Saturday 7 August 2021

Let's Brew - 1886 Barclay Perkins Hhd Porter

It’s a surprise that Barclay Perkins was still brewing a Keeping Porter at this late a date. Most of their London rivals had dropped the type in the 1870s. Not that they were making much of it. This batch was a tiny batch of just 27.5 barrels.

Lots of different malts in the grist: pale, brown black and amber. Not so unusual in London, where Brown Beers always included at least three. Amber being optional, but not unusual. The malts are topped up by just shy of 20% invert sugar.

East Kent hops all the way, half from the 1886 crop, the other half from 1885. Having all top-quality hops is a sign that this was a classy beer.

As a Keeping Porter, Hhd would have been aged in vats for a minimum of 6 months. Possibly a year or more. Where Brettanomyces would have worked its magic, adding complexity. I’m not sure whether it was sold straight or blended with Running Porter. Probably the latter.


1886 Barclay Perkins Hhd Porter
pale malt 4.50 lb 39.13%
brown malt 1.75 lb 15.22%
black malt 1.25 lb 10.87%
amber malt 1.75 lb 15.22%
No. 3 invert sugar 2.25 lb 19.57%
Goldings 150 mins 1.50 oz
Goldings 60 mins 1.50 oz
Goldings 30 mins 1.50 oz
Goldings dry hops 1.00 oz
OG 1054
FG 1014
ABV 5.29
Apparent attenuation 74.07%
IBU 59
SRM 43
Mash at 148º F
Sparge at 168º F
Boil time 150 minutes
pitching temp 61º F
Yeast Wyeast 1099 Whitbread Ale


 

6 comments:

Daniel Boisvert said...

Any particular meaning for the term Hhd?

Anonymous said...

Is Hhd an abbreviation for something? I searched the site and didn't find anything except a couple of posts from 2008 expressing mystery, but I don't know if I missed anything more recent.

https://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2008/11/porter-1920-1939.html

"The brewhouse names fascinate me. I can understand what Barclay Perkins BSt and IBSt means, but TT, EI and Hhd? Total mystery."

Ron Pattinson said...

Hhd is an abbreviation for hogshead. Why Barclay Perkins used this as the name for their Keeping Porter, I've no idea. But they were a bit weird with their brewhouse name.

EI, I now know, is export India. TT, well, not so sure. May be double strength T, which was the name for their Table Porter.

Jeremy Drew said...

Ron,

Is it reasonable to assume that they were using hogshead casks to age this in?

If they were using this to blend in with their running porters, as the brewlength is near enough to half a hogshead, could they have been operating a sort of solera system?

Ron Pattinson said...

Jeremy Drew,

something bigger than that. The batch is in barrels, not gallons, so a little over 18 hogsheads.

StuartP said...

Hey Ron, is the date correct on this one? It is very different from the 1886 Hhd from 'Porter!' - much closer to the 1891 version.