Whitbread Porter 1821 - 1830

Another Whitbread Porter period to pick apart.

This is the period immediately before one of the biggest shakeups in the British brewing world: the 1830 Beer Act. Which abolished excise duty on beer and let pretty much anyone open up a pub selling just beer.

There are a couple of things I'd like to point out.

First, the grist. The percentage of brown malt fell to just 3 or 4% and then in 1826 disappeared altogether, leaving a grist of just pale and black malt. The percentage of black malt was higher than in the previous period, but was still mostly not much more than 1%. I can't help but think that this must have had an impact on the colour. How dark could a beer that was almost 99% pale malt be?

I would usually say that the defining feature of London Porter is the use of brown malt. London brewers were remarkably faithful to Porter's original malt. But there are odd years where Whitbread stopped using it. Economy would be the obvious motive. Its re-adoption can only have been prompted by flavour. Getting the flavour London drinkers expected.

My second point concerns the gravity. It's higher than in the previous period we looked at, hovering in the 1058 to 1060 range. During the Napoleonic Wars it had dropped to around 1050. Knowing the strength of Porter in the 18th century is trickier because there aren't many remaining records. The few that do remain suggest that 18th-century Porter had been stronger.

This is about the sum total of the data that I have:

Porter gravities in the 1770's
	OG	OG	FG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation
1	29.5	1081.7	8.3	1023.0	7.77	71.86%
2	26	1072.0	6.5	1018.0	7.15	75.00%
3	25.5	1070.6	6	1016.6	7.15	76.47%
4	24.5	1067.9	6.5	1018.0	6.60	73.47%
5	23.3	1064.5	5.3	1014.7	6.60	77.25%
Source: "Statical Estimates of the Materials of Brewing" by J. Richardson, 1784, page 150

It's dangerous to read too much into such a small amount of data, but this implies standard Porter gravity was between 1065 and 1070. It never got back to that level in the 19th century.

Here are all the details for you to peruse  at your leisure:

