How needed black malt was as a colourant is demonstrated by the fact that a brewer like Whitbread adopted it the year of its invention, 1817.
Initially the quantity used was small – less than 1% of the grist. But that percentage steadily increased as the decades ticked away. By 1875, black malt made up 6% of the grist of Whitbread’s Running Porter. This could mean one of two things: either Porter was becoming darker or black malt was becoming paler. I incline towards the former explanation.
The proportion of brown malt used shows no such consistent trend, varying up and down between 0% and 20%. Though it mostly made up at least 15% of the grist.
The gravity of Porter recovered in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars and the high taxes that paid for them. At Whitbread, the OG peaked in the 1849s, after which the general trend was one of decline. Though there were a few ups and downs.
The hopping rate, which was mostly around 12 lbs per quarter of malt (336 lbs) was quite high. Whitbread’s X Ale, for example, was hopped 8 lbs. per quarter in this period. The last example, from 1875 had a significantly lower hop charge. Was this a permanent change? We’ll find that out later.
| Whitbread Running Porter grists 1817 - 1875 | |||||||||
| Year | OG | FG | ABV | App. Atten-uation | lbs hops/ qtr | hops lb/brl | pale malt | brown malt | black malt |
| 1817 | 1054.0 | 1017.7 | 4.80 | 67.18% | 8.78 | 2.44 | 87.89% | 11.82% | 0.30% |
| 1825 | 1058.7 | 1018.8 | 5.28 | 67.92% | 11.67 | 3.01 | 95.05% | 3.81% | 1.14% |
| 1830 | 1058.2 | 1019.4 | 5.13 | 66.67% | 13.63 | 3.41 | 98.59% | 1.41% | |
| 1835 | 1061.2 | 1018.6 | 5.64 | 69.68% | 13.47 | 3.49 | 88.45% | 9.63% | 1.93% |
| 1840 | 1061.8 | 1020.2 | 5.50 | 67.26% | 10.94 | 2.71 | 85.52% | 12.07% | 2.41% |
| 1845 | 1063.2 | 1022.7 | 5.35 | 64.04% | 11.85 | 3.04 | 80.93% | 16.23% | 2.84% |
| 1850 | 1061.2 | 1019.4 | 5.53 | 68.33% | 12.50 | 3.26 | 76.27% | 20.46% | 3.27% |
| 1855 | 1059.0 | 1015.5 | 5.75 | 73.71% | 10.81 | 2.79 | 76.64% | 19.46% | 3.89% |
| 1860 | 1054.0 | 1015.8 | 5.06 | 70.77% | 11.19 | 3.02 | 75.83% | 20.49% | 3.69% |
| 1865 | 1057.1 | 1018.6 | 5.09 | 67.48% | 12.96 | 3.14 | 80.63% | 14.18% | 5.20% |
| 1870 | 1051.8 | 1015.0 | 4.87 | 71.12% | 12.44 | 2.95 | 94.35% | 5.65% | |
| 1875 | 1055.1 | 1017.5 | 4.98 | 68.34% | 7.87 | 1.90 | 78.95% | 15.04% | 6.02% |
| Sources: | |||||||||
| Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/09/011, LMA/4453/D/09/019, LMA/4453/D/09/024, LMA/4453/D/09/029, LMA/4453/D/09/034, LMA/4453/D/09/039, LMA/4453/D/09/043, LMA/4453/D/09/049, LMA/4453/D/09/054, LMA/4453/D/09/059, LMA/4453/D/09/064 and LMA/4453/D/09/070. | |||||||||
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