Malt Liquors Sold in the UK - Porter and Stout

It's a sad day. We've come to the end of the British Medical Journal's series of articles on the beers on sale in Britain.

The final article covers Porter and Stout. That in itself tells us something. The series appears to be in reverse order of fashion, starting with the very new and trendy Lager beers, followed by Pale Ale, the Mild and Old Ale, with Porter bringing up the rear. The first paragraph sums up why: Porter was on the way out.

Porter hadn't had a bad run by any means. It had been the preferred tipple of the labouring classes for more than a century. Especially compared to something like Bitter, which barely managed 25 years on top.

"REPORT ON THE MALT LIQUORS SOLD IN THE UNITED KINGDOM:

WITH ANALYSES AND COMMENTS.

V.—Porter And Stout.

The kinds of malt liquor represented by the following analyses have hitherto been the chief beverage of the working class in London, but they are now being in great measure superseded by ale. Both in porter and stout, the deep brown colour is due to the use of a certain proportion of roasted malt in the brewing; but in other respects there is no special difference between them and other kinds of malt liquor.

The amount of alcohol in these examples of porter varies from 3.22 to 5 per cent, by weight, or from .82 to 1.27 fluid-ounces per pint; and the amount of extract, from 3.92 to 6.91 per cent, by weight, corresponding to .79 and 1.20 ounces per pint.

In the stout, the amount of alcohol varies from 5.09 to 6.81 per cent. by weight, or 1.30 to 1.74 fluid-ounces per pint; and the amount of extract is from 6.17 to 11.37 per cent., corresponding to 1.25 and 2.35 ounces per pint.

The quantity of malt used in brewing porter and stout, as indicated by the computed original gravities of these samples, varies from 1.68 to 2.22 bushels per barrel in the case of porter, while in stout it varies from 2.38 to 3.40 bushels per barrel.

Perhaps the most striking feature of these results is that brought out by comparing them with the price at which the beer is sold in particular instances. Thus, in the case of porter, several of the samples sold at 2d. per pint appear to be decidedly inferior to some of those sold at 1.5d. per pint.

Again, the stout Nos. 22 and 27, though sold at 4d. per pint in both instances, is far from being equal to the samples Nos. 21 and 28, which were sold at 3.5d. and 3d. per pint respectively.

If, in addition to such a disproportion between the quality of beer and the price charged for it by retailers, it be further taken into account that, in the sale of beer by the glass, there is a further large addition to the price per pint, in consequence of the glasses being frequently very much smaller than they should be, it will be evident that the public suffer considerably from the absence of a due relation between the value of beer and the price paid for it. Probably this is of more importance than any actual adulteration of malt liquor; and it is certain that in many cases the price charged for beer at places of public resort is such as to be almost prohibitory of its consumption. For example, Allsopp's best pale ale costs less than 3d. per pint when purchased by the barrel, while the price charged for it at the Crystal Palace and several other places of the kind is actually 6d. per pint."

