London Porter grists in the 1920s

To say that there was diversity in post-WW I Porter great understatement. There’s only one constant in this set: black malt.

They don’t even all use pale malt as a base. SA – Stock Ale – malt was specifically designed to produce a less readily fermentable wort. Which is a desirable feature in a beer intended to undergo a secondary fermentation with Brettanomyces. There’s a reason why it’s present in such a light beer as TT: it was parti-gyled with Russian Stout. A beer that underwent a long secondary.

I’m slightly surprised to see flaked maize only in one example. Whitbread, of course, were malt and sugar only. Barclay Perkins, while big fans of maize in their Ales, didn’t use any in their Porter and Stout. The same was true at Courage. Leaving Fullers as the only adjunct users.

The sugars employed were as equally varied. There are several different types of invert, what looks like raw cane sugar, caramel and a proprietary sugar.

All four of these beers were only ever brewed parti-gyled with a Stout of some description. And, unlike before the war, Porter was always the junior partner. Meaning the Porter recipe was determined by the demands of the Stout.

London Porter grists in the 1920s
Year	Brewer	Beer	OG	pale malt	brown malt	black malt	amber malt	SA malt	flaked maize	oats
1922	Whitbread	P	1028	63.96%	14.15%	13.02%				0.57%
1928	Barclay Perkins	TT	1032.6		12.08%	6.99%	16.53%	50.85%
1925	Fullers	P	1041.5	64.15%		8.44%	0.00%		8.44%	0.66%
1923	Courage	Porter	1032.7	66.21%	6.90%	10.34%	0.00%
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.

London Porter sugars in the 1920s
Year	Brewer	Beer	OG	no. 2 sugar	no. 3 sugar	black invert	Mauritius	Sp Dark	caramel
1922	Whitbread	P	1028		8.30%
1928	Barclay Perkins	TT	1032.6	13.56%
1925	Fullers	P	1041.5					13.50%	4.80%
1923	Courage	Porter	1032.7			4.60%	5.75%		6.21%
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.

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