Wednesday 8 February 2012

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1868 William Younger No. 3 Export

It's a very special beer today. One with which I have a special rela . . . .. hang on, already done that one twice. I need to think of a new spiel. er . . er ...

I've not had chance to try the revived Younger's No.3. I'm very much looking forward to it. When I was in Glasgow (god, almost two years ago) I had a pint of No.3. in the State Bar, just of Sauchiehall Street. I'd dumped the family in the Wetherspoons opposite. Can't remember who had brewed it. Some new Scottish brewery. Quite nice, it was.

The revived No. 3 won't taste anything like this beer, that's for sure. General beeriness aside. This is a very different puppy. Bigger. Bolder. And an awful lot paler.

I'd like No. 3 to get the respect it deserves as one of the classic Scotch Ales. But surely Scotch Ales don't really exist outside of Belgium and American homebrewers' fantasies? Ever the contrary bastard, I'd argue Younger's No.1 and No. 3 were beers famous enough and long-lived enough to warrant being called a style. Or two styles. Give me a while and I'll write up some style guidelines for them.

Talking of style guidelines, guess what BJCP's used to give Younger's No. 3 as an example of?. Go on, guess. 80/-. Eighty effing shilling. Blind as well as clueless, whoever came up with that one.

Pale and hoppy - exactly what you'd expect from a Scotch Ale. A Scotch Ale from the 19th century. That's if you've been paying the slightest attention to what I write. Younger's seem to have had a real thing for Saaz. I suppose that's makes their beers Bohemian Scotch Ales. Remember that I coined that one first. I've started making up the most ridiculous style names I can. They'll call me a visionary ten years from now.






I've wasted enough of your time. Let's go over to Kristen for the real stuff . . . . .








Kristen’s Version:

Introduction:
This 1868 set will have a lot in common with the later 1879 set we’ve done the past few weeks. Very straightforward.


Ingredients

Grist – A few pale malts. Do you r best to find your favorite combo of UK and continental pale. I really like the Dingmanns pale malt and Optic English malt. Great combo for this beer.

Hops – You really can any low alpha acid hop to replace the Goldings. However, you need some very fresh Saaz for the end. Feel free to replace them with any of the new Saaz hybrids. Sterling work very well here.

Yeast – Whiteshield. Wonderful yeast that will bring out  the hops and not dry out too much.

10 comments:

Matt said...

How this one compare to the other 1868 #3 that you did back in September?

They look pretty similar to me with a slightly different FG and hop schedule.

http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2011/09/lets-brew-wednesday-1868-younger-no-3.html

Barm said...

The No 3 you had was from Stewart Brewing in Loanhead near Edinburgh. The State has it as a regular beer. The revived Younger-branded No 3 was briefly on sale side by side with it last summer: http://refreshingbeer.blogspot.com/2011/07/youngers-no-3-is-back.html

Kristen England said...

Matt,

Thats the most interesting thing to me really. The same beer brewed in the same year is different. Pretty cool all the way around. Says a lot of what the customer was expecting. It had to be different than today expecting exactly the same thing after another.

I mean there are days when cask beer from the same batch is better than the other but not things like this!

Seb said...

Kristen

I know there has been some discussions about using authentic yeast and the MacEwans strain doesn't give great results. But have you considered sourcing yeast from Brewlabs

http://www.brewlab.co.uk/pdf/yeast_service.pdf

They have a list they advertise but apparently they will culture up many other strains if you call them and request it.

I've heard they do deliver to the US. Might be worth a try.

Anonymous said...

Hey Ron, with all this back and forth between breweries No. 1 and No. 3s, how about covering a No. 2

Too close to the No. 1 to make a difference?

Kristen England said...

Seb,

Indeed. I've used many of the Brewlabs strains. Its spendy to get them here so a bunch of us usually share them. Grow them up and split them that is. Lots of really cool stuff we can't get from Wyeast or White labs. For the brewery, we'll probably be using a few for sure.

Anon,

Concerning the No2. the 1868 is about 1.088 and about half the hops as the No3. The No4 is 1.068 and about the same hops as the No3. So it would seem its stronger but less hoppy than the 3 and 4.

MapperMatt said...

Hi,
Just querying the 2nd hop addition. 116g of Saaz 3.75% at 30 mins doesn't seem to come to 38bu. Just wondered if this should be a 60 minute addition or whether the ibu's should actually be lower?

Planning on making this next week.

Cheers

Mapper

Willie said...

Hi Ron,

I'm brewing this at the w/e and wondered if there was any clarity on the query of the 30min Saaz addition. I'm intending to do as the recipe with 38IBU at 30mins with the correct quantity.

Cheers
Willie

Ron Pattinson said...

Willie,

as the hop additions are a pure guess, feel free to play with them as you like. I would have thought 38 IBUs was a bit low for this beer.

Willie said...

Ha thanks, that's in addition to the 66IBU at 90mins, total 104.

Cheers