It had struck me how little black malt it used. About 5% is what I would have expected. So I went and had a look at the whole set for the same year, 1850.
As you can see, none had more than 3.3% black malt in the grist. Which is pretty low by later standards. But for 1850? Well let's take a look at Barclay Perkins at the same period:
Pretty much the same: 2 0r 3% black malt. Why so low? Take a look at the rest of the grist. They still contain a healthy proportion of brown malt. My guess is that they were only using the amount of black malt needed to get the desired colour.
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6 comments:
Fascinating, as is the comment about a projected 200 IBUs for that other recipe.
I can't recall who wrote this - maybe Tizard - I can find it if necessary - but he said no matter how much hops is used and no matter the alcohol level, it won't prevent acetification. I wonder if that is true though.
Gary
I am happy with the low levels of black malt in these recipes. I really don't like the its flavour, which is a bit of an inconvenience if you are interested in brewing 19th C beer recipes especially dark ones!
Am I correct in believing that there is a maximum taste threshold for bitterness? That is, does it matter that a beer has 200 IBUs because a drinker can perceive do increase above, say, 100 IBUs.
Mind you I can't find any information on this at the moment so it may be complete nonsense.
"Running" stout at 1082! If running in this context means a running beer that is quite a gravity--greater than some keeping stouts. Is that a bit odd?
Ron, it is interesitng to see the black malt so low, but more interesitng to me is the fact that in general for both Barclay Perkins and Truman, the porters seem to use about 3% while the stouts are at 2%. That's the reverse of what I would have thought. It's not a huge, huge difference but it throws the whole BJCP "stouts are roastier than porter" thing on it's head. Do you have recipes from other brewers from the same period? I'm wondering if it's common for porters to use slightly more black malt than stouts. Really fascinating.
Bill,
the same was true of the Griffin Brewery, too. In 1844 their standard Porter had 4% black malt, SSS 3.41%. By 1867 it was Porter 5.42%, SSS 2.57% In 1867 Porter was 5.56% black malt, SSS 2.55%.
It's a similar story with Whitbread. You can find more 19th Porter and Stout grists here:
http://www.europeanbeerguide.net/
beerale.htm
MentalDental, often the Keeping Stouts weren't any stronger, just more heavily hopped. Gravities were crazily high in the period 1830 - 1850.
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