Courage Porter 1914 - 1918

Part two of Courage's beers during WW II. This time the beer in focus is Porter.

First a bit of background. In 1914, Courage always parti-gyled Porter and Double Stout. Often a bit of Imperial Stout was brewed, too. Porter was very much the senior partner, with less than half the amount of Double Stout produced in each brew.

Then early in 1918 Porter was discontinued. Stout was still brewed, but at a gravity so low, 1035, that it was considerably weaker than pre-war Porter. When Porter did make a comeback in 1920, it was a shadow of its former sself with a gravity just a shade under 1030. Now it was Stout than made up the greatest volume of the parti-gyles. And often Stout was just brewed by itself. Which means that the volume of Porter brewed was far less than before the war, though the total amount of Porter and Stout brewed remained much the same.

There was a similar process at Whitbread. So what had happened? Well, it looks as if many drinkers swapped from Porter to Stout. Or rather, that when Porter wasn't available, drinkers turned to Stout. And when an enfeebled version of Porter did reappear, many stuck with Stout. Which makes sense, as what was sold as Stout in the 1920's was much like 1914 Porter in terms of strength.

Now the table:

Courage Porter 1914 - 1918
Date	Year	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)	Pitch temp	dry hops (oz / barrel)	pale malt	brown malt	black malt	no. 3 sugar	black invert	caramel	other sugar	primings	total
21st Oct	1914	Porter	Porter	1051.25	1018.28	4.36	64.32%	7.20	1.51	2	2	1	60º	0.00	60.22%	19.59%	10.52%				9.67%		100.00%
10th Mar	1915	Porter	Porter	1050.41	1018.28	4.25	63.74%	7.23	1.52	1.5	2	1	64º	0.00	58.43%	20.22%	10.11%				11.24%		100.00%
17th Feb	1915	Porter	Porter	1050.41	1018.28	4.25	63.74%	7.20	1.51	1.5	2	1	64º	0.00	59.47%	19.47%	10.53%				10.53%		100.00%
3rd Feb	1915	Porter	Porter	1050.41	1018.28	4.25	63.74%	7.23	1.51	1.5	2	1	64º	0.00	58.08%	19.76%	10.18%				11.98%		100.00%
22nd Sep	1915	Porter	Porter	1046.26	1011.36	4.62	75.45%	8.09	1.60	2	2	1	64º	0.00	61.48%	20.23%	10.51%				7.78%		100.00%
29th Sep	1915	Porter	Porter	1046.26	1017.73	3.77	61.68%	8.14	1.71	2	2	1	64º	0.00	57.78%	19.26%	10.11%				12.84%		100.00%
6th Oct	1915	Porter	Porter	1046.26	1012.19	4.51	73.65%	7.23	1.52	2	2	1	64º	0.00	58.43%	20.22%	10.11%				11.24%		100.00%
1st Dec	1915	Porter	Porter	1046.26	1011.08	4.65	76.05%	7.13	1.39	2	2	1	64º	0.00	59.20%	20.62%	11.31%				8.87%		100.00%
10th May	1916	Porter	Porter	1042.94	1010.80	4.25	74.84%	7.26	1.40	2	2	1	60º	0.00	60.10%	20.03%	10.02%		9.35%	0.50%			100.00%
17th May	1916	Porter	Porter	1042.94	1011.91	4.10	72.26%	7.31	1.27	2	2	1	60º	0.00	60.43%	19.79%	9.09%		9.98%	0.71%			100.00%
3rd Jan	1917	Porter	Porter	1044.04	1012.19	4.21	72.33%	6.11	1.33	2	2	1	60º	0.00	58.46%	9.23%	7.69%	6.84%	6.84%	1.71%		9.23%	100.00%
10th Jan	1917	Porter	Porter	1044.04	1011.63	4.29	73.58%	6.16	1.33	2	2	1	60º	0.00	43.92%	12.84%	10.81%	4.50%	13.51%	2.25%		12.16%	100.00%
26th Apr	1917	Porter	Porter	1044.04	1009.42	4.58	78.62%	5.96	1.31	2	2	1	60º	0.00	59.32%	9.76%	7.51%	7.01%	7.01%	1.50%		7.88%	100.00%
30th May	1917	Porter	Porter	1038.78	1008.86	3.96	77.14%	5.82	1.17	2	2	1	60º	0.00	56.00%	9.14%	6.86%	6.10%	7.62%	1.52%		12.76%	100.00%
24th Oct	1917	Porter	Porter	1032.69	1009.70	3.04	70.34%	5.98	0.96	2	2	1	59º	0.00	63.50%	9.07%	7.78%	5.18%	5.18%	1.73%		7.56%	100.00%
7th Nov	1917	Porter	Porter	1032.69	1009.97	3.00	69.49%	5.98	0.96	2	2	1	59º	0.00	63.50%	9.07%	7.78%	5.18%	5.18%	1.73%		7.56%	100.00%
16th Jan	1918	Porter	Porter	1032.69	1009.42	3.08	71.19%	5.85	0.94	2	2	1	61º	0.00	63.66%	8.05%	10.24%		7.80%	1.46%		8.78%	100.00%
Source:
Documents held in the Courage Archives and the London Metropolitan Archives: ACC/2305/08/247, ACC/2305/08/248, ACC/2305/08/249, ACC/2305/08/250

The biggest change over the war years, other than the gravity drop, was the reduction in the brown malt content. It was approximately halved, from a respectable 20% of the grist to less than 10%. It appears black invert was used as a replacement for some of the dark malts. Which seems logical enough.