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I bet you thought I'd forgotten about Andrew Campbell's "The Book of Beer". Well you'd be right. I had forgotten to finish a series of posts based upon it. Then I remembered again. Hence this post.

Today it's the turn of Scotland. Actually, more like just Edinburgh.


"The visitor to Scotland will need to know that mild and bitter are not locally used terms. Heavy beer is the equivalent to best bitter; there is very little mild sold outside England. Heavy is also IPA, and below this strength are No.3 Scotch Ale, XX and X. No.3 is a sweet, full-flavoured beer, stronger than most English best milds, and is available on draught and in bottle in London and elsewhere in England.

The ale which is in the tradition of the old-time strong Edinburgh ales is the No.1, sold on draught and in bottles. It is a handsome beer, of mellow sweet flavour, of the same strength as Barclay's Winter Brew, and coming into the group of strong ales that retail between three shillings and twopence and three shillings and sixpence a pint. To-day, when bottled, it tends to be rather strongly carbonated.

Double Century, a full, spicy nut brown ale, was bottled first in 1949. For strength it comes rather above the run of national beers but below the strong ales.

Younger's brown ales and sweet stouts are stronger than the run of popular brown ales and stouts in England. They have a popular light pale ale which is called Holyrood Pale Ale in England and Wee Willie in Scotland. There is also Monk Export, fully fermented before bottling, and pasteurized, paler, more bitter, and of a similar strength to No. 3 Scotch Ale.

Of the other Edinburgh breweries' products, few reach Southern England. Wm McEwan's have many tied houses in Newcastle and the North. Robert Younger of St. Anns Brewery, Edinburgh have recently announced that they are bottling for the first time a range of beers that include Export, Strong Ale and Pale Ales; a Heavy Oat Creme Stout, a lighter Sweet Stout, and and Old Edinburgh Ale. Thomas Ushers, not to be confused with the Wiltshire brewery of the same name, bottle a Pale Ale, a Golden Rule Ale, Strong, Pale and Export Ales and a Sweet Stout."
"The Book Of Beer" by Andrew Campbell, 1956, pages 207-208.
Younger's No.3. I can rememebr brewing a clone of that back in the early 1970's. When it wasn't being brewed commercially. (A bit like now.)

Here are details of Yonger's beers of the period:


Wm. Younger beers in the 1950's
Year
Beer
Style
Price
size
package
Acidity
FG
OG
Colour
ABV
attenuation
1950
Brown Ale
Brown Ale
11d
half
bottled
0.05
1011.4
1032.6
40 + 27
2.74
65.03%
1950
Double Century Ale
Strong Ale
1/6d
half
bottled
0.07
1020.1
1058.4
40 + 9
4.96
65.58%
1950
Scotch Ale
Scotch Ale

half
bottled
0.12
1017.5
1087.6
5 + 40
9.21
80.02%
1951
Sweet Stout
Stout
1/2d
half
bottled
0.06
1019.5
1035.7
1 + 10
2.08
45.38%
1951
X
Mild
13d
pint
draught




1029.98
72




1952
"Monk" Export
Pale Ale
1/1d
half
bottled
0.07
1011.6
1046.9
24
4.59
75.27%
1952
X
Mild
14d
pint
draught




1033.48
92




1952
Scotch Ale
Scotch Ale



bottled
0.11
1021.7
1083.5
8 + 40
8.07
74.01%
1953
Century Ale
Strong Ale
1/6d
half
bottled
0.05
1021.4
1056.4
71 B
4.52
62.06%
1953
Monk Export
Pale Ale
1/3d
half
bottled
0.05
1009
1044.9
29 B
4.67
79.96%
1953
Strong Ale
Strong Ale
1/2.5d
nip
bottled
0.05
1024.2
1071.2
9 + 40
6.09
66.01%
1953
X
Mild
14d
pint
draught




1033.31
82




1954
Nourishing Stout
Stout
1/2d
half
bottled
0.05
1021.6
1046.3
1 + 16
3.18
53.35%
1954
Monk Export Ale
Pale Ale



bottled
0.05
1008.9
1046.7
26
4.92
80.94%
1954
Capital Stout (Lactose present)
Stout
1/4d
half
bottled
0.04
1019.7
1046.5
250
3.45
57.63%
1954
Double Century Ale
Brown Ale
18d
half
bottled
0.05
1023.3
1056.6
80
4.29
58.83%
1955
90/- Sparkling Ale
Pale Ale
1/-
half
bottled
0.04
1006.8
1032
32
3.27
78.75%
1955
90/- Holyrood Ale
Pale Ale
1/-
half
bottled
0.04
1006.7
1031.6
35
3.23
78.80%
1955
India Pale Ale
IPA
9.5d
half
bottled
0.04
1006.9
1030.2
22
3.02
77.15%
1955
X
Mild
14d
pint
draught




1030.24
96




1955
Sweet Stout
Stout
15d
half
bottled
0.05
1017.5
1034.9
200
2.24
49.86%
1955
No. 1 Strong Ale
Scotch Ale
15d
nip
bottled
0.04
1024.3
1071.4
80
6.11
65.97%
1955
Monk Export Ale
Pale Ale
15d
half
bottled
0.05
1010.6
1044.8
21
4.44
76.34%
1956
"Wee Willie" Brown Ale
Brown Ale
1/-
half
bottled
0.04
1009.6
1033.5
70
3.10
71.34%
1956
Wee Willie PA
Pale Ale
11d
half
bottled
0.05
1006.4
1031.1
25
3.21
79.42%
1956
Edinburgh Brown Ale
Brown Ale
1/1d
half
bottled
0.06
1013.2
1046.8
75
4.36
71.79%
1957
Double Century Ale
Strong Ale
2/2d
16 oz
bottled
0.06
1018.6
1051.5
80
4.25
63.88%
1957
Monk Export Ale
Pale Ale
2/2d
16 oz
bottled
0.05
1010.3
1045.6
20
4.59
77.41%
1957
Edinburgh Brown Ale
Brown Ale
1/2d
half
bottled
0.05
1013.1
1046.6
55
4.34
71.89%
1959
Capital Stout
Stout
15d
half
bottled


1021.6
1043.7
376
2.84
50.57%
1959
Sweet Stout
Stout
14d
half
bottled


1013.1
1033.3
300
2.61
60.66%
1959
Pale Ale
Pale Ale
12d
half
bottled
0.02
1008
1029.9
24
2.74
73.24%
1959
Holyrood Ale
Pale Ale
10d
half
bottled
0.04
1006.5
1028.7
30
2.78
77.35%
1959
XXP Bitter
Pale Ale
22d
pint
draught
0.04
1005.7
1030.4
21
3.21
81.25%
1959
Keg Bitter
Pale Ale
19d
pint
draught
0.04
1007.8
1043.7
55
4.68
82.15%
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity Book
Truman Gravity Book

Can't see much evidence there of Younger's Sweet Stouts and Brown Ales being stronger than English equivalents. Other than the Edinburgh Brown Ale, which was in the high 1040's. Note the puny gravity of their 90/- Ale. Not quite what some style Nazis would have you believe a 90/- was like.


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