Let's Brew - 1916 Tetley Porter

By the start of WW I, though Stout remained popular, ordinary draught Porter was did in most of the country. Tetley was one of a very small number of breweries in the North of England that still produced one. Only in London was Porter still a mainstream beer.

Speaking of which, Tetley’s Porter looks very similar to London versions, both in terms of strength and ingredients. Particularly in the use of both brown and black malt. In much of the UK brewers dropped brown malt from their Porter and Stout in the second half of the 19th century, going over to a simpler grist of just pale and black malt.

I’m not totally sure what the sugars in the original were, with 490 lbs being described as “D Brazilian” and 40 lbs as “Clowes”. I’ve guessed that the former was some sort of raw cane sugar.

The hops were Worcester from 1914, Sonoma from 1913 and Burgundy from 1914. I’ve interpreted those as Fuggles, Cluster and Strisselspalt, respectively. From the middle of the war on, more and more old hops were used. Though one or two year old hops weren’t uncommon pre-war, it was unusual to find beers with no hops less than two years old.

1916 Tetley Porter
mild malt	5.00 lb	48.78%
pale malt	1.50 lb	14.63%
brown malt	1.25 lb	12.20%
black malt	1.00 lb	9.76%
brown sugar	1.50 lb	14.63%
Cluster 120 min	1.00 oz
Strisselspalt 60 min	0.50 oz
Fuggles 30 min	0.50 oz
OG	1048
FG	1018.5
ABV	3.90
Apparent attenuation	61.46%
IBU	32
SRM	32
Mash at	150º F
Sparge at	165º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	61º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire Ale