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One of Youngs biggest sellers was their stronger Bitter, Special. A type of beer introduced in the 1950s by many London brewers, including Fullers and Watney.

Youngs version was a pretty powerful beer. In this example, clocking in at 5.5% ABV, partly due to a high level of attenuation. Which would have placed it amongst the strongest Bitters in the UK at the time.

Not much to say about the recipe. It’s just a scaled up Ordinary. With which this version was parti-gyled. Not that there was all that much to it. Just base malt, flaked maize and sugar. Very typical of post-war UK brewing.

As with all the other beers, there were two types of English hops, from the 1958 and 1959 seasons.
1960 Youngs SPA
pale malt 9.00 lb 81.21%
flaked maize 1.25 lb 11.28%
pale malt extract 0.33 lb 2.98%
No. 1 invert sugar 0.50 lb 4.51%
caramel 500 SRM 0.003 lb 0.03%
Fuggles 120 min 1.25 oz
Goldings 30 min 1.25 oz
OG 1050
FG 1008
ABV 5.56
Apparent attenuation 84.00%
IBU 30
SRM 5.5
Mash at 152º F
Sparge at 174º F
Boil time 120 minutes
pitching temp 58º F
Yeast WLP002 English Ale



Listen to brewer John Hatch explain how they brewed at Youngs in the 1990s.



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