Mid-19th century London Stout boiling

As multiple mashes were still the norm, that meant there were multiple boils, too. Were the later boils still as long? Well, yes and no.

At Whitbread the time of the first boils had been extended by 30 minutes and the third boil reduced by 2 hours.

At Reid, on the other hand, long boils were still the order of the day. Even the first boil, in most cases, was 3 hours and the second boil a massive 6 hours. I can’t think what the point of that could be, other than to concentrate the wort and, perhaps, add more colour. It seems rather wasteful of fuel.

Unfortunately, none of the other brewers I have records for bothered noting the boil times at this date. Which is rather annoying, as it’s hard to draw any real conclusions with examples from only two breweries. Especially as both could be outliers: one very short and the other very long.

 

Mid-19th century London Stout boil times
Year	Brewer	Beer	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)
1850	Whitbread	KS	1.5	2	2
1850	Whitbread	S	1.5	2	2
1850	Whitbread	SSS	1.5	2	2	2
1845	Reid	S	3	6
1845	Reid	S Crs	1.5	3.5
1845	Reid	SS	3	6
1845	Reid	SS Crs	3	6
1845	Reid	SSS	3	6
	Average		2.25	4.19	2	2
Sources:
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/09/043 and LMA/4453/D/09/044.
Reid brewing record held at the Westminster City Archives, document number 789/271.