Whitbread Porter 1805 - 1819

This is the first post in what will probably be a long series. As I told you, I've the full set of Whitbread Porter logs. It's time to put them to use.

Where to start? How about at the beginning. These numbers are taken from the earliest of Whitbread's records to survive. They're from a particularly important period in Porter's development. When the Napoleonic Wars were still raging. And the extra taxes imposed on beer to pay for the war put brewers under intense pressure to cut costs.

The easiest ways to cut down expenditure on malt was to move away from a 100% brown malt grist to a mix of pale and brown. It may have made the beer cheaper to brew (a gravity point from pale malt cost less than one from brown malt), but there was one little problem: the colour. Various things were used to darken the colour: burnt sugar, liquorice juice, concentrated wort. But, when the law on brewing ingredients was tightened in 1816, making sugar, among other things, illegal, brewers had to find a replacement.

Just one year later, in 1817, it arrived in the form of Wheeler's patent malt. Malt that was roasted in a drum to give it a very high degree of colour. Being malt, it was perfectly legal for brewers to use. You'll see below just how quickly Whitbread adopted it.

Whitbread Porter 1805 - 1819
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	amber malt	white malt	total
15th May	1805	P	1051.2				10.46	2.83	1	2.5	5		70º	79.73%	20.27%				100.00%
18th May	1805	P	1052.6				10.41	3.12	1	2.5	5		70º	79.73%	20.27%				100.00%
1st Jan	1807	P	1052.6	1015.5	4.91	70.53%	13.06	3.60	1	2	4		61º	63.48%	15.37%		21.16%	0.00%	100.00%
4th Feb	1807	P	1052.4	1015.2	4.91	70.90%	10.73	2.79	1	2	4		62º	63.48%	15.37%		21.16%		100.00%
14th Aug	1807	P	1054.3	1018.6	4.73	65.82%	9.30	2.59	1	2	4		68º	56.21%	11.66%		32.12%		100.00%
29th Aug	1808	P	1052.9	1010.2	5.64	80.63%	9.01	2.55					66.5º	65.85%	34.15%				100.00%
5th Sep	1808	P	1055.1	1014.7	5.35	73.37%	8.71	2.42	1	2	4		63º	55.02%	26.64%		18.34%		100.00%
1st Jun	1809	P	1050.4	1012.5	5.02	75.27%	10.04	2.81	1	2	4		65.5º	73.36%	26.64%				100.00%
16th Oct	1809	P	1051.2	1013.6	4.98	73.51%	8.82	2.34	1	2	4		65º	76.98%	23.02%				100.00%
6th Nov	1809	P	1049.3	1014.7	4.58	70.22%	9.82	2.66	1	2	4		65º	76.98%	23.02%				100.00%
10th Aug	1811	P	1054.0	1018.6	4.69	65.64%	9.51	2.85	1	2.5	4.5		65.5º	73.36%	26.64%				100.00%
5th Nov	1811	P	1050.7	1011.9	5.13	76.50%	9.99	2.61	1	2.5	4.5		64.5º	73.36%	26.64%				100.00%
7th Aug	1812	P	1049.9	1011.6	5.06	76.67%	8.93	2.52	1	2.5	4.5		65.25º	73.36%	26.64%				100.00%
6th Oct	1812	P	1051.8	1014.1	4.98	72.73%	8.45	2.20	1	2	4.5		63.25º	61.86%	16.04%		22.09%		100.00%
30th Nov	1812	P	1050.4	1013.3	4.91	73.63%	9.03	2.32	1	2.5	4.5		64º	80.51%	19.49%				100.00%
1st Mar	1813	P	1052.4	1011.4	5.42	78.31%	8.00	2.09	1	2.5	4.5		64º	80.51%	19.49%				100.00%
