaked barley
1958 Bernard Pale 1/1 1031 75.20% 0.82% 13.08%
1948 Drybrough P 60/- 1030 79.11% 0.78% 1.65% 10.55%
1954 Drybrough 60/- 1032 74.52% 2.40% 0.64% 6.01% 6.01%
1960 Drybrough 60/- 1031 74.95% 0.44% 12.49%
1965 Drybrough 60/- 1031 74.45% 0.06% 12.07%
1951 Maclay PA 6d 1030 86.33%
1956 Maclay PA 6d 1030 74.82% 11.51%
1965 Maclay PA 6d 1030 74.82% 11.51%
1962 Thomas Usher P 1/4 1036 69.23% 6.29%
1957 Younger, Robert 60/- 1030 77.03% 13.75%
1960 Younger, Robert 60/- 1030 71.39% 19.99%
1949 Younger, Wm. XXP Btg 1031 92.86% 7.14%
1949 Younger, Wm. XXP 1031.5 88.24% 11.76%
1949 Younger, Wm. Ext 1047 87.50% 12.50%
1958 Younger, Wm. XXPQ 1033 60.00% 26.67%
1958 Younger, Wm. XXPSL 1038 58.62% 27.59%
1958 Younger, Wm. EXT 1046 60.94% 29.69%
1958 Younger, Wm. XXPS Btg 1038 62.16% 32.43%
Sources:
T & J Bernard brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number TJB6/1/1/1.
Drybrough brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number D/6/1/1/6.
Drybrough brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number D/6/1/1/7.
Drybrough brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number D/6/1/1/8.
Maclay brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number M/6/1/1/28.
Maclay brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number M/6/1/1/35.
Maclay brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number M/6/1/1/44.
Thomas Usher brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number TU/6/9/1.
Robert Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number RY/6/1/2.
Robert Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number RY/6/1/3.
William Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/2/88.
William Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/3/112.


I’ve lumped the malts and adjuncts together because there aren’t many of either. Mostly it’s just pale malt and flaked maize or barley. A couple of examples have a small amount of black malt for colour. But there’s no crystal malt in sight.

William Younger loved to stuff their beers with adjuncts. Before WW II most of their beers were 40% grits. The beers above aren’t quite that bad, but those from the 1950s all still have over 25% flaked maize.

Two sugar tables for this set.

Scottish Pale Ale grists 1948 - 1965: sugars
Year Brewer Beer OG no. 1 sugar invert Avona Hydrol
1958 Bernard Pale 1/1 1031 6.54% 4.36%
1948 Drybrough P 60/- 1030 2.64%
1954 Drybrough 60/- 1032 3.21% 3.21%
1960 Drybrough 60/- 1031 6.81% 1.51%
1965 Drybrough 60/- 1031 7.38% 0.67%
1951 Maclay PA 6d 1030 9.59%
1956 Maclay PA 6d 1030 7.67%
1965 Maclay PA 6d 1030 7.67%
1962 Thomas Usher P 1/4 1036 17.48%
1957 Younger, Robert 60/- 1030 4.58% 3.67%
1960 Younger, Robert 60/- 1030 3.81% 3.81%
1949 Younger, Wm. XXP Btg 1031
1949 Younger, Wm. XXP 1031.5
1949 Younger, Wm. Ext 1047
1958 Younger, Wm. XXPQ 1033
1958 Younger, Wm. XXPSL 1038 2.30%
1958 Younger, Wm. EXT 1046 3.13%
1958 Younger, Wm. XXPS Btg 1038

Invert sugar is as popular as ever. No. 1 being what you’d expect in Pale Ales. The unspecific “invert” is most likely either No. 1 or No. 2 invert. Avona and Hydrol are enigmatic proprietary sugars.

Scottish Pale Ale grists 1948 - 1965: sugars again
Year Brewer Beer OG cane candy caramel malt extract other sugar
1958 Bernard Pale 1/1 1031
1948 Drybrough P 60/- 1030 0.88% 4.39%
1954 Drybrough 60/- 1032 0.80% 3.21%
1960 Drybrough 60/- 1031 1.51% 0.76% 1.51%
1965 Drybrough 60/- 1031 2.68% 2.68%
1951 Maclay PA 6d 1030 0.24% 3.84%
1956 Maclay PA 6d 1030 0.24% 1.92% 3.84%
1965 Maclay PA 6d 1030 0.24% 1.92% 3.84%
1962 Thomas Usher P 1/4 1036 0.00% 2.10% 4.90%
1957 Younger, Robert 60/- 1030 0.05% 0.92%
1960 Younger, Robert 60/- 1030 0.05% 0.95%
1949 Younger, Wm. XXP Btg 1031
1949 Younger, Wm. XXP 1031.5
1949 Younger, Wm. Ext 1047
1958 Younger, Wm. XXPQ 1033 8.89% 4.44%
1958 Younger, Wm. XXPSL 1038 6.90% 4.60%
1958 Younger, Wm. EXT 1046 6.25%
1958 Younger, Wm. XXPS Btg 1038 5.41%

A more normal lot of sugars. Though exactly what is meant by cane and candy isn’t 100% clear. I assume that cane refers to some partially refined cane sugar. There’s lots of malt extract again, always in tiny quantities. The largest amount used is under 3% of the total grist.

Pale malt, flaked adjunct and sugar. That’s all there is to Scottish Pale Ale grists.

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