Porter after WW I

In the early 1920s, London Porter went into a dramatic decline. Its last bastion in the UK started to crumble. Sales of Porter plummeted, possibly in response to the dramatic fall in strength. In the immediate aftermath of WW I, most had gravities in the low 1040ºs – about the same as Best Mild – a 7d per pint beer. Soon it had been dropped down a couple of classes, to a 5d beer. The same strength as the weakest Milds, successors to the dreaded wartime “Government Ale”.

Looking at the numbers from Whitbread, it looks as if many Porter drinkers may have shifted their allegiance to draught Stout. A beer which was much like the Porter from before the war. I can’t blame them. Given adequate financial resources, I’d have done exactly the same.

As London brewers parti-gyled their Porter and Stout, they were beers of very similar character. If you wanted a beer like the Porter of 1914, Stout was your obvious choice in the 1920s.

Outside London and Ireland, Porter was stone dead after WW I. Even in the capital, it wasn’t doing that well. Though most brewers still produced one. Though, had they not been parti-gyled with Stout, I doubt many brewers would have bothered brewing Porter even in London.

London Porter in the 1920s
Year	Brewer	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
1922	Whitbread	P	1028	1007	2.78	74.98%	7.47	0.93
1928	Barclay Perkins	TT	1032.6	1009	3.12	72.36%	15.10	0.63
1925	Fullers	P	1041.5	1015.5	3.44	62.62%	7.95	1.55
1923	Courage	Porter	1032.7	1008.3	3.22	74.58%	8.29	1.18
Sources:
Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan archives, document number LMA/4453/D/09/115.
Barclay Perkins brewing record held at the London Metropolitan archives, document number ACC/2305/01/614.
Fullers brewing record held at the brewery.
Courage  brewing record held at the London Metropolitan archives, document number ACC/2305/08/253.

You'll find more information that you'll ever need to know about Porter in my excellent book on the subject: