Shut up about Barclay Perkins - Whitbread Porter 1821 - 1830

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Another decade to Whitbread Porter to dissect.

This is the period immediately before one of the biggest shakeups in the British brewing world: the 1830 Beer Act. Which abolished excise duty on beer and let pretty much anyone open up a pub selling just beer.

There are a couple of things I'd like to point out.

First, the grist. The percentage of brown malt fell to just 3 or 4% and then in 1826 disappeared altogether, leaving a grist of just pale and black malt. The percentage of black malt was higher than in the previous period, but was still mostly not much more than 1%. I can't help but think that this must have had an impact on the colour. How dark could a beer that was almost 99% pale malt be?

I would usually say that the defining feature of London Porter is the use of brown malt. London brewers were remarkably faithful to Porter's original malt. But there are odd years where Whitbread stopped using it. Economy would be the obvious motive. Its re-adoption can only have been prompted by flavour. Getting the flavour London drinkers expected.

My second point concerns the gravity. It's higher than in the previous period we looked at, hovering in the 1058 to 1060 range. During the Napoleonic Wars it had dropped to around 1050. Knowing the strength of Porter in the 19th century is trickier because there aren't many remaining records. The few that do remain suggest that 18th-century Porter had been stronger.

This is about the sum total of the data that I have:

Porter gravities in the 1770's


OG
OG
FG
FG
ABV
App. Atten-uation
1

29.5

1081.7

8.3

1023.0

7.77

71.86%

2

26

1072.0

6.5

1018.0

7.15

75.00%

3

25.5

1070.6

6

1016.6

7.15

76.47%

4

24.5

1067.9

6.5

1018.0

6.60

73.47%

5

23.3

1064.5

5.3

1014.7

6.60

77.25%

Source:
"Statical Estimates of the Materials of Brewing" by J. Richardson, 1784, page 150

It's dangerous to read too much into such a small amount of data, but this implies standard Porter gravity was between 1065 and 1070. It never got back to that level in the 19th century.

Here are all the details for you to peruse at your leisure:

Whitbread Porter 1821 - 1830
Date
Year
Beer
OG
FG
ABV
App. Atten-uation
lbs hops/ qtr
hops lb/brl
boil time (hours)
boil time (hours)
boil time (hours)
boil time (hours)
Pitch temp
pale malt
brown malt
black malt
white malt
total
19th Jan
1821
P

