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Trying to pick apart IPA and Pale Ale in Scotland is even trickier than in London. Judging by the brew house names, some brewers considered all their Pale Ales IPAs. And William Younger, confusingly, while not calling any of their beers IPA in the brew house, did market some of its beers as such.

That’s just a warning to not take as gospel that the following beers are IPAs. They might have been. Or maybe not. The distinction was probably lost on most drinkers, anyway.

PI 60/- was Drybrough’s strongest Pale Ale/IPA at the start of the war. Though it’s weaker than a top-class London Pale Ale would have been.

In the first couple of years of the war, it didn’t change a great deal, losing just four gravity points. It was dropped in 1917, probably in April. This was the time when gravity restrictions kicked in. Unlike some breweries, which slashed gravities but kept the name of the strongest beer, Drybrough discontinued the strongest.

Drybrough PI 60/- 1914 - 1920
Date Year OG FG ABV App. Atten-uation lbs hops/ qtr hops lb/brl
31st Dec 1914 1054 1018 4.76 66.67% 5.07 1.12
12th Jan 1915 1053 1018 4.63 66.04% 6.01 1.29
7th Jan 1916 1053 1017 4.76 67.92% 5.02 1.10
28th Jul 1916 1050 1015 4.63 70.00% 3.95 0.85
16th Jan 1917 1048 1016 4.23 66.67% 3.95 0.80
13th Feb 1917 1044 1017 3.57 61.36% 4.04 0.74
10th Jul 1919 1036 1009 3.57 75.00% 4.93 0.73
15th Oct 1919 1039 1012 3.57 69.23% 4.34 0.83
29th Jul 1920 1039 1012 3.57 69.23% 5.20 0.86
Sources:
Drybrough brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number D/6/1/1/3.

It reappears in the records in the middle of 1919, with its gravity even further reduced. Its gravity then stabilised just under 1040º for the rest of the 1920’s. However, in 1920 they introduced a new beer, PI 80/- with an OG of 1054º - exactly the same as PI 60/- had been before the war. Confusing, isn’t it?

Drybrough PI 60/- 1914 - 1920
invert sugar
Date Year OG pale malt flaked maize no. 1 no. 2 no. 3 caramel malt extract dxt BSC
31st Dec 1914 1054 81.91% 8.19% 4.10% 5.46% 0.34%
12th Jan 1915 1053 82.66% 8.55% 3.80% 4.75% 0.24%
7th Jan 1916 1053 81.47% 8.81% 3.67% 5.87% 0.18%
28th Jul 1916 1050 85.87% 4.40% 3.67% 5.87% 0.18%
16th Jan 1917 1048 80.61% 9.21% 3.84% 6.14% 0.19%
13th Feb 1917 1044 80.50% 10.06% 3.35% 5.87% 0.21%
10th Jul 1919 1036 91.18% 0.00% 8.82%
15th Oct 1919 1039 78.83% 4.38% 6.57% 10.22%
29th Jul 1920 1039 70.45% 19.43% 1.62% 1.21% 7.29%
Sources:
Drybrough brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number D/6/1/1/3.

Like the gravity, there’s not much change in the early war years. It’s not the most fascinating of recipes, just pale malt, flaked maize and some sugar. With all the changes being in the type of sugar used. Though we don’t see that in action as PI 60/- had already been discontinued by the time the restrictions on sugar use began in 1917.

This is another exccerpt from my book on the Great War, Armistice!.

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