									contents per pint
Kind of Ale	Obtained from	price per imperial pint	Specific gravity	% of alcohol	% of extract	acetic acid	original gravity of wort	malt per barrel	alcohol fl. ozs	extract ozs.	acid grs.
PORTER
1. Reid's	Taphouse, Liquorpond Street	2d	1014.08	3.69	5.13	0.2	1048.76	1.8	0.94	1.04	17.74
2. Ditto	20 Orange Street	2d	1014.44	3.59	5.2	0.2	1048.22	1.78	0.91	1.05	17.75
3. Ditto	The Redan, 34 Farringdon Street	2d	1018.01	3.22	5.93	0.21	1048.3	1.78	0.82	1.2	18.7
4. Combe, Delafield and Co.	Yorkshire Tavern, 29 Gray's Inn Road	2d	1014.63	4.2	5.31	0.16	1053.51	1.98	1.7	1.07	14.2
5. Ditto	The Old Bell, New Tothill Street, Westminster	1.5d	1020.25	3.82	6.91	0.2	1057.16	2.11	0.99	1.41	17.85
6. Field and Co.	The Ship Tavern, Gray's Inn Road	2d	1010.27	3.93	4.04	0.16	1045.46	1.68	0.98	0.82	14.14
7. Elliott, Watney and Co.	Bricklayers' Arms, Eagle Street	1.5d	1015.91	4.73	5.75	0.2	1054.09	2	1.18	1.17	17.78
8. Ditto	Monster, Pimlico	1.5d	1010.08	4.16	3.92	0.21	1048.02	1.77	1.06	0.79	18.55
9. Truman, Hanbury and Co.	The Peacock, Gray's Inn Road	1.5d	1013.16	4.02	5.12	0.24	1051.53	1.9	1.03	1.01	21.27
10. Ditto	Sugar Loaf, Fetter Lane	2d	1013.56	3.95	4.68	0.18	1049.33	1.82	1.04	0.94	15.96
11 Meux and Co.	The Horse Shoe, Tottenham Court Road	2d	1011.4	5	4.63	0.19	1057.96	2.14	1.27	0.93	16.81
12. Courage and Co.	White Horse, Fetter Lane	2d	1011.82	4.57	4.96	0.21	1055.16	2.04	1.19	1	18.59
13. Whitbread's	Dicussion Hall, Shoe Lane	1.5d	1014.04	4.28	5.15	0.18	1054.11	2	1.09	1.03	15.97
14. Ditto	Blackwall Railway Tavern, Fenchurch Street	2d	1016.21	3.61	5.85	0.24	1051.31	1.9	0.92	1.19	21.34
15. Barclay's	Red Hart, Fetter Lane	2d	1017.08	4.49	5.84	0.19	1058.5	2.16	1.15	1.18	16.89
16. Lightfoot's	Gentrleman and Porter, New St.	2d	1015.15	4.72	5.78	0.19	1060.12	2.22	1.2	1.17	16.88
17. Hoare's	Red Lion Tavern, Fenchurch Street	1.5d	1012.99	4.18	5.04	0.18	1052.42	1.94	1.06	1.03	15.95
18. The Lion Brewery's	The Hatchet. Little Trinity Lane	2d	1016.3	3.75	5.87	0.18	1052.26	1.93	0.96	1.19	16
STOUT
19. Hoare's	Red Lion Brewery, East Smithfield		1025.94	6.63	10.31	0.23	1090.85	3.36	1.64	2.12	20.54
20. Ditto	Ditto		1014	5.57	6	0.2	1068.04	2.52	1.46	1.2	17.95
21. Ditto	Red Lion Tavern, Fenchurch Street	3.5d	1014.5	6.25	7.21	0.22	1078.37	2.9	1.6	1.46	19.53
22. City of London Brewery	The King's Head, Stew Lane	4d	1015.43	5.68	6.43	0.26	1071.12	2.63	1.45	1.3	23.1
23. Whitbread's	Chiswell Street Brewery		1030	6.05	10.34	0.3	1089.7	3.32	1.57	2.13	27.04
24. Thorne's	Nine Elms Brewery		1027.15	5.38	9.17	0.28	1080.15	2.97	1.39	1.9	25.17
25. Meux's	Horseshoe Brewery		1035.6	5.09	11.37	0.24	1086.76	3.21	1.32	2.35	21.75
26. Barclay and Perkins	Railway Store, Fenchurch Street	4d	1029.31	5.24	9.66	0.28	1081.21	3	1.36	1.99	25.22
27. Lightfoot's	Red Lion, Princes Street, Westminster	4d	1025.87	4.84	8.88	0.2	1074.03	2.74	1.25	1.82	17.95
28. Truman's	Porkman Tavern, Fish Street Hill	3d	1020.14	5.78	7.63	0.21	1076.57	2.83	1.43	1.55	18.74
29 Guinness's No.1	Guinness and Co.		1015.51	6.81	6.17	0.24	1078.06	2.88	1.74	1.25	21.32
30. Ditto No. 2	Ditto		1019.56	6.2	7.11	0.2	1078.01	2.88	1.59	1.45	17.84
31. Ditto No. 3	Ditto		1015.97	5.09	5.89	0.26	1064.49	2.38	1.3	1.19	23.11

"British Medical Journal 1879, vol. 1" June 25th 1870, page 658.

