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24-04-2014, 07:13
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I realise that I've never paid that much attention to one of the great London Porter breweries: the Red Lion Brewery. It operated under several different names, but ended its days as Hoare & Co.
I think I understand some of the reasons why. First and foremost is that, unlike its 18th-century rivals Barclay Perkins, Whitbread and Truman, none of its brewing records survive. Fortunately, the brewery did hang around until the 1930's, which means I have details of plenty of their beers, courtesy of the Whitbread and Truman Gravity Books. Enough for several posts like this.
I'm going to start with the beer that made the Red Lion Brewery famous: Porter. It seems logical enough.
I'm lucky to have one analysis from the 19th-century. It looks pretty standard for that era: a gravity of 1050-something and about 75% attenuation.
Moving on to the 20th-century, I'm a bit surprised at how up and down the gravity is, ranging from 1031.9º to 1039.8º. Most Porter of the time were about in the middle of that, at 1034-37º.
For most of its life, Porter had about 75% attenuation. In the 18th century that was a pretty high rate of attenuation, better than most types of beer. It remained around that level through the 19th century, when other styles caught it up or even overtook it. That's why I'm shocked to see how poorly attenuated some of these samples are. Under 65% is lower than I would expect. In a couple of cases it looks like it's an attempt to compensate for a low OG.
Given the lowish degree of attenuation and modest gravity, it's only logical that the ABV hovers around the just about intoxicating level.
Hoare Porter 1870 - 1930
Year
Beer
Style
Price
size
package
Acidity
FG
OG
ABV
App. Atten-uation
1870
Porter
Porter
1.5d
pint
draught
0.18
1013
1052.42
5.23
75.22%
1922
Porter
Porter
pint
draught
1039.8
1922
Porter
Porter
pint
draught
1036
1922
Porter
Porter
6d
pint
draught
1009.7
1033.7
3.11
71.22%
1922
Porter
Porter
6d
pint
draught
1011
1037.3
3.41
70.51%
1922
Porter
Porter
6d
pint
draught
1010.5
1035
3.17
70.00%
1922
Porter
Porter
6d
pint
draught
1010.8
1033.8
2.98
68.05%
1923
Porter
Porter
6d
pint
draught
1010.2
1034.2
3.11
70.18%
1923
Porter
Porter
6d
pint
draught
1011.7
1033.2
2.78
64.76%
1923
Porter
Porter
6d
pint
draught
1011.6
1032.6
2.71
64.42%
1923
Porter
Porter
6d
pint
draught
1009.8
1034.5
3.20
71.59%
1923
Porter
Porter
6d
pint
draught
1008.4
1031.9
3.05
73.67%
1926
Porter
Porter
5d
pint
draught
1039.8
1928
Porter
Porter
5d
pint
draught
1013.4
1037.9
3.17
64.64%
1929
Porter
Porter
pint
draught
1038.3
1929
Porter
Porter
pint
draught
1038.2
1929
Porter
Porter
5d
pint
draught
0.06
1009.2
1038.3
3.78
75.98%
1929
Porter
Porter
5d
pint
draught
0.08
1009.6
1038.2
3.71
74.87%
1930
Porter
Porter
5d
pint
draught
1010.8
1035
3.13
69.14%
1930
Porter
Porter
5d
pint
draught
1009
1037
3.63
75.68%
1930
Porter
Porter
5d
pint
draught
0.07
1006.6
1034
3.56
80.59%
1930
Porter
Porter
5d
pint
draught
1010.2
1037
3.47
72.43%
Sources:
British Medical Journal June 25th 1870, page 658.
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001
Truman Gravity Book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/C/252
What Next? Stout, perhaps.
More... (http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2014/04/hoare-porter-1870-1930.html)
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7b3-_2QwOKc/U1EXy8PVryI/AAAAAAAATaQ/bHwrtIg5uCo/s1600/Hoare_stout.jpg (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7b3-_2QwOKc/U1EXy8PVryI/AAAAAAAATaQ/bHwrtIg5uCo/s1600/Hoare_stout.jpg)
I realise that I've never paid that much attention to one of the great London Porter breweries: the Red Lion Brewery. It operated under several different names, but ended its days as Hoare & Co.
I think I understand some of the reasons why. First and foremost is that, unlike its 18th-century rivals Barclay Perkins, Whitbread and Truman, none of its brewing records survive. Fortunately, the brewery did hang around until the 1930's, which means I have details of plenty of their beers, courtesy of the Whitbread and Truman Gravity Books. Enough for several posts like this.
I'm going to start with the beer that made the Red Lion Brewery famous: Porter. It seems logical enough.
I'm lucky to have one analysis from the 19th-century. It looks pretty standard for that era: a gravity of 1050-something and about 75% attenuation.
Moving on to the 20th-century, I'm a bit surprised at how up and down the gravity is, ranging from 1031.9º to 1039.8º. Most Porter of the time were about in the middle of that, at 1034-37º.
For most of its life, Porter had about 75% attenuation. In the 18th century that was a pretty high rate of attenuation, better than most types of beer. It remained around that level through the 19th century, when other styles caught it up or even overtook it. That's why I'm shocked to see how poorly attenuated some of these samples are. Under 65% is lower than I would expect. In a couple of cases it looks like it's an attempt to compensate for a low OG.
Given the lowish degree of attenuation and modest gravity, it's only logical that the ABV hovers around the just about intoxicating level.
Hoare Porter 1870 - 1930
Year
Beer
Style
Price
size
package
Acidity
FG
OG
ABV
App. Atten-uation
1870
Porter
Porter
1.5d
pint
draught
0.18
1013
1052.42
5.23
75.22%
1922
Porter
Porter
pint
draught
1039.8
1922
Porter
Porter
pint
draught
1036
1922
Porter
Porter
6d
pint
draught
1009.7
1033.7
3.11
71.22%
1922
Porter
Porter
6d
pint
draught
1011
1037.3
3.41
70.51%
1922
Porter
Porter
6d
pint
draught
1010.5
1035
3.17
70.00%
1922
Porter
Porter
6d
pint
draught
1010.8
1033.8
2.98
68.05%
1923
Porter
Porter
6d
pint
draught
1010.2
1034.2
3.11
70.18%
1923
Porter
Porter
6d
pint
draught
1011.7
1033.2
2.78
64.76%
1923
Porter
Porter
6d
pint
draught
1011.6
1032.6
2.71
64.42%
1923
Porter
Porter
6d
pint
draught
1009.8
1034.5
3.20
71.59%
1923
Porter
Porter
6d
pint
draught
1008.4
1031.9
3.05
73.67%
1926
Porter
Porter
5d
pint
draught
1039.8
1928
Porter
Porter
5d
pint
draught
1013.4
1037.9
3.17
64.64%
1929
Porter
Porter
pint
draught
1038.3
1929
Porter
Porter
pint
draught
1038.2
1929
Porter
Porter
5d
pint
draught
0.06
1009.2
1038.3
3.78
75.98%
1929
Porter
Porter
5d
pint
draught
0.08
1009.6
1038.2
3.71
74.87%
1930
Porter
Porter
5d
pint
draught
1010.8
1035
3.13
69.14%
1930
Porter
Porter
5d
pint
draught
1009
1037
3.63
75.68%
1930
Porter
Porter
5d
pint
draught
0.07
1006.6
1034
3.56
80.59%
1930
Porter
Porter
5d
pint
draught
1010.2
1037
3.47
72.43%
Sources:
British Medical Journal June 25th 1870, page 658.
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001
Truman Gravity Book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/C/252
What Next? Stout, perhaps.
More... (http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2014/04/hoare-porter-1870-1930.html)