Tetley's Porter in 1868

I warned you this would be a long and tediously-detailed series of posts. And we're barely started yet. This time the focus is on Porter.

Straight up I'll say that Porter was noticeably in decline by 1868. Especially outside London. By the end of the century, many provincial brewers would have abandonned it completely, though all continued to brew Stout. A sign of the style's decline - even in London - is demonstrated by the disappearance of Keeping Porter in the 1860's. Whitbread brewed their last Keeping Porter in 1870.  

Tetley weren't brewing huge quantities of Porter and Stout. Just occasional brews, unlike the Mild Ales, Strong Ales and Pale Ales in their portfolio. And the brew lengths were pretty short, often not the full capacity of the equipment. The brew lengths of the two Porters in the table below were just 58 and 29 barrels. A far cry from the 1,000 plus barrel batches of the big London brewers. (The average brew length of the London Porters in the table was 924 barrels.)

There are many similarities between Tetley's Porter and the London ones. The gravities are much the same, the low 1050's. The pitching temperatures are all around the mid 60's Fahrenheit.

But there are also differences. The hopping rate, for a start. the London Porters average about 40% more hops per barrel.

But there's one area with a much, much more significant difference: FG. The London Porters all have an FG of around 1016º, while Tetley's have ones over 1020º. Consequently the rate of attenuation and the ABV are much lower. The difference must have been pretty obvious in the finished beer. Tetley's Porter would have been much thicker and sweeter than those from London.

Why the difference? As many old texts mention, brewers brewed beers to suit the tastes of the region they were in. Brewers in one location tended to brew generally similar beers because that's what drinkers expected.

We're almost done with Tetley's 1868 beers. Just Stout to go. Then we can move on to 1878. Or 1858. I've not quite decided yet.

Tetley Porter 1868

Date

Year

Beer

Style

OG

FG

ABV

App. Atten-uation

lbs hops/ qtr

hops lb/brl

boil time (hours)

boil time (hours)

boil time (hours)

Pitch temp

max. Fermen-tation temp

length of fermen-tation (days)

comments

7th Nov

1868

X1 P

Porter

1053.7

1027.7

3.44

48.45%

7.47

1.75

2

2

66º

66º

6

Bavarian hops

10th Oct

1868

X1 P

Porter

1055.4

1023.5

4.21

57.50%

8.00

1.75

1.5

2

2

65º

67º

6

Bohemian hops

Source:

Tetley brewing record held at the West Yorkshire Archive Service Leeds, document number WYL756/16/ACC1903

London Porters 1867 - 1870
Date	Year	Brewer	Beer	Style	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	max. Fermen-tation temp	length of fermen-tation (days)	comments
24th Apr	1867	Barclay Perkins	TT	Porter	1054.8	1016.6	5.06	69.70%	9.41	2.43	1.25	1.5	2.5		65º	78.5º	3 + 1
5th Feb	1867	Reid	Rg	Porter	1055.4	1016.6	5.13	70.00%	9.155	1.92	2	1.5	3	3	63º
12th Feb	1867	Reid	Crs	Porter	1055.4	1015.5	5.28	72.00%	11	2.50	2	2	2.25	2.5	63.5º
5th Jul	1870	Truman	Runner	Porter	1056.8	1016.6	5.31	70.73%	10.3	2.64					62º	º		Alsace hops
14th Aug	1868	Whitbread	P	Porter	1051.5	1016.3	4.65	68.28%	12.38	2.94	1.5	2	2		64º
Average					1054.8	1016.3	5.1	70.1%	10.5	2.5	1.7	1.8	2.4	2.8
Sources:
Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/09/062
Reid brewing record held at the City of Westminster Archives, document number 789/275
Barclay Perkins brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number ACC/2305/1/572
Truman brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/C/072