This is an intriguing statement about Porter and Stout: " there is no special difference between them and other kinds of malt liquor". So other than the colour from a bit of roasted malt, they were basically the same as Pale Ale, Mild or Old.

Once again it seems there was often no relation between price and quality, with many of the Porters costing 2d a pint weaker than those sold a halfpenny cheaper. I was surprised at the low OG of Reid's Porter: only around 1048º. In the brewing records, the average OG at this time was 1055º or so.

Adulteration. I wondered when that would come up. People were especially suspicious of Porter. How well founded were these suspicions? It's hard to say. But I can compare the OG's of some of the pub samples with that given in the brewing records.

Whitbread, for example. The Porter in the table has an OG of  1054. The ones I have from Whitbread's brewing records for 1869 and 1870 are: 1050º, 1050º, 1050º, 1058º, 1056º, 1056.5º. So the pub sample looks to be about right. Their Stout in the table has an OG of 1089.7º. In the brewing records SSS (I'm pretty sure this is the flavour of Stout) 1092.5º and 1098.3. Not so sure about that one.

What about Truman? In the table, their Porter has an OG of 1051.5º. In the brewing records, it's 1056.8º, 1054º, 1055.4º. Looks a bit on the low side to me, that pub sample.

Oh yes, and that last sample of Guinness looks like their Porter, not their Stout. Guinness were reluctant to ship their Porter for this very reason: they feared it being passed off as Stout. 

But, compared to 50 years earlier, there's been a definite improvement. Fredrick Accum's 1820 work "A Treatise on Adulterations of Food" contains analyses of the same beers purchased at the brewery and in a pub. There was quite a difference between the two:

Brown Stout: brewery 7.25% ABV, pub 6.5% ABV
Porter: brewery 5.25% ABV, pub 4.5% ABV

How did Accum explain the difference?

"Whence can this difference between the beer furnished by the brewer, and that retailed by the publican, arise? We shall not be at a loss to answer this question, when we find that so many retailers of porter have been prosecuted and convicted for mixing table beer with their strong beer;"

By 1870 Table Beer, and the tax system that supported its misuse, had disappeared. It seems the method of cheating the public had changed. Rather than tinkering with the beer itself, pubs just served short measures. Annoying, true, but far preferable to having god knows what mixed in with your beer.

I thought you might enjoy an overview of the different beer types. These are averages taken from the British Medical Journal tables:

Beer	OG	FG	ABV	acetic acid	apparent atten-uation
Pale Ale	1059.10	1009.85	6.54%	0.206	83.59%
Old Ale	1095.22	1021.48	9.71%	0.289	78.56%
Mild Ale	1065.51	1013.87	6.84%	0.198	78.90%
Porter	1052.57	1014.41	5.21%	0.196	72.56%
Stout	1078.26	1022.23	7.29%	0.24	71.94%

Surprisingly Pale Ale was, on average, the second weakest type with only Porter below it. at 3.5d to 4d a pint, it was far worse value than other beers. Mild Ale, half the price at around 2d a pint and a little stronger, was much better value. Once again the lesson is: Drink Mild!

The relative acidity levels are more as expected. Pale Ale, Porter and Mild Ale are all around 0.20%. In Stout they're a little higher and in Old Ale greater still. Attenuation, as you would expect, was greatest in Pale Ale. Probably a good bit more than today. With the greatly reduced gravities, it's no shock that the level of attenuation has been reduced to leave body.