Visit the Shut up about Barclay Perkins site

What fun research is. I've spent my evenings this week transcribing Drybrough brewing records. Quite a lot of work and not a barrel of laughs. Just stuff that has to get done.

As I've put in all that effort, it seems fair enough to bore you bastards with some of the results. Otherwise, I'll just have been frittering away some of my few precious hours left on this earth. Excuse me. A weird appreciation of my own mortality kicked in when I turned 60. Hence all my frantic writing activity.

Anyway, over to today's topic, watery Scottish Pale Ale. In the form of Drybrough 60/-/.

By far the most popular beer Drybrough brewed both before and during WW II was their 60/-. It was about 80%of what they brewed.

Which is interesting because it was well below average OG, in the late 1930s around 1043º. In terms of strength, it was around the same as Barclay Perkins Ordinary Mild, X Ale, but a good bit weaker than their Ordinary Bitter, which was 1045º.

Drybrough 60/- was pretty lightly hopped in comparison with London draught beers. 5lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt going into the war. When Barclay’s X Ale got 7 Lbs per quarter. Which makes 60/- look more like an English Light Mild than a Pale Ale.

The profile of gravity reduction is very different from WW I. There’s a dip in the first couple of years but then, between 1942 and 1946, a surprising stability. With another dip after war’s end.

The FG at time of consumption would have been lower. The figure I give in the table is the racking gravity. These were cask-conditioned beers which would have continued to ferment after racking. They were probably at least 70% attenuated when they hit the thirsty drinker’s glass.

Drybrough 60/- 1938 - 1947
Date Year OG FG ABV App. Atten-uation lbs hops/ qtr hops lb/brl
14th Oct 1938 1038 1011 3.57 71.05% 4.83 0.76
19th Oct 1939 1038 1013.5 3.24 64.47% 4.93 0.76
3rd Jan 1940 1036 1013 3.04 63.89% 5.00 0.74
3rd Feb 1941 1037 1014 3.04 62.16% 3.94 0.63
11th Jul 1941 1034 1012 2.91 64.71% 3.90 0.54
2nd Feb 1942 1032 1015.0 2.25 53.13% 3.05 0.44
3rd Feb 1943 1032 1013.5 2.45 57.81% 3.98 0.51
14th Oct 1943 1032 1013.5 2.45 57.81% 3.45 0.48
17th Jan 1944 1032 1013 2.51 59.38% 3.45 0.45
13th Jul 1944 1032 1012.5 2.58 60.94% 3.58 0.50
8th Feb 1945 1032 1007.5 3.24 76.56% 3.55 0.46
8th Oct 1946 1029 1009 2.65 68.97% 3.44 0.43
23rd Oct 1947 1029 1012 2.25 58.62% 1.95 0.44
Sources:
Drybrough brewing records held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document numbers D/6/1/1/4 and D/6/1/1/5.



More...