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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.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.)
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.
Here are details of Yonger's beers of the period:
Wm. Younger beers in the 1950's
Year
Beer
Style
sizePrice
package
Acidity
FGOGColourattenuationABV
1950
Brown Ale
Brown Ale
half11d
bottled
0.051011.41032.640 + 272.74195065.03%
Double Century Ale
Strong Ale
half1/6d
bottled
0.071020.11058.440 + 94.96195065.58%
Scotch Ale
Scotch Ale
half
bottled
0.121017.51087.65 + 409.21195180.02%
Sweet Stout
Stout
half1/2d
bottled
0.061019.51035.71 + 102.08195145.38%
X
Mild
pint13d
draught
1029.9872
1952
"Monk" Export
Pale Ale
half1/1d
bottled
0.071011.61046.9244.59195275.27%
X
Mild
pint14d
draught
1033.4892
1952
Scotch Ale
Scotch Ale
bottled
0.111021.71083.58 + 408.07195374.01%
Century Ale
Strong Ale
half1/6d
bottled
0.051021.41056.471 B4.52195362.06%
Monk Export
Pale Ale
half1/3d
bottled
0.0510091044.929 B4.67195379.96%
Strong Ale
Strong Ale
nip1/2.5d
bottled
0.051024.21071.29 + 406.09195366.01%
X
Mild
pint14d
draught
1033.3182
1954
Nourishing Stout
Stout
half1/2d
bottled
0.051021.61046.31 + 163.18195453.35%
Monk Export Ale
Pale Ale
bottled
0.051008.91046.7264.92195480.94%
Capital Stout (Lactose present)
Stout
half1/4d
bottled
0.041019.71046.52503.45195457.63%
Double Century Ale
Brown Ale
half18d
bottled
0.051023.31056.6804.29195558.83%
90/- Sparkling Ale
Pale Ale
half1/-
bottled
0.041006.81032323.27195578.75%
90/- Holyrood Ale
Pale Ale
half1/-
bottled
0.041006.71031.6353.23195578.80%
India Pale Ale
IPA
half9.5d
bottled
0.041006.91030.2223.02195577.15%
X
Mild
pint14d
draught
1030.2496
1955
Sweet Stout
Stout
half15d
bottled
0.051017.51034.92002.24195549.86%
No. 1 Strong Ale
Scotch Ale
nip15d
bottled
0.041024.31071.4806.11195565.97%
Monk Export Ale
Pale Ale
half15d
bottled
0.051010.61044.8214.44195676.34%
"Wee Willie" Brown Ale
Brown Ale
half1/-
bottled
0.041009.61033.5703.10195671.34%
Wee Willie PA
Pale Ale
half11d
bottled
0.051006.41031.1253.21195679.42%
Edinburgh Brown Ale
Brown Ale
half1/1d
bottled
0.061013.21046.8754.36195771.79%
Double Century Ale
Strong Ale
16 oz2/2d
bottled
0.061018.61051.5804.25195763.88%
Monk Export Ale
Pale Ale
16 oz2/2d
bottled
0.051010.31045.6204.59195777.41%
Edinburgh Brown Ale
Brown Ale
half1/2d
bottled
0.051013.11046.6554.34195971.89%
Capital Stout
Stout
half15d
bottled
1021.61043.73762.84195950.57%
Sweet Stout
Stout
half14d
bottled
1013.11033.33002.61195960.66%
Pale Ale
Pale Ale
half12d
bottled
0.0210081029.9242.74195973.24%
Holyrood Ale
Pale Ale
half10d
bottled
0.041006.51028.7302.78195977.35%
XXP Bitter
Pale Ale
pint22d
draught
0.041005.71030.4213.21195981.25%
Keg Bitter
Pale Ale
pint19d
draught
0.041007.81043.7554.68Sources:82.15%
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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