Shut up about Barclay Perkins: Whitbread Porter 1805

This is the first post in what will probably be a long series. As I told you, I've the full set of Whitbread Porter logs. It's time to put them to use.

Where to start? How about at the beginning. These numbers are taken from the earliest of Whitbread's records to survive. They're from a particularly important period in Porter's development. When the Napoleonic Wars were still raging. And the extra taxes imposed on beer to pay for the war put brewers under intense pressure to cut costs.

The easiest ways to cut down expenditure on malt was to move away from a 100% brown malt grist to a mix of pale and brown. It may have made the beer cheaper to brew (a gravity point from pale malt cost less than one from brown malt), but there was one little problem: the colour. Various things were used to darken the colour: burnt sugar, liquorice juice, concentrated wort. But, when the law on brewing ingredients was tightened in 1816, making sugar, among other things, illegal, brewers had to find a replacement.

Just one year later, in 1817, it arrived in the form of Wheeler's patent malt. Malt that was roasted in a drum to give it a very high degree of colour. Being malt, it was perfectly legal for brewers to use. You'll see below just how quickly Whitbread adopted it.

Whitbread Porter 1805 - 1819
Date	Year	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)	Pitch temp	pale malt	brown malt	black malt	amber malt	white malt	total
15th May	1805	P	1051.2				10.46	2.83	1	2.5	5		70º	79.73%	20.27%				100.00%
18th May	1805	P	1052.6				10.41	3.12	1	2.5	5		70º	79.73%	20.27%				100.00%
1st Jan	1807	P	1052.6	1015.5	4.91	70.53%	13.06	3.60	1	2	4		61º	63.48%	15.37%		21.16%	0.00%	100.00%
4th Feb	1807	P	1052.4	1015.2	4.91	70.90%	10.73	2.79	1	2	4		62º	63.48%	15.37%		21.16%		100.00%
14th Aug	1807	P	1054.3	1018.6	4.73	65.82%	9.30	2.59	1	2	4		68º	56.21%	11.66%		32.12%		100.00%
29th Aug	1808	P	1052.9	1010.2	5.64	80.63%	9.01	2.55					66.5º	65.85%	34.15%				100.00%
5th Sep	1808	P	1055.1	1014.7	5.35	73.37%	8.71	2.42	1	2	4		63º	55.02%	26.64%		18.34%		100.00%
1st Jun	1809	P	1050.4	1012.5	5.02	75.27%	10.04	2.81	1	2	4		65.5º	73.36%	26.64%				100.00%
16th Oct	1809	P	1051.2	1013.6	4.98	73.51%	8.82	2.34	1	2	4		65º	76.98%	23.02%				100.00%
6th Nov	1809	P	1049.3	1014.7	4.58	70.22%	9.82	2.66	1	2	4		65º	76.98%	23.02%				100.00%
10th Aug	1811	P	1054.0	1018.6	4.69	65.64%	9.51	2.85	1	2.5	4.5		65.5º	73.36%	26.64%				100.00%
5th Nov	1811	P	1050.7	1011.9	5.13	76.50%	9.99	2.61	1	2.5	4.5		64.5º	73.36%	26.64%				100.00%
7th Aug	1812	P	1049.9	1011.6	5.06	76.67%	8.93	2.52	1	2.5	4.5		65.25º	73.36%	26.64%				100.00%
6th Oct	1812	P	1051.8	1014.1	4.98	72.73%	8.45	2.20	1	2	4.5		63.25º	61.86%	16.04%		22.09%		100.00%
30th Nov	1812	P	1050.4	1013.3	4.91	73.63%	9.03	2.32	1	2.5	4.5		64º	80.51%	19.49%				100.00%
