This is Sixty Shilling part two

Another of my little videos. In this one, I discuss my recipe for 1940 Drybrough P 60/. It's one I recently published on the blog.

 

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1960 Drybrough 60/-

As you can see, we’re still stuck on 60/-. Why? Don’t ask me. I’ve started so I’ll finish. Isn’t that reason enough?

This looks very much like 60 Bob as I knew it in my youth. As watery as a Mild and pretty much the same colour. In this case, not even quite 3% ABV. But what about the colour? The recipe says just 10 SRM. Isn’t that much paler than a Mild? Well, this is a Scottish beer, remember? It would have been coloured up with caramel at racking to various colours. Often to around 20 SRM.

There was another version called Keg Light, which was identical to this beer with one exception: it received no dry hops.

The grist is pretty simple: pale malt, flaked maize and a tiny amount of black malt. The latter presumably purely for colour. In addition, there were quite a few sugars: Colour, invert, Avona and CME. For those, I’ve substituted No. 2 and No. 3 invert.

Three types of English copper hops and one of English dry hops. With no indication of vintage or region. I’ve gone with Goldings and Fuggles. 

1960 Drybrough 60/-
pale malt	5.00 lb	75.36%
black malt	0.01 lb	0.15%
flaked maize	0.75 lb	11.30%
No. 2 invert sugar	0.75 lb	11.30%
No. 3 invert sugar	0.13 lb	1.88%
Fuggles 90 min	0.50 oz
Fuggles 60 min	0.50 oz
Goldings 30 min	0.25 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.50 oz
OG	1031
FG	1010
ABV	2.78
Apparent attenuation	67.74%
IBU	17
SRM	10
Mash at	144 / 159º F
Sparge at	165º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	61.5º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

 

Let's Brew - 1940 Drybrough P 60/-

Continuing my look at modern Shilling Ales, here’s a 60/- recipe from the start of WW II.

Being brewed early on in the conflict, the gravity hasn’t been reduced yet from its interwar strength. By the end of the war, the gravity was reduced to not much over 1030º. Or about as weak as beer got. Though a shitty level of attenuation leaves this beer not much over 3% ABV.

You’ve probably heard me bang on about how Scottish beers usually had no coloured malts in them at all. This beer is an exception, as there’s a tiny quantity of black malt. I assume just for colour. Other than that, it’s just base malt and sugar.

There were three types of sugar: Fison, Avona and invert. I’ve substituted No. 1 invert for all three. Perhaps No. 2 invert would be a better choice. I’ll leave that decision up to you.

Just one type of hops: English from the 1938 season. Not all that many of them, either. Leaving the finished beer at a mere 20 IBU.

It’s quite likely that this beer was coloured to several different shades through the addition of caramel at racking time.

1940 Drybrough P 60/-
pale malt	7.00 lb	89.06%
black malt	0.04 lb	0.51%
No. 1 invert sugar	0.75 lb	9.54%
malt extract	0.07 lb	0.89%
Fuggles 135 min	0.50 oz
Fuggles 60 min	0.50 oz
Goldings 30 min	0.50 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.25 oz
OG	1036
FG	1013
ABV	3.04
Apparent attenuation	63.89%
IBU	20
SRM	7
Mash at	151º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	135 minutes
pitching temp	60º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

 

Scottish Export/80/- boiling and fermentation in the 1950s

You won't have to put up with this much longer. I'll be back from my Canada trip in a couple of days. Then you'll be blasted with travel posts for a couple of weeks.

Processes today. Starting with boiling.

Unfortunately, most of the breweries couldn't be arsed to record the boiling time. Which is really annoying. The William Younger's records have a column for the boiling time. They just haven't filled it in.

The two breweries that didt bother don't reveal anything particularly unusual.90 to 120 minutes is pretty typical. The only thing that I find slightly surprising is that there were three boils at Robert Younger. And that all were of the same length. That's about all I have to say on the topic of boiling.

On to fermentation. Lots more details there, thankfully.

There's not too much variation in pitching temperatures: 60º F to 62.5º F. Averaging just under 61º F. Which is pretty normal stuff. I consider 60º F to be the "standard" pitching temperature.

Maximum temperatures are another matter. They're all over the place. From 65.5º F to 74.5º F. Drybrough Export only increased by 4º F, while Bernard's rose 14.5 º F. Quite a difference.

Oddly enough, those two were also the beers with the shortest fermentation times, just five days. I would have expected the fermentation that ran hotter to be quicker. All the other beers took seven days. 

