Whilst browsing historical Scottish brewing records we came across a Victorian lager recipe from the Youngers brewery in Edinburgh. We had been looking for an excuse to brew it for a while when Richard got in touch about brewing a birthday beer.
These old recipes caught our eye because they were using a few unusual and unexpected brewing techniques, such as decoction, using sugar to bump the gravity and using English, German and American hops in the kettle (and sometimes even as a dry hop) for a classic high Youngers’ bitterness and a hop forward aroma. In addition to all this, there was an incredibly long and cold fermentation, leaving a high level of residual sugar in the beer.
The result is a surprisingly classic pils with a bit more of a bock-like sweeter “malt backbone”.
Collab with Little Leeds Beer House to celebrate their 6th birthday