1st Mar	1813	P	1052.4	1011.4	5.42	78.31%	8.00	2.09	1	2.5	4.5		64º	80.51%	19.49%				100.00%
27th Aug	1813	P	1052.6	1012.2	5.35	76.84%	9.33	2.57	1	2.5	4.5		64.5º	80.51%	19.49%				100.00%
19th Oct	1813	P	1052.6	1010.5	5.57	80.00%	9.10	2.43	1	2.5	4.5		63º	49.81%	23.02%		27.17%		100.00%
24th Jan	1814	P	1056.5	1018.0	5.09	68.14%	9.82	2.69	1	2.5	4.5		62.5º	49.83%	21.11%		29.07%		100.00%
3rd Oct	1814	P	1055.4	1017.7	4.98	68.00%	9.82	2.57	1	2.5	4.5		63º	81.35%	18.65%				100.00%
31st Dec	1814	P	1056.8	1016.6	5.31	70.73%	10.89	2.81	1	2.5	4.5		63º	78.76%	21.24%				100.00%
3rd May	1815	P	1055.7	1018.0	4.98	67.66%	12.60	3.18	1	2.5	4.5		63º	75.18%	24.82%				100.00%
19th Sep	1815	P	1052.6	1018.3	4.54	65.26%	10.80	2.57	1	2.5	4.5		63º	77.76%	22.24%				100.00%
17th Nov	1815	P	1053.5	1015.5	5.02	70.98%	11.62	2.81	1	2.5	4.5		63º	78.17%	21.83%				100.00%
16th May	1816	P	1053.7	1015.5	5.06	71.13%	11.51	2.81	1	2.5	4.5		63º	74.60%	25.40%				100.00%
4th Sep	1816	P	1052.1	1016.3	4.73	68.62%	10.54	2.42	1	2	4.5		62.5º	53.19%	23.17%		23.64%		100.00%
22nd Nov	1816	P	1054.3	1014.4	5.28	73.47%	10.53	2.48	1	2	4.5		63.5º	52.05%	23.74%		24.21%		100.00%
16th May	1817	P	1053.7	1014.4	5.20	73.20%	10.20	2.54	0.83	1.5	1.5	3	63.5º	61.96%	20.83%		17.21%		100.00%
26th Aug	1817	P	1054.0	1017.7	4.80	67.18%	8.78	2.44	1	1.5	2	3	62.5º	88.39%	11.33%	0.28%			100.00%
20th Dec	1817	P	1052.6	1016.3	4.80	68.95%	7.41	1.87	0.83	1.5	1.5	3	63.5º	88.41%	11.24%	0.35%			100.00%
14th May	1818	P	1056.0	1018.6	4.95	66.83%	11.21	2.75	1	1.5	1.75	3	62.75º	91.68%	7.93%	0.40%			100.00%
19th Aug	1818	P	1055.1	1015.8	5.20	71.36%	11.21	2.67	1.25	1.5	3	3.5	63º	90.18%	9.36%	0.47%			100.00%
2nd Dec	1818	P	1055.4	1017.5	5.02	68.50%	9.38	2.42	1	1.5	2	3.25	63º	91.68%	7.93%	0.40%			100.00%
18th Dec	1818	P	1056.8	1014.7	5.57	74.15%	8.40	2.11	1	1.75	2	3.25	63º	69.85%	7.93%	0.40%		21.83%	100.00%
14th Aug	1819	P	1053.2	1014.4	5.13	72.92%	10.02	2.82	1.25	2.5	3	4.5	62.5º	92.62%	6.51%	0.87%			100.00%
24th Sep	1819	P	1055.4	1017.7	4.98	68.00%	10.12	2.68	1	2	3	4	64.5º	91.76%	7.49%	0.75%			100.00%
29th Sep	1819	P	1055.4	1017.7	4.98	68.00%	10.16	2.73	1	2	3	4	64.5º	91.76%	7.49%	0.75%			100.00%
18th Oct	1819	P	1056.0	1016.3	5.24	70.79%	10.10	2.70	1	2	3	4	63.5º	91.76%	7.49%	0.75%			100.00%
19th Oct	1819	P	1055.4	1017.7	4.98	68.00%	10.03	2.64	1	2	3	4	63.75º	91.76%	7.49%	0.75%			100.00%
Source: Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives Documents: LMA/4453/D/09/001, LMA/4453/D/09/002, LMA/4453/D/09/003, LMA/4453/D/09/004, LMA/4453/D/09/005, LMA/4453/D/09/006, LMA/4453/D/09/007, LMA/4453/D/09/008, LMA/4453/D/09/009, LMA/4453/D/09/010, LMA/4453/D/09/011, LMA/4453/D/09/012, LMA/4453/D/09/013

The amount of black malt in the grist was initially very small. Less than 1%. That would change later. But I don't want to get ahead of myself. That will be the subject of further posts. As I investigate Whitbread Porter in my trademark ridiculous level of detail.