Scottish Export/80/- boiling and fermentation in the 1950s
Year	Brewer	Beer	boil time (hours)			Pitch temp	max. fermen-tation temp	length of fermen-tation (days)
1957	Robert Younger	80/-	2	2	2	60º F	68º F	7
1958	Wm Younger	Export				60º F	73.5º F	7
1958	Bernard	Pale 1/4	1.75			60.5º F	74.5º F	5
1957	Maclay	Export				62.5º F	70º F	7
1956	Drybrough	Export				61.5º F	65.5º F	5
	Average					60.9º F	70.3º F	6.20
Sources:
Robert Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number RY/6/1/2.
William Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/3/112.
T & J Bernard brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number TJB6/1/1/1.
Maclay brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number M/6/1/1/35.
Drybrough brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number D/6/1/1/7.

Here's a short YouTube video I made about Eighty Shilling. 

 

 

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1933 William Younger Export

Finally, an Eighty Shilling that really is related to modern Scottish Export. Though it wasn’t actually called 80/- by the brewery. It was, at least, called Export.

The gravity clearly plonks it firmly in the 80/- category. With an OG of 1054º, it’s clearly in the 8d per pint class. Which is where 80/- gets its name. 6d per pint beers were called 60/-, 7d beers 70/- and 8d beers 80/-. Simple, isn’t it?

There’s a shitload of grits again. Along with three types of pale malt. All very simple, if not particularly awe-inspiring. There was almost certainly caramel added at racking for colour correction. And, knowing Scotland, it probably came in a few different shades. With some being surprisingly dark.

The hopping is heavier than in the 1913 Shilling Ale type of 80/-. Though it’s still a little under 5 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt. Quite low for a Pale Ale of this strength. Though it still comes out over 50 IBU.

Two types of hops: Pacific from the 1930 harvest and Kent from 1932. 

1933 William Younger Export
pale malt	7.25 lb	58.00%
grits	5.25 lb	42.00%
Cluster 90 min	2.00 oz
Fuggles 30 min	2.00 oz
Goldings dry hops	1.00 oz
OG	1054
FG	1016
ABV	5.03
Apparent attenuation	70.37%
IBU	53
SRM	4
Mash at	156º F
Sparge at	160º F
Boil time	165 minutes
pitching temp	60º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

This is a YouTube video about this recipe: 

 

And here's a short YouTube video I made about Eighty Shilling.

  

Scottish Export/80/- hops in the 1950s

Still on my holidays. Unless I've dropped dead from the stress of travel. You never know at my age.

And still pumping out stuff about Eighty Bob. It's a style I drank a reasonable amount of. Mostly in the form of Younger's/McEwans. Which I believe were the same beer. Decent enough stuff, when in cask form. I must have had Maclay's, too. I can't really remember it, though. I'd usually go for their 60/-, if it was an option.

Back to the topic in hand. Hops. Lots of English hops. Which is what you would expect. In the 1950s the UK was about self-sufficient in hops. Meaning not that many were imported.

Most of the beers contain two types of hops. Other than Drybrough Export, which has five. Including two foreign hops, Saaz and Styrian. Interestingly, both from Central Europe.

Not many of the brewing records mention the vitage of the hops. Only William Younger and Bernard bothered. Both were using hops mostly from the most recent season. With just one of William Younger's hops a year older than that.

Scottish Export/80/- hops in the 1950s
Year	Brewer	Beer	hop 1	hop 2	hop 3	hop 4	hop 5
1957	Robert Younger	80/-	English	English
1958	Wm Younger	Export	Kent 1956	Kent 1957
1958	Bernard	Pale 1/4	English 1957	English 1957
1957	Maclay	Export	English	English	English	Saaz	Styrian
1956	Drybrough	Export	English	English
Sources:
Robert Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number RY/6/1/2.
William Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/3/112.
T & J Bernard brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number TJB6/1/1/1.
Maclay brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number M/6/1/1/35.
Drybrough brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number D/6/1/1/7.

Here's a short YouTube video I made about Eighty Shilling.

 

 

Scottish Export/80/- sugars in the 1950s

There's nop end to the 80/- fun. I'll be away in Canada when this is published. That's why I've been spinning so many posts from Eighty Bob. I think it's theown up some interesting stuff, mind.

Today we're looking at the sugars in 80/-. And there are way more of them than malts. Ten, in total. Seven of them just in Drybrough Export. Though, proportionally, Maclay's had the greatest quantity, at almost 19%.

Let's work left to right. Three of the beers contain malt extract. This was pretty common at the time. Usually, it was a way of getting some extra enzymes into the mash. Unlike the other sugars, which were added to the copper, while malt extract went into the mash tun.

All the beers contain invert of some sort. It's just not specified which type, in most cases. The stuff just called "invert" is probably No. 1 or No. 2 invert. Cane sugar is, I assume, unrefined cane sugar.

NExt we have a whole bunch of proprietary sugars: Hydrol, Avona, DSS, Fison and CWE. No real idea what that lot are. I'm surprised that a couple, Hydrol and Avona, appear in more than one beer.

