Truman's Bottling Keeping Porter, brewed in 1850, used four mashes, at the following temperatures:
| Mashing schema Truman's 1850 Bottling Keeping Porter | |||||
| strike heat | water (brls) | mash temp. | wort (brls) | OG wort | |
| mash 1 | 174 | 520 | 164 | 280 | 1098.335 |
| mash 2 | 180 | 280 | 170 | 320 | 1066.48 |
| mash 3 | 170 | 360 | 169 | 380 | 1038.78 |
| mash 4 | 175 | 320 | 169 | 320 | 1016.62 |
| total | 1480 | 1300 | |||
| Source: | |||||
| Brewing logs from the Truman archive in the London Metropolitan Archive. | |||||
The wort was boiled for between 60 and 90 minutes. To extract the bitterness more completely from the hops, they could be steeped in water at between 142º and 172º F for several hours before brewing started. (Source: "The Brewer" by William Loftus, 1856, page 67.)Yeast was pitched when the wort was between 60 and 68º F in winter and as cold as possible in summer. Primary fermentation was quicker than for Ale, lasting just 48 hours. Care was taken not to let the wort get above 74 to 78º F, presumably through the use of attemperators. The wort was transferred into cleansing casks when the gravity had dropped to 1027-1030º and was vatted at 1017-1019º. (Source: "The Brewer" by William Loftus, 1856, page 68.)
Porter was matured in as large a vat as possible. The larger the vessel, the better and more evenly, the beer matured. Wastage due to evaporation was also less from a large vat. A supply of Old Porter was maintained for mixing with Mild Porter. About one third aged Porter was mixed with two-thirds Mild Porter, though the proportions varied from brewery to brewery and at different times of year. (Source: "The Brewer" by William Loftus, 1856, pages 68-69.)
Sending out unblended young beer wasn't a great idea: "Never send out Mild Porter entire, as the admixture, if done by others, may spoil the article, and the fault be charged upon your management." (Source: "The Brewer" by William Loftus, 1856, page 69.)
Porter intended for export was vatted for 10 to 12 months but in the last 3 or 4 weeks was left open to allow it to flatten before being racked in to shipment casks. The rocking of the ship set the beer fermenting again and there was too much risks of casks bursting during the voyage if the Porter weren't flattened first. Soft spiles, which would allow some of the pressure to escape, were fitted to the casks. (Source: "The Brewer" by William Loftus, 1856, page 70.)
Ron, thanks for this, I find Loftus is one of the best authors from the 1800's.
ReplyDeleteWhen the beer was flattened as he explains, presumably there was further fermentation, and development of CO2. I would think IPA, when it was shipped in hogsheads as originally, was prepared the same way. Many accounts attest that both beers arrived at destination fairly dry, well-hopped and of medium-gravity. This was of course characteristic of many long-stored beers in England, of which IPA seems a development as Zythophile has argued.
Earlier this week, I was able to confirm that an export, cask IPA from England (not keg beer) tasted just like this in two Toronto pubs. Fuller sent a beer called IPA here, on cask, presumably by ship. I tasted two pints of it, hand-pulled, at two local beer bars. Both casks were excellent, just slightly fizzy with a prominent nose and taste of hops. I am not sure of the variety, I thought Fuggles. There was also that complex yeast character that seems less prominent in bottled and keg versions.
One cask had in particular an intense quinine-like bitterness that reminded me for some reason of some German hops (that clove-like taste). Perhaps it was one of the newer English varieties seen in recent years.
You could taste the malt certainly but it took a side role, and withal the beer struck me as much like the 1800's descriptions (dry, cleansing, quite bitter).
There is some Fuller cask porter here as well which I hope to try soon.
Fuller in past years and still I believe sends a bottled beer called IPA to some export markets, the USA is one. But I have never seen a Fuller cask IPA until now. Possibly Fuller is experimenting with the recipe for cask to see if it lasts the trip. Well, it does and I am sure the porter does too. After all these beers were stored initially or shipped for long periods, and whatever travails the current shipments entail, that has nothing on 1800's shipment conditions!
I believe those Fuller beers got here in about 4 weeks which is certainly fast enough for proper service. I don't know if they are refrigerated on the way over but as I say, the ones I've had were just fine. I've had London Pride and ESB too at special occasion festivals here in past years but it seems the beers are starting to turn up as regular offerings. If so that is great news.
I encourage Fuller to continue to send their beer here in this form. As long as some publicans are prepared to learn how to serve it we can get great results. Apart from offering a unique taste, the availability of Fuller's cask will further encourage our local brewers to continue with cask beer. We have many excellent local cask beers and the choice is growing all the time.
Gary
Follow up comment: in Robert's book on Scotch Ale brewing, in the chapter on IPA, towards the end, he advances two theories for shipping beer afar. One is to cleanse well and rack. The other is to rack on the lees. He states that the latter is said by some to produce a superior palate. The former, his preferred way, clearly, as for Loftus, is designed to ensure the beer will neither vent out the casks nor arrive soured.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the risk from sending over well-cleansed beer clearly was oxidation. That beer in my opinion, no matter how hopped, would have suffered damp paper oxidation. For many old hands, beer in that form is almost undrinkable (as e.g., for Pete Brown respecting some bottled beer he drank on one of the stops to India in his excellent new book, Hops & Glory).
Speaking of Hops & Glory, Pete Brown speculates whether some beer sent over was a kind of container beer, i.e., racked clear in the casks or hogsheads and possibly quasi-pasteurized from the high heat conditions encountered on and at arrival. He suggests an analogy to Madeira processing in this regard. This is possible, but I wonder whether such beers would have arrived without carbonation at the end of the trip, unless, perhaps the casks were very tight.
Maybe the best beer sent over was roughly filtered (as say centrifuging would produce today) and was sent over in tight casks which preserved the CO2. Still, I cannot imagine after months bouncing in a ship this beer was not somewhat oxidized. Could the "ripeness" of good Hodgson, etc., often spoken of admiringly in India, have been damp paper oxidation? I don't think so. I think it was a diminution of hop flavour and a general roundness.
No doubt some beer was sent over turbid and arrived too acetic or burst its container. But some of it probably was very good, in that residual yeast in the bottle feeds on the oxygen in a way to prevent or delay damp paper smells. Oxygen is often fatal to beer quality but not in a bottle or cask-conditioned format, all other things being equal.
Gary