Irish Porter during the Emergency

Unlike in England, Porter was brewed right through WW II in Ireland. Its popularity, however, did seem to be on the wane. The amount produced may have increased a little, as a percentage of Guinness’s production, though, fell from 36% to 25%.

Sadly, I’ve no intimate details of Guinness Porter. I do, though, of another Irish Porter, that from Perry.

This version has a gravity similar to pre-war Guinness Porter. Except with a shit degree of attenuation. I’m not convinced that those FGs are the real ones

Compared to the pre-war version, the hopping rate is a good bit lower. In the case of the 1943 beer, not much more than half that of 1935. I’m guessing that this is connected with the interruption of hop imports and the limited amounts of English hops available.

Guinness sales in Ireland 1939 - 1945
Year	Extra Stout	Porter	total	% Porter
1939	481,588	273,067	754,655	36.18%
1940	463,827	265,473	729,300	36.40%
1941	548,112	304,648	852,760	35.72%
1942	591,057	294,823	885,680	33.29%
1943	705,568	286,826	992,394	28.90%
1944	804,301	290,993	1,095,294	26.57%
1945	918,147	300,447	1,218,594	24.66%
Source:
"A Bottle of Guinness please" by David Hughes, pages 276-279.

Perry Porter during WW II
Year	Brewer	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
1943	Perry	Porter	1040.0	1017.0	3.04	57.50%	5.26	0.89
1944	Perry	Porter	1042.0	1018.0	3.18	57.14%	6.67	1.26
Source:
Perry brewing records held at the local studies department of Laois county library.