The average sugar content is 15%. Though there's quite a bit of variation across the different breweries. 

Scottish Export/80/- sugars in the 1950s
Year	Brewer	Beer	malt extract	no. 1 sugar	invert	cane sugar	Hydrol	Avona	DSS	Fison	CWE	caramel	total sugar
1957	Robert Younger	80/-	1.39%		6.94%		5.55%					0.07%	13.95%
1958	Wm Younger	Export			4.48%	8.96%							13.43%
1958	Bernard	Pale 1/4			7.27%			4.85%					12.12%
1957	Maclay	Export	2.70%	10.81%					5.41%				18.92%
1956	Drybrough	Export	2.16%		4.31%		2.16%	3.23%		2.16%	2.16%		16.17%
	Average												14.92%
Sources:
Robert Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number RY/6/1/2.
William Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/3/112.
T & J Bernard brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number TJB6/1/1/1.
Maclay brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number M/6/1/1/35.
Drybrough brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number D/6/1/1/7.

Take a look at my recent Youtube video on Eighty Shilling. 

 

Let's Brew - 1913 William Younger 80/-

Yet another Eighty Shilling which isn’t what we now think of the style. But of the older type of Scottish beer that I call Shilling Ales.

The gravity has fallen again. But the FG has remained the same, making it even less well attenuated than the 1885 version. Barely over 50%. Which must have made for a very sweet and sticky beer.  Especially as the hopping rate has fallen again. Dropping from 5 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) in 1885 to just 3.5 Lbs in 1913.

Lots of changes in terms of the recipe. From no adjuncts in 1885 to over 40% grits. That’s quite a change. There’s barely any more base malt. It doesn’t sound like a great recipe with all that maize. I have tried a recreation of one Younger’s beer with a similar proportion of grits and it was much better than I expected.

Sugar has also appeared. Glucose is my guess. The brewing record just says “syrup”. I’ve guessed glucose, but it could also have been a type of invert. In addition, there’s caramel for colour correction. Which leaves this version looking like a dark Mild.

Three types of hops were used: Kent from the 1912 harvest and Pacific from 1910 and 1912. 

1913 William Younger 80/-
pale malt	6.50 lb	51.42%
grits	5.25 lb	41.53%
glucose	0.75 lb	5.93%
caramel 2000 SRM	0.14 lb	1.11%
Cluster 135 min	0.75 oz
Cluster 60 min	0.50 oz
Fuggles 30 min	0.25 oz
OG	1056
FG	1027
ABV	3.84
Apparent attenuation	51.79%
IBU	30
SRM	20
Mash at	151º F
Sparge at	160º F
Boil time	135 minutes
pitching temp	59.5º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

Here's a short YouTube video I made about Eighty Shilling.

 

 

Scottish Export/80/- malts and adjuncts in the 1950s

Carrying on with my Eighty Shilling series, here's a look at the malts and adjuncts in the late 1950s.

There aren't a huge number of malts. It's mostly just pale malt. That's all that three of the five beers contain. The only other malts are tiny quantities of enzymic and black malts. The Bernard and Drybrough examples both have a tiny amount of black malt, presumably for colour correction. The Drybrough beer also has a little enzymic malt.

The average malt content is 70%, which is a little on the low side. The outlier being the William Younger beer, which has only 58% malt.

Moving onto the adjuncts, the 28% flaked maize in William Younger's beer explains why the malt content is so low. Every other example also includes flaked maize. No surprise there. Flaked maize was very common and appeared in a majority of UK beers at the time.

The Drybrough beer has a second adjunct: flaked barley. Which is interesting. During WW II, brewers were forced to use flaked barley as a replacement for flaked maize. But, as soon as maize became available again, brewers dropped flaked barley pretty much immediately

The average adjunct content is 15%. Though that's distorted by the William Younger beer. In the others around 10%.

Scottish Export/80/- malts and adjuncts in the 1950s
Year	Brewer	Beer	pale malt	black malt	enzymic malt	total malt	flaked maize	flaked barley	total adjuncts
1957	Robert Younger	80/-	72.17%			72.17%	13.88%		13.88%
1958	Wm Younger	Export	58.21%			58.21%	28.36%		28.36%
1958	Bernard	Pale 1/4	77.58%	0.61%		78.18%	9.70%		9.70%
1957	Maclay	Export	70.27%			70.27%	10.81%		10.81%
1956	Drybrough	Export	71.13%	0.58%	1.35%	73.06%	5.39%	5.39%	10.78%
	Average					70.38%			14.70%
Sources:
Robert Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number RY/6/1/2.
William Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/3/112.
T & J Bernard brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number TJB6/1/1/1.
Maclay brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number M/6/1/1/35.
Drybrough brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number D/6/1/1/7.

 

 

This is Sixty Shilling

 Another new video. This time looking at a 60/- recipe.

