Trumans: overview of beer brewed 1880 - 1881

Sometimes the most fascinating and useful bits in the logs are things I didn't notice at first. I'm going to discuss one of these today.

When I was taking snaps of the the 1880/1881 Trumans logs, I didn't paid much to some scribblings in the bottom margin. My attention was on capturing the beer details (a Keeping Porter, brewed Jan 1st 1881). It's only when I got around to looking at the log this morning that I noticed what was noted in the margin: totals of the amount of each type of beer brewed in 1880 and 1881, and the malts used.

Why's it so revealing? Because it's a snapshot of a period when public tastes were changing. When Porter in general, but aged Porter especially, was losing favour and Ale coming into fashion.

Before you all start getting confused about what Ale means in this context, I'll explain. I don't mean Pale Ale. The logs are for the Brick Lane brewery, where no Pale Ale was brewed. Trumans had another brewery in Burton that brewed all their Pale Ale. X Ales are what I'm talking about. The precursor of Mild Ale. Though at this time they were pale in colour. I hope I'm not confusing you.


Overall, the amount of beer Trumans produced in 1881 was 1.24% less than in 1880. Seven Porters and Stouts are listed. Less was brewed of all but two in 1881. The only ones to show any growth, Export Porter and Imperial Stout, were both brewed in tiny quantities. Output of all Porter and Stout fell 6.54%. Ale output, on the other hand, rose 2.85%.

Biggest seller by quite a long way was X Ale, 53% in 1880 and 56% in 1881. Next came Runner, or Mild Porter as we would call it, 25% in 1880, 24% in 1881. In third place was Running Stout, at around 10.5% in both years. These three beers accounted for more than 90% of the Brick Lane brewery's output.

Most revealing are the numbers of Keeper, or Porter for ageing. Output of this fell 77% between 1880 and 1881. Just 724 barrels were brewed in 1881. That's less than 0.5% of total output. It has all the signs of a beer on its last legs. Which is what it was. It doesn't appear in the 1890 logs.

There had already been a fair amount of rationalisation amongst Trumans Porters. In 1850 they brewed:

Bottling Keeping
Country Runner
Double Stout
Export Keeping
Imperial Stout
M Keeping Stout
Runner
Running Stout
Stout

In 1880 it was:

Runner
Keeper
Export Porter
Running Stout
Double Export Stout
Double Stout
Imperial Stout

And in 1890:

Runner
Country Runner
Stout
Export Stout

All of the Keeping, or aged Porters and Stouts had been discontinued by 1890. It's a good illustration of the collapse in popularity of aged beers. Of course, having to pay beer duty before the beer had even been fermented probably discouraged brewers from keeping too much beer hanging around the brewery ageing as well.

I'm also intrigued by the Ale with the wonderfully simple designation of "A". I wonder if that has any connection with AK?