27th Aug	1813	P	1052.6	1012.2	5.35	76.84%	9.33	2.57	1	2.5	4.5		64.5º	80.51%	19.49%				100.00%
19th Oct	1813	P	1052.6	1010.5	5.57	80.00%	9.10	2.43	1	2.5	4.5		63º	49.81%	23.02%		27.17%		100.00%
24th Jan	1814	P	1056.5	1018.0	5.09	68.14%	9.82	2.69	1	2.5	4.5		62.5º	49.83%	21.11%		29.07%		100.00%
3rd Oct	1814	P	1055.4	1017.7	4.98	68.00%	9.82	2.57	1	2.5	4.5		63º	81.35%	18.65%				100.00%
31st Dec	1814	P	1056.8	1016.6	5.31	70.73%	10.89	2.81	1	2.5	4.5		63º	78.76%	21.24%				100.00%
3rd May	1815	P	1055.7	1018.0	4.98	67.66%	12.60	3.18	1	2.5	4.5		63º	75.18%	24.82%				100.00%
19th Sep	1815	P	1052.6	1018.3	4.54	65.26%	10.80	2.57	1	2.5	4.5		63º	77.76%	22.24%				100.00%
17th Nov	1815	P	1053.5	1015.5	5.02	70.98%	11.62	2.81	1	2.5	4.5		63º	78.17%	21.83%				100.00%
16th May	1816	P	1053.7	1015.5	5.06	71.13%	11.51	2.81	1	2.5	4.5		63º	74.60%	25.40%				100.00%
4th Sep	1816	P	1052.1	1016.3	4.73	68.62%	10.54	2.42	1	2	4.5		62.5º	53.19%	23.17%		23.64%		100.00%
22nd Nov	1816	P	1054.3	1014.4	5.28	73.47%	10.53	2.48	1	2	4.5		63.5º	52.05%	23.74%		24.21%		100.00%
16th May	1817	P	1053.7	1014.4	5.20	73.20%	10.20	2.54	0.83	1.5	1.5	3	63.5º	61.96%	20.83%		17.21%		100.00%
26th Aug	1817	P	1054.0	1017.7	4.80	67.18%	8.78	2.44	1	1.5	2	3	62.5º	88.39%	11.33%	0.28%			100.00%
20th Dec	1817	P	1052.6	1016.3	4.80	68.95%	7.41	1.87	0.83	1.5	1.5	3	63.5º	88.41%	11.24%	0.35%			100.00%
14th May	1818	P	1056.0	1018.6	4.95	66.83%	11.21	2.75	1	1.5	1.75	3	62.75º	91.68%	7.93%	0.40%			100.00%
19th Aug	1818	P	1055.1	1015.8	5.20	71.36%	11.21	2.67	1.25	1.5	3	3.5	63º	90.18%	9.36%	0.47%			100.00%
2nd Dec	1818	P	1055.4	1017.5	5.02	68.50%	9.38	2.42	1	1.5	2	3.25	63º	91.68%	7.93%	0.40%			100.00%
18th Dec	1818	P	1056.8	1014.7	5.57	74.15%	8.40	2.11	1	1.75	2	3.25	63º	69.85%	7.93%	0.40%		21.83%	100.00%
14th Aug	1819	P	1053.2	1014.4	5.13	72.92%	10.02	2.82	1.25	2.5	3	4.5	62.5º	92.62%	6.51%	0.87%			100.00%
24th Sep	1819	P	1055.4	1017.7	4.98	68.00%	10.12	2.68	1	2	3	4	64.5º	91.76%	7.49%	0.75%			100.00%
29th Sep	1819	P	1055.4	1017.7	4.98	68.00%	10.16	2.73	1	2	3	4	64.5º	91.76%	7.49%	0.75%			100.00%
18th Oct	1819	P	1056.0	1016.3	5.24	70.79%	10.10	2.70	1	2	3	4	63.5º	91.76%	7.49%	0.75%			100.00%
19th Oct	1819	P	1055.4	1017.7	4.98	68.00%	10.03	2.64	1	2	3	4	63.75º	91.76%	7.49%	0.75%			100.00%
Source: Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives Documents: LMA/4453/D/09/001, LMA/4453/D/09/002, LMA/4453/D/09/003, LMA/4453/D/09/004, LMA/4453/D/09/005, LMA/4453/D/09/006, LMA/4453/D/09/007, LMA/4453/D/09/008, LMA/4453/D/09/009, LMA/4453/D/09/010, LMA/4453/D/09/011, LMA/4453/D/09/012, LMA/4453/D/09/013

The amount of black malt in the grist was initially very small. Less than 1%. That would change later. But I don't want to get ahead of myself. That will  be the subject of further posts. As I investigate Whitbread Porter in my trademark ridiculous level of detail.