Whitbread Porter 1821 - 1830
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	white malt	total
19th Jan	1821	P	1057.6	1017.2	5.35	70.19%	10.58	2.75	1	1.5	2.75	3.75	65º	95.17%	3.72%	1.11%		100.00%
19th Oct	1821	P	1057.9	1017.5	5.35	69.86%	9.01	2.34	1	1.5	2.75	3.75	65º	95.02%	3.83%	1.15%		100.00%
18th Oct	1821	P	1058.7	1021.3	4.95	63.68%	9.74	2.55	1	1.5	2.75	3.75	65º	95.02%	3.83%	1.15%		100.00%
17th Oct	1821	P	1058.2	1018.0	5.31	69.05%	9.72	2.51	1	1.5	2.75	3.75	64.5º	95.02%	3.83%	1.15%		100.00%
20th May	1822	P	1059.3	1016.3	5.68	72.43%	10.61	2.84	1.17	1.5	3	4	63º	95.97%	2.93%	1.10%		100.00%
31st Aug	1822	P	1059.3	1018.8	5.35	68.22%	9.74	2.59	1	1.5	2.75	3.75	64.75º	95.76%	3.23%	1.01%		100.00%
14th Oct	1822	P	1059.0	1015.2	5.79	74.18%	9.52	2.50	1	1.5	2.75	3.75	63º	95.94%	2.95%	1.11%		100.00%
8th Mar	1823	P	1059.3	1014.7	5.90	75.23%	11.64	2.92	1	1.5	2.75	3.75	64.5º	76.13%	3.11%	4.67%	16.08%	100.00%
29th Sep	1823	P	1059.3	1016.6	5.64	71.96%	10.33	2.57	1	1.5	3	4	64º	76.97%	3.19%	2.79%	17.04%	100.00%
13th Dec	1823	P	1057.9	1015.8	5.57	72.73%	9.52	2.41	1.5	2.75	4.25		65º	80.07%	3.88%	2.71%	13.34%	100.00%
23rd Nov	1823	P	1057.3	1016.6	5.39	71.01%	10.13	2.58	1.5	2.75	4.25		64º	80.31%	3.07%	0.77%	15.85%	100.00%
6th Jul	1824	P	1060.1	1016.3	5.79	72.81%	13.17	3.47	1.17	1.5	3	4	64.5º	95.60%	3.26%	1.14%		100.00%
7th Jul	1824	P	1058.2	1017.2	5.42	70.48%	13.21	3.42	1.17	1.5	3	4	64.5º	95.60%	3.26%	1.14%		100.00%
7th Sep	1824	P	1057.9	1015.8	5.57	72.73%	10.47	2.74	1.17	1.5	3	4	65º	95.02%	3.83%	1.15%		100.00%
6th Dec	1824	P	1059.3	1019.1	5.31	67.76%	10.76	2.91	1.17	1.5	3	4	64.5º	98.89%		1.11%		100.00%
16th Sep	1824	P	1057.6	1016.9	5.39	70.67%	11.08	3.03	1.17	1.5	3	4	64º	95.02%	3.83%	1.15%		100.00%
20th Nov	1824	P	1057.9	1016.6	5.46	71.29%	10.83	2.91	1.17	1.5	3	4	64º	95.68%	3.20%	1.12%		100.00%
1st Jan	1825	P	1058.4	1016.1	5.61	72.51%	11.84	3.00	1.17	1.5	3	4	64.5º	93.58%	4.40%	2.03%		100.00%
2nd May	1825	P	1059.0	1016.1	5.68	72.77%	12.80	3.28	1.17	1.5	3	4	64.5º	94.01%	4.33%	1.67%		100.00%
23rd Apr	1825	P	1059.0	1017.2	5.53	70.89%	12.86	3.28	1.17	1.5	3	4	64.5º	93.32%	3.34%	3.34%		100.00%
8th Oct	1825	P	1058.7	1018.8	5.28	67.92%	11.67	3.01	1.17	1.5	3	4	64.5º	95.27%	3.64%	1.09%		100.00%
9th Dec	1825	P	1060.9	1018.8	5.57	69.09%	12.18	3.32	1.17	1.5	3	4	64.5º	98.86%		1.14%		100.00%
17th Apr	1826	P	1059.0	1016.9	5.57	71.36%	12.95	3.39	1.17	1.5	3	4	64.5º	98.70%		1.30%		100.00%
28th Sep	1826	P	1057.9	1018.8	5.17	67.46%	11.77	3.03	1.17	1.5	3	4	62º	98.84%		1.16%		100.00%
16th Dec	1826	P	1058.7	1017.7	5.42	69.81%	10.77	2.83	1.17	1.5	3	4	63º	98.84%		1.16%		100.00%
4th Jun	1827	P	1059.0	1018.6	5.35	68.54%	11.80	3.18	1.17	1.5	3	4	63.5º	98.84%		1.16%		100.00%
6th Oct	1827	P	1056.8	1017.5	5.20	69.27%	10.49	2.66	1.17	1.5	3	4	64º	98.80%		1.20%		100.00%
22nd Nov	1827	P	1058.2	1017.7	5.35	69.52%	11.37	2.89	1.17	1.5	3	4	64º	98.75%		1.25%		100.00%
13th May	1828	P	1058.7	1018.8	5.28	67.92%	12.94	3.31	1.17	1.5	3	4	64º	98.80%		1.20%		100.00%
6th Sep	1828	P	1059.0	1018.3	5.39	69.01%	12.61	3.31	1.5	2.5	4		63º	98.88%		1.12%		100.00%
13th Apr	1829	P	1058.7	1017.7	5.42	69.81%	13.30	3.41	1	1.5	3	4	64º	98.70%		1.30%		100.00%
13th Oct	1829	P	1058.7	1019.4	5.20	66.98%	13.10	3.47	1.25	2.5	4		63º	98.57%		1.43%		100.00%
17th Oct	1829	P	1059.0	1018.0	5.42	69.48%	13.62	3.67	1	1.5	3	4	64.5º	98.70%		1.30%		100.00%
3rd May	1830	P	1059.8	1019.1	5.39	68.06%	13.41	3.50	1	1.5	3	4	65.5º	98.35%		1.65%		100.00%
6th Sep	1830	P	1058.2	1019.4	5.13	66.67%	13.63	3.41	1.25	2.5	4		64º	98.66%		1.34%		100.00%
19th Oct	1830	P	1058.2	1017.7	5.35	69.52%	11.85	3.06	1	1.5	3	4	65.5º	98.54%		1.46%		100.00%
Source: Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives Documents: LMA/4453/D/09/014, LMA/4453/D/09/015, LMA/4453/D/09/016, LMA/4453/D/09/017, LMA/4453/D/09/018, LMA/4453/D/09/019, LMA/4453/D/09/020, LMA/4453/D/09/021, LMA/4453/D/09/022, LMA/4453/D/09/023, LMA/4453/D/09/024

Only another dozen or so posts to come. And that's just about standard Porter. There's also Keeping Porter and loads of Stouts. They should keep us busy most of the year.