 

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1885 William Younger 80/-

Another Eighty Shilling that isn’t like the modern version. Instead, it’s of the Shilling Ales type. That is, sort of a bit like an English Mild Ale.

If you can remember the 80/- from 1851, that was a much stronger beer, with an OG about 20º higher. And a ABV pushing 7%. It doesn’t help that the rate of attenuation is even worse here. This brew was a parti-gyle with 60/-.

The recipe remains pretty simple. With a 100% malt grist, consisting of three types of pale malt, one Scottish and two foreign. There’s no sugar, even though it was present in some of Younger’s other beers.

The hopping rate is a good bit lower than in 1851: 5 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt, as opposed to 7 lbs.  This is reflected in the somewhat lower (calculated) IBUs.

There were five types of hops, all from the 1884 season: two Kent, Californian, Spalt and American.

1885 William Younger 80/-
pale malt	14.75 lb	100.00%
Cluster 90 min	1.25 oz
Spalt 60 min	1.25 oz
Fuggles 30 min	0.50 oz
OG	1064
FG	1027
ABV	4.89
Apparent attenuation	57.81%
IBU	45
SRM	5
Mash at	154º F
Sparge at	175º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	58º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

Here's a short YouTube video I made about Eighty Shilling.

 

 

Scottish Export/80/- in the 1950s

Have you been enjoying my stuff about Eighty Shillings? Whether you have or not, there's lots more coming. I seem to have got sidetracked into it. Oh, well.

In this post, we'll be looking at 60/- in the 1950s. Which is when the modern form of the style crystallised. When brewers were finally freed from the last restrictions of WW II. 

I've examples from five breweries, which I hope is pretty representative. All of the breweries were based in Edinburgh, other than Maclay which was in Alloa.

Only one of the beers was called 80/- in the brew house, that from Robert Younger. I'm guessing that all of them would have called Export in the pub, mind. Though that might not have been the name on the pump.

The gravities vary from 1040º to 1046º. Averaging 1044º. Which is about where I'd expect a post-WW II 80/-. There's almost as much varition in the finishing gravities, going from 1009.5º to 1015º.

On Account of the greatly varying rates of attenuation, from 63% to 79%, the ABVs are all over the place. There's a difference of 1.5% ABV between the weakest, Maclay's, and the strongest, William Younger's.

Most of the examples were hopped at around 4 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt. The outlier being Maclay's at 6 lbs. In England, the hopping would have been more like at Maclay. At the other breweries, it's quite light, by UK standards. 

Scottish Export/80/- in the 1950s
Year	Brewer	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
1957	Robert Younger	80/-	1043	1012	4.10	72.09%	4.93	0.83
1958	Wm Younger	Export	1046	1009.5	4.83	79.35%	4.39	0.77
1958	Bernard	Pale 1/4	1046	1013.3	4.33	71.20%	3.97	0.76
1957	Maclay	Export	1040	1015	3.31	62.50%	6.05	1.00
1956	Drybrough	Export	1045	1013.5	4.17	70.00%	4.35	0.80
	Average		1044.0	1012.7	4.15	71.03%	4.74	0.83
Sources:
Robert Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number RY/6/1/2.
William Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/3/112.
T & J Bernard brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number TJB6/1/1/1.
Maclay brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number M/6/1/1/35.
Drybrough brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number D/6/1/1/7.

Here's a short YouTube video I made about Eighty Shilling. 

 

This is Eighty Shilling part three

 I explain another 80/- recipe. 1933 William Younger Export.

  

Let's Brew - 1851 William Younger 80/-

Just for demonstration purposes, here’s a recipe of a Shilling Ale 80/-. Which, as you must be bored of hearing by now, has no connection with modern 80/-. Other than the name, obviously.

It has a pretty decent gravity of 1085º, though a poor rate of attenuation leaves it under 7% ABV. Which is pretty typical of Shilling Ales. They mostly have quite high finishing gravities.

Like the 60/- from the same year, the recipe is very simple. Though the two beers weren’t parti-gyled together, the recipes are pretty much the same. Two types of pale malt, one of which was Scottish. And that’s it for the grist.

There were three types of English hops: Kent, East Kent and Farnham. Pretty classy ones. With latter two generally being the most expensive types of hops. There’s no indication of the vintage of any of the hops. 

1851 William Younger 80/-
pale malt	26.25 lb	100.00%
Goldings 90 min	2.50 oz
Goldings 60 min	2.00 oz
Goldings 30 min	2.00 oz
OG	1085
FG	1034
ABV	6.75
Apparent attenuation	60.00%
IBU	72
SRM	8
Mash at	154º F
Sparge at	184º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	56º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

Here's a short YouTube video I made about Eighty Shilling.

 

And here's a video about this specific recipe: