Porter's last hurrah

I've been very busy. Doing primary research. Scouring brewing records, transcribing Whitbread Gravity Book entries. That sort of exciting stuff.

I tried to persuade Andrew to help: "It'll be good practice for when you study history at university."

"Do your own work, dad. Anyway, I've decided to study film editing."

It was the first I'd heard of his change in plans. Damn. I'd hoped to get him as a free research assistant. And he doesn't need money, so bribery is out of the question. No alternative but to do it myself.

If I weren't such an obsessive, it would be a daunting task. I reckon it'll take another two or three weeks to finish off the Whitbread Gravity Book. And two to three months to finish extracting details from brewing records. Finished for the time being. I'll photograph a load more in May.

But enough of my complaining. Time for numbers. Lovely old, dusty numbers, fresh from the number mine.

Porter in the 1920's
Year	Brewer	Beer	Price	size	package	FG	OG	ABV	attenuation
1921	Charrington	Porter	7d	pint	draught	1009.6	1041.1	4.09	76.64%
1922	Barclay Perkins	Porter	6d	pint	draught	1011.5	1035.5	3.10	67.61%
1922	Barclay Perkins	Porter	6d	pint	draught	1013.2	1040.2	3.49	67.16%
1922	Cannon Brewery	Porter	6d	pint	draught	1010.2	1036.2	3.37	71.82%
1922	City of London	Porter	6d	pint	draught	1008.8	1037.3	3.70	76.41%
1922	Courage	Porter	6d	pint	draught	1010.2	1037.7	3.56	72.94%
1922	Hoare	Porter	6d	pint	draught	1011	1037.3	3.41	70.51%
1922	Lion Brewery	Porter	6d	pint	draught	1008.2	1040.2	4.16	79.60%
1922	Mann Crossman	Porter	6d	pint	draught	1007	1034	3.51	79.41%
1922	Mann Crossman	Porter	6d	pint	draught	1009.6	1040.3	3.99	76.18%
1922	Taylor Walker	Porter		pint	draught		1038.5
1922	Truman	Porter		pint	draught		1037.5
1922	Watney	Porter		pint	draught		1036.8
1923	Barclay Perkins	Porter	6d	pint	draught	1012.8	1039.8	3.49	67.84%
1923	Cannon Brewery	Porter	5d	pint	draught	1009.4	1034.9	3.30	73.07%
1923	City of London	Porter	6d	pint	draught	1012.4	1038.4	3.36	67.71%
1923	Courage	Porter	6d	pint	draught	1013.2	1043.2	3.89	69.44%
1923	Courage	Porter	5d	pint	draught	1012.2	1036.7	3.17	66.76%
1923	Hoare	Porter	6d	pint	draught	1009.8	1034.5	3.20	71.59%
1923	Lion Brewery	Porter	6d	pint	draught	1010	1039	3.76	74.36%
1923	Mann	Porter		pint	draught		1039.9
1923	Mann	Porter		pint	draught		1037.2
1923	Truman	Porter		pint	draught		1038.8
1923	Watney	Porter		pint	draught		1035.8
1923	Wenlock	Porter		pint	draught		1035.2
1923	Whitbread	Porter		pint	draught		1034.2
1926	Barclay Perkins	Porter	5d	pint	draught		1038.1
1926	Cannon	Porter	5d	pint	draught		1038.8
1926	Charrington	Porter	5d	pint	draught		1036.2
1926	City of London	Porter	5d	pint	draught		1037.6
1926	Hoare & Co	Porter	5d	pint	draught		1039.8
1926	Huggins	Porter	5d	pint	draught		1040.8
1926	Mann Crossman	Porter	5d	pint	draught		1041.2
1926	Meux	Porter	5d	pint	draught		1037.4
1926	Smith Garrett	Porter	5d	pint	draught		1035.1
1926	Taylor Walker	Porter	5d	pint	draught		1039.9
1926	Truman	Porter	5d	pint	draught		1038.7
1926	Whitbread	Porter	5d	pint	draught		1038.6
1927	Cannon	Porter	5d	pint	draught		1040.1
1927	Charrington	Porter	5d	pint	draught		1035.6
1927	Courage	Porter	5d	pint	draught		1037.6
1927	Truman	Porter	5d	pint	draught		1038.4
1927	Whitbread	Porter	5d	pint	draught		1031.9
1928	Courage	Porter	5d	pint	draught	1013.2	1038.3	3.24	65.54%
1928	Hoare	Porter	5d	pint	draught	1013.4	1037.9	3.17	64.64%
1929	Courage	Porter	5d	pint	draught	1012.8	1037.4	3.18	65.78%
1929	Hoare	Porter	5d	pint	draught	1009.2	1038.3	3.78	75.98%
1929	Wenlock	Porter		pint	draught		1039.2
	Average OG						1036.4
Sources: Whitbread Gravity Book Truman Gravity Book

Before some smartarse points out the average doesn't tally with the rest of the table, I'll point out that it's for all 283 examples in the full table. Being a bit much for a blog post, I slimmed it down.

The 1920's were the last time when Porter was a mainstream beer. And only then in London. It had already disappeared from the public bars of the rest of Britain. Cheap, weak and probably only drunk by old blokes, it was in terminal decline.

Cheap. Could that have hastened its end? Before WW I Porter had been about average gravity, between 1050 and 1055. In the 1920's it was well below. Average gravity was around 1043. As you can see from above, Porter was typically about 1036.

Something similar happened to Mild a few decades later. When it became barely alcoholic as a result of WW II. I wonder if a down-market image always hastens a style to oblivion?

One other small point: all the breweries represented in the table were located in London. It's hard to imagine now that London ever had so many breweries.