1057.6

1017.2

5.35

70.19%

10.58

2.75

1

1.5

2.75

3.75

65º

95.17%

3.72%

1.11%

100.00%

19th Oct
1821
P

1057.9

1017.5

5.35

69.86%

9.01

2.34

1

1.5

2.75

3.75

65º

95.02%

3.83%

1.15%

100.00%

18th Oct
1821
P

1058.7

1021.3

4.95

63.68%

9.74

2.55

1

1.5

2.75

3.75

65º

95.02%

3.83%

1.15%

100.00%

17th Oct
1821
P

1058.2

1018.0

5.31

69.05%

9.72

2.51

1

1.5

2.75

3.75

64.5º

95.02%

3.83%

1.15%

100.00%

20th May
1822
P

1059.3

1016.3

5.68

72.43%

10.61

2.84

1.17

1.5

3

4

63º

95.97%

2.93%

1.10%

100.00%

31st Aug
1822
P

1059.3

1018.8

5.35

68.22%

9.74

2.59

1

1.5

2.75

3.75

64.75º

95.76%

3.23%

1.01%

100.00%

14th Oct
1822
P

1059.0

1015.2

5.79

74.18%

9.52

2.50

1

1.5

2.75

3.75

63º

95.94%

2.95%

1.11%

100.00%

8th Mar
1823
P

1059.3

1014.7

5.90

75.23%

11.64

2.92

1

1.5

2.75

3.75

64.5º

76.13%

3.11%

4.67%

16.08%

100.00%

29th Sep
1823
P

1059.3

1016.6

5.64

71.96%

10.33

2.57

1

1.5

3

4

64º

76.97%

3.19%

2.79%

17.04%

100.00%

13th Dec
1823
P

1057.9

1015.8

5.57

72.73%

9.52

2.41

1.5

2.75

4.25

65º

80.07%

3.88%

2.71%

13.34%

100.00%

23rd Nov
1823
P

1057.3

1016.6

5.39

71.01%

10.13

2.58

1.5

2.75

4.25

64º

80.31%

3.07%

0.77%

15.85%

100.00%

6th Jul
1824
P

1060.1

1016.3

5.79

72.81%

13.17

3.47

1.17

1.5

3

4

64.5º

95.60%

3.26%

1.14%

100.00%

7th Jul
1824
P

1058.2

1017.2

5.42

70.48%

13.21

3.42

1.17

1.5

3

4

64.5º

95.60%

3.26%

1.14%

100.00%

7th Sep
1824
P

1057.9

1015.8

5.57

72.73%

10.47

2.74

1.17

1.5

3

4

65º

95.02%

3.83%

1.15%

100.00%

6th Dec
1824
P

1059.3

1019.1

5.31

67.76%

10.76

2.91

1.17

1.5

3

4

64.5º

98.89%

1.11%

100.00%

16th Sep
1824
P

1057.6

1016.9

5.39

70.67%

11.08

3.03

1.17

1.5

3

4

64º

95.02%

3.83%

1.15%

100.00%

20th Nov
1824
P

1057.9

1016.6

5.46

71.29%

10.83

2.91

1.17

1.5

3

4

64º

95.68%

3.20%

1.12%

100.00%

1st Jan
1825
P

1058.4

1016.1

5.61

72.51%

11.84

3.00

1.17

1.5

3

4

64.5º

93.58%

4.40%

2.03%

100.00%

2nd May
1825
P

1059.0

1016.1

5.68

72.77%

12.80

3.28

1.17

1.5

3

4

64.5º

94.01%

4.33%

1.67%

100.00%

23rd Apr
1825
P

1059.0

1017.2

5.53

70.89%

12.86

3.28

1.17

1.5

3

4

64.5º

93.32%

3.34%

3.34%

100.00%

8th Oct
1825
P

1058.7

1018.8

5.28

67.92%

11.67

3.01

1.17

1.5

3

4

64.5º

95.27%

3.64%

1.09%

100.00%

9th Dec
1825
P

1060.9

1018.8

5.57

69.09%

12.18

3.32

1.17

1.5

3

4

64.5º

98.86%

1.14%

100.00%

17th Apr
1826
P

1059.0

1016.9

5.57

71.36%

12.95

3.39

1.17

1.5

3

4

64.5º

98.70%

1.30%

100.00%

28th Sep
1826
P

1057.9

1018.8

5.17

67.46%

11.77

3.03

1.17

1.5

3

4

62º

98.84%

1.16%

100.00%

16th Dec
1826
P

1058.7

1017.7

5.42

69.81%

10.77

2.83

1.17

1.5

3

4

63º

98.84%

1.16%

100.00%

4th Jun
1827
P

1059.0

1018.6

5.35

68.54%

11.80

3.18

1.17

1.5

3

4

63.5º

98.84%

1.16%

100.00%

6th Oct
1827
P

1056.8

1017.5

5.20

69.27%

10.49

2.66

1.17

1.5

3

4

64º

98.80%

1.20%

100.00%

22nd Nov
1827
P

1058.2

1017.7

5.35

69.52%

11.37

2.89

1.17

1.5

3

4

64º

98.75%

1.25%

100.00%

13th May
1828
P

1058.7

1018.8

5.28

67.92%

12.94

3.31

1.17

1.5

3

4

64º

98.80%

1.20%

100.00%

6th Sep
1828
P

1059.0

1018.3

5.39

69.01%

12.61

3.31

1.5

2.5

4

63º

98.88%

1.12%

100.00%

13th Apr
1829
P

1058.7

1017.7

5.42

69.81%

13.30

3.41

1

1.5

3

4

64º

98.70%

1.30%

100.00%

13th Oct
1829
P

1058.7

1019.4

5.20

66.98%

13.10

3.47

1.25

2.5

4

63º

98.57%

1.43%

100.00%

17th Oct
1829
P

1059.0

1018.0

5.42

69.48%

13.62

3.67

1

1.5

3

4

64.5º

98.70%

1.30%

100.00%

3rd May
1830
P

1059.8

1019.1

5.39

68.06%

13.41

3.50

1

1.5

3

4

65.5º

98.35%

1.65%

100.00%

6th Sep
1830
P

1058.2

1019.4

5.13

66.67%

13.63

3.41

1.25

2.5

4

64º

98.66%

1.34%

100.00%

19th Oct
1830
P

1058.2

1017.7

5.35

69.52%

11.85

3.06

1

1.5

3

4

65.5º

98.54%

1.46%

100.00%

Source:
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives
Documents:
LMA/4453/D/09/014, LMA/4453/D/09/015, LMA/4453/D/09/016, LMA/4453/D/09/017, LMA/4453/D/09/018, LMA/4453/D/09/019, LMA/4453/D/09/020, LMA/4453/D/09/021, LMA/4453/D/09/022, LMA/4453/D/09/023, LMA/4453/D/09/024

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Only another dozen or so posts to come. And that's just about standard Porter. There's also Keeping Porter and loads of Th Stouts.ey should keep us busy most of the year.https://blogger.googleusercontent.co...s.blogspot.com


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