16 comments:

Rod2 January 2011 at 03:05
Fantastic work - thank you very much. I'm sure this sort of research takes ages, but it is absolutely vital.
Carry on the good work!
Tim2 January 2011 at 04:05
Fantastic, I'm looking forward to the rest of this series. They seemed to have been indecisive about the amber malt. Any idea why?
Ron Pattinson2 January 2011 at 04:08
Tim, amber malt is an interesting one. As you'll see as I go further through the series. But I don't want to spoil the fun by giving away too much now.
Jeff Renner2 January 2011 at 08:04
Ron - Could you post an image of the chart so we can see the whole thing? Looks fascinating, and is one of my favorite subjects.
Gary Gillman2 January 2011 at 10:57
Not to take away from this important work, but wouldn't it be great too to see tables such as this based on 100% brown malt? Only a few years before the start date that was the staple way to brew porter, or so various non-brewhouse records suggest. Yet the start time to keep records seems frustratingly just after the change occurred, not just for this brewery but for all.

I wonder if some of the smaller of the 20 or so porter breweries in London kept up with the old ways for a time, or alternatively, whether 1700's records can be studied to shed light on the "true" porter.

Gary
Craig2 January 2011 at 11:08
Hey Ron,

I was messing around with some of the numbers the Oct 6, 1812 Porter. Running it through a calculator, the OG and FG worked out perfect, but the color was really reddish. So, my question is: Wouldn't the addition of an adjunct for coloring increased the OG? I don't know about liquorice juice, but I'd imagine sugar or condensed wort had to effect it somehow. Was it added after primary fermentation? Was the sugar burnt so much it lost most of it's fermentability?
Oblivious2 January 2011 at 13:42
Was amber malt not use in keeping stouts/porters, as it was believed to aid in storage? Gunnies keep it up in foreign extra till the 40's I believe

Was Spanish Juice and the likes really used in Britain or just left to the Americans?

Craig remember the brown malt is hand roasted and a slight different method to standard pale malt roasting too. There will be a good bit of variance in batch to batch and possible different level of roasting within a batch.
Rob Sterowski2 January 2011 at 18:53
What do the four distinct columns for boil time mean?
Ron Pattinson2 January 2011 at 22:22
Oblivious, I've seen Spanish juice mentioned in recipes for private brewers. And liquorice in commercial recipes after 1880.

The brewing records I've seen from this period (1805-1819) make no mention of any colourant.
Ron Pattinson2 January 2011 at 22:23
Barm, there's one column for each wort.
Craig3 January 2011 at 04:01
Looks like I'll have to make it and see what color it turns out!
Rob Sterowski3 January 2011 at 05:23
So the first runnings were boiled for an hour, the second for longer, and the third for 4.5 hours then all blended? How was boiling the watery third wort for five hours economical? Coal must have been cheap.
Unknown3 January 2011 at 07:18
What are there 4 columns labeled 'boil time'?
Ron Pattinson3 January 2011 at 09:02
Barm, it must have been economic or they wouldn't have bothered. The point would be to raise the gravity to a useful level.
Ron Pattinson3 January 2011 at 09:02
Naugled, see above.
Craig3 January 2011 at 10:49
Is it also plausible that another effect of those extended boils was a darkening of the wort? It may not have been cheap, but in order to obtain the results they wanted, it was a necessary evil. Perhaps that is why there was such a quick adoption of black malt shortly after it's 1817 introduction.

Yet, with the introduction of black malt there still are extended boils. Excluding the experiment with white malt in December, 1817, the averages for the malts used after May of 1817 are 91.8% Pale; 8.4% Brown and 0.5% Black. Even with black malt those ratios are going to produce a pretty ruddy tint.

It seems that early 19th century brewers, or Whitbred at least, weren't willing to jump, feet first, into the black malt pool. quite yet.

The real question... What will 1820 bring??

Shut up about Barclay Perkins

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Sunday, 2 January 2011

Whitbread Porter 1805 - 1819

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